Bill's Bites: September 2007

Sunday, 30 September 2007

2007.09.30 Politics and National Defense Roundup

[Updated frequently throughout the day. Please come back often.]

Not new, but well worth posting again. (H/T: Right Wing Sparkle)

I'm Already Home

God bless our troops, on this fine Sunday morning and throughout the year.

Surveillance Showdown
"Privacy" zealots want America to forgo intelligence capabilities during wartime.
By David B. Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. Casey

Would any sane country purposefully limit its ability to spy on enemy communications in time of war? That is the question Congress must answer as it takes up reform of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Privacy activists, civil libertarians and congressional Democrats argue that both foreign and domestic eavesdropping must be subject to judicial scrutiny and oversight, even if this means drastically reducing the amount of foreign intelligence information available to the government, without ever acknowledging the costs involved. It is time the American people had an open and honest debate on the relative importance of privacy and security. ...

Quick hits:

U.S., Iraqi Forces: More Than 60 Insurgents Killed

Marine v Ex-Marine

Zorkot update: New details of his arrest

Young guns of the House GOP

NYTimes: Thomas Friedman Wants America to Get Over 9/11
Nation of Stupid (H/T: Surber)
9/11? What's 9/11?

The counterinsurgency begins in Kansas.

Jason Whitlock: Jena 6 case caught up in whirlwind of distortion, opportunism

Contributed by Bill Faith on September 30, 2007 at 12:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Saturday, 29 September 2007

2007.09.29 Politics and National Defense Roundup

[Updated frequently throughout the day. Please come back often.]

Today's absolute must reads:

Whatever else you do today, people, don't miss Returning soldiers gunning for Democrats; "For the left, the Iraq war nightmare is still yet to come." (Helmet tips: Russ Vaughn, William Page, James Hooker)

Your second mandatory reading assignment for the day is Cinnamon Stillwell's Ghosts of Vietnam

Get going, folks, now. We'll still be here.

Bogus SF murder charges dismissed

Uncle Jimbo has the story here.

The Petraeus Effect
Lorie Byrd

What a difference a day makes. Or rather, several days and quite a few hours of congressional testimony and public statements regarding the status of the troop “surge” in Iraq from General David Petraeus. Not only are the leading Democrats running for President not calling for immediate withdrawal, but they won’t even say that if they were President the troops would be out of Iraq by the end of their four year term. ...

Do read the whole thing.

Quick hits:

Iraq: We Want American Security Partnership
Ed Morrissey: Iraq plans to propose one final extension to the UN Security Council mandate for the American deployment, the AP reports this morning. After the end of 2008, Iraq wants to directly negotiate a bilateral security arrangement with the US similar to that of Kuwait and Qatar: ...

Outsourcing Conflict
Robert D. Kaplan: For all the notoriety of private military contractors like Blackwater, they represent an important aspect of the future of war. And that future is not all bad. ...

PFC Menchaca, PFC Tucker and Spec. Babineau avenged

The Long Arm of Iran

Al-Maliki calls [Slow Joe's] idea to split nation 'catastrophe'

Taiwan Plans to Produce Missiles Able to Hit China

What's Your Hurry?
John Hinderaker: The unworkability of FISA in its present form was dramatically highlighted in Congressional testimony yesterday: ...
Bryan Preston: Why FISA needs to be updated or scrapped

What's with Hillary's laugh?

Contributed by Bill Faith on September 29, 2007 at 02:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Friday, 28 September 2007

2007.09.28 Politics and National Defense Roundup

[Updated frequently throughout the day. Please come back often.]

Murtha will have to testify in defamation case
Bryan Preston

He’ll have to submit a deposition. Hopefully he’ll be more forthcoming this time than his office was when I called them up last month. Perhaps by the time he testifies, he’ll actually know what’s going on in the trials. Not that not having all the facts slowed him down from pronouncing the Marines guilty of murder “in cold blood” starting last year.
A federal judge refused Friday to dismiss a defamation case against Rep. John P. Murtha and ordered the Pennsylvania Democrat to give a sworn deposition in the case. ...

