Puke in My Shoes

Posted on by chappyshi

Nice  to get up today to feed my cat, have breakfast, and return to the fartsac to find that the cat had barfed on my comforter.   Thankfully he’s only done that twice in four years.  Still I was pissed…especially since I didn’t realize what he had done it until I flipped the covers back to climb into the sac and pulled the  now soiled flannel sheet back onto my bare legs.  Nothing quite like the feel of cold cat vomit on your legs to get your ire up.

To top it all off, I pulled the soiled sheet and comforter off the bed to put them in the washer.  Having done that, I stepped into my slippers only to realize that the cat had barfed into one of them.  Now I know why they are called “slippers.”

Cardinals of the Kremlin or the Red Menace?

Posted on by chappyshi

I took these pictures of this cardinal in Waller Mill Park in Williamsburg, VA.  I stopped there to walk on the way home from my trip to Suffolk.  It was a great walk, the scenery was refreshing, but I could have done without the school bus full of kids who were out in paddle boats and/or walking around making too much noise.

Nonetheless, getting these pictures of the cardinal in a park located just across the highway from “The Farm” was ironic.  Read some Tom Clancy if you do not understand the reference.  And put a parka on because we are going to get all “Cold War” now.

It Snow Secret

Posted on by chappyshi

It has been a month since we had the last snow, 28-30 inches of it.  Here is what we had:

The big snows!

Here is what I have left (click to enlarge):

Last of the Snow, 2010
Last of the Snow, 2010

Note the scooter at bottom left.  I rode twice this week but we have rain coming in so I’ll have to take a break.  At least the bike isn’t covered in snow anymore.  It is hard to believe that we, in Virginia, got over five feet of snow as of 11 February this year and that, today, one month later, I was sitting on my balcony in a t-shirt reading the Washington Post as the temperature neared 70 degrees.

Great Bird Watching on the Trail at the Mariner’s Museum

Posted on by chappyshi

On the way today to see my sister Kim in Suffolk, VA, I stopped at the Mariner’s Museum in Newport News to walk around the lake.  The walk was good, and dry, compared to many places in the area which are closed or have limited access due to accumulations of ground water.

It was a bonanza hour and a half for birdwatching as far as I am concerned.  I saw the following:

  • Double-breasted Cormorants
  • Hooded Mergansers, breeding and non-breeding males
  • Ring-necked Ducks, breeding males
  • Yearling Red-tailed Hawk (I think)
  • Canadian Geese
  • Red Breasted Woodpeckers
  • Eastern Bluebirds
  • Great Blue Herons
  • Mallards

Browse to All about Birds, hosted by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, to  see and read about these birds.

In Afghanistan, High-tech Intel Fails Commanders, as Does Seeming Lack of Low-tech intel, Boots on the Ground Needed

Posted on by chappyshi

According the  Washington Post article, “As Marja assault progresses, coalition considers challenges in rebuilding area,” dated 20100221, the commanders of the 5000 U.S. Marines inserted into the Marja area of Afghanistan (long standing Taliban stronghold crisscrossed by impassible canals (built by the U.S. after the Soviets left) and center of opium production) expected, based on overhead imagery, to find a functioning local government and police force.

However “…when Marine officers reached the area, they discovered that two-dimensional images can be deceiving. What they had thought was the flat roof of the municipal building turned out to be a concrete foundation, and the police station was a bombed-out schoolhouse.”   I worked in military intelligence (yes, oxymoron, I know) many years ago.  One tenet we followed then and I assumed, probably erroneously, we followed now is that we should base significant actions on intelligence that can be confirmed by at least two sources.

The U.S. military has been in Afghanistan since 2001.  Now, as I stated previously, Marja has been a Taliban stronghold for some time.  Presumably it is not an easy area to insert a U.S. intelligence officer or a Special Forces team without detection.  Nonetheless, I find it very hard to believe that there was no intelligence on the ground in Marja (human intelligence, HUMINT in the vernacular of the U.S. intel community) that couldn’t verify the status of the local government center or police station.  The Marines did not go in there without warning…in fact there was plenty of warning…to give civilians the opportunity to evacuate.

