Benjamin Franklin: An American Life

I'm behind in my book reports, and this book has to be passed on for my son to read, so no more procrastination! My rediscovery of reading history continues to be enjoyable thanks to this book by Walter Issacson. An American icon comes to life in a solidly researched and written book that shows the human side of Franklin, but doesn't try to bring down the guy that edited Jefferson on the Declaration of Independence from "We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable" to "we hold these truths to be self-evident". Through the magic of the internet you can see it here. That is an example of a historic edit!

Franklin was the best known American of his day and one of the best known scientists in the world as well. His work with electricity was groundbreaking, but possibly more important he was a practical tinkerer and experimenter much as Edison subsequently was that sought to apply his brilliance to matters of utility rather than theory. lightning rods to save buildings, bifocals, better stoves, printing improvements and many other little inventions.

Franklin was the solid champion of "the middling people", really the very founder of the idea of the American Middle Class and the concept of upward mobility. Sometimes referred to in jest as "America's first Yuppie"--kind of funny that it took until the Ronald Reagan '80s for that term to be created. The elites have always hated the idea that the common man could better themselves and be upwardly mobile. Ben believed that self improvement was possible through education, self discipline, and hard work.. In those times of rigid class and nobility, the idea that "anyone could improve their selff" was cutting edge thinking. Although still very much aware of the dangers of "rabble rule", Franklin was much more of a believer in democracy than the rest of the founding fathers. He is the only founding father to have been involved in and a signer to all four of the founding documents: The Declaration of Independence, the treaty with France, treaty with England, and The Constitution. He worked closely with Jefferson and Adams in France, and when the new nation was meeting in Philadelphia, under the mulberry tree at his home was a common informal meeting place.

Many great businessmen including Thomas Mellon and Andrew Carnegie found inspiration in the maxims of frugality and hard work that both Ben and his literary creation "Poor Richard" described.. Franklin is often thought of as the father of the self-help movement. Four of his written rules of conduct included:

). Frugality
2. Truthfulness
3. Industriousness
4. Speak ill of no man

He did very well with 1 and 3, is pretty solid on 2, and like anyone, struggled with 4--and the issue

Franklin's favorite theme--"slow and steady diligence is the way to wealth". Is anathema to the left, because such thought makes both success and poverty significantly in the domain of "individual responsibility", a concept they find completely odius. Worse, it would indicate that there is the potential of virtue as opposed to only corruption in an earned dollar. The only kind of wealth that the left tends to like is that which is inherited--or in the case of John Kerry, married into.

His view on social engineering is summarized by: "Whenever we attempt to mend the scheme of providence we need to be very circumspect lest we do more harm than good."

He was a master of the simple yet elegant maxim. Most of them were heavily borrowed from even more ancient statements, but the following are attributed to him--some much more famous than others:

"A penny saved is a penny earned"
"Haste makes waste"
"Early to bed early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise"
"Half the truth is often a great lie"
"Genius without education is like silver in the mine"
"There's more old drunkards than old doctors"
"He's a fool than cannot conceal his wisdom"
"Nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes"

At one point in his life Franklin put the following goals for a worthy life to paper and is said to have attempted to follow these rules during his life:
1 Temperance - Eat not to dullness, drink not to elevation
2 Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation
3 Order: Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have it's time
4 Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve
5 Frugality: Make no expense but to do good to yourself or others (ie. waste nothing)
6 Industry: Lose no time; be always employed in something useful, cut off all unnecessary actions
7 Sincerity:Use no hurtful deceit, think innocently and justly and if you speak, speak accordingly
8 Justice: Wrong none by doing injury or by omitting thne benefits that are your duty
9 Moderation: Avoid extremes, forbare resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve
10 Cleanliness: Tolerate no no uncleanliness in body clothes or habituation
11 Tranquility: Be not disturbed at trifles , or at accidents common or unavoidable
12 Chastity: Rarely use venery but for health or offspring; never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of another's peace or reputation.

A friend suggested that he missed "humility", which Franklin agreed with, so added a 13th virtue. He was quite libertine sexually for the time and fathered a son out of wedlock that he did care for. He tended to befriend and was certainly flirtatious with much younger women. He tended to treat their intellectual curiosity seriously and assist in their education. No doubt having one of the worlds foremost scientists paying intellectual attention to a young lady was very unusual in the day, interesting to the young lady, and no doubt the cause of plenty of disucssions about "reasons". (at the time, the intellectual development of women wasn't considered a high priority).

There is a lot of "conjecture" of course about "how far the relationships went", but I have a lot more patience for Franklin than say Billy C for a few reasons:
a). He didn't support or sign any sexual harassment law
b). None of the women were in his employ
c). He seemed to actually care about them, and they about him for decades -- many letters. Yes, a few flirtatious in content, but far from pornographic, and the most of them interested in their lives, studies, thoughts, etc.

Is that a "double standard"? I'd claim it as having some standards as opposed to none. Those that would lump Ben in with a Kennedy or a Clinton because he seemed to "like women a little too much" are well on the way to no standards at all. There is no evidence that Clinton cared one whit for the women he was involved with beyond his sexual gratification. I do hold him in higher regard than Kennedy, although Clinton may have raped one, he didn't kill any. There is reasonable evidence that Franklin's relationships were chaste and positive for both parties and that the rumors to the contrary are based on the acknowledged fact that he did father a child out of wedlock prior to marriage, and some cases of "opportunity" with some of the young ladies whose company he obviously enjoyed. Being a family man was certainly not Franklin's strong suit, but it seems that much of his reputation may have been based on what today we would applaud as "affirmative action" for young intelligent women.

The book is well worth the time to read. I found a lot to love about old Ben, and will look forward to the opportunity to learn more about him in the future.

The Police and Fireworks

Blog posting has been slow. We are on "vacation" this week, so there was the sprint at work to get ready for some time off combined with great weather, followed by a home sprint to get the deck power washed and stained, the driveway power washed and sealed, along with a couple parties, workouts and a little time to go see Ratatouille (a really fun little movie that I'll hopefully post on later).

Tuesday night the 3rd the whole family got to go up to St Paul to see "The Police" in concert at Excel Energy Center. Great venue for a rock concert and it was full of a lot of screaming fans. Here is a detailed review of when they were in Dallas for those interested. The factual stuff in the review of dates, songs played, etc are pretty much the same. The order was mixed a bit, but they made it through all the hits, there were some different arrangements, but I had no complaints. Sting and Stuart Copeland the drummer looked especially good and high energy. Andy Summers is maybe showing his age a bit more, but then WHO AM I TO TALK!!! Being there brought back some of the early '80s, and it was pretty cool to be there with a 15 and 19 year old Son that loved the music as well. Given good enough earplugs, even my wife enjoyed it.

