Why I disagree with Enemy Combatant Status

Under the Geneva Conventions (which we follow) prisoners of war can only be taken if they are combatants in a war. They are provided certain rights, notably the right to be released at the end of the conflict. The Geneva Convention also clearly defines who can be considered combatants. Uniformed Hostile Forces are always combatants. I don't think many of the people captured as Enemy Combatants meet that criteria. Additionally, non-uniformed actors taking up arms in a conflict can be considered combatants, and taken as prisoners of war. The gray areas here are that people are often apprehended well in advance of this requirement. They are only suspected of conspiring to take up arms or commit acts of violence. Thus, they do not yet qualify as combatants. Everyone could be considered a potential combatant, especially in a war fought in their country. That doesn't qualify them to be captured as prisoners of war. Another shady area is the War of Terror itself. The President cannot declare war. That power is reserved for Congress. Congress has not declared a war on terror, therefore, there isn't one. The reason that Congress has not done this is that a war on terror is similar to a war on drugs. It has no defined hostile forces, and no foreseeable resolution. As long as the potential exists for an individual or group to conduct a kidnapping, hijacking, murder, or bombing the War on Terror will continue. The President is avoiding both US and international law by holding people as prisoners of war in the War on Terror. This is unseemly when it is applied against probable terrorists detained in other wars, but it is frightening when it is applied to US citizens. EPWs do not have any rights under our Constitution, such as right to due process or the right to an attorney. They can be held without charge until the war is concluded. In this case that means indefinitely. US citizens should at a minimum be charged with treason. They should be defended and prosecuted within the legally defined limits of those proceedings. After the President's "You are with us or against us" speech, anyone that doesn't support the Bush Administration could logically be seen as an enemy combatant. The right to dissent and speak out against the government is one of the defining features of our freedom. Anything that threatens this right also threatens our freedom and way of life.

I noticed

Source:"We have moved from the age where military capability depended on air supremacy to an age where the key capability is surveillance supremacy. Only a few -- the Kurzweilians -- seem to have noticed."

Me:"Some Tactics for fighting the shadows: Shed light on their movements. Control the land, sea, air, and information environments. To succeed in the wars in the shadow, we must shed light on the roaches. Transporting illegal goods must be nearly impossible. Transporting illegal money, must be even harder. We must be able to intercept their communications to find supplies, attack them in their sleep, and disrupt their carefully laid plans. How this can be done in without giving up our rights, I have no idea."

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Survival Threat of the Week: Demonic Possession

Ok, this isn't exactly weekly. But there definitely won't be more than one in the same week. A Vatican supported university in Italy is offering its second course on exorcisms. With only a few exorcisms appearing in major Hollywood films, you might think that demon possession is a small problem in this world. You would be wrong. Bishop Andrea Gemma told the class that he performs "at least for exorcisms a week." The Vatican's leading exorcist, Father Gabriele Amorth, claims to have conducted 40,000 exorcisms.

So what can you do to protect yourself? Well, there are always religious accessories to be found. Make sure you always have a good crucifix, some holy water, and bible on your person at all times. Also try humility. St. John Vianney found it to be mankind's ultimate advantage over the devil. However, the best way to protect yourself seems to be distancing yourself from the Catholic Church. Demon possession is most common in Catholics, former Catholics, and people with Catholic families. The number of cases are much lower for Baptists, Mormons, Hindus, Atheists, and pretty much everyone else.

Test Updates

I took some more tests. I will share the results so that you can get to know me (or the me as described by humorous tests) a little better. I am a democrat. I am socially and economically liberal. My personality defect is that I am a robot. I am more rational than intuitive, more introverted than extroverted, more gentle than brutal, and more humble than arrogant. (Or possibly more dishonest than honest.) If I was a character on Lost I would be Boone (great, the dead kid).

It was only a test

Okcupid's Nazi test (see previous posts) was only a fun test, and obviously cannot conclude with certainty whether or not you would have become a Nazi. It does evaluate some of your attitudes, particularly ones that are believed to have facilitated Nazi rule in Germany. It also leaves out certain aspects that would be influential in your personal choice, but I think it is important to realize that it wasn't a yes/no answer for many of the people involved either. No one went door to door asking who would be willing to support an empire that would later be regarded as one of the most evil manifestations of power in the history of the world. The process was gradual, and many of the people that either supported it or got sucked into it held specific political views. Another interesting series of experiments inspired by the second world war were Stanley Miligram's obedience experiments. He wanted to see if Americans were as easily influenced by authority as Germans. They were. In his experiments the subject would be asked or told to give increasingly high voltage electrical shocks to an actor in another room. The subject was lead to believe that the actor was actually receiving shocks and in pain. Miligram described the results as such, "Stark authority was pitted against the subjects' [participants'] strongest moral imperatives against hurting others, and, with the subjects' [participants'] ears ringing with the screams of the victims, authority won more often than not."

