No. 1 seed

A little early I know (the draw's not until Dec. 9), but I thought I'd just toss this out there. A column from the Newark Star-Ledger (Sep 6) making the case that the United States should get a number one seeding at next summer's World Cup.

Des helps Bertie

Our well-known, easily recognizable sports reporter is approaching Croke Park where he is hailed by a ticketless fan desperate to see the Hurling final. Des tells the fan that he can't do anything for him. Des feels bad. Then, like a bolt of lightning, who should Des next run in to, none other than Bertie himself. And, he's got a ticket, but no one to give it to.

So, Des remembers the poor soul outside the gate with no ticket and he gets Bertie's ticket for him. Des, of course, tells the country about this great bit of good fortune for Cork man DD Mulcahy. At the same time, we're all learning – again – what a great guy Bertie is. Just when the polls were looking really bad for Bertie, we get that little reminder that he's 'just like one of us'.

I'm sure all of this is just a coincidence, but I'd love to imagine that Mr. Mulcahy was a participant in a little play set up by the Taoiseach. "The most skilful, the most devious, the most cunning of them all".

Blaming Bush

The more I read about what was and wasn't done before and after the hurricane the more it seems odd to me that the President's taking such a big political hit. If you compare September 11 with Katrina, it's clear to me that the Administration was to blame for a lot more of what went wrong that day than they were to blame for what went wrong before and after Katrina hit.

To my mind, some disorganization and red tape snafus in the Katrina relief effort are as nothing compared with the following that led to September 11 attacks:

• failure to tighten up immigration procedures both at embassies and at ports & airports
• failure to streamline & improve intelligence operations
• failure to dismantle the excessive barriers between intelligence gatherers and the FBI
• continuing love-fest with the Saudi government

There are other things I could mention. And, sure, these are all hold-overs from the Clinton era, but Bush campaigned in 2000 against the Clinton Administration's record. He could have come to office and made sweeping changes.

If this isn't too frivolous . . .

When the whole hurricane effort is out of the news I'm going to miss listening to the RTE & BBC news-readers pronounce Baton Rouge. Their pronunciation gives the city a bit of flair that I never associated with it before.

Of course, I rarely even considered the city before Katrina other than as the answer to the question, "Where does LSU play its home games?". No that one. This one. "What is the capital of Louisiana"?

Irish in New Orleans

Mahons and Eddie (comments below – can't find links) provided some notes on the Irish in the New Orleans area. Yesterday's Sunday Business Post had a short article on the history of the Irish in New Orleans. Doesn't mention one son of Irish emigrants who've I always associated with New Orleans.

September 11

I didn't post anything about Sep 11 yesterday, but I couldn't take my mind off it either. Once the radio interview obsession faded and I got down to business painting the kitchen, I kept replaying everything I experienced on September 11.

I can remember the morning clearly, even though the first attack didn't happen until 1:45pm. Funny, isn't it? I can remember the most mundane details of that day from before anything had happened.

By 4pm on Sep 11 I was making my way home and feeling like I was not where I should have been. Not that I would have done a damn thing that was in any way productive.

Again this year I watched any programs I found that dealt with what happened 4 years ago. I suppose as time goes by the day will fade, although I think hearing the date will always be a reminder. A date that lives in infamy.

I recommend Mahons's comment below.

Own GOAL

John O'Shea seems to have really shot himself in the foot with his outburst about the government's plan to send €1m to the US for hurricane relief. As I said last week, I can understand why he might object, but perhaps he could have left off the billionaires business. Made him sound bitter about the sympathy being directed to those who were enduring the effects of Hurricane Katrina.

As a result of O'Shea's comments two American board members have resigned from GOAL. Niall O'Dowd of the Irish Voice was one of the board members who resigned and in this week's paper he notes that O'Shea has "long held a very successful dinner in New York to raise funds". Can't be good for GOAL. From my perspective, it's too bad really. O'Shea has never been a shrill anti-American, unlike one or two others who head Irish overseas aid agencies.

Ryle Dwyer says that O'Shea should know the history of what the US did for Ireland during the famine before he sounds off. I thought the history lesson he provides is interesting, but (a) what happened 150 years ago is not really relevant today and (b) President Polk's reaction actually supports O'Shea's perspective.

A bill to allocate $500,000 for Irish famine relief was introduced in Congress. The Senate passed it, but it ran into difficulty in the House of Representatives due to the hostility of President James K Polk, who felt the government had no right to give the people's money away for charity. "My solemn conviction is that Congress possesses no power to use any public money for any such purpose," the president wrote in his diary.

Dwyer's story supports the view that private charity and not taxpayer's money should be sent to the US.

Now that that's over

Whew. Don't think I made too many dumb mistakes. Was annoyed on way home that I had not said this and not rebutted that. Basically, I don't think I spoke much at all. I was reluctant to interrupt people, although that's part of the game. I never thought of myself as too polite before.

I didn't get to meet Tom McGurk, as he was on the phone, but the other two panelists, Sian Ferguson and Paul MacDonnell, were very nice. I was nearly half an hour early and Sian was there already. The novices.

To be honest, I can't say how I (or either of the other two) did because I was just so obsessed with not saying anything stupid. I hope I succeeded on that one.

Plan, plan, plan

I have more to say on this, but I'm in a rush this morning. Just thought I'd alert you to David Brooks's column in today's NY Times. The last sentence sounds familiar. "But liberals who think this disaster is going to set off a progressive revival need to explain how a comprehensive governmental failure is going to restore America's faith in big government".

Radio Ga Ga

This Sunday from 11-12 I'll be on The Wide Angle on Newstalk106 discussing America 4 years after September 11. There will be three other panelists on with me.

• Matt Cannon of the Irish Peace Institute
• Paul MacDonnell of the Open Republic
• Tom McGurk of the Sunday Business Post and RTE, who I presume will not be doing the Sunday Show this week.

My main priority is to NOT make a fool of myself.

When did the levees break?

I know I'm not the only one who is under the impression that the levees broke well after the storm had passed. It seems that this may not actually be true. If you read this web diary of the storm from the New Orleans Times-Picayune it seems pretty clear that the levees had failed before 9am on the Monday, that is just as the eye was passing New Orleans.

So, why the lack of panic? Why did everyone seem so at ease on Monday evening? I watched NBC Nightly News that night and the sense was that New Orleans had "dodged a bullet".

It may be because the city authorities initially thought the levees had been "topped" and not breached. Although, they had confirmed a breach by 2pm on the day of the storm.

I've seen two interviews with Michael Chertoff in which he said (maybe only implied, can't quite recall now) that he only learned about the breaches the following morning. How did this happen? How did so many people in the government (& in the media based in New Orleans) not know what was happening in the city?

The Times-Picayune reported that the two US Senators for Louisiana had issued press releases by 3pm, both of which give the impression that nothing all that serious has happened. Hmmm.

You know, all the executive branches of government were busy on the day of the storm. Reading this account you realize that the federal, state & local governments were all doing their jobs to the best of their abilities. They were trying to manage a very bad situation.

However, here you have a couple members of Congress who have nothing better to do than issue self-serving press releases. I wonder if this fed the media's complacent response on the evening that nothing much happened here. And, the nonchalant media reaction may have had the effect of taking away the urgency that the state and federal authorities needed to focus on New Orleans.

Congress never investigates its own role in a foul-up. Maybe their part in this fiasco is only minor, but I don't see why it should be too much to ask them to shut up until a crisis has passed.

Oh yeah, the Times-Picayune also reported spotting looters at 2pm that day. I hardly think that those people were desperate for food and water at that stage.

La Marseillaise

I had planned to drop this due to last night's outcome, but the French National Anthem is the best anthem in the world. I haven't got the foggiest as to what they're singing, but when I hear it sung before a big game or whatever it just feels exciting.

Funding the levees

Now I'm getting up on my soapbox. I'd better get down before I fall. But first . . .

In Katrina's wake, Louisiana politicians and other critics have complained about paltry funding for the Army Corps in general and Louisiana projects in particular. But over the five years of President Bush's administration, Louisiana has received far more money for Corps civil works projects than any other state, about $1.9 billion; California was a distant second with less than $1.4 billion, even though its population is more than seven times larger.