Why We're Winning Now in Iraq
Anbar's citizens needed protection before they would give their "hearts and minds."
Frederick W. Kagan

Many politicians and pundits in Washington have ignored perhaps the most important point made by Gen. David Petraeus in his recent congressional testimony: The defeat of al Qaeda in Iraq requires a combination of conventional forces, special forces and local forces. This realization has profound implications not only for American strategy in Iraq, but also for the future of the war on terror.

As Gen. Petraeus made clear, the adoption of a true counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq in January 2007 has led to unprecedented progress in the struggle against al Qaeda in Iraq, by protecting Sunni Arabs who reject the terrorists among them from the vicious retribution of those terrorists. In his address to the United Nations General Assembly Wednesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki also touted the effectiveness of this strategy while at the same time warning of al Qaeda in Iraq's continued threat to his government and indeed the entire region.

Yet despite the undeniable successes the new strategy has achieved against al Qaeda in Iraq, many in Congress are still pushing to change the mission of U.S. forces back to a counterterrorism role relying on special forces and precision munitions to conduct targeted attacks on terrorist leaders. This change would bring us back to the traditional, consensus strategy for dealing with cellular terrorist groups like al Qaeda--a strategy that has consistently failed in Iraq. ...

Below the fold:

Quick hits

The Nuclear Renaissance Begins

Continue reading "2007.09.28 Politics and National Defense Roundup"

Contributed by Bill Faith on September 28, 2007 at 01:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Thursday, 27 September 2007

2007.09.27 Politics and National Defense Roundup

SF Murder Charges Travesty at Ft Bragg
"Uncle Jimbo" Hanson

I had mentioned in a previous piece that I thought I knew MSG Troy Anderson who along with CPT Dave Staffel, now awaits an answer as to whether he will face a Court Martial for the shooting of a known terrorist in Afghanistan. It turns out I do know him and I spoke with him on the phone today. Thanks to his attorney MAJ Lance Daniels and the folks at Ft. Bragg Trial Defense Services for their help in arranging this. In my previous piece I noted that even though two investigations commissioned by then MG Kearney cleared them, he had murder charges preferred anyhow.

I believe that the charges will be not simply dropped, but dropped like poison. ...

Col. David Hunt: Top Military Officials are a Disgrace to Those They Lead (H/T)

Below the fold:

Winning in Afghanistan
Quick hits

Continue reading "2007.09.27 Politics and National Defense Roundup"

Contributed by Bill Faith on September 27, 2007 at 01:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wednesday, 26 September 2007

2007.09.26 Politics and National Defense Roundup

The Times Swings Its Hatchet at Bush … and Hits Mukasey
Even by low Gray Lady standards, a journalistic abomination.
Andrew C. McCarthy

Liberty and security are forever in tension, and never more so than in wartime. This is particularly true when, as in both World War II and the ongoing struggle against radical Islam, the nation has been subjected to a devastating domestic attack and is addled by the prospect of additional strikes.

These conditions always spark fierce controversy between civil libertarians and those whose first concern is national security. Thankfully, people of good will are abundant on both sides. Regrettably, the New York Times is, by contrast, the most juvenile type of libertarian: both doctrinaire and hyper-partisan — instinctively unreasonable when it comes to the most modest public-safety measures, and devoid of any self-correcting detachment if the word “Bush” has even the most attenuated association. ...

Iraq Veteran Details Horror and Heroism in Fallujah
James C. Roberts (Helmet tip: Rurik)

“The greatest generation had Normandy,” writes David Bellavia. “Generation X will have Fallujah.”

He knows well whereof he speaks. A former Army staff sergeant, Bellavia was a part of the Army-Marine operation Phantom Fury that liberated the Jihadist-controlled Iraqi city in nine days of heavy fighting in November 2004.

For his actions in Fallujah, Bellavia was awarded the Silver Star and has been nominated for the Medal of Honor. ...