Where I start to disagree

I generally agree with a log of what the Skeptical Optimist says but I think he fails to recognize many one of the reasons why America has become a great country.

"Bottom line: If the economy grows at least a fast as the debt grows, and inflation is low and under control, our ability to make growing interest payments will increase at least as fast as our obligation to make those interest payments.

If we can sustain those conditions, our grandchildren will have much larger incomes than we do, but will have a debt burden that is no worse than ours. " [boldness added by me]

I understand what he is saying perfectly. Though, I do have an addendum that he failed to add. (He could also feel this way, but since he did not state his opinion on this topic, so for this post's sake I will assume he feels differently.)

Just because the share of our children's debt will be no worse than ours does not take away our responsibility to pay down the debt, if possible (You can't really pay for bonds that are already out there, only sell less. Sell one to two percent less in dollar amount per year adjusted for inflation and indexed to the national income, that should do the trick.). Many Americans work hard to make their children's lives better not "no worse". I am not opposed to national debt. It serves it purposes. Though, I greatly favor less debt (both numerically and as a percentage of GDP). I really don't see the reason why running the countries finances should be any different than running my finances or a large companies finances.

I really don't have a problem with the debt that comes from bonds because new bonds will be sold to pay for the olds ones, but I do have a problem with the debt that comes from budget overruns and similar issues. That is comparable to me racking up spending on my credit card as far as I am concerned.

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Miers

Source:"Her meeting with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter this week particularly did not go well. After the meeting, the Pennsylvania Republican told reporters that she had told him that the constitution contains a "right to privacy," which is the foundation for the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that made abortion a constitutional right. After the White House was asked for a response, Miss Miers telephoned Mr. Specter and told him that he had misunderstood and that she had said no such thing. "

How long do we have to put up with this less than staller example of a judge. This judge has nothing going for her.

Some conservatives dislike her, most are wary of her, some like her.
The liberals side can't harbor too much love for her because she is bush's pick and his pal (they hate all of his pals)
The media likes her only so they can make fun of her in the news and thereby make bush look bad.

I wonder if those Judges who turned bush down are having second thoughts.

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Nazi Test

Okcupid has a test to determine if you would have sat idly by had you been a German in the 1930s. I scored as an Expatriate, a person that would have left the country. I scored high in patriotism, but I was sort of cornered on the answers to some questions seeing as how I am a soldier, and I have gone to war for my country. Take it and see how you score. It will be interesting for Republicans as comparisons between Bush and Hitler continue to appear in international jokes.

The Quick Fix for Global Warming

I recently came across a theory to combat global warming in a marine biology class. Noticing the outbreak of algae and plankton blooms in the ocean caused by nutrient runoff, some scientists started thinking about what it would take to create a large enough plankton bloom to stop the greenhouse effect. Everyone that had fourth grade science knows that plants use carbon dioxide for photosynthesis. Carbon dioxide is also the largest contributing greenhouse gas. While it is impractical to grow enough plants on land to use up carbon dioxide at the rate we are releasing it, plankton in the open ocean could be grown quickly and cheaply. Apparently the most economical way would be to add large amounts of iron to the ocean waters near the north and south poles. Iron seems to be the limiting resource in these areas, and even a little bit added would result in vastly greater amounts of plankton. The cons to this solution are many. The biggest downside is that we don't know exactly how this would impact the rest of the environment.

Immigration Reform

I oppose the president on countless issues, but I support his push for temporary guest workers. Thousands of Mexicans sneak into our country each year, and a large percentage of this could be eliminated if we provided a way for them to enter legally. This would make it easier to patrol our borders, and it would be more likely that border patrol agents could focus on drugs and terrorism. Let's face it, the Mexicans won't be taking away American jobs because they are already doing them. This way we will at least be able to monitor that activity. By separating those seeking work from the smugglers, we would also be reducing other crime. The business of illegally transporting people into our country would be significantly reduced. We would destroy the black market for labor, and could find ways to better manage the workers that are here.

Why Amazon should hire me.