Much of that Louisiana money was spent to try to keep low-lying New Orleans dry. But hundreds of millions of dollars have gone to unrelated water projects demanded by the state's congressional delegation and approved by the Corps, often after economic analyses that turned out to be inaccurate. Despite a series of independent investigations criticizing Army Corps construction projects as wasteful pork-barrel spending, Louisiana's representatives have kept bringing home the bacon.

Okay, so Louisiana got a load of money from the Feds. Did they spend it wisely? Well, if it was spent on "wasteful pork-barrel" projects, then clearly not.

This is another problem I have with government. It's so big that citizens cannot really keep it all under watch. Even the press is overwhelmed. There's no way local New Orleans newspapers and other media can keep watch on all aspects of government work in the New Orleans area.

It seems to me that if the government was focused almost exclusively on combating crime, defending against attacks by foreign enemies and doing its utmost to prevent natural catastrophes we would have a lot less government by stealth, where pet projects divert resources away from the primary task.

Fundamental questions about government's role and performance need to be asked.

Oh yeah, this is mostly for the British & Irish folks, who are fed a steady diet of "It's Bush's fault" by the media with little by way of a counter argument. From the same article in today's Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

But overall, the Bush administration's funding requests for the key New Orleans flood-control projects for the past five years were slightly higher than the Clinton administration's for its past five years.

Common sense vs government

Another thing about government: something happens to people, perfectly normal people, when they work for the government. It seems like common sense is gradually driven out of them. They do things that, to the layman, seem almost inexplicable.

Here's an example. 1,000 firemen who headed towards New Orleans after the Mayor asked for help have been waylaid by FEMA. From the Salt Lake Tribune

The firefighters, several of whom are from Utah, were told to bring backpacks, sleeping bags, first-aid kits and Meals Ready to Eat. They were told to prepare for "austere conditions." Many of them came with awkward fire gear and expected to wade in floodwaters, sift through rubble and save lives.

"They've got people here who are search-and-rescue certified, paramedics, haz-mat certified," said a Texas firefighter. "We're sitting in here having a sexual-harassment class while there are still [victims] in Louisiana who haven't been contacted yet."

Again, my mouth is hanging open in disbelief.

End of small government?

The other night Jeremy Paxman asked the panel if the response to Hurricane Katrina meant the era of big (see below) small government is over. It took me a few seconds to push my tongue back and close my mouth. What? Government's bureaucratically bogged down response to a major disaster is an endorsement for its greater involvement in the lives of its citizens?

Protecting the citizens is government's primary function. That means protecting the citizens from foreign enemies, home-grown criminals and, as far as possible, nature. It seems to me that the question should be, "Have we imposed so many other burdens on government that it can no longer fulfill its primary function"?

Bill Gates runs a fairly successful software company. How would he do if he were put in charge of a furniture manufacturing company? Maybe he wouldn't be so successful. Maybe he's only be good managing in the software industry. It's possible and I think many people would agree that it's possible.

So, why do we believe we can find people who can manage an organization responsible for defense, education, agriculture, parklands, etc.? Even at the state level this seems pretty much impossible, never mind at the Federal level. Isn't it time to ponder whether the era of big government is over?

UPDATE: 7:15 Sep 9 Thanks to a tip, I realize I mistakenly wrote "big" where I meant "small" in the first sentence above. Duh! That means the whole point I was trying to make was destroyed by my own mistake.

Americans blame . . .

If you read all of that poll data you'll see the only people Americans are really looking to blame for anything are the gas (petrol) companies. 79% of Americans think the gas companies are taking advantage of the hurricane to jack up the price of filling up the Chevrolet. You can always count on the American public.

Okay, I was having a bit of fun when I wrote that last paragraph, but there's a serious side here too. The American public is not looking to find fault with anyone because (a) the situation is still grave and (b) most people probably believe everyone's doing their best, even if they're not doing a great job. The gas companies, however, are perceived to be cashing in on what is a national crisis, which explains why more people find fault with them than anyone directly involved in the relief effort.

Who's responsible?

A new Gallop poll indicates that the American public is not fully tuned into the "It's Bush's fault" mantra.

Who do you think is MOST responsible for the problems in New Orleans after the hurricane?

	George W. Bush	Federal agencies	State/ local officials	No one to blame	No opinion
2005 Sep 5-6	13%	18	25	38	6

Good God! Just 13%. I would almost guarantee that a poll here would find that a greater percentage blame Bush for the hurricane, never mind the relief effort failures.

(New) Folsom Prison Blues

I sort of missed this one thanks to Katrina. Police in California have arrested 4 committed Islamists who planned on attacking the United States government, the Israeli government and local synagogues in the Los Angeles area.

The potential for carnage was great, said Randy Parsons, the acting assistant director in charge of the FBI in Los Angeles.

"Had these individuals gone undetected, their plan had the potential to inflict significant casualties within the city and county of Los Angeles."

Investigators found evidence at the homes of Washington and Patterson that showed intended targets included the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles, the El-Al Airlines offices at LAX, Los Angeles area military installations, synagogues and locations where events were planned for the upcoming Jewish high holy days.

And, these men were Americans. Not agents from abroad, but three American citizens and one green card holder. This all started at the New Folsom Prison in California, according to Daniel Pipes.

American prisons are comparable to the banlieues in France, the principal recruiting grounds for a criminal form of Islam. As Frank Gaffney observes, "The alleged New Folsom State plot had better rouse us out of our stupor." Will it? Senate hearings in 2003 on prison jihadism yielded distressingly few results.

This arrest sounds like a warning that a category 5 hurricane is heading towards the US, but it could hit any city any time. I hope the government does a better job tracking this one.

{Found through Warren Bell's post at the Corner.}

Helping America

John O'Shea is not happy that the Irish government is sending troops (along with €1m) to the US to help with hurricane relief efforts. He has a point, which is essentially that the US doesn't really need Ireland's help. Despite everything that has gone wrong with the relief effort, I think it's pretty obvious that the US will cope far better than the many African countries that O'Shea has spent his life trying to help.

I saw news clips of British planes heading to the US with meals ready to eat (MRE's), which makes sense to me. There are hundreds of thousands of displaced people in the US and it's possible that the supply of MRE's to hand would be insufficient. I read that Germany is sending pumps, which look like they could be of some use in New Orleans. And, it's possible that the water treatment equipment Ireland is sending could be truly needed, I don't know.

However, from what we've seen over the past ten days, the help the US really needed from the EU was mediation. Some of those Norwegians who helped broker the Oslo Accords might have been able to bring their skills to bear and get the various levels of government in America to work together.

Magic marker strategy

Here's a plan for dealing with people who don't want to evacuate.

Mr. Judkins is one of the officials in charge of evacuating the Hampton Roads region around Newport News, Va. These coastal communities, unlike New Orleans, are not below sea level, but they're much better prepared for a hurricane. Officials have plans to run school buses and borrow other buses to evacuate those without cars, and they keep registries of the people who need special help.

Instead of relying on a "Good Samaritan" policy - the fantasy in New Orleans that everyone would take care of the neighbors - the Virginia rescue workers go door to door. If people resist the plea to leave, Mr. Judkins told The Daily Press in Newport News, rescue workers give them Magic Markers and ask them to write their Social Security numbers on their body parts so they can be identified.

"It's cold, but it's effective," Mr. Judkins explained.

I thought the whole article was good.

{Found through NRO}

Benefits of Iraq war

Guardsman Jason believes that the National Guard's response to Hurricane Katrina has been great and, in fact, better thanks to having been used in Iraq.

I would argue that despite the absence of part of the LAARNG in Iraq, the overall quality of the response, and the rapidity with which it was able to be delivered, is perhaps BETTER as a result of the war in Iraq. And our nation benefits indirectly from the leadership and logistics lessons learned by our National Guard officers and NCOs as a result of their widespread deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Kudos to the LAARNG for not going in prematurely. This is one operation where you absolutely needed overwhelming force, and to go in like a bolt of lightning. Good work, brothers and sisters.

We were all too "emotional", as Condoleezza Rice said. The past day or so I've been wondering if the eventual evaluation of the relief effort might show that it was far better than the current accepted wisdom. Jason obviously thinks so.