I'm not a giant rock or certainly rock concert fan, but I enjoy the experience from time to time, and it is a great spot to observe people and see technology interact with art and the masses. It is very hard to beat a modern rock stage set, jumbotrons, and industrial grade amplification for allowing 3 people to impact 10's of thousands of people (like 10K in the St Paul case) in a live situation. Is it a great use of all that power, technology, money, etc? From an intellectual POV, of course not, but "Man does not live by bread alone"--experience is part of our existence as well.

Do I agree with anything close to every idea expressed by The Police? Of course not, but I'm not out to have labels along the line of fundamentalist, ideologue, pharisee, moralist, etc applied to my life. "Being in the world, not of it" is one of those classic admonishments that shows the true degree of difficulty of the Christian life. It is pretty easy to be "one or the other". A moralist for whom all activity is cut and dried and known, or a libertine who is simply "not under any law".

There is an immense connection between Christ and the US that is not often called out, but the combination of Rock Concerts and Fireworks provide a unique opportunity to do the mapping. In Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville does a good job of pointing out the dangers of "the Nanny State", which could just as easily be applied to the Nanny Religion:

Above these [citizens] an immense tutelary power is elevated, which alone takes charge of assuring their enjoyments and watching over their fate. It is absolute, detailed, far-seeing, and mild. It would resemble paternal power if, like that, it had for its object to prepare men for manhood; but on the contrary, it seeks only to keep them fixed irrevocably in childhood; it likes citizens to enjoy themselves provided that they think only of enjoying themselves. It willingly works for their happiness; but it wants to be the unique agent and sole arbiter of that; it provides for their security, foresees and secures their needs, facilitates their pleasures, conducts their principal affairs, directs their industry, regulates their estates, divides their inheritances; can it not take away from them entirely the trouble of thinking and the pain of living?
Subjection in small affairs manifests itself every day and makes itself felt without distinction by all citizens. It does not make them desperate, but it constantly thwarts them and brings them to renounce the use of their wills. Thus little by little, it extinguishes their spirits and enervates their souls....

I grew up in a "Nanny Church" that ignored the freedom provided by Christ and attempted to make decisions on alcohol, smoking, movies, television, music and even dancing. Unfortunately, like all such churches it seemed to never realize that eating too much and exercising too little was just as harmful and maybe more so than drinking and smoking, so that area of my life is doomed to require more in the way of self-discipline for the rest of my days. Such is life, more freedom always requires more discipline. Fixed rules and regulations from a "Nanny" may make life "safer", but in the end there is a huge question as to if what was lived was a life at all.

Here we live in a country where our founding fathers gave us the immeasurable gift of freedom; yet many would seek to nibble at those freedoms in everything from fireworks bans, trans-fat bans, smoking bans, regulation of political speech through campaign finance laws, higher taxes, and even "fairness doctrines" to decide who can present what speech--because apparently "the Nanny" feels that we are incapable of the independence of America.

Likewise, an infinite God died on the cross to free us from sin AND the Law! Many would choose however to create "a new law" to enslave Christians even more deeply in some set of human created morality. The Devil is indeed in the details, and he is more than willing to help us ensnare ourselves in any number of "good rules".

So does that make me a Libertarian for whom there are no rules? Of course not. Christianity and America both recognize that the road has two ditches. "In the world NOT of it". Freedom applies HUGE responsibility on the individual. To be both considerate and tolerant--2nd hand smoke providing a great example. MUST the STATE tell us how it must be done? Have a free people really lost the ability to interact civilly at the level where the mix of "toleration and consideration" can work successfully? Apparently so.

For Americans and especially Christian Americans, the 4th is a good time to reflect on the issue of Freedom. It absolutely is never free--often that means that blood is required to maintain it, but more subtlety, it means that vigilance at every level is needed. We need to stay out of BOTH ditches--fireworks laws that don't allow sparklers, or "anything goes" with the general public firing up 16" mortars? Seems like moderation is required. The road is often slippery and narrow and the ditches on both sides are far to easy to skid into.

Maps, Morals and Knowing

clipped from blogs.britannica.com Technology, Temptation, and Virtual Reality Roger Kimball - June 28th, 2007 - (Web 2.0 Forum) Reverence short-circuits objectivity by representing the world under the aspect of an ideal. I am not disparaging reverence—far from it—but I balk at those who recommend “expertise” and “objectivity” for the values they don’t mind dispensing with and “reverence” for their own household deities. And yet with that command comes a great temptation. As I said above, it is partly a temptation to confuse an excellent means of communication with communications that are excellent. We confuse, that is to say, process with product. The problem with computers—here is where Mr. Gorman and I may agree—is not the worlds they give us instant access to but the world they encourage us to neglect.

Discipline for Kids and Liberals

clipped from www.cnn.com Quirky discipline rules that work You can't be in the room when I'm working unless you work, too You get what you get, and you don't throw a fit My friend Joyce, director of our town's preschool, told us about this terrific rule, now repeated by everyone I know on playgrounds and at home. Not only does it have a boppy rhythm that makes it fun to say, but it does good old "Life isn't fair" one better by spelling out both the essential truth of life's arbitrary inequities and the only acceptable response to the world's unfairness: You don't throw a fit. I can't understand you when you speak like that

A much higher percentage of traditional families vote Republican than Democrat, and my suspicion is that it is because somewhere along the line the parents learned some simple rules of life and how to practice them.

The rules and implementation of them in this list are good ways to deal with children, but since each child presents us with a raw version of human nature to be molded, there are lessons that we as adults need to remember since our natures still want to come out and pout from time to time. "You get what you get and you don't throw a fit" is worthy of Ben Franklin.

Liberalism is largely the elevation of childishness (human nature) to a virtue. "Somebody got more than me so I'm going to call them stupid and try to take their stuff" is pretty much the summary of liberal philosophy. Understanding why they got more, deciding if "stuff" is really good, and taking productive action in pursuit of rationally derived value is a conservative analog.