Below the fold:

State Dept and DHS agree: It’s someone else’s
responsibility to keep terrorists from getting visas

Quick hits

Continue reading "2007.09.26 Politics and National Defense Roundup"

Contributed by Bill Faith on September 26, 2007 at 04:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Tuesday, 25 September 2007

2007.09.25 Politics and National Defense Roundup

Jihad funding ring in Maryland…with illegal alien help
Michelle Malkin

Via Jihad Watch, here’s news of a bunch of FBI arrests in connection with a busted jihadi funding ring. Those ensnared include nine Pakistani illegal aliens, and one defendant charged with attempting to finance al Qaeda. National security-immigration enforcement nexus, anyone: ...

Below the fold

Does Europe Oppose An American Withdrawal?

More quick hits

Quick hits:

War Weary Stryker Dubbed General Lee Comes Home For Reset

Supreme Court to Hear Voter ID Case

Shamnesty Watch: S-CHIP loophole - New health care benefits for illegal aliens?

Heather Mac Donald on the Jena 6
Michelle Malkin: Heather Mac Donald, one of America’s most penetrating writers on race, culture, and crime, looks beyond the Jena Six theatrics and tells unvarnished truths: ...
Patterico: More on the Jena 6

San Francisco is at it again
Michelle Malkin: KGO reports that San Francisco is dissing the military again:" New York said “yes,” but we said “no.” Why were the U.S. Marines denied permission to film a recruiting commercial on the streets of San Francisco? San Francisco is, once again, the center of a controversy over how city leaders treat the U.S. military. This time, it involves an elite group of Marines who wanted to film a recruitment commercial in San Francisco on the anniversary of 9/11. ..."
Bruce Kesler: Marines Stabbed In Heart In San Francisco

Continue reading "2007.09.25 Politics and National Defense Roundup"

Contributed by Bill Faith on September 25, 2007 at 07:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Monday, 24 September 2007

2007.09.24 Politics and National Defense Roundup

Ahmadinejad in America
Washington Times Editorial

Not since the days of Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich has a head of state spoken as openly about the destruction of Jewish people and his contempt for the Western democracies and international law as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. On Saturday, as Mr. Ahmadinejad prepared to fly to New York and address the U.N. Security Council, he once again displayed his "peaceful" intentions at a military rally in Tehran. The Iranian government put on display for the first time a new long-range missile called the Ghadr-1 (Power-1), which it said had a range of more than 1,100 miles — enough to put in range, Israel, the nation Mr. Ahmadinejad has repeatedly vowed to destroy, as well as hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops and other Americans working in the region. At the parade, there were banners and slogans such as "Death to America" and "Death to Israel"; "Israel should be eliminated"; and "Israel has to be wiped off the map." Thousands of goose-stepping members of the Iranian army and the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps paraded by and saluted Mr. Ahmadinejad and Iranian military leaders reviewing the parade. To make sure that no one missed his message, Mr. Ahmadinejad vowed that neither sanctions nor military action could stop Iran's nuclear program from going forward. ...

As far as this ol' dog's concerned they need to give the son of a bitch a helicopter tour of the area, soak him in gasoline, light it and kick his ass out about 100 stories up so he can learn about the real 9/11 experience.

Below the fold:

U.S. says Iran sending missiles to Iraq

Violent Incidents Down; Al Qaeda ‘Off Balance’ in Iraq, Spokesman Says

Michael Barione: Return on Success?

Quick hits:

Hillary Against The Free Press
Ed Morrissey: Both Hillary Clinton and GQ have a lot of explaining to do if the Politico has this story correct According to Ben Smith, Hillary's campaign pressured GQ to kill a piece critical of her by threatening to withhold Bill Clinton's cooperation in the future. The editors of GQ caved into the threat and spiked the article: ...
Ben Smith: Clinton campaign kills negative story.

Michael J. Totten: “Al Qaeda Lost”

The thoroughly corrupted New York Times

New York: Sanctuary for illegal alien drivers

Continue reading "2007.09.24 Politics and National Defense Roundup"

Contributed by Bill Faith on September 24, 2007 at 12:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sunday, 23 September 2007

2007.09.23 Politics and National Defense Roundup

Who Speaks For You?
J. D. Pendry

I took some time off from serious news and politics for few days following my last post. The American media did too, but that’s not unusual. When I tired of the newest chapters in the sad lives and times of Orenthal James and Britney and the ensuing solemn discussions about his guilt and her fitness to raise children, I thought I’d poke around and see if there was anything else important and deserving of my attention - other than football. I found some things interesting and telling. I may meander a bit, but I’ll eventually arrive at a point. ...