Chernobyl - not so bad after all

It seems that the effects of the Chernobyl disaster have not been as bad as had been feared. This morning's NY Times reports that a new study indicates that

contrary to previous forecasts, there had been no observed rise in the incidence of leukemia, a blood cancer widely associated with radiation exposure - except for a small increase among workers who were in the contaminated plant. Nor has there been the expected detectable decrease in fertility or increase in birth defects.

This has serious implications for people like Adi Roche. The report recommends cutting back on all the benefits that have flooded into the region because these have become "a major barrier to the region's recovery".

[S]even million people in what are now Russia, Ukraine and Belarus still receive some kind of Chernobyl benefits, from monthly stipends to university entrance preference to therapeutic annual vacations.

Surely it makes little sense to continue with the Chernobyl Children's Project in the face of this request to wind it up. Yet, I can imagine that this will be very difficult to accept if you've spent the past 15 years working on these projects.

One thing that could have been done

I've been thinking about this a lot the past day or two. Someone should have gone into New Orleans to wait with the people in the Superdome (or the Convention Center, whatever). I don't think the Mayor was in the Superdome and I know the Governor wasn't. It would have been better to have a political leader's spouse as they weren't needed to lead the relief effort. Ideally, Laura Bush should have gone in to live with those people as they were living, vowing not to leave until the last citizens of New Orleans were on their way.

I know this is fantasy and after the fact, but imagine how the situation would have been transformed if Laura Bush was living in the same awful conditions. It would have put paid to all this talk of race and government not caring. Mrs. Bush's presence would have not been simply a political stunt, although Bush's ratings would be in the 80s if Laura Bush had been in the Superdome. It would have sent a signal to everyone in New Orleans that all of America cared and that help would be there as fast as possible. It may well have defused much of the anger that is not helping the relief at all.

Refugees?

I was watching Meet the Press yesterday and the former Mayor of New Orleans, Marc Morial, objected to the use of the word "refugee" for those needing help in New Orleans (& elsewhere, presumably). Other black leaders have also raised the same objection.

Watson and others also took issue with the word "refugee" being used to describe hurricane victims.

"'Refugee' calls up to mind people that come from different lands and have to be taken care of. These are American citizens," Watson said.

Added Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md.: "They are not refugees. I hate that word."

For what it's worth I heard Rush Limbaugh object to the use of the word refugee on Thursday or Friday of last week. At least we have some agreement on the issue, which is probably not the most crucial at this time.

I've used the word without thinking that there was any "color" connotations. Although most of the refugees we've seen in recent years have been either African or Asian (post-Tsunami), I remember the word being used fairly often during the wars in former Yugoslavia during the 1990s.

I (and many others) have been misusing the word. The definition requires some political dimension for a person to be a refugee. According to Dictionary.com a refugee is, "one who flees in search of refuge, as in times of war, political oppression, or religious persecution". Merriam-Webster Online says, "one that flees; especially : a person who flees to a foreign country or power to escape danger or persecution".

Again, it's not the most pressing issue.

Knackeragua

Whatever about black political leaders raising the issue of race with regards to the relief effort, I'm outraged when I hear it or read it here. All that sanctimony that just shouts, "we're better than those people". Well, I don't think so.

The editorial in today's Irish Examiner, is a great example of this.

Could the fact that the population of New Orleans is predominantly both black and poor explain why the city's anti-flood defences were ill-prepared?

You want to suggest that poor areas are more prone to suffer in natural disasters, I'm ready to listen. But, to suggest that the people of the United States are so bigoted that they'd deliberately allow their fellow citizens suffer and die because they're black is outrageous. I'm sure there'll be a lengthy inquiry into why those levees failed on Tuesday, but I'm just as sure that the issue of the skin color of the people of New Orleans will not feature. Poverty? Probably, but not race.

I know that the United States has struggled with racial issues. And, despite the progress in the 20th century, race is still a problem, but it's nothing like it was and I'm not sure it was ever as bad as is suggested in this question.

What's more, is that Irish people have their own prejudices. Okay, maybe the people aren't black, but I've heard more than one middle class Dubliner refer to "knackeragua" (or whatever) when talking about the tough, poor urban neighborhoods. To outsiders it may be difficult to distinguish between the people who live in these areas from the rest of the city's population, but one thing I've learned is that middle class Dubliners can as sure as if the others were a different skin color. They can tell by the look, the style or the walk when someone comes from one of those neighborhoods they never venture into.

If there were a disaster that wiped out the social infrastructure on the east coast of Ireland, I'm sure those who live in "knackeragua" would suffer most. It's unfortunate, but true.

It's not because they're black

When I hear a black Congresswoman say that the relief effort is failing the people in New Orleans because they're black, I wince, but I'm sure she's wrong. The government - local/state/federal - has failed the people of New Orleans, but not because they're black.

I thought Secretary of State Rice said it best yesterday.

"That Americans would somehow, in a color—affected way, decide who to help and who not to help—I just don't believe it,"

. . . Rice said of any racial implications: "I think everybody's very emotional. It's hard to watch pictures of any American going through this. And yes, the African-American community has obviously been very heavily affected."

It is distressing and the government - at all levels - has, for whatever reason, failed. However, I'm sure the reason has nothing to do with race.

Levee fiefdoms

In for a penny, in for a pound, I suppose. I'm going to further erode my credentials as a strict states rights supporter.

In The Corner yesterday, there was an e-mail from Politics & Government teacher from a Louisiana college. He was talking about who owns and is in charge of the levees.

Rather [than] one agency that is in charge of flood prevention, there are scores. Building in redundancies would have required more boards, which would have lessened the political power of those on the existing boards. I seriously doubt that even now, after this catastrophe, that we in Louisiana will see this system change because the structure is mandated by the Louisiana Constitution. Any change requires not just statewide approval, but must also be approved by a majority of voter in Orleans Parish. Given how many local politicians whose fiefdoms would disappear, that will not happen, and so we will see this disaster occur again.

Let me say right now that if the Federal taxpayer is going to rebuild the city of New Orleans he also better become the sole owner of those levees. There can be no more fiefdoms and other sources of confusion.

Ideology

Some of what I've read on the internet, including one or two comments below here, have me shaking my head. The local/state vs federal government issue is NOT important right now. What's important is that some government body take command and restore order and guarantee the safety of the people of the Gulf Coast region. That has got to be the Federal Government. Some of what I've read reminds me of the attitude of those who insisted laisser faire would resolve the Irish famine.

I believe in states rights and limited government, but this is a catastrophe. Who (beyond mother nature) caused this catastrophe can wait until the crisis has passed. Whether fit individuals in New Orleans (& elsewhere) are doing enough for themselves is also irrelevant now. All those people need to be evacuated now. This is not the time to be claiming the ideological moral high ground.

"Category 4"

Hurricane Katrina was described as a Category 4 hurricane by the National Hurricane Center. Yesterday I saw a home video of New Orleans during the storm made by a storm chaser. During the filming you could hear the guy say (from memory), "This is a category 4? I was in Hurricane Charley last year and that was a category 4, but compared with this that was really just like chasing a thunderstorm. This one is huge."

I wonder if the classification system itself is lacking and that this may have contributed to the lack of preparedness. If you read this page from the NHC you'll see no mention of the breadth of the storm. There has to be some explanation for the vast difference between Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Charley.

Chaos in New Orleans

I don't know the geography of the New Orleans area, but reading this blog gives a good idea that the problems are definitely wider spread than what we're seeing on t.v. The camera crews are pretty restricted.

I'm sort of surprised to read that people in the Algiers section have working phones.

We've all seen the signs hanging from some buildings asking for help. However, it seems some people in some buildings won't hang signs for fear of notifying the marauders that they're there.

My niece along with at least 15 others are trapped in their apartment building in New Orleans. They are mostly students at Loyola, Tulane, etc, who were not evacuated. There is at least one elderly couple in the building who may last much longer; my niece reported that they've stopped eating and they are very concerned. We have not heard from our niece since the hurricane, except as they were able to scavenge for food and water, they found a working cellphone, and that is how we know that for now, they are alive. They don't think that anyone knows that they are there. They cannot go out to get help, because there has been several incidents of shooting/looting in the area. My niece is not from the area, and has only been there for the last two weeks; she just started law school at Loyola. She reported to us that the building looks vacant, and they are afraid to hang signs out because of the looting.