Unbiased Press

What a surprise, the MSM gives to Democrats 9 to 1. Of course, THAT would never mean they were biased!

clipped from www.msnbc.msn.com Journalists dole out cash to politicians (quietly) MSNBC.com identified 144 journalists who made political contributions from 2004 through the start of the 2008 campaign, according to the public records of the Federal Election Commission. Most of the newsroom checkbooks leaned to the left: 125 journalists gave to Democrats and liberal causes. Only 17 gave to Republicans. Two gave to both parties. "Probably there should be a rule against it," said New Yorker writer Mark Singer, who wrote the magazine's profile of Howard Dean during the 2004 campaign, then gave $250 to America Coming Together and its get-out-the-vote campaign to defeat President Bush. "But there's a rule against murder. If someone had murdered Hitler — a journalist interviewing him had murdered him — the world would be a better place. I only feel good, as a citizen, about getting rid of George Bush, who has been the most destructive president in my lifetime. I certainly don't regret it."

Greatness

I enjoyed the book "Greatness: Reagan, Churchill & the Making of Extraordinary Leaders" by Steven F. Hayward. Some of the quotes I've heard before, but it is great to see them again:

Churchill on history: "The longer you look back, the farther you can look forward".

George Will on Reagan: "He does not want to return to the past; he wants to return to the past's way of facing the future".

Churchill on preemptive war: "There is no merit in putting off a war for a year if when it comes it is a far worse war or one much harder to win".

Churchill on liberal/conservatie: "He who is not a liberal at 20 has to heart; he who is not a conservative at 40 has no brains."

Reagan on liberals: "Sadly, I have come to realize that a great many so-called liberals aren't liberal--they will defend to the death your right to agree with them."

"Reagan was an American conservative. This kind of conservatism is not so much a fusion of the best of the various sects as it is a dialectic, embracing the contradiction of belief in optimism and progress along with the suspicion of human nature that requires limited government. Above all it resists schematic description." (How similar that quote sounds to the Stockdale Paradox)

Reagan in a 1977 speech: "...If there is any political viewpoint in this world that is free of slavish adherence to abstraction, it is American conservatism."

The very well documented book is a study in the similarities and differences between Reagan and Churchill, and the fact that one rhetorically began the cold war (Iron Curtain speech), and one ended it ("Ash heap of history"). The Reagan quote on "your right to agree with them" is very much the core of liberal ideology. From the "fairness doctrine" to "campaign finance reform" to "hate speech", the "liberals" are constantly trying top find ways to prevent speech that they dislike. They are experts at hiding what they really are.

Unfortunately, with the limited level of power gained by the Republican party, the "purity factor" has gone well up, which has weakened the party. Reagan was NOT doctrinaire, but modern conservatives have tried to re-write history to move him farther to the right.

Solid little book ... not a must read, but a nice read.

Fornicator in Chief's Speaking Fees

CNN.com - Bill Clinton's talk isn't cheap - Jun 14, 2006


The CNN link is one of many that rather gushingly describes the millions that old Slick rakes in for speaking fees in front of all sorts of groups, business and foreign audiences. They don't mention if any women with kneepads are part of the perks. Free with the Willy Willie really can do no wrong, and there is zero problem with any amount of money that he he is paid from the MSM POV. Reagan getting some fee from some Japanese group for a speech was of course a horrid thing that had the press all up in arms with the "impropriety of it". Newt Gingrich was castigated for "cashing in" on anything that he did in the fee department. As we know, those guys have "Rs" after their name. Liberals will support your right to agree with them with their dying breath--but if your form or freedom doesn't line up with theirs, then you shouldn't make any money or even have a forum. A corporate CEO is of course "taking money away from the little people"--but the money for Hillbilly Bill is printed out from thin air. No problems with THAT cash! Clean as a whistle and very well deserved from the view of any old lefty that would scream bloody murder were it going to a businessman. "Being rank has it's privileges"?

I personally don't mind Billy making money--I don't even mind Brittany making money. I happen to be happily married and even if I wasn't, I hope I wouldn't stoop to his work habits. However, it is easy to understand why a lot of guys are willing to pay him for tips on how to get regular sex at the office and not even have to make regular divorce payments or even lose your job as a result. I like a coffee break at work on a regular basis--I guess I just don't now how to think of potential "work benefits" in a Clintonian way. I'm not sure that his performance can be duplicated by most guys though--they don't have the power to help insure that millions of babies keep giving up their little lives so that the millions of folks can keep the all the physical pleasures of sex without "inconvenient consequences". From the perspective of the unborn, the payment for the Presidential right to stain blue dresses is high.

Ah yes, the gay 90's-- competent Attorney Generals were burning religious nuts in their compounds, and the FBI was busy protecting citizen's rights by shooting tax resistors wives at Ruby Ridge. Life was so much simple, when federal agencies could just incinerate and shoot actual US citizens with next to nothing in the way of outcry. Today we have all the complexities of "enemy combatants" that have a lot more rights than some religious wing-nut US citizens or anti-tax zealots. One has to work hard to protect "diverse terrorists", but when it comes to "the wrong elements" that are US citizens, a little preemptive killing by a President can be a really OK thing--assuming he has time to pull up his pants and give some orders.

The consistency of the left is a shining example to us all.

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Door County Trip

A week at work that was less full for me but more full for my wife completed on Thursday when she passed an exam to become a Certified Project Manager--my life should be very well planned from now on! Friday was our anniversary, so we decided to "double celebrate" and headed over to Door County WI. Amazingly, even though I had grown up in WI and we have lived relatively close for all our 22 married years, this is our first trip. It is certainly much closer than it once was now though with a 4-lane Hwy 29 all the way across WI save for like a mile in Wausau.

Some pictures of the outing.

We stayed at the Bay Breeze in Ephraim and it isa very nice place, although not completely what the Internet indicated. We can just see the lake a bit from the deck, not an "on the lake view". We have had a couple wonderful meals at The Old Post Office restaurant at the Edgewater Resort which looks like where we will likely stay when we come back (and we will). We haven't done price comparisons though. We are in a suite here with a very nice king bad (important feature for Mooses) wireless internet access that I have used very little, nice pool that we haven't used at all, and really very comfortable. Over time, one gets spoiled by the "perfect places" like BlueFin Bay on the North Shore and Windcliff outside of Estes in Colorado. Nothing about Bay Breeze to cause a problem , sometimes it --sometimes it takes a couple of trys for "perfection".

