Clayton's commentary on news and events of the day. Broadly speaking, I'm a conservative with libertarian sympathies (getting more conservative as my children get older).

Other blogs you may enjoy: Permagringirl instapundit.com The Volokh Conspiracy

Email me at my first name, the at symbol, then my domain, which is first name, last name, .com. Sorry to be so indirect, but all spambots must die! But they haven't died yet!

 
Run That By Me Again?

Another woman shot in the head this evening, and this bizarre, "Run that by me again?" segment in the news account:

Authorities in Baltimore, meanwhile, seized a white van and found an assault rifle, sniper manual and ammunition similar to the .223 bullets used in attacks that have killed eight people and wounded two others, WBAL-TV reported.

MSNBC reported that a tarot card was found in the van and a sign on the dashboard read "Gihad in America." A tarot card was also found at one of the shootings.

The van's owner was being questioned by police Monday night.

"At this time, the task force believes this is not related to our sniper incidents," said Louise Marthens, a Montgomery County police spokeswoman.

"Jihad in America" might be an obnoxious punk's attempt at being cheeky; misspelling it sounds like a non-native speaker. I'm sure that there's a good reason why they aren't considering this relevant, but you do find yourself asking, "Why?"
posted by Clayton at 9:39 PM

 
More On Those Juvenile Killers In Milwaukie

A disturbing piece about the shattered homes from which those kids came. Many came from multiple felon parents; other were lacking fathers:

"Why the hell weren't these kids in bed?" Court Commissioner Dennis Cimpl asked during a court hearing.

When one mother attempted to answer, Cimpl cut her off.

"No, I don't want you to say anything, Mom. But it is obvious to me that you were not controlling your son."

It's not so clear to others.

"If your life is so scattered, if you're living in poverty, it has a substantial toll," said Bill Klottie, who runs fathers' programs at the Parenting Network in Milwaukee.

Boys who grow up without a father may become more and more angry - a problem that is magnified because there isn't a strong male presence to place restraints on their behavior.

"If it's not there, they become kind of wild," Klottie said.

He agreed that ultimately, no matter what their circumstances, parents are responsible for their children.

But he said negative environments - such as the deteriorating north side neighborhood where the beating occurred - make parents' jobs harder.

"Any parent would be hard-pressed to have their kids be successful in an area where the value seems to be lawlessness," Klottie said.

posted by Clayton at 9:06 PM

 
Overbuilding Capacity

The Washington Post has an article about the telecom boomtown--now busted--in northern Virginia:

The empty buildings along the Dulles Corridor are the concrete-and-glass equivalent of fiber-optic lines underneath America's cities.

Just as telecommunications companies built vastly too much capacity for moving around information during the late 1990s boom, they built more office space in Northern Virginia than they have ended up needing after laying off thousands of workers. And just as the telecom fiber is "dark," or not in use, much of that office space sits every bit as dark.
...
When telecom companies had headquarters built, however, many of them went with a different approach. They made each floor 40,000 to 50,000 square feet, so big that individual workers could be very far from a window or elevator. They had special rooms built to handle all their technical equipment, often caged off. They often chose out-of-the-way locations to save money. And in some cases, as with ailing WorldCom Inc., they built campuses of such buildings, often with the buildings sharing infrastructure.

All that may make it doubly difficult to find new tenants, which has would-be buyers nervous. In some cases, the design is so specialized for telecom tenants that a partial renovation would be necessary -- in buildings less than five years old -- to accommodate the typical uses of a government contractor, law firm or other more conventional business.

Yup. I have plenty of friends out of work in the Telecom Valley area of Northern California. The 1990s boom is, unfortunately, typical of a particular class of business cycle, with wild enthusiasm leading to overblown projections of the future, and then to massive overinvestment. Once realism arrived, and venture capitalists realized that all those dot-coms weren't going to create demand for this enormous Internet that everyone assumed, the telecom market turned out also to be greatly overblown.