(NOTE: A semi-technical discussion of how I would have programmed something lies ahead)

Recently, I needed a feature on Amazon that they did not have. I have recently read a book that is the first in a three part series. I liked the book and I want to read the other two. I wanted to set up a bot on Amazon that will search for the book every few days or so and send me an email when a book by that author comes out. I was unable to find the feature on the Amazon website. I checked back a few days later and I found it in beta for music only. I checked back today and I could sign up for "Amazon Alerts" on books.

Amazon has the functionality I need, but I think it is implemented poorly. Given the technology that we have today to produce a web service that consumes queries and replies, I don't see the advantage of having the alerts centrally managed.

Ideally, Amazon should have made a personal Amazon tool that you can download and install on your local machine. This personal Amazon would query Amazon based on a schedule you set up. The timing options would limit polling of Amazon's web servers. The personal bot would only work if your computer was on, the Internet connected, and the Internet connection live. Those three conditions, alone would ease the hardware requirements (on Amazon's end) needed for this tool.


Pros of centrally managed alerts system
1) It will be easy for Amazon to know exactly what things are being searched for.
2) It will be easy for Amazon to know the number of alerts sent out daily.
3) It will be easy for Amazon can track the alerts and correlate them with sales of an item (i.e. the accuracy of alerts.)

Note: Some may list the fact that you will be driven to the Amazon website by the email as a pro. The decentralized alert system would do the same thing, so that cannot be counted as a pro.

Cons of a centrally managed alert system
1) Amazon must scale the hardware to produce those alerts.

The hardware cost of handling thousands of alerts is going to be more expensive versus a decentralized alert system.

Explanation: From what I can tell there are three ways of producing an alert in a centralized system.
One, whenever an item that supports alerts is added, a process must be ran which compares the item against all the alerts in that category.

Two, batch jobs are set up to run an alert at regular time intervals.

Each of these methods has their own drawbacks. The first one is CPU intensive. The second one is less CPU intensive, but if the batch job is not ran on a regular basis, the alerts are not going to be timely. I think both methods require more hardware than necessary to do the job.

Three, have a process that alerts the user to the item that they were looking for when they lodging to Amazon. I think this method is not an alert, but an automated search that can be performed when the user logs in. It would be much less resource intensive than the first two, but it does not drive traffic to the Amazon website, so it is fairly useless as far as Amazon is concerned and I would concur with them on that idea.

2) Out of date alerts.
People go to Amazon to buy books, not manage the details of getting the information to buy a book. All that data on alerts does not mean anything if the alerts themselves are old, pointing to wrong email addresses, or being filtered as junk mail.

Pros of a decentralized alert system
1) Lower hardware cost, which translates in to fewer employees, and less software costs.
2) Empower the user. This could create customer loyalty and lock them into only using amazon.

Cons of a decentralized managed alert system
1) Amazon loses some metrics associated with the alerts and some of the ease of compiling that information, though with a properly designed process Amazon would have all the data they needed.


I wonder if Amazon has always made decisions as bad as the alert system. 

cube

Pot grows brain cells

In encouraging news for college freshmen, a Canadian study found that large, regular doses of marijuana may help to grow more brain cells and repair neurons in the hippocampus. However, low doses were not found to have the same effect. Marijuana can help induce appetite, relieve glaucoma, help with depression, and even grow brain cells. Is there anything this wonder drug can't do? Still no good word on alcohol, but fraternity sponsored scientists continue to search for benefits.

Propaganda and the Free Media

Links to articles about the new Bush propaganda interview were sent in by a friend. You can check some out here, here, or here. There are plenty of others. This is everywhere by now. Apparently Bush was going to interview soldiers in Iraq to show the progress of the war from the people on the front lines. However, the live feed cut in a little bit to early and the whole world saw the soldiers being coached. But Bush doesn't deliberately mislead the public, does he? In other news, a CIA report accuses the Bush administration of ignoring warnings about the civil unrest and insurgency that could plague an occupation of Iraq.

A bird discussion

Effects of the bird flu
Hey, I like the idea of hundreds of millions of people dying and trekking cross-country in the winter to save my family and girlfriend as much as the next guy, but I am not so sure the bird flu is all it is made out to be. So I did a little reading on the Internet.

Source: "The influenza of that season [ed - 1918], however, was far more than a cold. In the two years that this scourge ravaged the earth, a fifth of the world's population was infected. The flu was most deadly for people ages 20 to 40. This pattern of morbidity was unusual for influenza which is usually a killer of the elderly and young children. It infected 28% of all Americans (Tice)."

More...