Time to crack heads

I'm not sure if there's a word in this Washington Times editorial that I disagre with. Here's my favorite part:

The government must treat the battlefield of Katrina as it would any other field of engagement: Protect and provide for the innocent and eliminate the enemy, and do it now, before we lose New Orleans. Send the 40,000 troops Gov. Kathleen Blanco has requested. If looters fire on the troops, the troops should answer with suppressing fire. If the United States can project power anywhere in the world in a matter of hours, it can defend New Orleans and the coast of Mississippi.

Overwhelmed

The more I see and read of the Gulf Coast the more I don't know what to think. It's almost the complete opposite (for me, anyway) of what happened on September 11. On September 11, it all started with fright and confusion that gradually gave way to a calm acceptance of what had happened and what had to be done.

In this case it just seems to get worse by the hour. What started out as a wet and windy storm has now exploded beyond anything I would have imagined. Civil order is only hanging on in New Orleans, there are refugees (refugees - in America!) walking out of the city, and there is still no communication at all with people in some areas.

I can't come up with a single acceptable explanation for anyone in the city of New Orleans to be without food, water and shelter by the end of today. Federal troops, national guardsmen, police from other jurisdictions all should be employed to restore order and provide supplies. This is the third day now. How long can it take? Commandeer trucks and planes if necessary, but get supplies and personnel there.

Racist?

According to a report in today's Irish Examiner, parts of the post-primary education system are 'institutionally racist'. This is the the finding of a Trinity College Master's Degree Student. First of all, I'm not sure why a student's thesis is news. I don't remember any news coverage when I "published" my thesis in 1992 nor did any of my classmates' theses make headlines. But, whatever.

Let's look at Joe O'Brien's thesis. "The research was carried out among 18 teacher educators from five university education departments". So, what we have (and all we have) are the views of 18 college lecturers. No immigrants themselves seem to have been part of this. Here's what 9 of those lecturers identified as evidence of institutional racism:

• A limited view of Irish identity in the curriculum.
• A predominantly Christian influence in schools.
• Inadequate English language provision to non-Irish students.
• The compulsory study of Irish language.
• A lack of support for the mother tongue of students.

Now, where in any of these is there any "racism"? Okay, possibly in the first item, but after that? The Christian influence? What? I see loads of Nigerians and Filipinos at Mass every Sunday. If anything, the Christian influence acts as a brake on racism.

Inadequate English language provision? Lack of support for the mother tongue of students? The compulsory study of Irish? Surely Latvians, Poles, Romanians, Spaniards and other "white" non-nationals face these same difficulties.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not really trying to get on Mr. O'Brien's case. I haven't actually seen his paper. My problem is with the Examiner. Shouldn't they be a little more cautious when tossing around words like "racist"? I don't think there's any doubt that Ireland is only really coming to grips with the influx of non-nationals. I'm sure the education system is struggling a bit. But, institutional racism? Gimme a break. A student, 18 lecturers and possibly an agenda is a pretty flimsy basis for such a charge.

Katrina's toll

I have to admit that I'm in agreement with the opening to the Guardian's editorial this morning.

There were times this week, even after the storm had struck, when it seemed that the threat to America's Gulf coast from Hurricane Katrina might have been exaggerated. The overhyping of American weather dramas is not, after all, an unknown phenomenon, on both sides of the Atlantic. Yet two days on it is clear that Katrina's destructive potential has been under-, not overstated.

I was watching the news as the storm hit New Orleans and was convinced it wasn't all that bad. I'm not sure what had convinced me of that, but I'd guess it was a lot to do with past experience. How many times have we been wound up by over-excited 24 hours news channels and meteoroligists caught up in their own excitement?

That's what I'm wondering about today. Were so many people killed by the "crying wolf" phenomenon? From what I can gather more than 100,000 people didn't evacuate from New Orleans. I'm sure it was a similar reaction all along the gulf coast. Did those people figure it wasn't going to be as bad as the weathermen were talking about?

There have been big storms in the past, but the loss of life has never been that significant (Hurricane Andrew was responsible for 15 deaths, but I've read before that the number of people killed in traffic accidents and through homicides and suicides was zero and that the total death toll for the region was not much different than a normal day).

Even if I'm right about why so many chose not to evacuate, I'm not sure there's much that can be done about it. Asking television news presenters to be less sensationalist is like asking a dog not to bark. It's just not going to happen. And, I'm not sure you can prevent meteoroligists from getting excited about occasional phenomena like hurricanes. Besides, it's possible that they can't really distinguish between a storm that will damage a lot of property but kill very few and one like Katrina, which has killed hundreds and destroyed entire cities.

Savage irony

That's how Eamonn Dunphy described the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina. "Savage irony" because (I think) the US didn't sign the Kyoto accord & this storm may have (big may) been aided by climate change. What an ignorant moron.

I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the US is actually closer to complying with its limits under Kyoto than is Ireland, which actually signed up. If true, then it would be savage irony if Dublin were evacuated due to flooding and towns from Belfast to Wexford were destroyed with hundreds of lives lost.

Reducing class size – a waste of money?

A new Canadian report seems to indicate just that. I've come across this before, accidentally (I may have mentioned this before). Years ago I was helping my wife's friend, who was not computer literate, polish off her dissertation on autism for her MEd with the latest in Word Processing technology.

Anyway, in one of the appendices of her report was a reference to a study of London primary schools that indicated that smaller class sizes provided no appreciable benefit. I was surprised by this because it ran counter to everything I'd ever heard about schools and the need for smaller classes.

I don't know if there have been similar studies done here, but this report from Canada has some interesting facts. Try this:

It is far from clear, however, that reducing class size is the most costeffective strategy available to raise young pupils'’ achievement, particularly in the case of the later primary and secondary grades, where smaller classes have not been shown to produce tangible achievement gains. Those likely to gain most from smaller classes generally are teachers whose work-loads are eased somewhat with fewer students.

Whoa! Teachers unions won't like that. And, what's more, even though the youngest children do get some benefit from smaller classes, those benefits are small and they vanish by the time the children have finished the second or third grade (age 8 or 9).

Some countries, such as "South Korea, with very large class sizes, routinely outperform richer countries, such as the U.S. and Canada, where classes are much smaller". Of course, why this should be is important. The author offers some evidence to show that the quality of teachers declines as class sizes shrink. Smaller classes means more teachers, which means you must lower your standards to fill the new jobs.

If our government wasn't so firmly in the grasp of the teachers' unions, we might have a proper debate on this issue. However, teachers are one of those professions that dominates our political class (along with publicans and lawyers).

NOTE: if you read the report you'll see a reference to another report that talks about the experience in Ireland. However, this is a misprint as it is Iceland and not Ireland that is mentioned in the other report.

Little orange box

Just realized that when I was working on the RSS feed for the Newshound that I made a comment about the "little orange box" in the lower right column indicating that an RSS feed was available.

Thanks to an e-mail from a friend of mine today, I realize that the little orange box – – is not a feature of Internet Explorer. I so rarely use IE these days that I had forgotten to check it. Stupid really, since more than 90% of the Newshound users are still using IE.

Anyway, the orange box is a feature of Firefox that allows you to use live bookmarks. I see it as a sign that a site has an RSS feed, but I'm probably wrong to so closely associate the two.

Any help?

I've been having this odd problem lately and was wondering if anyone out there has any ideas as to (a) cause and (b) cure. When my laptop starts up (Win2000) the system date is wrong. It's always off by a month. Usually, it has moved on exactly one month. The most recent occurrence (this morning) was different. The month changed back to January and the clock was exactly an hour slow (making me think the clock reverted to GMT for winter month).

I've had this laptop for 3 1/2 years (Dell Inspiron 2500). Based on what I've learned over the years and what I've been able to find online, I suspect it's the CMOS battery. What I want to know is: do laptops have a CMOS battery and, if yes, how hard is it to replace one?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Talk radio

For the past month or so I've been listening to a lot of talk radio from the US. Most of it of the "right wing" variety. I have to say, I'm disappointed (and, clearly, I'm not just another "left wing" person whining about talk radio – I had high hopes).