Friday night we had a delicious meal at the C&C in Fish Creek, just down the peninsula from Ephraim. Saturday we drove up to the Washington Island Ferry and rode across and biked around that island. We were slightly surprised that there weren't more lake views off the roads over there, and there wasn't a huge amount special about the island, but little ferry rides of that sort are always a bit of their own adventure.

In the PM we headed down the Lake Michigan side of the peninsula with a nice coffee stop at "Custards Last Stand" (yes, we had to have a little cherry custard as well), and then hiked around Cave Point park for a bit. Lots of undermining of the shore, so as the waves come in they make a nice slapping sound. It has been pretty calm however, so not a lot of noise. We then headed over to the Simon Creek Winery for some tasting and picked up a couple bottles of their wares.

The evening meal was a traditional Wisconsin Fish Boil at the Old Post Office. Red potatoes, onions, carrots, and whitefish boiled over a wood fire, and then "boiled over" with a shot of kerosene at the end to push any impurities that may have risen to the top inot the fire and also make a great large fiery show. The results were very tasty with some pumpernickel bread, great cole slaw and some cherry pie with homemade ice cream for desert.

This weekend is the "Fyr Bal" festival in Ephraim (pronounced "Fear Ball"), a Scandinavian festival where the wicked witch of winter is chased away and summer is welcomed. This is accomplished with the lighting of some huge bonfires, about 10 of them around the bay in this case, and shooting off some nice fireworks. It seemed like a really nice festival, made a little quieter by the fact that Ephraim is a dry town, so no beer tents involved with the celebration.

Today we headed up to Gils Rock and went out on Captain Paul's Charter Fishing. He seemed to know what he was doing, but the weather was likely TOO nice ... we put on some miles and tried 4 different spots. A couple of smaller salmon were picked up by other people on the boat, but we weren't on the lucky list this time. We did however get some GREAT smoked Atlantic salmon at the fish store near the boat.

The PM was spent with some shopping, dinner at the Shipwreck Brewery, and then a relaxing evening of reading and catching up on the Blog before heading home tomorrow.

GREAT Medium Cherry Salsa from here

Excellent Smoked N Atlantic Salmon here

Boating on Shore

Alcohol involved? Now let's see, Teddy Kennedy fled the scene with a dead girl in his car and didn't show up until the next AM, and he is VERY rich and VERY well known. I wonder if the community will be disposed to be as forgiving of this guy?

clipped from www.twincities.com Police look for owner of yacht crashed along St. Croix River Police today are looking for the owner of a 41-foot yacht that was run 60 feet aground on the Wisconsin side of the St. Croix River late Friday.

The Old Al Gore

Powerline has a link to Gore in '92 on CSPAN Here. One doesn't really need comedians when there are Democrats around.

Did Republicans think differently of Saddam when he was attacking Iran? Sure. I think Americans liked the USSR a bit more when they were fighting with Germany as well. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" isn't very new.

But Gore didn't think Bush Sr was tough enough on Saddam AFTER the Gulf War! Saddam supported terrorists, attacks on US citizens and warships. Saddam had a nuclear program, Saddam used and intended to use again WMDs--Gore sounds like quite a hawk. He still sounded like a Hawk when he was VP and he strongly supported bombing Saddam for all the same problems.

It isn't so much that minds can change. Information, political expediency, age, learning and a whole set of other things can change minds. The wild thing is that if there is a "D" after your name, the MSM never points out the sins of your past (even the videotaped ones), and you are NEVER asked to give an account of "what changed your mind".

George Will on the Stealth Economy

The stock market has been breaking records, unemployment is at 4.5%, we have had steady economic growth for 65 months, uh .. "the economy is bad". Or at least that is what folks that are polled believe--it is a "fact" that contributes to the low Bush poll numbers.

George Will does a good job of covering the facts, the Democrats response, and discusses the strange idea of "equal outcome" in a world where God has certainly chosen to not distribute ability or motivation equally. What he doesn't discuss is the right turn of the French. Apparently, even the French have realized that economic growth has some reality-based components. Will the Democrats ever come to that realization?

clipped from www.realclearpolitics.com Democrats' Prosperity Problem Early in George W. Bush's presidency, liberal critics said: The economy is not growing. Which was true. He inherited the debris of the 1990s' irrational exuberances. A brief (eight months) and mild (the mildest since World War II) recession began in March 2001, before any of his policies were implemented. It ended in November 2001. In 2002, when his tax cuts kicked in and the economy began 65 months -- so far -- of uninterrupted growth, critics said: But it is a "jobless recovery." When the unemployment rate steadily declined -- today it is 4.5 percent; time was, 6 percent was considered full employment -- critics said: Well, all right, the economy is growing and creating jobs and wealth, but the wealth is not being distributed in accordance with the laws of God or Nature or liberalism or something.

Ed Koch On NYT Bush Derangement Syndrome

Ed Koch is a former DEMOCRAT Mayor of NY, but apparently he has been able to avoid the loss of sanity experienced by most Democrats as their Bush hatred and rage causes loss of sanity. The whole column is well worth the read. On the subjects of Gitmo, Libby and selection of important news, it is obvious to all but the enraged that the NYT has slipped the surly bonds of reality and fallen into the abyss of bias.

clipped from www.realclearpolitics.com New York Times: How the Mighty Have Fallen By When I read the Times editorial page on June 6th, I was deeply disappointed. Why? Because on one day, in the same issue, three of the four Times editorials struck me as mean-spirited, lacking balance and just plain dumb. Pray tell, what is wrong with Congress and the President making that distinction when it comes to trials? Further, hasn't the military commission proved its fairness by the very fact that it dismissed the cases of the first two defendants brought before it, finding they were not "unlawful enemy combatants." Instead of assaulting the military tribunal as it did, shouldn't The Times have praised its fairness? Of course, but The Times is so blinded by its fury on the Iraq war and its hatred of President Bush that its editorial board can't think straight on these issues.

Ah, The Weekend! LDoS

I've often noticed that the joy of time off seems proportional in some sense to the difficulty of the work that preceeded it. The last day of schooling with finals over, a difficult task at work completed successfully, or some speech, paper, or distasteful home task well done and now comes "Miller Time". Marketing people are actually quite good at distilling some of our basic natures to their purposes and those old Miller beer commercials catch the feeling pretty well.

So the rough week at work was ncompleted, and the year at school for our 15 year old completed as well. If the "last day of school" (LDoS) could be bottled, it would be a product very easy to market. It seems that is one of those feelings that is "age and condition of life specific" that would be impossible to fully reach again in adulthood, but the weekend has been a hint of that. The level of youth, health, optimism, lack of experience in the ills of life, still feeling generally free of responsibility for themselves and others; linked with the wonderful completion of "that year is completely behind me and next year I begin again with a fresh slate" makes LDoS one of those life experiences to be savored.