"The influenza virus had a profound virulence, with a mortality rate at 2.5% compared to the previous influenza epidemics, which were less than 0.1%"

I have read a lot of scary facts about the 1918 Influenza Pandemic or a modern Pandemic, but I have seen very few hard estimates of what the effect would be today. So I will put together some numbers for you, if the infection and death rates of modern pandemic were similar to what they were in 1918.

1. Population of earth: Around 6.47 billion (source)
2. Population of America: 295,734,134 (source)

Calculations
America
295,734,134 x .28 = 82,805,558 infected (rounded up) .
82,805,558 x .025 = 2,070,139 killed (rounded up).

World
6,470,000,000 x .28 = 1,811,600,000 infected
1,811,600,000 x .025 = 45,290,000 killed

NOTE: Please do not add either those four to two numbers together to get totals. One is for just America (to make it personal); the other is just for the world (to scare you.)

So I turns out hundreds of millions of people will NOT die, but millions will.

Chances of it actually happening
Now what is the chance that the current bird flu will actually turn into a deadly pandemic (I.e. Jump from Human to Human instead of from bird to human and then stop)? Source: "It [ed - 1918 flu pandemic] has been cited as the most devastating epidemic in recorded world history."

Basically the 1918 pandemic was a one-time occurrence in the recorded history of the world. Which in retrospect is quite short. In my opinion, it is not very likely that a pandemic will occur. I would say it is less likely than a hurricane or earthquake, but more likely than a major asteroid hit. I personally don't know which one is more likely, suitcase nuke or bird flu pandemic...so I will call it a tie between those two.

I personally have not decided to prepare for this specific threat.... now. By preparing for this specific threat, I mean purchasing those drugs that those crazy survivalist keep mentioning I could change my position on this one, once I look into the cost of those drugs. Though I do plan on make general preparations (supplies of food, water, books, and video games), which will help with this specific threat. I know I for one could use a vacation.

Source:""Quarantine" means restricting the movement of still healthy people who may have been exposed to an infectious disease, in case they're carrying it. It's almost always for a brief time; during SARS, for instance, hospital workers exposed to suspect cases were asked to stay home from work during the respiratory disease's 10-day incubation period."

More info: Men's health article (some actual research was done for this article)


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Europeans vs. Bush

When I am not in Iraq I am stationed in Germany. Germans are very polite and don't ask objectionable or personal questions until the feel that they know you a little bit. But by the third or fourth time I meet a new person they almost always ask "Why did people in your country vote for Bush again? Are they really that stupid?" Any responses from the generally conservative minded readers of this blog? In all fairness, not all of them were Germans. It is actually just about everyone from any country besides the US.

Why I carry a gun...

 ...because defending yourself any other way is just messy.

Source: "As Starr was preparing for bed, she heard the doorbell ring. She first thought it was her husband who might have accidentally locked himself out of the house.

As she approached the front door she heard a man say "Boulder County police." As she opened the door, a man with a mask pushed it open and pinned her against the wall.

Starr said he was armed with a gun and carried a flashlight. She reached for a baseball bat that she'd kept by the door for 26 years. The intruder dropped the gun - it turned out to be a plastic water pistol - and the flashlight, and pulled a hunting knife from his satchel.

Starr screamed for help as she used the end of the bat to try to push the man back outside. Mattes ran upstairs from the basement and tackled the intruder. The intruder got on top of Mattes, who tried to push the knife hand away to keep from being stabbed.

Starr repeatedly whacked the intruder on the head and back with a baseball bat. The intruder dropped the knife, and Mattes picked it up. Starr tried to call 911, but heard a commotion and ran back to the door to see that her husband had been pepper-sprayed and was again struggling for control of the knife.

Starr again hit the man with the baseball bat and told her husband, "Don't kill him." Mattes replied, "He's killing me." Starr kept striking the man while Mattes was underneath him, stabbing him from below. The intruder eventually stopped fighting, at which time the couple stopped striking and stabbing him. Starr finished her 911 call while Mattes tried to resuscitate the man. Starr can be heard on the 911 tape saying, "I must have hit him 20 times with the baseball bat!"

Less than five minutes elapsed between the first 911 call from a neighbor and the time that the intruder stopped struggling. [emphasis added]"

via Alphecca

Last Entry

 

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Yahoo deals major blow to FBI

Source:"In June, while still in discussions with the attorneys general, Yahoo! removed or barred the posting of about 70,000 user-created chat rooms whose names suggested they facilitated illegal conduct, including promoting sex between adults and minors.