The whole political talk radio phenomenon happened after I left the US. I've heard Rush Limbaugh occasionally on vacation, enough to recognize his voice and I've heard of many of the others. I've even listened to them intermittently since I got broadband in the summer of '03.

It's only in the last month, however, that I've really spent time listening. I guess I didn't really know what to expect, but I suppose I was expecting some form of radio version of The Corner.

I read "right wing" online publications and generally enjoy them. Although there's a lot of agreement, there's also a good deal of debate. The positions, whether I agree or not, are generally reasonably stated and supported with arguments and evidence. From what I've heard of these radio programs they are so much less than that.

Maybe that's to be expected. Maybe the audience for National Review or Weekly Standard or even New Criterion is simply not the same as the audience for these talk radio programs, I don't know. Rather than engaging the listener most of it seems to be battering him into submission. Sean Hannity in particular just rubs me up the wrong way.

Programs I've tried:

• Rush Limbaugh
• Sean Hannity
• Laura Ingraham
• Morning in America with Bell Bennett

Benedict XVI & Muslims

David Quinn, in a column in last week's Sunday Independent, claims the Pope doesn't believe that Islam and democracy can co-exist. Quinn's focus is the Pope's recent meeting with Muslims in Germany where he spoke about terrorism and his views on Turkey's bid to join the EU. Quinn also mentions a 1996 book where the Pope expressed doubts about Islam living with democracy.

Eight years ago, in the book Salt of the Earth he expanded at some length on why Islam, unless it changes radically, in reality becoming something other than Islam, will always have difficulty co-existing peacefully with democracy.

He pointed out that Islam has no concept whatsoever of Church/State separation. Christianity has always accepted that certain things belong to Caesar, and certain other things belong to God, even if Church and State have often fought bitterly over the exact lines of demarcation.

But Islam thinks everything belongs to God, that nothing belongs to Caesar, and that the law must reflect this in its totality.

I suppose this isn't news and I know there are a lot of people who believe this as well. I have friends here who were anti-war for a host of reasons, partly because they believe that Muslims – in Europe (where they'll become violent in response to decisions they don't like) and in the Middle East (where despotism is 'natural') – are incapable of being democrats.

I guess what surprises me about the Pope's view is that Catholics were once similarly considered incapable of being democrats. Unthinking loyalty to the Pope was all they could manage.

I reject all of this. Sure they may be elements of Islam that conflict with democracy, but there are elements of Catholicism that conflict with democracy too. People cope. I just don't accept that Muslims would be any different with regards to (a) wanting a say over how they are governed and (b) wanting some basic guarantees on human rights, etc. Sure, some of those rights may be a little different than those we insist on in the post-Christian west, but so what?

Everything I've seen in the Iraq debate convinces me that Muslims can do democracy, but they might have difficulty with the cobbled together Arab states they've been bequeathed. These problems are not much different than those that have arisen in Europe once or twice in the past.

World Youth Day

Yesterday at Mass two girls of about 17 or 18 gave us a summary of what they saw and did at World Youth Day in Cologne. They seemed like very nice girls, but as they were talking my mind drifted back to when I was 17 or 18.

When I was 17 or 18 people like these girls used to put me off. I could never be so earnest. Or, even more difficult, was being so nice. Being nice never came naturally to me. Sure I could be nice when I really thought I had to, when the situation really called for it, but I couldn't do nice 24/7. Too much of a strain.

That was (and is) my impression of people like these young girls. They're always nice. One of my best friends in high school (a Protestant) used to go to Protestant Youth meetings at the urging of his mother. He wasn't that upset about it, however, because one of the best looking girls in school was a regular attendee.

I remember telling him (and he had less of a capacity for nice than I had), "Even if you succeed (with the girl) will you be able to endure all that pleasantness? I just couldn't do it".

That's my impression of World Youth Day – a million nice people in their late teens and early twenties. I hope the Germans coped better than I could have.

Just in case you think I hadn't noticed . . .

The NY Mets are surging. Front and back page of today's NY Post.

UPDATE Aug 29: Reality intruded on our dreams this weekend.

Old toys

I've been dutifully doing my part in the minor repairs and renovations around the house this past few weeks (is painting the walls a woman's job or a man's job? I really don't know — not that I could get out of it anyway). Lots of cleaning and getting rid of old stuff too.

Thanks to the on-going aging of our children we are left with a lot of toys (at least three black bags full) that are now redundant as the youngest has outgrown them. None of these toys is brand new, but all are in working order. If I thought there was a charity that would take them, I'd clean them up. Failing that, can toys be recycled or should I just throw them away? If they can be recycled, where do I need to go with them? {Within reasonable range of south Dublin, of course.}

Seminoles, Illini, etc.

It's good to see that sense has prevailed in the NCAA. The Florida State Seminoles will be removed 'from the list of universities banned from using what it called "hostile and abusive" mascots and nicknames during postseason play'. Florida State had the backing of the local Seminoles and those in Oklahoma.

The NCAA has said it will now handle appeals on a 'case-by-case' basis. This is a step in the right direction, but an even better idea would be to take Florida State as a model and see if other colleges and universities can work out similar arrangements with those tribes from whom they took their nicknames and mascots.

I understand that many of these nicknames and mascots were born of bigotry and racism, but most of that is gone today and the nicknames actually represent an opportunity for the tribes to get some recognition. For example, if it weren't for watching college basketball I'd have never heard of the Illini.

Objecting to names like Redskins makes sense to me, but protesting against names like Fighting Illini or Fighting Sioux seems counter-productive. The name Fighting Irish was born of bigotry, but is now a source of pride among those who are descended from the victims of that bigotry. The same should be possible for the indian tribes.

And, another thing about those EPO tests

Why not go back and test other athletes' samples? What about, say, the winners of the French Open from 1999 or other years? Or, even better, why not test the winners of the 1998 World Cup, which was held in France. Surely those samples are still available, no?

Maybe anti-Americanism isn't the motivation for this move against Armstrong, but until I read that L'Équipe is investigating some other big name, non-American athlete I'll remain suspicious.

Another thing about the Armstrong tests

Why wait until now to test his 1999 sample? It could have been tested at any time. In fact, I wouldn't be shocked to learn that the Tour director and others knew about this for years. However, they kept it to themselves waiting for when Armstrong had retired so that (a) they could discredit him, but (b) not lose out on all that American money that Armstrong brought to the Tour.

Cynical? You bet. Like I said, something about this stinks to high heavens.

Armstrong victim of witch hunt?

This is a tricky one. I've never been convinced that Lance Armstrong was 100% clean, but that was mostly because I didn't believe anyone in cycling was clean. I wasn't a big enough fan of the sport to really have opinions about individual cyclists and the reason I didn't care about individual cyclists is that every time cycling made headlines in the 90s it was thanks to drugs cheating.

So, maybe Lance is guilty and maybe he's not. Regardless, that doesn't change the fact that he is definitely the victim of a 'witch hunt'. He's being singled out.

It seems pretty clear to me that the Tour director was none too keen on Armstrong. Why else would he back the report that Armstrong took EPO in 1999 despite all the problems in this whole procedure (noted by Ciaran in his comment to my post below).

What I want to know is how many other cyclists' samples were tested as well? Was the entire '99 field tested? Even the top 20? If only Armstrong's sample was tested, then it's pretty clear that this was intended to damage only Armstrong.

If L'Équipe was really interested in testing samples from winners in the 90s they should have tested all the Tour winners during the decade. Why not? EPO existed before 1999.

Testing all those Tour winners or even a large selection of riders from the '99 Tour would have further damaged the Tour itself, possibly fatally. In that situation, Armstrong would have been damaged, but it would have had the look of legitimate journalism. Instead, all we have is one 'witch' caught in the 'witch hunt'.

L'Équipe is owned by the same company that runs the Tour. Could there be some conflict of interest here, perhaps? I'm not saying Armstrong is as pure as the driven snow, but something about this sure stinks.