Snatched: Israeli commandos ‘nuclear’ raid
Uzi Mahnaimi, Tel Aviv, Sarah Baxter, Washington, and Michael Sheridan
(H/T: Clarice Feldman)

ISRAELI commandos from the elite Sayeret Matkal unit – almost certainly dressed in Syrian uniforms – made their way stealthily towards a secret military compound near Dayr az-Zawr in northern Syria. They were looking for proof that Syria and North Korea were collaborating on a nuclear programme.

Israel had been surveying the site for months, according to Washington and Israeli sources. President George W Bush was told during the summer that Israeli intelligence suggested North Korean personnel and nuclear-related material were at the Syrian site.

Israel was determined not to take any chances with its neighbour. Following the example set by its raid on an Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak 1981, it drew up plans to bomb the Syrian compound.

But Washington was not satisfied. It demanded clear evidence of nuclear-related activities before giving the operation its blessing. The task of the commandos was to provide it.

Today the site near Dayr az-Zawr lies in ruins after it was pounded by Israeli F15Is on September 6. ...

See also:

Below the fold:

25 Held in Slaying Of Iraqi Sunni Chief

Do or die

N.Y. Times admits Petraeus ad sold to Moveon.org at 1/2 off

Dan Rather's Colleagues Must Be Part Of The Conspiracy

Missteps in the Bunker: How Nuclear Warheads Made Unplanned Flight

Quick hits:

Newsweek: Osama/Zawahiri power struggle at top of AQ?

John F. Burns: The Deadly Game of Private Security

Thomas Lifson: More harbingers of victory against Al Qaeda

Continue reading "2007.09.23 Politics and National Defense Roundup"

Contributed by Bill Faith on September 23, 2007 at 01:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Another slight adjustment to my blogging habits

When I announced a few days ago that I was going to start doing just about all of my blogging at Old War Dogs I didn't take into account that sometimes I may want to blog about things that really don't belong on that site. I think from now on I'm going to start doing a little blogging at Bill's Bites, about things I don't consider appropriate for OWD, but keep doing my daily Politics and National Defense roundup there.

Contributed by Bill Faith on September 23, 2007 at 12:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Monday, 17 September 2007

I guess we're going into the horse boarding business

Apparently we had a failure to communicate and everyone's been sitting around waiting for someone else to make the first move on the horse boarding situation. (Background below if you haven't read my earlier posts on the subject). My sister called my ex earlier tonight and found out that:

1) she does definitely want to move Sunshine here

2) contrary to what I thought my daughter said when she was up for Labor Day my ex has the money to get the ball rolling right away. (I was under the mistaken impression she had to wait for her mother's estate to be completely settled, which can't happen until after an estate sale ten days from now.)

So, we now have the go ahead to get a some fence and a small barn built, the sooner the better, so she can have Sunshine moved here as soon as it's done.

So, after all the confusion and discussion about selling a big chunk of this place to a contractor who turned out to have totally unrealistic ideas about how much it should cost him, what we're going to do instead is put the pasture beside the house to good use by moving a horse into it.

Background for those of you who haven't been following the story:

I was never really into horses when I was younger but my brother and sister were, and Dad before them. I was too young to be included in the discussion but I'm pretty sure having room to keep a horse or two was part of why my folks bought this place. My brother got his first horse about the same time I got my first motorcycle, then took her and her colt with him when he married and moved out. A few years after that my folks bought Ginger, whom my uncle's kids had outgrown, for my sister. I don't remember the details of what happened exactly when but my ex ended up owning Ginger and moved her to what used to be her (my ex's) grandparents' place, where she (Ginger) ended up producing three colts. Ginger passed away a few years back but until recently all three colts were at my ex's grandparent's old place; two of them still are. The youngest, Sunshine, recently lost the sight in one eye and most of the sight in the other to parasitic worms of some sort and needs a smaller pasture than he was in, without room to get lost or gulleys to fall into. My ex has offered to pay for having a small barn built (the one Dad built is about ready to fall down) and to have enough fence repaired and built for Sunshine to live here, and pay my sister a year at a time, in advance, for taking care of him.