Like all human experience, that LDoS is of course significantly illusionary. You certainly CAN die when you are in your teens. You certainly can create all manner of problems that may dog you for the rest of your days--habits, addictions, attitudes, damaging relationships, teenage pregnancy and other guilt / fallout from the victory of hormones over morality, injuries, crimes--the list is endless of course. In the way of nature however, when you are in your teens those downsides are quite far from the mind. You tend to feel invincible, your future is long with potentials unbounded, and the very fact of not really grasping the potential for "life changing ill" makes the experience what it is.

Socrates said "An unexamined life is not worth living". Interestingly, the result of that examination is often significantly that one becomes "consciously incompetent". You begin to know what you don't know. The more one learns, the more one realizes that the process of learning is always begining with "unconscious incompetence" (not being aware of what you don't know); to "conscious incompetence"; followed by "unconscious competence" where for some task or piece of life you "do the right thing", but may no longer be aware of how it was learned or why you do it.

Rosseau, and I suspect many liberals would arge that the LDoS feeling becomes inaccessable with examination, and the person is no longer "authentic". What Socrates and a conservative would see as "not worth living", the Rosseau and the liberal see as "not really life". The categorization, the judgment, the realization of inadequacy, the realizations of impermanence--all conspire in their minds to destroy "the human experience".

Knowledge and experience certainly change us, but while it is impossible to capture the "same exact experience" of the LDoS we experienced in youth, it has seemed this weekend that there are aspects that are even better. Having completed over 50 years of "life schooling" with at some level of decent grades in matters of earthy importance, weekends like this and the prospects for some other experiences of "Miller Time" in the coming weeks of summer has made this weekend so very enjoyable.

The examined life is VERY much worth living!

Democrats go to War

The Dems seemed to have picked the summer season to go to war with their favorite enemy; the evil rich. It is hard for them to find a terrorist or dictator not to their liking, but the thrifty, productive, and successful bring out their battle flags.

As per usual, they have a bit of trouble figuring out their exact quarry ... $500K, $200K, even $75K the Democrats are far better with nearly anyone's money than the people themselves, so they feel it is a huge benefit to all if they can just get it away from those nasty folks that have managed to make it.

Subsidize what you want more of -- retirement of productive people, more ineffective union educators, scads of government union employees. Tax what you want less of -- business, productivity, income. Soon some Democrat will tell us that "the best years of the US are behind us" ... no doubt it will be Bush's fault!

clipped from www.washingtonpost.com Democrats Seek Formula To Blunt AMT House Democrats looking to spare millions of middle-class families from the expensive bite of the alternative minimum tax are considering adding a surcharge of 4 percent or more to the tax bills of the nation's wealthiest households. Neal has yet to release details of the plan, however, and others inside and outside the committee say major pieces of it are still in flux. Some Democrats say Neal's plan stretches the definition of the middle class too far, providing AMT relief to too many wealthy households. They argue that the cutoff for families to be spared from the AMT should be lower, at $200,000, $150,000 or even $75,000.

2 Down 2 2 Go

Bit of the old "week from hell"syndrome at work this week with a ton of customer meetings plus a number of other challenges besides. I came to the conclusion long ago that one of the wrong paths in personal, organizational or national thinking is the idea that "it ought to be easier", or "it used to be easier", or "this is too hard, somebody else must be at fault". So it's a hard week with all-day meetings, customer dinners / schmoozing in the evening, and a hard time even getting a short workout in.

It could be a lot worse ... for example a guy that I know that is recovering from stage 4 throat cancer showed up at the customer meeting late this PM for the first time I've seen him at work in at least 3 months. That whole ordeal sounds just a "bit tougher" than anything I've got to complain about, and he looked VERY happy to be back in the saddle for at least a couple of hours. NOBODY ever promised us "it ought to be easy"!

So I need to get back into a whole bunch of stuff that I'm behind on, but I'm sitting out on the deck with the firepit really enjoying the beautiful evening while I mostly work, but waste a little time on the Blog as well.

I shot a few pictures. The first one is looking back at the deck where the steps go to the upstairs kitchen.

The next is just to the left of that view showing the stairs down away from the firepit and a view of the back yard.


The third shows an angle yet further to my left looking to the NW toward our property line


There are much worse places to sit with a laptop and get some charts ready for a meeting in the AM and handle the small drift of e-mail that piled up today. Just 8am-6 meetings tomorrow followed by 8-9PM combination meetings on Thursday and it will be "basically over" for the summer session!

Personal Spring Stuff

I've been remiss in saying very much about what is personally going on this spring. Some pictures from various events can be found here -- from time to time I'll be posting photos to that site.

• I had a fantastic fishing trip to Mille Lacs with a couple friends. We limited out the first night up, had a big fish dinner, and the action was just about as hot all day Friday. Personally I picked up three walleye 21", two 22", a 23" and a 24". Nobody broke 25", but the totals in the 20-25" range for the other two guys were similar. Cold front went though Friday night and they shut down for Saturday, but no complaints. Kind of fishing that just can't be beat!
• We have been very much enjoying the firepit that we added off the end of our deck. There have been a number of evenings out there with friends and we had a nice party Memorial Day weekend.
  
• Oldest son has completed Freshman year at UWL with excellent grades, and is working part time at the physics lab and taking a couple summer classes. He has been coming home most weekends, so that has been fun.
  
• Youngest son has completed Freshman year of HS with a 4.0 and is doing excellent in band and will be an officer for Key Club next year. Mom and Dad have been very proud to see him receive recognition at two awards banquets this spring and listen to him play in a great band concert. The band kids really seem to have a good time, and it is fun for a couple with "engineer wiring" to be able to tag along by virtue of his abilities.
  
• Have been enjoying getting out on the bicycles quite frequently.
  

The next couple of weeks are going to be very busy at work, and then I HOPE that there is a slight bit of a slow-down so that more reading / blogging can be done. I've behind in my book-reports again with a few that have been read but not blogged on.

The Innovators Solution

An excellent business book by Clayton Christenson and Michael Raynor is an excellent business book on innovation in business and the forces that drive companies to take certain business actions that nearly insure their demise unless they constantly innovate. The book covers both the issues and the methods to combat the problems.