"Millions of people use the Internet every day, and many of those are children," said Bruning. "Because of this agreement Yahoo! chat rooms are a safer place today than ever before, meaning our children are safer online and predators have fewer opportunities to prey on them."

Among the illicit chat rooms removed were those with labels such as "girls 13 & up for much older men," "8-12 yo girls for older men," and "teen girls for older fat men." Many of these were located within the "Schools and Education" and "Teen" chat categories."

How is the FBI supposed to catch the internet perverts if it can't lure them in?

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Pretext vs Reason

In reaction to a discussion I had on the Sago Boulevard blog, I would like to offer this explanation of the difference between a pretext and a reason. Using Webster's definitions, a pretext is "a purpose or motive alleged or an appearance assumed in order to cloak the real intention or state of affairs" A reason is "a statement offered in explanation or justification, a rational ground or motive". So a reason for going to war would be defending your country from an imminent threat, or to destroy stockpile of weapons of mass destruction that could be used in terrorist attacks against you. A pretext would be if you told the public that a country posed an imminent threat and possessed stockpile of weapons of mass destruction even though you had no reason to suspect those things. The case for a pretext would be strengthened if you told the international community that you had conclusive proof, and then failed to deliver that proof or any weapons of mass destruction for over two years after you occupied that nation. The case for a pretext would be even further strengthened if you had publicly announced that Iraq was trying to buy yellowcake uranium from Niger, even though your envoy (Joseph Wilson) had discovered that to be untrue and told you as much in no unclear words. If the Senate Intelligence Committee finds in its next report that pressure was put on intelligence analysts to provide information supporting the views of politicians toward Iraq, then a pretext will have been undeniably established.

This is hurtful to our country in two ways. Directly misleading the public makes a mockery of the idea of a republic. It completely undermines the type of oversight and accountability that separates America from a dictatorship. It is also damaging in our relations with other nations. When we call out for support and trust in an effort such as the war on terror, and then appear untrustworthy and unrepentant, we can't really expect full cooperation in the future. It only strengthens the position of countries that opposed this war in the beginning.

Preparedness - Organizing my bedroom

This weekend I organized my bedroom. I have lived in my apartment for nearly three years and it looks like I just moved in. On the floor lining the wall of my bedroom were sheets and workout clothes. In my closet there were winter camping clothes piled on the top self, everyday clothes on the middle shelf (in neat organized stacks), and winter workout clothes plus bags piled at the bottom of the closet. All these items were present, but where in piles that would be hard to pack from if I had to leave town or (lord forbid) walk out of town in a hurry.

I used two boxes of something like this item from target. Oddly, wal-mart did not have this item and target did, only their version had six cubes instead of 4.

This was my first step to taking an inventory of what I own and creating a list what I need to be prepared (or planning to plan, as I like to call it.).

My next step will be to take an inventory and organize the hobby closet. Which is where my camping supplies, wrapping paper, extra blankets, and sports equipment are piled. I have chosen to use the 16 quart version of this, as my basic component for storing stuff in that closet. Those boxes will be my bug out house boxes. I have choose the 16 quart version for one main reason. A woman or a child could pick it up even if it was fully loaded with heavy gear. The 16 quart version of the boxes are not too large to be hard to move. If I find it hard to organized that closet with those boxes, I will buy larger ones for certain items that are not on the bug out list, but the ones I choose to but out with will stay small and light enough for anyone to move.

cube

Survival Threat of the Week

This may or not become a regular addition to the site, and even if it is it most likely won't be posted on a fixed schedule. That aside, here is the first Survival Threat of the Week.

Recent devastation in Kashmir has earthquakes in the news once again. Earthquakes are devastating because they are often large-scale disasters that can trigger other events, such as tsunamis and landslides. People are often unprepared when they do strike. There is only a minute chance that you will ever be the victim of a major earthquake, and many people use that to rationalize failing to prepare. People living near plate boundaries are at the highest risk, but even people near the center of a plate can fall victim to intraplate earthquakes.

So what can you do? Like all survival threats, just having a plan can greatly increase your chances. The University of Memphis has a list of things that you need to think about. It includes things like ensuring that you and everyone in your home knows how to turn off the gas and electricity. If you are able, the best place to be in an earthquake is the most open area that you can find. The major threat is from objects (or buildings) falling. If that isn't an option, then you want to stand in a doorway or the most stable place that you can find. There is even a site that sells earthquake survival kits. There are two things that you can expect with every survival threat. Just thinking about it and forming a plan greatly increase your chances of making it through the ordeal, and someone else is willing to sell you some stuff.