If we hadn't thought we were waiting on my ex to make the next move and she hadn't been waiting for us to, we might have had the money for taking care of Sunshine for the first year by now. As it is, it's going to be several more days at best, and probably longer than that. The north-south fence between the yard and the east pasture needs work, there's no fence at all along the north side of the pasture, -- See this post for an aerial shot of the area if you need to -- the back fence needs repaired or replaced and we need a new barn. Since I'm not up to doing things like that any more I won't offer any opinion on how long it should take, and I also don't know what else the contractor we're going to have do it has to do before he can get started. I'll keep you posted.

Contributed by Bill Faith on September 17, 2007 at 11:20 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

So much for being OK on money

Well, so much for thinking that with my sister going back to work, the BlogAds money I got Saturday, etc, we were going to make it OK this month. The company my brother in law works for, which for years has passed out paychecks at work every Friday, has decided to start mailing them out instead, which would be fine if only they'd mail them in time to get here on time. He's going to have direct deposit set up, which will take two or three weeks to go into effect, and in the mean time my sister was trusting enough to mail a bunch of checks that cleared or tried to clear Friday night, the day before his check got here, generating a bunch of of overdraft and bounced check fees. My sister's still working on finding out which checks were paid and which ones were returned -- the information won't be available on the banks web site till tomorrow -- but based on which checks were written in what order she's afraid one of the one's that bounced was the CIPS (electric) bill. I hate to say it again so soon but there's a PayPal button on my sidebar and anything anyone can do to help will be much appreciated.

I've been trading emails with someone who may or may not end up buying some ad space for long enough for the money to make a major difference in our situation right now but I don't have any guarantees yet. What she originally wanted me to do would involve breaking a promise to the other members of the Old War Dogs pack and I had to tell her I can't do that and suggest something different. It's her move right now and I'm holding my breath.

In other good news, we now have another utility pole about 30 feet south of the one in the picture I posted Saturday. Neither of them's on our property, nor were the trees that were cut to make room for them, but that doesn't make me any happier about it.

Contributed by Bill Faith on September 17, 2007 at 03:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Saturday, 15 September 2007

Well, hell!

See previous. Click any image to see it larger.

Remember that pretty picture I posted before of the east end of our back fencerow?

Isn't it pretty with that big power pole where there used to be trees?

I took this looking pretty much right down our back fence row from about 3 feet past the property line. Note the power pole near the center of the picture. Apparently they're putting in a new north south power line just far enough east of our place to not need our permission.

Some background for those of you who haven't been following the story all along: The house with the red dot on it, and the 2.5 acre triangular area around it, is the place Dad and Mom bought just over 50 years ago. The large building with the square dot on it near top center is a Wal-Mart that's been there about 15 years. Now they've decided to build a Wal-Mart Super Center more or less behind it. The red oval straight down from our place is more or less where "our" new lake is going to be after they get done moving dirt from there to the new store location.

It's hard to get a sense of proportion without something of a known size in the pic but here's a look at the new lake as of earlier today. I'd call the lowest point in the lake about 30 feet deep compared to the area immediately around it and at least 40 feet below where I was standing when I took the picture. I guess we'll see when they're done where the boundaries of the hole end up being.

I think at least part of my lack of energy here lately is being in a down mood over thinking we were going to end up with some money as a result of the new Wal-Mart going in and then finding out after several weeks that we aren't. The guy making all the mess in that field behind us (I'm not sure if he has the contract to build the new store itself) sounded at one point like he wanted to buy some or all of our place. He's planning some sort of retail/business development around the lake and would like to build a road straight back to it from the highway. Turns out, unfortunately, that he doesn't want to pay a realistic amount of money for the land he'd need to build it across. In the mean time, it's still sounding positive on my ex paying for some fence and a small barn, moving my grandson's horse here, and paying my sister for keeping an eye on him. Once the fence goes in and the barn goes up we're obligated to keep one or more horses here for her for as long as she wants us to and it's too late for the guy developing the area behind us to change his mind and offer more for our pasture field. Oh, well, maybe the lake will attract ducks, anyway.