The book opens with some remedial coverage of "The Innovators Dilemma". As companies become successful, the natural drive is to move "up market" where profits are better. They focus on the high end, really listen to and provide for those customers, and eventually lose the lower end of the market as their products are "too good" (expensive, complicated, large, etc) for the bulk of the market, and they are focused only on their most profitable customers.

The business becomes expert at "sustaining innovation"--better performance, added features, new hardware, more options, different models, etc. all of which hone the product, and are generally very predictable. The business forgets completely about messy "disruptive innovation", that DOESN'T bring better products to customers in known markets, but rather attempts to provide products that are not as good as existing products, but provide advantages in cost, ease of use, scale, targeting, or other areas that will enable the product to compete against non-consumption (completely new customers), or less demanding customers. PC, Linux, etc. A nice case history of integrated mills vs mini mills is presented.

There was a discussion about people and companies having "jobs" that need to get done and they are looking for a product or service that they can "hire" to do that job. The item for the market researcher to go after is the CIRCUMSTANCE, not the CUSTOMER. "Innovations that make it easier for customers to do what they weren't trying to do before must compete against customers' priorities. This is very hard to do."

"Managers often segment markets along the lines for which the data are available, rather than in ways that reflect the things that customers are trying to get done." (think of the drunk that lost his billfold in a field looking for it under a street-lamp because the light is better there!) Rather than doing that, look at four keys to new market disruption (competition against non-consumption):

1. Target customers are trying to do a job but they lack money or skill.
2. The customer will compare your product against having no solution.
3. You can deploy a solution that is simple, convenient and foolproof (relative to what they have)
   
4. The product creates a whole new value network. (new consumers purchase the product through new channels)

There is an interesting discussion of modular vs interdependent architectures. As technologists, this makes pretty easy sense--a "fully custom solution" that has a lot of dependencies can be faster, BUT, it is much less flexible, and requires more to be done in a single organization. A modular approach is more one size fits all, and not as heavily optimized. Companies that build specialized integrated things will "overshoot", and their products will become "too good" for the mass market. One will hear employees cursing customers with: "Why can't they see that our product is better than the competition? They are treating it like a commodity!" IBM's PC experience is used as an example of a big company getting burned on dealing with modular vs interdependent architecture.

"Whenever commoditization is at work somewhere in the value chain, a reciprocal process of de-commoditization is at work somewhere else in the value chain." When your product is commoditized, you lose the ability to differentiate, and thus revenue--the company has to follow Gretzky and "develop the intuition for skating not to where the money presently is in the value chain, but to where the money will be.". The six steps of commoditization are:

1. Company creates a product with a proprietary architecture that is a hit.
2. Company overshoots the lower tier customers in market.
3. Basis of competition changes to "good enough"
4. Modular architecture solutions arise that better meet needs
5. The industry DIS-integrates (meaning products made up of modular commodities)
   
6. No longer possible to differentiate products on other than price.

De-Commoditization:

1. Low-cost commodity producers drive out high-cost incumbents -- moving ever up-market.
2. Because key performance defining subsystems become the constraint, they become important non-commodities
   • EG PC OS for MS, Processor for Intel, Graphics cards for ATI, vs "Computer" for IBM
3. Specialization / differentiation moves to the module level (graphics card)
4. Leading sub-system providers now differentiated
5. This sets up the next round of commoditization.

"Companies that are positioned at a spot in the value chain where performance is not yet good enough will capture the profit." ..."To the extent that an integrated company such as IBM can flexibly couple and de-couple it's operations, rather than irrevocably sell off operations, it has a greater potential to thrive profitably for an extended period than does a non-integrated firm such as Compaq."

"Core competence, as it is used by many managers, is a dangerously inward looking notion. Competitiveness is far more about doing what customers value than dong what you think you are good at. Staying competitive necessarily requires a willingness to learn new things rather than clinging hopefully to the sources of past glory. The challenge for incumbent companies is to rebuild their ships at while at sea, rather than dismantling themselves plank by plank while someone else builds a new, faster boat with what they cast overboard as detritus."

"We don't even question who makes the dresses in Talbot's, the sweaters for Abercrombie&Fitch, or the jeans at Gap and Old Navy. Much of the apparel sold in these channels carries the brand of the channel, the the manufacturer."

The RPV Framework:

• Resources - The people that can successfully lead sustaining innovation are almost certainly the wrong people to lead disruptive innovation. The issue isn't so much "success" as the history of willingness to wrestle with nasty problems and learn the right answers.
• Processes - "How an organization transforms inputs into things of greater value". "If that organization has not repeatedly formulated plans for competing in markets that do not yet exist, it is safe to assume that no processes for making such plans exist."
• Values - "An organizations values are the standards by which employees make prioritization decisions". "values often define constraints--they define what the organization cannot do.". The key value is overhead/financial model. Money is the fuel of business just like gas is the fuel of your car. So much of it is required for the business to operate as it currently does, and THIS business can't operate in a cost structure that won't support that (but one with a different cost structure CAN, and even be very profitable. Think Wal-Mart vs local hardware store)
  

"The requirements of an innovation need to fit with the host organizations processes and values or the innovation will not succeed." It is a bit like "transplant rejection" in medicine. "Organizations cannot disrupt themselves." A sobering thought for business organizations, since disruption is inevitable, they MUST break off units with different financial models if they seek to survive.

"Be patient for growth, not for profit.". Big companies with the wrong cost structure tend to do the reverse with disruptive business. It CAN work (Amazon is the counter example), but in general it is the model to be profitable that is what needs to be arrived at, not just "growth". It is too easy for the people to kid themselves by "losing a bit on each unit and assuming they will make it up in volume."

A principal refrain of this book is that blindly copying the best practices of successful companies without the guidance of circumstance-contingent theory is akin to fabricating feathered wings and flapping hard. Replicating their success is not about duplicating their attributes; it's about understanding how to generate lift (profit)."

This is a top tier business book--not a lot of filler, pretty concrete and easy to understand. Good way to get some insight into some of the core issues that build and destroy huge corporations.

The Case For Conservatism

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/30/AR2007053002026.html

George Will is a bit wordy here, but generally right on with the legitimate differences between a conservative and a liberal outlook. One would like to think that these kinds of thoughts would be uppermost in the minds of voters in a democracy.

A sample ... 