{I think this is a great column by Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe. He touches on so many aspects that tie into this story.}

Bush & Steroids

Boy, does George Bush pick his sports friends. First, Rafael Palmeiro and now Lance Armstrong.

There's as least one Slate writer who wondered aloud about whether President Bush was on steroids last year, which might explain his relationship with professional athletes and the use of performance enhancers. Bruce Reed speculates that the President's weight loss this year is the result of coming off the juice.

Bush's sharp, sudden weight loss since the election raises a far more disturbing paranoid theory: Was the president using steroids?

Mark McGwire's congressional testimony showed the world what someone who allegedly used steroids looks like after they allegedly stop—a lot thinner. Bush bulked up during a campaign that was based entirely on showing voters he was stronger than his opponent. This season, like many baseball players afraid of baseball's new random steroid testing, he shows up suddenly looking a lot thinner.

Okay, some tongue in cheek comments, but in his 2004 State of the Union address the President discussed the need for professional sportsmen to set a good example for children.

To help children make right choices, they need good examples. Athletics play such an important role in our society, but, unfortunately, some in professional sports are not setting much of an example. The use of performance-enhancing drugs like steroids in baseball, football, and other sports is dangerous, and it sends the wrong message -- that there are shortcuts to accomplishment, and that performance is more important than character. So tonight I call on team owners, union representatives, coaches, and players to take the lead, to send the right signal, to get tough, and to get rid of steroids now.

Is defending one man who's been caught and another about whom serious allegations have been circulating for years helping lead in this effort? Now, it's entirely possible that Armstrong is being stitched up and is innocent of all the charges against him. However, my own sense is that presidents generally steer clear of anything that might look bad down the road. I can't understand Bush's willingness to get together with Armstrong in light of the accusations.

Iraq & the 1937 Constitution

The Irish Constitution contains the following in the preamble.

In the Name of the Most Holy Trinity, from Whom is all authority and to Whom, as our final end, all actions both of men and States must be referred,

We, the people of Éire, Humbly acknowledging all our obligations to our Divine Lord, Jesus Christ, Who sustained our fathers through centuries of trial,
Gratefully remembering their heroic and unremitting struggle to regain the rightful independence of our Nation,
And seeking to promote the common good, with due observance of Prudence, Justice and Charity, so that the dignity and freedom of the individual may be assured, true social order attained, the unity of our country restored, and concord established with other nations,
Do hereby adopt, enact, and give to ourselves this Constitution.

There are a couple of Articles that should also be read:

Article 41-2

1. In particular, the State recognises that by her life within the home, woman gives to the State a support without which the common good cannot be achieved.
   
2. The State shall, therefore, endeavour to ensure that mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home.
   

Article 44-1

The State acknowledges that the homage of public worship is due to Almighty God. It shall hold His Name in reverence, and shall respect and honour religion.

These two sections of Article 44 were removed after a referendum in 1973:

• Section 2: The State recognises the special position of the Holy Catholic Apostolic and Roman Church as the guardian of the Faith professed by the great majority of the citizens.
  
• Section 3: The State also recognises the Church of Ireland, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, the Methodist Church in Ireland, the Religious Society of Friends in Ireland, as well as the Jewish Congregations and the other religious denominations existing in Ireland at the date of the coming into operation of this Constitution.

Article 41-2 was used for years to discriminate against married women here. I believe that both divorce and contraception were were made unconstitutional by the 1937 Constitution (both were allowed under British law, which the Irish Free State inherited in 1922).

Again, I know that to many people in W. Europe these sorts of clauses are distasteful and unwelcome. Ideally, Iraq would be Denmark already. Still, Ireland in the 1950s was not as monstrous as Iraq in the 1980s and 90s. Even if the new Iraqi constitution appears to be a step backwards in some areas, what's important is that the Iraqi people are allowed to make their own way. They have to recognize that change is possible and that it is the people who have the power to make changes.

Ireland was a 'priest-ridden' country and 'run by the Bishops'. If the Iraqis get something similar, why is that such a problem?

Islam and the Iraqi constitution

I said it before and I'll say it again. If the Iraqis end up with a constitution similar to what Ireland had when the current constitution was adopted in 1937 then that's great.

Renault Megane

I'm sick of that ad for the Renault Megane on the t.v. in the middle of the day. I can't remember if I saw it on an Irish or British channel, but it seems to be everywhere. You know the one (and if you don't, don't worry about it): it features the song I See You Baby. It seems to be on constantly.

The Bells! The Bells!

The power went out here about 10 minutes ago. Of course, this means a chorus of annoying alarms and moaning mutts.

Fortunately, I still have the ol USB broadband modem or I'd be off-line. I shudder at the thought. I hope it comes back before my battery gives up the ghost.

RSS

Thanks to some suggestions and tips from Dick and CH I've tried to build an RSS feed for the Newshound. Actually, it's not that hard to make the page, but what's really frustrating is checking the work. When you create a new web page, you can load it into your browser and click refresh/reload every time you tweak it to correct for minor errors. I don't seem to be able to do that with any of the RSS readers I've tried (Newsgator, Bloglines, MyYahoo).

Anyway, I've created a feed for my site. The address is http://www.nuzhound.com/feed.xml. Thanks to Eoin, I also tried Feedburner. That service looks pretty interesting. It seems to allow me to do some things that I'd never manage on my own. I'm not sure what the down-side is yet. Anyway, the feedburner feed address is http://feeds.feedburner.com/Newshound.

I'd be grateful if some of you could have a look and let me know if it looks like it's working. Remember, all I provide are headlines so no summaries here.

Global warming – deal with it

I intended to mention this yesterday, but forgot. Iain Murray of NRO reminded me today.

Charles Dumas of Lombard Street Research says that ending global warming would cost half of the world's GDP.

"It follows from any cost-benefit analysis that nobody is going to do anything serious about global warming," he says.

"The cost of any serious measures would be orders of magnitude greater than whatever is needed by way of defences against a 15-foot rise in sea levels and freak weather insurance.

"In reality, no-one seriously proposes a cure for global warming, because adequate measures would cause economic catastrophe and probably world war. We are going to have to live with it," Mr Dumas says.

Case closed. Do a little to slow it – perhaps. But, the real truth is that we'll just have to deal with a warmer planet. It's happened before and people survived, why can't we imagine surviving today?

No summer sports in London in 2012

I'm really glad London, and not New York, got the 2012 Olympics. I hadn't realized that one of the stipulations of hosting the games is that the host city ensures that no competing sporting fixture takes place during the Games.

Maybe this isn't mandatory, but it's definitely something London promised.

London's candidate file, the document that outlines arrangements for the 2012 games, states that "no important national or international events will take place in London or the vicinity of any of the other competition sites during the games or in the week before or following the games".

The London Olympics are scheduled to run from July 25 to August 12, which means the affected period would stretch from July 18 to August 19, and covers events in London's boroughs, local authorities outside the capital's hosting venues and the devolved administrations of Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, all of which have agreed to honour the commitment.

Actually, there's no way New York could have made such a promise. New York could not have imposed such a "blackout" on surrounding areas nor do I think baseball would have agreed to no games in New York for four weeks during the summer.

"Excessive zeal"

Okay, when I was talking about the need for priests to show some backbone, I'm not sure this is what I had in mind:

Father Giuseppe Mazzotta, parish priest at Marcellinara, near Catanzaro in Calabria, said that he had denied a Christian funeral to Maria Francesca Tallarico, who died of breast cancer at the age of 45, because she had lived with her partner but never married him. Her partner was separated and had an 11-year-old daughter.

"She lived with her lover, so she was a public sinner," Father Mazzotta said. "I decided not to celebrate an official Mass for this woman, who was not in communion with the Church."

Father Mazzotta said that he had performed the liturgy of absolution for the dead. He added that he was close to the dead woman's family and had offered them "words of comfort".

I like that – "words of comfort". He's essentially telling this woman's family she was a sinful whore and that he won't bury her, but 'may God comfort you'. I'm sure that went down a treat.

Thankfully, I can't be held accountable for this priest's actions. The article is dated July 22 and the priest in question is in Italy, so the Irish Eagle is not responsible for this.