Contributed by Bill Faith on September 15, 2007 at 05:18 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wednesday, 12 September 2007

A permanent(?) change in my blogging habits

As I noted before I just don't have the energy lately to do justice to two blogs and I don't know if/when I will again. It may or may not be a permanent thing but for now I'm going to do all of my political and national defense blogging at Old War Dogs and use Bill's Bites for stuff only my friends and family are likely to be interested in, like my health, our new lake, the horse that may or may not be moving here, etc.

Contributed by Bill Faith on September 12, 2007 at 12:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Tuesday, 11 September 2007

Our new lake -- Update

See previous. Click the image to see it bigger.

I'm starting to feel pretty optimistic that we aren't going to end up with a business of some sort right across our back fence. At this point right across the fence there's an area more or less level with our back field and just wide enough for single-file dump-truck traffic. Beyond that the ground now drops off about 8 or 10 feet, then beyond the drop-off there's a level strip about 100 or 150 feet wide, then the big pit you can see in the picture, the edge of which seems to be gradually getting closer to our place. At worst they could put something between the pit and that level patch right across the fence, but it doesn't look to me like there's going to be room for anything, especially if the pit keeps growing in this direction. Regardless of what ends up happening we need to get that fence repaired, at the contractor's expense, and get some trees planted along their.

Related side note: When we moved here just over 50 years ago Dad transplanted a couple of Sassafras trees from the place we moved from to along the fence between "the garden" (that back field) and "the barn lot" just east of it. Over the years they've grown and reproduced, so that that whole fence row is now lined with Sassafras trees. Up until this year we haven't let them spread out into the garden or the barn lot, but this year we let little trees sprout up wherever they wanted to, with the result that we now have at least a couple of dozen two and three foot high trees that we can transplant to along that back fence to provide a visual barrier between out place and whatever ends up between us and the new lake.

We haven't heard any more from my ex after my daughter and grandson reported back to her with their advice on what to do about the horse situation. She'll be up this way in a couple of weeks for an estate sale (her late mother's household goods and I'm not sure what else), which has to happen before they can probate her mother's will, which apparently has to happen before she'll have the money to have the barn and fence built that she said she'd pay for if she moved the horse here. I suspect she won't even make a final decision about moving the horse here till she's seen him herself, so it's going to be at least two or three weeks before we know for sure about that.

I'll post new pictures every few days as the situation out back develops and keep anyone who's interested posted about the horse situation.

Contributed by Bill Faith on September 11, 2007 at 11:40 PM in Around our place | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Thursday, 06 September 2007

A temporary(?) change in my blogging habits (Updated)

As I noted here and here, it's going to be a couple or three days at best before I can start devoting as much time to blogging as I'd like to. To the extent I owe it to anyone -- and I do -- to keep blogging my obligation is to keep the Old War Dogs site going and treat Bill's Bites as a spare time activity; I hope the two or three of you who read Bill's bites but not OWD will get in the habit of coming to see me there. For at least a few days all I'm going to be posting at Bill's Bites is updates on my health and the computer situation. I'll plan on doing a daily "Politics and National Defense Roundup" post at Old War Dogs and figure anything that doesn't fit into one of those categories isn't worth blogging about till I get both computers in the house working and get caught up on my rest enough to have more energy.

***

2007.09.07.16:19: I pulled the hard drive from the machine that won't boot and connected it to this one in place of the CD drive. When I powered the computer on it immediately launched chkdsk on the new drive and didn't find anything wrong. After chkdsk was done I was able to copy, successfully apparently, the contents of the \documents and settings\owner directory from the questionable drive to my F: drive so they won't be lost if we end up having to format the drive they were on. Tentative conclusion at this point: The drive itself is ok, Windows is just screwed up. The next step after I catch my breath a little is to put the questionable drive back in the computer it belongs with and see if by chance running chkdsk fixed whatever was wrong -- unlikely I know but worth trying since the next steps going to be a real hassle. We haven't given up on finding it yet but for now no one seems to know where the Recovery CD for that computer is. I have an XP CD that's been used in the past on a computer that's no longer in use but that's going to mean having to convince Microsoft the computer it was installed on before really is no longer in use. Finding the Recovery CD is the ideal solution and I'm going to give my sister longer to look for it before I do anything else. Wish us luck.