It didn't help that many of the RBOCs seemed incapable of installing ADSL services which would have created a little of the demand for this tidal wave of Internet services. Even worse, some of them did their best to prevent their competitors from filling the need. (Yes, I am thinking of Pacific Bell and Covad.)

Five years ago, a cocktail napkin and even one successful startup would get you all the venture capital you could want. Now, I have friends who have viable and clever new product ideas, business plans, and skilled bunches of workers who are, unfortunately, immediately available to build those products--and those irrational exuberant venture capitalists now won't invest in anything more risky than a Treasury bond.
posted by Clayton at 12:24 PM

 
Why Saddam Hussein Must Be Overthrown--And Why Liberals Should Be In The Forefront

It isn't just that the Iraqi government gases civilians, starts wars with adjoining countries, and is building weapons of mass destruction. It is the enthusiasm for torture and rape that the government shows:

In an example of Uday's brutality, in an interview with Newsweek, Latif Yahia, an Iraqi exile who claims that he was for several years pressed into service as a body double for Uday, described an encounter where Uday spotted a young couple strolling through a park. He called out to the woman, but they walked on, pretending not to notice. Uday grabbed her by the arm and declared, "You're much too good for this simple man." (Her companion was wearing the uniform of an Army captain). The woman stammered that she had been married only the day before. Uday's guards dragged her to a hotel room, where Uday raped her as his guards watched from the next room. Latif, who says he witnessed the scene, says he heard the woman scream and then went to the balcony and saw her half-naked figure laying in front of the hotel entrance six floors below. Her husband, who cursed Uday, was executed for "defamation of the president." It is impossible to confirm Latif's story, but Iraqi media reported the execution of the husband, Saad Abd al-Razzek.

From Amnesty International's website:

In a report published today -- Iraq: Systematic torture of political prisoners -- the organization paints a grim picture of routine torture, whereby horrendous physical and psychological suffering is inflicted upon political prisoners and detainees.

"Victims of torture in Iraq are subjected to a wide range of forms of torture, including the gouging out of eyes, severe beatings and electric shocks," said Amnesty International, based on interviews with hundreds of torture victims in Iraq over the years. "Some victims have died as a result and many have been left with permanent physical and psychological damage."

Other methods of torture include extinguishing of cigarettes on various parts of the body, extraction of finger nails and toenails and piercing of the hands with an electric drill. Some have been sexually abused and others have had objects, including broken bottles, forced into their anus. In addition to physical torture, detainees have been threatened with rape and subjected to mock executions.

Other charming examples of how Iraq's current government does things:

Al-Shaikh Yahya Muhsin Ja'far al-Zeini, from Saddam City, is a 29-year-old former theology student in al-Hawza al-'Ilmiya. On 2 July 1999 he was arrested in his parents' house following his arrival from al-Najaf. His father and two brothers had been detained as substitute prisoners until his arrest. Security men blindfolded him and took him to the building of the Saddam Security Directorate. Once there, he was taken to a room and his blindfold was removed. He told Amnesty International:

'' ... I saw a friend of mine, al-Shaikh Nasser Taresh al-Sa'idi, naked. He was handcuffed and a piece of wood was placed between his elbows and his knees. The two ends of the wood were placed on two high chairs and al-Shaikh Nasser was being suspended like a chicken. This method of torture is known as al-Khaygania (a reference to a former security director known as al-Khaygani). An electric wire was attached to al-Shaikh Nasser's penis and another one attached to one of his toes. He was asked if he could identify me and he said ''this is al-Shaikh Yahya''. They took me to another room and then after about 10 minutes they stripped me of my clothes and a security officer said ''the person you saw has confessed against you''. He said to me ''You followers of [Ayatollah] al-Sadr have carried out acts harmful to the security of the country and have been distributing anti-government statements coming from abroad. He asked if I have any contact with an Iraqi religious scholar based in Iran who has been signing these statements. I said ''I do not have any contacts with him''... I was then left suspended in the same manner as al-Shaikh al-Sa'idi. My face was looking upward. They attached an electric wire on my penis and the other end of the wire is attached to an electric motor. One security man was hitting my feet with a cable. Electric shocks were applied every few minutes and were increased. I must have been suspended for more than an hour. I lost consciousness. They took me to another room and made me walk even though my feet were swollen from beating.... They repeated this method a few times''.