I can understand when priests refuse a funeral for a mobster, but this seems unduly harsh. I have to agree with Fr. Sciortino, Editor of Famiglia Cristiana, that Fr. Mazzotta was showing "excessive zeal". Maybe Fr. Sciortino and I are too soft.

Extensions

A while back I announced that I was now using Firefox rather than Microsoft's Internet Explorer. However, until this week I didn't realize you could add "extensions" to Firefox. Some of these are great.

I now have even more tabbed browsing options, can control which sites I allow to run JavaScript, and have added FoxyTunes, which allows me to have control of my music in my browser – no need to tab back to the player just to pause or fast forward. There are many, many extensions available. I haven't finished reading through them yet.

Dorm room accessories

It seems that today's college student has a much more luxurious existence than I experienced in the early to mid 1980s (and I'm sure we had more than the generation before us). It's not an issue really, but if college kids are getting all that space how are they learning the following:

Given a room 12' by 10' how do you fit the following items while still leaving enough room for a party consisting of a dozen people or more?

• two beds
• a stereo & two record collections
• a television
• a fridge
• a couch (that folds out to form a bed)
• a fish tank
• two desks, two chairs and two book shelves
• enough storage space for two students' wardrobes

I have half a memory that we had a lazy boy chair too, but now I'm not sure.

Doubts

I've been wondering today why I am suddenly interested in all these details regarding the 9/11 Commission Report. I think the explanation is that I've come to think of that report as the final word on what went wrong that led to September 11. If the Commission omitted something, it had best be for the right reasons.

Now, suddenly, there are all sorts of rumors that the Commission might not have been as thorough as it should have been. Until this past week or so I've been able to keep my suspicions in check, but now I'm doubting the Commission. I was dubious about it to start, mostly because I never thought much of Governor Kean when I lived in NJ. However, I decided to trust the Commission and thought it had done a good job.

The fact that the Commission is bi-partisan is both a strength and a weakness. The strength comes from the fact that neither party can play politics with it, but the weakness is that if both parties have a vested interest in keeping some things from being revealed they can do so.

9/11 Commission Report – more unraveling

There are two different threads being pulled from the 9/11 Commission Report with regards to what the Clinton Administration did to capture Osama bin Laden and protect the homeland. It's possible these threads will do no damage, but it's also possible that the entire thrust of the Report's information on what was done during the 90s will unravel.

One thread is the Clinton White House's response to bin Laden's move from Sudan to Afghanistan in 1995. According to today's NY Times recently declassified documents show that the State Department recognized the threat bin Laden posed.

Before 1996, Mr. bin Laden was regarded more as a financier of terrorism than a mastermind. But the State Department assessment, which came a year before he publicly urged Muslims to attack the United States, indicated that officials suspected he was taking a more active role, including in the bombings in June 1996 that killed 19 members American soldiers at the Khobar Towers in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.

Two years after the State Department's warning, with Mr. bin Laden firmly entrenched in Afghanistan and overseeing terrorist training and financing operations, Al Qaeda struck two American embassies in East Africa, leading to failed military attempts by the Clinton administration to capture or kill him in Afghanistan.

A second thread deals with "the Wall" that the Clinton Administration erected between intelligence and prosecutors. It seems that one Clinton appointee, US Attorney for Manhattan Mary White, was dead set against this policy when it was first proposed. Deborah Orin in today's NY Post provides some of the details from a memo that White sent to then deputy Attorney General and later a 9/11 Commission member, Jamie Gorelick.

"This is not an area where it is safe or prudent to build unnecessary walls or to compartmentalize our knowledge of any possible players, plans or activities," wrote White, herself a Clinton appointee.

"The single biggest mistake we can make in attempting to combat terrorism is to insulate the criminal side of the house from the intelligence side of the house, unless such insulation is absolutely necessary. Excessive conservatism . . . can have deadly results."

She added: "We must face the reality that the way we are proceeding now is inherently and in actuality very dangerous."

There is one other possibly related thread and that's the current "Able Danger" controversy. This one, too, may reflect very badly on the Clinton Administration or it might fizzle out or it might lead to fingers being pointed at Rumsfeld's Defense Department. We'll have to see.

Maybe all of this will blow over and maybe it won't, but a second edition of the 9/11 Commission Report is getting more probable by the day.

No show at Slane

Eminem has cancelled his show at Slane (and all other European venues) because he's too tired. The shows are supposedly going to be rescheduled, but you can't simply postpone an outdoor concert in Ireland by 6 weeks or whatever. By then it'll be November and we'll be deep into the rainy season (mid October through early May).

Defeatism

Brian Kenny, 39 from Dublin, says "I don't go to church, and I don't know one person who does. Fifteen years ago, I didn't know one person who didn't." Eighteen years ago when I came here as a student I met many, many Irish Catholics who didn't go to Church much, if at all. And, today I still know plenty who go weekly or at least regularly. Seeing as Mr. Kenny and I are nearly the same age I'd have to say he seems to swing fairly wildly between monolithic groups.

I don't really have any quibbles with the gist of the USA Today article, I just thought that guy's quote sounded a bit extreme. The Irish Church is in serious decline, I don't think there's any argument about that.

However, what annoys me is the defeatism that is all too obvious in many of the priests. Okay, so times are tough. Then get tougher. What does Billy Ocean say?

My impression is that many of the priests have simply rolled over. They seem to presume that nobody under the age of 70 really cares. This problem seems more pronounced among those priests who are "younger", say under 60.

Moaning about early Mass is a symptom of this problem. Rather than moan, priests should recognize the changes in society and have two masses before 8am. It's not impossible.

Priests need to lead. They need to get into the schools and pitch the priesthood and other vocations to children. They should take a stand against those who use the Church for their own purposes, but who are really only members in name only. Denying a church wedding to those who never see the inside of a church from one end of the year to the next would be a start. I know this might be difficult and might not even be the right approach, but priests need to stand up for those who do attend regularly and do contribute to parish life and who are increasingly feeling used.

I've read all the horror stories about the fear that some Catholic priests used to instill in people in the old days, but we've come full circle now. I think the Church needs to reach out to lay people, many of whom have a lot more backbone and fight than do the priests.

Million Dollar Bore

I don't read movie reviews too often for the simple reason that I usually don't get around to seeing any movies until they come on t.v., which is years after they're released. So, when I someone loaned me Million Dollar Baby, I had half an idea that it was supposed to be pretty good.

How wrong I was. I don't think my wife has forgiven me yet. Not only was it one mind-numbingly tedious movie, but it's over two hours. It was probably a good idea for a film short – about 20 minutes or so would have done it.

Atta & Wayne NJ

National Review has a link to an article in yesterday's Bergen Record in which the writer talks about Mohammed Atta's time in Wayne, NJ. I got the feeling from the National Review writer that this was the first he'd heard about a possible Wayne, NJ connection, yet it sort of rung a bell with me.

I picked up the 9/11 Commission Report again and browsed through Chapter 7, which I hadn't read before. This is the chapter that talks about the hijackers movements before September 11. If Wayne is mentioned there I didn't see it.

Anyway, when I read the Bergen Record article from yesterday it triggered a memory I have regarding Wayne and Atta. So, I went looking for it and what I found was a Bergen Record article from June 2003.

New Jersey State Police Superintendent Joseph R. Fuentes testified that Mohammed Atta "had lived in the Wayne Motor Inn on Route 23 for a year". This is the head of the NJ State police's testimony, yet nothing about Atta in Wayne appears in the 9/11 Commission Report. What on Earth is going on here?

Although this Wayne, NJ memory was there, it had receded far back because everything I'd read since told me that Atta was in Florida on flight training. If Wayne seafood store owners recognized Atta (& al Shehi) when asked by FBI agents, then it seems fairly likely that the two hijackers spent a lot of time in the area.

I'm beginning to think the 9/11 Commission glossed over the big mistakes made by the government and that people from both parties were culpable, which is the only way to explain a bi-partisan cover-up.

Precious Priests

There are times when I just wonder if some Catholic priests have any idea at all. At the end of yesterday's Mass the priest told us the schedule for the Masses today, a Holy Day of Obligation. The priest moaned about Mass at "cock crow" – 7:30.