***

2007309.07.18:03: I feel like I just dodged a bullet and a half. Chkdsk is your friend. First is apparently fixed whatever was causing the SMART warnings on this machine, then it fixed whatever was wrong with Windows on the family machine. As far as I can tell I'm done fighting computer problems for a while. While I'm at it, it's time for another big thank you to the Dog who ~~gave~~ "loaned" me this machine. If I hadn't had a second computer to connect that other drive to when Windows got corrupted I'd probably have ended up having to format the drive and hope I could come up with all the right device drivers to get the machine working right again. Thank you, Dog.

***

2007.09.08: I still have the drags big time. I knew my back wasn't going to like me much today after all the bending and squatting yesterday and I was right. I took enough Trazodone to sleep like a log last night but I woke up earlier than I really wanted to and couldn't go back to sleep. For now I'm going to go ahead and do most of my blogging at Old War Dogs.

***

2007.09.09: I'm probably going to continue doing most of my blogging at Old War Dogs at least through next weekend. I just don't have enough energy lately to do justice to both sites.

Oh, btw, my mail to David Frum got published.

Contributed by Bill Faith on September 6, 2007 at 07:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Light or no blogging for a while

As I mentioned earlier (read that post first if you haven't), I need to devote some major chunks of time, soon, to trying to get the other computer in the house back online.

When I wrote that earlier post, just before heading for bed shortly after midnight, I wasn't anticipating the affect the increased Trazodone dosage was going to have on me; I may need to work up to it gradually and/or experiment with the dosage. I slept long enough and sound enough last night that I should have woke up feeling well rested this morning, but instead I'm feeling fogged in big time.

I also didn't mention last night how tense things are going to get around here with only one working PC in the house. The one I'm using was a gift from someone who wanted me to have a computer available whenever I wanted to use it so I could do a better job maintaining the Old War Dogs site. I feel like I owe it to that person, some people who helped out big time when we had all that financial trouble the last couple of months, and to people who have paid in advance for advertising on Old War Dogs and this site, to keep doing as much blogging as I'm up to, which means some other people in the house are just going to have to be unhappy with me for not letting them use this machine except when I'm sleeping or away from the house. That being the case, I need to put a high priority on getting the other machine up and running as soon as possible. Step 1 is to try to transfer some pictures, etc, from the C: drive on that machine one of the drives on this one. Step 2 is to Format and Recover the drive on the machine that's down, which may or may not work depending on what's wrong with it. Step three, which I hope we don't have to take, is to try to figure out where to come up with a replacement drive for that machine at a price we can come up with. I guess for right now just color me pretty distracted and please forgive me for not getting much blogging done for a while.

To make things even better, weather.com is showing thunderstorms in the area right now and predicting scattered storms for the next 5 days. In this area thunderstorms are quite capable of causing power outages and PC-killing voltage surges, which basically means when there's one close the smart thing to do is to turn off and unplug both computers, which is going to make it take even longer than it would otherwise to get the other computer up and running.

I'll be back when I can.

Contributed by Bill Faith on September 6, 2007 at 03:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Some notes on my semi-hiatus

I really will get back to more serious blogging one of these days, folks, I promise. I want to do a lot more than I have to try to get people to head for DC for the doings on the 15th and to drum up support, in general, for staying in Iraq till the job's done. It's just that there have been other things, mostly related in one way or another to my health, that have kept me from doing what I'd like to be doing recently.

On the plus side:

It looks like we're finally going to get a break in the weather. Weather.com only posts predictions 10 days in advance but I hope it's safe to say based on their latest 10 day forecast that we've seen our last over-90 day for the year. They're predicting highs of 90 for today and tomorrow, then nothing over 83 for the next 8 days, which will put us in the middle of September with cause to hope it's going to stay cooler for good.