Al-Shaikh Yahya was regularly subjected to electric shocks followed by beating on the feet. For two months he had to sleep on the floor with his hands tied behind his back and his face on the floor. He stated that this was more unbearable than being subjected to electric shocks. On one occasion Shaikh Yahya was suspended from a window for three days. Another method of torture that he described was that while suspended a heavy weight was attached to his genitals and was left hanging for some time. Al-Shaikh Yahya was held without charge or trial until 14 April 2000 when he was released.

A number of former Iraqi political detainees were forced to undergo surgery to have a leg or arm amputated because they developed infections following prolonged torture and had developed gangrene.

Su'ad Jihad Shams al-Din, a 61-year-old medical doctor, was arrested at her clinic in Baghdad on 29 June 1999 on suspicion that she had contacts with Shi'a Islamist groups. She was detained without charge or trial and was released on 25 July 1999. She was initially held in Baghdad Security Directorate and then was transferred to al-Ambar Security Directorate (also in Baghdad) on 5 July. Su'ad Jihad Shams al-Din was tortured frequently during interrogation by security men. Methods of torture included mostly beatings on the soles of the feet (falaqa) with a cable.

Some women have been raped in custody. They were detained and tortured because they were relatives of well known Iraqi opposition activists living abroad. For example, on 7 June 2000 Najib al-Salihi, a former army general who fled Iraq in 1995 and joined the Iraqi opposition, was sent a videotape showing the rape of a female relative. Shortly afterwards he reportedly received a telephone call from the Iraqi intelligence service, asking him whether he had received the ''gift'' and informing him that his relative was in their custody.
...
Amputation of the tongue was reportedly approved by the authorities in mid-2000 as a new penalty for slander or abusive remarks about the President or his family. In September 2000 a man reportedly had his tongue amputated by members of Feda'iyye Saddam in Baghdad for slandering the President. He was said to have been driven around after the punishment while information about his alleged offence was broadcast through a loudspeaker.

posted by Clayton at 9:38 AM

 
Worrisome Behavior by Children

Even the most vigorously pro-choice sorts should find this article disturbing:

A 16-year-old girl has been pregnant 10 times since the age of 12, research has revealed.

The girl, who has two young children, is understood to have undergone three abortions and suffered five miscarriages in the last four years.

It is not known whether all 10 pregnancies were by the same man or a string of partners.

...

The records of all 144 girls aged between 12 and 16 were examined. Dr Sarah Creighton from Camden Primary Care Trust, who led the study, said the findings were very worrying.

She said: "My research hit me in the face. I was completely unprepared for the sexual cases I encountered. It was not just sexual ignorance. They knew that if they didn't use a condom they were at risk of infection.

"We were expecting to see quite high levels of infection because south London has problems with chlamydia and gonorrhoea, but even we were surprised.

"If the younger children had similar levels to older women that would be surprising enough, but they had three times as many."

The girls admitted to doctors at the clinic that less than a quarter of them had used contraception during sex and most of them had become pregnant at least once.

Dr Creighton added: "They were unable to negotiate safe sex - to insist on a condom. What shocked me was the number of girls who came back time and again with another infection or pregnancy.

"The first time may have been through ignorance but by four times we'd hope the message had got through."

Dr Creighton's research indicated that girls were less concerned about keeping clear of infection than they were about keeping a regular sexual partner.