What is this man thinking? Doesn't he realize that many Dubliners are either at or well on their way to work by 7:30? Is he expecting sympathy from his parishioners because he has to struggle 20 yards from his house to say Mass at 7:30? There are, after all, only a half dozen Holy Days each year. Surely he'll cope.

Not that long ago I heard a different priest complaining about having to say Mass at 8:45 on a Sunday morning. Huh? Isn't saying Mass on a Sunday morning part of the job spec when you become a priest? What's he doing on a Saturday night that he finds it so hard to make his way to Mass at 8:45 on a Sunday morning?

I think this kind of nonsense can turn off more people than the big scandals. There are times when I just want to shout "Get real!" at the priests.

Intelligent design

The August 5 Irish Times had an editorial (sub. required) on President Bush's views on intelligent design. The editorial linked Bush's views on what should be taught with regards to evolution and intelligent design to the Scopes trial.

The editorial featured the following:

in bowing to the religious right as he has also done on issues from stem-cell research to abortion and prayers in schools, the president has displayed a willingness to toy with Biblical fundamentalism. It is also reflected in his rhetoric of good and evil in dealing with terrorism.

Yet his views do reflect those of one third plus of the population which identifies with evangelical Christianity, the home of the electoral troops of the Republican Party.

What should or shouldn't be taught in American schools is rightfully a debate that should engage Americans. Why does the Irish Times feel the need to chime in? Only to further embed the idea that Bush is a simple-minded buffoon? Maybe, but maybe not.

In early July Cardinal Schoenborn of Vienna recently wrote the following in a New York Times column:

In an unfortunate new twist on this old controversy, neo-Darwinists recently have sought to portray our new pope, Benedict XVI, as a satisfied evolutionist. They have quoted a sentence about common ancestry from a 2004 document of the International Theological Commission, pointed out that Benedict was at the time head of the commission, and concluded that the Catholic Church has no problem with the notion of "evolution" as used by mainstream biologists — that is, synonymous with neo-Darwinism.

The commission's document, however, reaffirms the perennial teaching of the Catholic Church about the reality of design in nature. Commenting on the widespread abuse of John Paul's 1996 letter on evolution, the commission cautions that "the letter cannot be read as a blanket approbation of all theories of evolution, including those of a neo-Darwinian provenance which explicitly deny to divine providence any truly causal role in the development of life in the universe."

Furthermore, according to the commission, "An unguided evolutionary process — one that falls outside the bounds of divine providence — simply cannot exist."

This is the real focus for the Irish Times. The Irish Times knows full well that President Bush's views on education are nowhere near as influential in Ireland as the Catholic Church's views. The Irish Church is the real target of this piece. The Irish Times wants its readers to know that only buffoons like President Bush and "the electoral troops of the Republican Party" would believe in intelligent design.

To be honest, I don't know the details of the debate. My own view is that life on Earth evolved and is evolving, however I've always believed that this is part of God's plan. I'm not sure if my science or theology is "wrong", but it's how I've married the two. I doubt my thinking is that unusual among Catholics.

IAAF World Championships

Sometimes I wonder if Europeans realize just how minor events like the World Championships are in the US. The 2005 Championships are only barely on tv in the US.

I've dipped in for some of the events this week and it seems to me the Yanks are cleaning up. All those gold medals and I doubt there's one athlete in the US team who has any name recognition in the US whatsoever. Even double sprint gold medalist Justin Gatlin is probably less well known than the average bench-warmer on the Kansas City Royals. Obviously, I have no stats on this, but that's my gut feeling.

9/11 Commission Report, 2nd Edition

Back in May I mentioned I was finished reading Chapter 3 of the 9/11 Commission Report. After that I got through Chapters 5 & 6, but never finished it. Now I'm glad because it looks like the second edition will be more complete than the first.

Second edition? Yes, it seems that the 9/11 Commission decided to omit a fairly big piece of the Mohammed Atta puzzle before it published its report. A Defense Department intelligence unit had identified Atta and Marwan al Shehi (the pilots of the planes that struck the twin towers) as members of a New York al Qaeda cell in the summer of 2000. This intelligence unit decided not to share the information with the FBI because it would violate a "1995 order creating a "wall" that blocked intelligence on terrorists from being shared with law enforcement". The author of the order, Jamie Gorelick, was a member of the 9/11 Commission.

Post-modern Celtic Tiger

I've seen arguments about what gave birth to Ireland's booming economy before, but I've never read anything that suggested it was all down to spending taxpayers money on the arts. Scottish Arts Council chairman, Richard Holloway, wants the Scottish Executive to spend 1% of its budget on the arts in order to "usher in an era of cultural and economic self-confidence for the nation". Was this the strategy that led the way in Ireland?

July 7 & our trip

After July 7 we did toy with the idea of going to London even though we'd already decided not to. Both my wife and I agreed that if it just been us traveling we'd have definitely gone to London. We hemmed & hawed for a while, but in the end we decided to stick with our plan because (a) I wasn't sure how my kids would feel about getting on the Underground or a London bus and (b) the clincher – it was just too expensive. We've been to London with the children before and we'll go again

Airport security

The worst thing about all the increased security is that I can't bring a razor on these short trips unless I want to check my bag. That just slows everything up way too much. I guess I could consider an electric razor, but I never had any interest in one before.

I also don't understand why every passenger at Dublin Airport must remove their shoes and take the laptop out of the carrying bag, but at Stansted they make no one remove their shoes and leave laptops in the bag. Is Stansted using better equipment or just not as worried about security?

No more free Wi-fi

I was very disappointed to find that I couldn't use Dublin Airport's Wi-fi for free this time. Look, I can hardly argue with the logic of charging for something people want, but I had gotten used to getting the Wi-fi for free.

I only wanted it for 15 minutes, but by the time I had gone through the rigmarole of paying for an hour it would have been time to close down and board the plane.

North & East of London

Originally we were going to go to London. When we first came up with the mini-breaks idea, the last trip was London. During June, while were planning the Belgium trip, I got the idea that maybe we should see somewhere in England that isn't London. Other than a few business trips, my total time spent in England outside of London consisted of two days in Chester in the early 90s and one day in Canterbury before that.

I'm pretty sure our travels were confined to the counties of Essex, Cambridgeshire & Suffolk. The highlights were:

• Colchester castle – the city of Colchester wasn't all that nice, but the castle, which is a museum, and the surrounding grounds are well maintained. The museum had just the right mixture of good artifacts, information and 'hands-on' things to do for the kids. I didn't know anything about the Roman history of Colchester, which was the highlight for me.
• City of Cambridge – Cambridge is a very nice city. We didn't spend enough time there, but we walked around the colleges and also took a bus tour. I think the city should make a little more effort to tell the story of all the great scientists who are connected to the University. So many of them were odd, interesting characters and really Cambridge could do more to tell visitors about what was for centuries the most important city on Earth, as far as scientific advances are concerned.
• Imperial War Museum, Duxford – I'd been to the Imperial War Museum in London before, but I hadn't even realized that there was a big facility north of London. This is a World War I & II airfield with many old and fairly new planes and some other large pieces of military equipment. There was also a Spitfire flying display, which was nerve-wracking. I found it a bit odd that the American Air Museum (part of the Duxford complex) made the other hangars look like the poor cousins. They are building a new facility, which will remedy this situation.

Overall, we had a good time. We were all worn out by the end of the two days. No more short breaks for a while.

Chavsville

In the middle of the last of the family's three short breaks this summer. First Edinburgh, then Wallonia now, well, I'm not really sure what this region should be called, but we're seeing the bit of England that is just east and just north of Stansted Airport.

Until yesterday, I'd heard the word "chav" a few times, but never really understood it. After walking around Colchester for a couple of hours I think my daughter has helped me to identify a "chav" on sight. She decided to elbow me every time she spotted a first rate specimen of the species. Although our time in Cambridge yielded virtually no elbows, two and a half hours in Colchester and my rib cage is bruised.

More later on what we saw/did, but I just thought I share that little bit on my great cultural awakening yesterday.

NYC & back in a day

A few weeks ago I wondered about the recently published stats that showed there were thousands of Irish people who traveled from Ireland to the US and back in one day. The Irish Independent sent a journalist on just such a shopping trip.

NUTS.