Yesterday was my last scheduled medical appointment for 4 weeks, by which time maybe it will be cool enough that I don't come home so wiped out from the heat like I did yesterday.

I came home from Evansville yesterday with a prescription for a stronger dosage of my bedtime antidepressant than I've been taking, which I hope will result in getting more sleep and waking up more rested. I also got a prescription for a new morning pill that will supposedly make me less depressed and more energetic during the day.

On the down side:

Right now I'm totally exhausted, partly due to more outdoor activity than I'm used to over Labor Day weekend and partly due to the trip to Evansville yesterday.

I'm going to have to devote some time today and over the next few days to trying to fix the other PC in the house. It boots as far as a blue screen with an "unable to load boot sector" message, as of sometime while I was gone yesterday. Before I try to address the problem directly I need to try to replace the 2nd drive on this machine with the drive out of that machine long enough to salvage some pictures, etc, off the drive before I take the next step, which is formatting the drive and reinstalling Windows from the Recovery CD that came with the machine. If that doesn't work that leaves us needing another replacement drive; for reasons I'll get to in a minute I'm not willing to give up the second drive in this computer to get that one running. No better than I get around, and especially up and down, these days just transplanting hard drives between machines will probably leave me worn out. (Both machines are safely tucked away under desks I'll need to get them out from under and put them someplace where I can get to their innards.)

I hope it's a false alarm, and especially that it won't become an issue while I'm trying to fix the other computer, but I've started to get SMART warnings every time I reboot this machine. So far it's gone ahead and booted OK but I don't know how much longer that will last. If worst comes to worst I can install XP, Office, etc, on what's now my F: drive, but that's going to be a hassle due to the fact the CDs I need to use have both been used on other machines. I haven't heard from my son in law since they left here Monday morning but I'm hoping I can get him to send me the C: drive out of the machine I left with him and my daughter when I moved up here from Texas. That solves the XP side of the problem, then all I have to do is install Office using the CD I used on the drive that failed on "the family machine" and I'll be back in business. In the mean time I'm playing it cautious and keeping backup copies of my documents, pictures, music files etc on my F: drive just in case.

If I drop out of site altogether for a day or two figure it means my C: drive failed before I got the family machine fixed and I'll reappear as soon as I can manage.

Contributed by Bill Faith on September 6, 2007 at 12:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wednesday, 05 September 2007

A Quick Index To Today's Posts, Quick Hits, Open Post

Click here for a handy "most recently updated posts at the top" listing of the posts on this page. Click here to see a similar listing for the Old War Dogs site.

Might as well figure in advance on this old dog having another slow blogging day. Between time on the road and time at the VA clinic I'm going to be investing a big chunk of the day in a couple of medical appointments. I may come home and sleep through the debate then try to catch Fred! on Leno, spend some time surfing the web for reactions, then put off blogging about the debates or Fred! till Thursday morning. (Lest there be any doubt, I already know who I want to see nominated.) *** *** With blood work and picking up prescriptions thrown in my trip to Evansville only took about 6 and a half hours. I'm home but totally exhausted. I may spend a few minutes catching up on the news but it's going to be later tonight, maybe even tomorrow morning, before I get any blogging done.

Quick links to some things farther down the page:

2007.09.05 Politics and National Defense Roundup

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Contributed by Bill Faith on September 5, 2007 at 11:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

2007.09.05 Politics and National Defense Roundup

Germany arrests 3 over alleged attack plots
Suspects had ‘profound hatred of U.S. citizens,’ officials say

BERLIN - Three suspected Islamic terrorists from an al-Qaida-influenced group nursing “profound hatred of U.S. citizens” were arrested on suspicion of plotting imminent, massive bomb attacks on U.S. facilities in Germany, prosecutors said Wednesday.

German Federal Prosecutor Monika Harms said the three, two of whom were German converts to Islam, had trained at camps in Pakistan run by the Islamic Jihad Union, a group based in Central Asia. They had obtained some 1,500 pounds of hydrogen peroxide for making explosives.