Steadily enlarging dependence on government accords with liberalism's ethic of common provision, and with the liberal party's interest in pleasing its most powerful faction -- public employees and their unions. Conservatism's rejoinder should be that the argument about whether there ought to be a welfare state is over. Today's proper debate is about the modalities by which entitlements are delivered. Modalities matter, because some encourage and others discourage attributes and attitudes -- a future orientation, self-reliance, individual responsibility for healthy living -- that are essential for dignified living in an economically vibrant society that a welfare state, ravenous for revenue in an aging society, requires.

The Internal Conservative Debate and Left Agreement

http://www.leatherneck.com/forums/showthread.php?47355-The-American-right-is-a-cauldron-of-debate-the-left-isn-t

The guys off Powerline thought this was "long and hard to read". I know I'm average though, so I'd say they are wrong --concise and easy!

I think the guy has a good analysis of "the simplicity of the left", and since I've read two out of 3 of the books he mentions and loved them, I'll have to read the other one. One of them "Conservative Mind" was post blogging, so is discussed here, and here.

Where Did Kyoto Go?

I find the Kyoto treaty to be one of those small wonders of press bias and selective liberal concern. On July 25, 1997, the Senate passed a sense of the Senate vote 95-0 against the US taking part in the treaty. That is as close as it has come to being actually considered in this country. The Clinton administration never pushed it and we were led to believe by the press that the Republicans had it bottled up. When Bush took office, it became "Bush's fault" that the US was not a Kyoto signer, even though it had never been Clinton's fault.

Oddly though, I believe the Democrats took over both houses of Congress in '07 did they not? Where is Kyoto? Suddenly, it is nowhere to be seen. One could think it could easily be at least brought to a vote now, or the Republicans could be forced to filibuster to prevent it. Right? Certainly the fate of the planet is more important that some minor functionary in the justice department talking about 8 guys being fired? I mean wasn't "needless investigation" one of the horrors of the Republican Congress during the '90s? They were focused "on the wrong things", and the MSM pointed a lot of fingers at "time and money being wasted". Do I detect a small change in attitude?

Why is that? Bill Moyers seems to think that the press wasn't critical enough of WMD before the war. This is somewhat like the press not being in FAVOR of the idea that the USSR and communism could be defeated when Reagan stated it in the early '80s. Even though the MSM turned out to be wrong and Reagan turned out to be right, I don't call that "bias'--it was common knowledge that the USSR was going to be with us forever. Even secretary-killer Teddy said on the subject of WMD: "We have known for many years that Saddam Hussein is seeking and developing weapons of mass destruction." Sept. 27, 2002. Normally I only trust Teddy on issues relating to liquor selection, but the media seems quite fond of him, so I mention him here.

If there are no usual suspects to quote on the "other side", then it is tough for them to NOT be "biased". They are "biased against" a flat earth, for the US having landed men on the moon, and "biased for" many other things that are common knowledge. They were biased for the belief that there was global cooling in the early '70s, that we were out of oil in the late '70s, and that starvation was going to be the leading world problem at the end of the 20th century for a very long time. Prior to 2003, the poll numbers that assumed that Saddam DID NOT have WMD approximated flat earthers and moon landing hoaxers (but were well behind those that believe in UFOs). I'd call that a "bias to common knowledge"--a completely different form of bias that is quite different from an idealogical bias.

Explaining a "bias" for common knowledge is pretty easy--in fact the usual definition of a bias AGAINST it is somewhere between "iconoclast", "crumungeon", or "insane". Even making the claim that a bias for common knowledge is somehow "idealogical" shows how really far out there a Moyers and those that pay attention to him really are. Why the MSM would find Kyoto to be a huge issue with one party in Congress but no issue at all with another is a completely different type of bias, which I argue is best explained by ideology.

A Democrat to Admire

There are precious few of these around today, this article is clearly from one (Lieberman is another). The article is WELL worth reading, it points out Mr Kerrey's understanding that the vast majority of the current Democrats have no sense of consistency or idea of the cost of defeat for America and the world.

clipped from www.opinionjournal.com The Left's Iraq Muddle Yes, it is central to the fight against Islamic radicalism. BY BOB KERREY Tuesday, May 22, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT The key question for Congress is whether or not Iraq has become the primary battleground against the same radical Islamists who declared war on the U.S. in the 1990s and who have carried out a series of terrorist operations including 9/11. The answer is emphatically "yes." This does not mean that Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11; he was not. Nor does it mean that the war to overthrow him was justified--though I believe it was. It only means that a unilateral withdrawal from Iraq would hand Osama bin Laden a substantial psychological victory.

Carter Flip Flops on Worst?

clipped from www.cnn.com Carter: Anti-Bush remarks 'careless or misinterpreted' ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- Former President Jimmy Carter said Monday his remarks were "careless or misinterpreted" when he said the Bush administration has been the "worst in history" for its impact around the world.

Pawlenty and Willie Sutton

Reading what liberals say is an endless source of humor--a great example, the following from an otherwise completely standard lefty diatribe in the Strib about how the taxes on the "wealthy" are too low.

To be the kind of state Minnesota aims to be, it needs a tax policy that heeds the famous advice of bank robber Willie Sutton: "Go where the money is." Right now, Tim Pawlenty is standing in the way.

Is there sort of a "Pinocchio Principle" that the lefties are somehow occasionally forced by the order of things to actually tell the truth even though it is against their nature? In order for MN to be the kind of state they feel it needs to be, the state needs to be more like a BANK ROBBER, and right now that awful Republican Governor is standing in the way of those bank robbers! Imaging that! Oh, the injustice, keeping the robbers out of the pockets of those evil rich!

Oh, if it were only true. This crazy idea that the rich pay "less of a percentage" has the same sort of truthfulness as most lefty "facts". The "rich" pay "less of a percentage" for toilet paper, beer, gas, and everything, because they can only consume so much of most things and their incomes are higher, so DUH ... they pay a "lower percentage". SO ... gas taxes, property taxes, FICA taxes (over $100K income), sales taxes (they save more than most "not rich" people), etc. **IF** you CAREFULLY pick just the right way of selectively looking at STATE TAXES, the rich pay "less of a percentage". Again, not really as a general rule, but you can find SOME CASES that are especially low on gas, property, sales, etc and say a lot of their income is from municipal bonds that are not taxed (which of course is a benefit to the state, since they ALSO pay lower interest to offset the tax advantage), etc.