That unfortunately gave the Taliban plenty of opportunity to set a bunch of IED’s to welcome the Marines.  What a blast to have you here, eh?   Here is the bottom line for me; use multiple sources to verify your intelligence and work with the Afghan government to verify your intelligence.  If the mission to Marja had been a secret, and one that had not been shared with the Afghani government to avoid leaks, I could understand this intelligence failure.  However, it was not a secret and I find it hard to believe that there was no one on the ground that couldn’t tell the U.S. that what were thought to be functioning organizations, the local government and police force, were  in fact shells of their former selves.

As such, an occupation/pacification strategy was initiated based on the false assumption that there was a functioning local government and police force to take the place of the Taliban.

Watching Olympics

Posted on by chappyshi

I am watching the Women’s Half-pipe…not sure the specific event,  if this isn’t it.  I think I read that they made the top of the half-pipe 22ft which, according to this article on ESPN online, Riders still rock halfpipe despite Pearce injury, is 25% higher than at the last Olympics.

As I watch this, women are crashing all over the place…they can’t get enough air.  To “air” is human?  Just saw some shots from the Turino Olympics in 2006.  The pipe was not that fat or tall but they were getting some serious air there compared to Vancouver.

Some woman just wiped out horribly and is walking away from it smiling.  I can’t watch this anymore.  And they just keep wiping out.  The top of the pipe is too high.  The limits are being pushed by the IOC and people are getting hurt and killed  Damn, just watched some woman tear it up …USA..Kelly Clark…awesome she was.

Butt they just keep wiping out…

Virginia Winter Wonderland?

Posted on by chappyshi

Well, we are into our fourth or fifth snowfall of the season.  They are predicting 20-30 inches for this one which started at 10:00 AM this morning and is supposed to run until 10:00 PM tomorrow.  We shall see…  Everyone is stocked and locked for the storm weekend, including Super Bowl parties.  The grocery stores have been zoos since Wednesday evening of course.  Perhaps everyone got a good head start on their shopping.  When I stopped at the Giant this afternoon to get my sister a birthday card, the store was relatively deserted.

Here’s some pics from snow we got Tuesday night.  I watched the branches shed the snow all morning long…they were bare again by mid-afternoon.  Driving around yesterday there were bare patches of ground right next to patches of 2-3 inches.  Seemed odd.  I’ll be cross-country skiing tomorrow!

Can We As a Country, the U.S., Afford to Up Our Immigration Quotas for Citizens of Failed States?

Posted on by chappyshi

I have recently read three articles/opinions/editorials in the Washington Post espousing the view that the U.S. should open up immigration for Haitians to our country.  The general reasoning is that a Haitian making meager wages in the U.S. makes much more than they might make in Haiti and that the money they (the diaspora) send back to family/friends in country far exceeds that of the money contributed to Haitian relief effort from other countries, charities, and NGO’s.

Unfortunately for the Haitians, and others in similar situations around the world whose countries have been devastated by natural disaster or unnatural disaster such as lack of government, business, and functioning civil society, the U.S is just not ready to allow for mass migration of disaffected individuals to the U.S.  While, according to certain pundits, such an evolution might not have as much impact on employment/unemployment as we would expect, we are not going to be able to convince heartland America of that.  While I would prefer to stay out of the political arena, it would be sure suicide for the current administration to open up the flood, or perhaps I should say, earthquake, gates to Haitian immigration.

Any suggestion of a job taken away from an American by an immigrant is going to be torn up in the conservative media and rightly so.  I consider myself a moderate independent and a humanitarian but until we get our house in order, our doors should be just barely ajar.  If we start opening up immigration to citizens of every failed state in the world we are setting ourselves up for disaster.  Where is it going to stop?  Haiti, Somalia, Afghanistan, Yemen, D.R. Congo, Eritria, Uganda, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, etc?  The list goes on.  Maybe Cuba or Venezuela would be happy to open up to the Haitian invasion…

The U.S.  needs to get its own house in order and, though we haven’t had the “natural disaster” impact quite like that of the one that affected Haiti (though I would say Katrina was significant), we still have a long row to hoe before we can start letting the rest of the world eat of our harvest unconditionally.