Category Archives: Uncategorized

This Is No Time To Go Wobbly, Mr. President

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Reported at Bloomberg.com:

Obama Delays Afghanistan Troop Decision as Criticism Deepens 

Sept. 17 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama said he’ll hold off deciding whether to add more U.S. troops to the war in Afghanistan, as Democratic lawmakers raised concerns that he lacks a clear plan and measures of progress.

“You have to get the strategy right and then make the determinations about resources,” Obama told reporters at the White House yesterday following a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. “I am going to take a very deliberate process in making those decisions.”

My objection to this is that an over-arching strategy is actually the least important aspect of our presence in Afghanistan.  Our simple continuing presence there … Continue reading →

Murayama Matsuri

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   I first posted this while sitting on a curb in a small town in Japan.  Murayama is on the northern outskirts of Yamagata City, Yamagata Prefecture.  We have family up there, so each year we go up for this wonderful street festival.

   This year, I had just returned from Afghanistan, and on the way back, picked up a Nokia E75.  I had done my homework, determined that the phone would work in Japan and shelled out some serious cash at the airport in Kuwait City.  The Nokia E75 is a thing of beauty–a small phone with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, and the Symbian … Continue reading →

Obama Calls Kanye a 'Jackass' — The Audio

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Alright. This audio is probably going down soon, so I’ll help get it out while I can. I saw (don’t ask me why I clicked on it) the video wherein Kanye West (who is apparently some sort of singer) behaves like a jackass. Go find the YouTube video, you can’t miss it. Or, just take the President’s word for it:

Obama Calls Kanye a ‘Jackass’ — The Audio

Shared via AddThis

Good for you, Mr. President. I hope you don’t get pasted for this–you were right.

Decision: Afghanistan

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Soon, the Obama administration will have to decide whether to commit additional troops to Afghanistan. From the New York Times: Military Chief Says More Troops Needed for Afghan War. This announcement has been well-telegraphed, so that it comes as a surprise to nobody who pays attention. So far, I am pleased with the attention the White House has paid to Afghanistan.

As some of you know, I was there when the 17,000 additional troops arrived this year. One of my tasks was to help find places to put them, and in fact a handful of them replaced my team. So I was certainly happy to see them; happy to get back to family a little earlier than I expected.

The President could easily have … Continue reading →

Mac OS X Snow Leopard

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I am now running Mac OS X (10.6), also known as Snow Leopard, which was a bit of a leap of faith. I live in Japan, and so am at the mercy of the few shops which carry English software. None of them had (or would soon receive) 10.6, so I had to buy a Japanese-language version of 10.6, and used it to update my existing English-language 10.5.8 to the new standard.
Fortunately, the good people at Apple seem to think of everything. As soon as I popped the Japanese Snow Leopard CD into my MacBook Pro, it used English. The splash screen, the install instructions, the progress screens, and shortly thereafter, all of the interface elements, files, folders, and so forth were all in English. … Continue reading →