What they don't say, is to the tiny extent that is true, it is true because Democrats continue to raise exactly the kind of taxes that will add to that situation-the current example being gas taxes. They have NEVER met ANY tax that they don't like to raise, so they don't JUST rob "banks", they are perfectly willing to go WELL beyond the Willie Sutton model and take their money from Widows, Orphans, and little kiddies piggy banks. Once you have established the morality that robbing is OK (in fact, LAUDABLE!), selectivity of targets just isn't a major consideraton.

10 Thousand Dead In Kansas

"In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died — an entire town destroyed," Barack Obama said in a speech at a Richmond art studio.

WOW, that is a lot of dead Kansans ... especially from a town of 1800 people!!!

Of course, we know, he just "made a mistake", so only a story for the right wing nuts, no national story at all. As I've said before, I tend to agree with this ... we know that something like misspelling potato would never be a national story that would damage a candidate. Oh, oops, I mean damage a DEMOCRAT. It would never harm a DEMOCRAT!

Seriously, I do tend to think that the general treatment of Democrats in the press is "closer to correct" on this kind of story. I think it is "a bit weak" in cases like William Jefferson, the sitting Democrat Congressman caught with $90K of cold cash in his freezer when his party runs on "rooting out corruption", but I guess that just shows that I foolishly think the press is biased.

On the other hand. I've been known to get mixed up on Giga vs Mega when it comes to storage measures, but to be off by THREE orders of magnitude on LIVES? Isn't that just a BIT odd? I mean if you say "10 THOUSAND" dead when the real number is TWELVE, that seems to be very much "out of touch with reality", doesn't it? 9-11 was 3K dead, yes, the Democrats fabricated a 10K death toll for New Orleans, but the Boston Globe and AP listed that total at 964. So if you are saying "10K dead", doesn't SOMETHING go through your mind that says "gee, that doesn't sound right"?

Leadership needs some common sense--you can't know everything, so you better be able to keep track of the big picture. I'd argue that minor spelling mistakes fall in the category of "don't care". I'd even argue that an actual speech impediment would be OK as long as the leader can communicate--how much is made by Bush's verbal gaffes that are just obvious word mixing with no problems on actual meaning? Quite a lot.

Again, he probably did just actually make some sort of "brain drop out mistake", but, aren't 3 orders of magnitude on LIVES an odd thing? Dollars, bytes, days ... lots of other things I can see being "way off on", but it just seems that the idea of 10K dead in Kansas from a storm would tell you that you have the wrong story.

I guess the message is the same as always ... "Be a Democrat, and you too can say whatever you want, have sex at the office, be filthy rich and still OK and just generally be popular".

Bush Lied?

I've been over it so many times, it is like a broken record, but on the other hand, the MSM record is just as broken The lefties in the world believe that if you say something enough that makes it true. For the record, these quotes are ALL prior to Bush taking office, so if someone was being "misled", it certainly wasn't by BUSH! I just happened to see them linked by another web site, and couldn't resist having easy personal access to the information.

"One way or the other, we are determined to deny Iraq the capacity to develop weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them. That is our bottom line."
President Clinton, Feb. 4, 1998.

"If Saddam rejects peace and we have to use force, our purpose is clear. We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program."
President Clinton, Feb. 17, 1998.

"Iraq is a long way from [here], but what happens there matters a great deal here. For the risks that the leaders of a rogue state will use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons against us or our allies is the greatest security threat we face."
Madeline Albright, Feb 18, 1998.

"He will use those weapons of mass destruction again, as he has ten times since 1983."
Sandy Berger, Clinton National Security Adviser, Feb, 18, 1998

"We urge you, after consulting with Congress, and consistent with the U.S. Constitution and laws, to take necessary actions (including, if appropriate, air and missile strikes on suspect Iraqi sites) to respond effectively to the threat posed by Iraq's refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs."
Letter to President Clinton, signed by Sens. Carl Levin, Tom Daschle, John Kerry, and others Oct. 9, 1998.

"Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process."
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D, CA), Dec. 16, 1998.

"Hussein has ... chosen to spend his money on building weapons of mass destruction and palaces for his cronies."
Madeline Albright, Clinton Secretary of State, Nov. 10, 1999.


These and more are collected out on a Web Site that does a great job of debunking "Urban Legends", or "Internet Legends" ... from ALL sides. They are a fine example of non-partisan reporting. Something that I would MUCH rather see more of than "Rush Limbaugh vs Public Radio". (http://www.snopes.com/politics/war/wmdquotes.asp)

If Saddam really didn't have any WMD, then he misled the world. If did have them, he successfully hid them. Which is true? Does it make any difference? EVERYONE with any sort of brain cells believed he had them. Reasonable people act based on the best information that they have. Fire departments treat every call as if it is real, even though a significant number are false. Something like 98% of people in the US were pretty darned certain that Saddam had WMD. Many of the anti-war people felt the potential of him using WMD on our troops was a reason not to go to war.

So any lefty that says "Bush lied" is only showing their own willingness to lie (not that we usually need any extra evidence). There are 100's of quotes like that above from "Sainted Democrats" ... the kind of folks like Bill and Hillary that the MSM trusts completely. When Billy attacked Iraq in '98 at a time that "seemed oddly related to impeachment proceedings", but he told us that he HAD to attack Saddam due to WMD and subsequently Secretary of Defense William S Cohen and Gen. Henry H Shelton (chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) announced the action had been successful in "degrad[ing] Saddam Hussein's ability to deliver chemical, biological and nuclear weapons."

On 23 September 2002, former Vice-President Al Gore addressed the Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco on the subject of Iraq and the war on terrorism. Among the comments he offered there were the following:

Moreover, if we quickly succeed in a war against the weakened and depleted fourth rate military of Iraq and then quickly abandon that nation as President Bush has abandoned Afghanistan after quickly defeating a fifth rate military there, the resulting chaos could easily pose a far greater danger to the United States than we presently face from Saddam. We know that he has stored secret supplies of biological and chemical weapons throughout his country.

Gore MUST "know" (to the extent that anyone can) at this point that Saddam has WMD. He was VP while his own administration attacked Saddam with WMD being a major support for that attack. If he DIDN'T "know", then we have to assume that Clinton and Gore were lying to us and ... what? The '98 attacks really were a "wag the dog conspiracy" for public opinion modification at the time of impeachment?

It is at points like this that "consistency not being an issue" comes to the aid and comfort of the lefty brain. It is OK for them to "selectively forget / ignore", and move forward with the world fitting the model that they now like, and simply forget what that would mean to a reality based on historical fact.