Nuala Scarisbrick, trustee of the charity LIFE, said: "These latest findings make depressing reading but sadly they are what we feared. Children are experimenting with sex, and sexually transmitted diseases are rampant."

posted by Clayton at 9:02 AM

 
Bring It On

Some of you are probably wondering: why would al-Qaida launch this attack in Bali? There were apparently Americans killed, but the vast majority of the dead are likely to be Australians. Why attack Australia? While it is allied with the U.S., it has not been particularly loud in its support for the U.S. actions against terrorists, or Iraq, nor has it been noticeably pro-Israel. CORRECTION: It hasn't received much coverage in the U.S. (at least that I have noticed), but it appears that Australia has been one of the U.S.'s firm allies in this matter about terrorism and Iraq. These sort of attacks, if anything, are likely to strengthen support for the U.S. desire to clean out Iraq and other outlaw nations that are believed to have an interest in supporting al-Qaida.

A few weeks back, I warned that al-Qaida and the broader Islamfascist movement was looking to get the West as upset as possible--that theirs is an apocalyptic vision, one that believes that in a battle between Islam (with them leading, of course), and the degenerate post-Christian West, that Islam's morality purity will give them victory over our purely materialist advantages. This attack makes sense as part of a campaign to get the Australians good and angry. The attack against a French oil tanker a few days ago makes similar sense (though the French seem to be doing their best to not let this little matter disturb them excessively). I would expect an attack against Britain next.

Wake up. There is something terribly sick going on in the Islamic world--a dangerous movement that deludes itself that its moral purity (murdering non-combatants) makes it immune from our moral resolve and technological superiority. This group of fanatics need to be informed that they are incorrect. An example needs to be made of brutal thugs like Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden--an example that will remind people throughout the world that brutality and savagery will be dealt with accordingly.

UPDATE: Someone has taken responsiblity for the attack on the French tanker, and their explanation, contained in this London Times article, really captures why there is no way for Western nations to accommodate evil in the hopes of avoiding attack:

A spokesman for the Islamic Army of Aden told the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper yesterday: “We would have preferred to hit a US frigate, but no problem because they are all infidels.” The group claimed to have carried out the attack to avenge the execution of one of its leaders, Abu Hassan, for the 1998 kidnapping of 16 Western tourists.

We are all infidels. Even behaving characteristically French, and trying to avoid confronting Iraq, won't save the French from attack by al-Qaida, until France is Islamic. Al-Qaida is engaged in a death match with the West--and with civilized behavior.

There are plenty of liberals who are running around explaining why the terrorist problem is caused by U.S. policy towards Israel. Here's an example, from Bruce Haigh, a retired Australian diplomat, quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald's recent coverage of the disaster in Bali:

"The root cause of this issue has been America's backing of Israel on Palestine.

"It didn't surprise me when September 11 occurred and what we see now is these sort of attacks coming closer to home."

"They are all infidels." Liberals had better face up to this. It isn't about Israel. It's about Islamofascism. Until American courts are stoning women to death for having children out of wedlock; until French courts are amputating hands for theft; until Britain abolishes television (which, after all, shows images of living things, a violation of the Koran); until Sweden requires women to wear burkhas; until Italy prohibits the making of wine; until Denmark stops making pornography; until Canada makes homosexuality a capital offense--there will be no peace.
posted by Clayton at 8:09 PM

 
"Murder rate soars to highest for a century"

In Britain, of course. The article from the Sunday Times of Britain requires you to be a subscriber (a recent innovation, and one that I don't particularly like), but here's some of the really entertaining quotes:

BRITAIN'S murder rate has risen to its highest level since records began 100 years ago, undermining claims by ministers that they have got violent crime under control.

The number of murders notified to police in the first eight months of this year has risen by as much as 22% in some of Britain's biggest cities, which account for the majority of homicides.
...
Commander Andy Baker, who is in charge of more than 900 detectives investigating all murders in London, blamed drugs and a greater availability of guns.

He called for five-year sentences for the possession of firearms. "If people know they are going to get five years, they won't carry them," he said.

Greater availability of guns? He is obviously talking about handguns, because he says, "carry them." Britain completely banned all handguns several years back--no exceptions, not even for the British Olympic shooting team.

Oh, you mean the laws don't work when criminals want guns?
posted by Clayton at 3:17 PM