The Bier Halls of Old Dominion
Hey folks! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. A picture is forthcoming, but I spent Saturday evening at my favorite new German/beer joint in Portsmouth with M@ and Mrs. Mike Nelson. It was awesome. Sunday was pretty much all church-related. Here's Friday's news.
The biggest news is this horrible thing in Mumbai. Kudos to the courageous Indian security forces, who heroically responded to this attrocity. On Friday, there were a couple of interesting articles that are worth noting. Preliminary reports say that the shooters were British-born Pakistanis, which seems to corroborate CIA director Michael Hayden's November statement claiming that Western-born terrorist recruits are traveling to Pakistan to receive training. The Jerusalem Post has an interesting article titled "Analysis: Terrorism has truly become war, and we need to rethink how we fight it". One of the major questions in the election cycle we've just completed was how we ought to fight terrorism. President-Elect Obama essentially proposed to fight it in the same way that President Clinton fought it: as a half-assed law enforcement problem. President Bush and Senator McCain have proposed to fight it for what it is: a war that was declared on us, in which the best defense is an effective offense.
Speaking of the war, there's good news on the Afghan front: following similar news in August, the UN reports that Afghan opium cultivation is down by nineteen percent. Opium has been the big underlying problem (vice the overlying military problems), and the Taliban's economic center of gravity has been opium since before the start of the war. The best way to cripple the Taliban on a logistical level will be to eliminate opium, in part or as a whole. Here's a review of some of the developments over the last few months.
Afghans swap poppies for wheat as food costs soar (13th May 2008)
Briton's bid to stop Afghan poppy trade (pomegranates) (03rd August 2008)
Opium Production Falls Dramatically in Afghanistan (AP, BBC, Times) (26th August 2008)
Afghanistan Markets Pomegranates as Trendy Alternative to Opium Poppies (21rd November 2008)
There's obviously a lot of progress yet to be made with respect to the opium problem. These developments are a step in the right direction, but we need more such steps, and we need them now and continuously.
As I mentioned previously, I hung out with M@ and Mrs. Mike Nelson on Saturday evening; unfortunately, Mrs. Mike Nelson's young and impressionable sister, the Fashionista, was unable to join us. So, I don't remember what brought the whole subject up, but when we were out on Saturday night, Mrs. Mike Nelson brought up the topic of the huge vampire gatherings in New Orleans, and how fun it would be to attend one - not because we're into vampire stuff, but because it would be interesting to watch all of the vampire devotees. The sequence went as follows:
Mrs. Mike Nelson: It would be really fun to go to one of those big vampire parties that they have in New Orleans.
The Fly: Aren't those things sort of uncomfortably sexual?
Mrs. Mike Nelson: Well, we just won't take [The Fashionista].
Awesome. Have a great day, folks, and check back tomorrow - now that Thanksgiving's over, I'm assuming that the major news outlets will start actually working again. Great success.
The biggest news is this horrible thing in Mumbai. Kudos to the courageous Indian security forces, who heroically responded to this attrocity. On Friday, there were a couple of interesting articles that are worth noting. Preliminary reports say that the shooters were British-born Pakistanis, which seems to corroborate CIA director Michael Hayden's November statement claiming that Western-born terrorist recruits are traveling to Pakistan to receive training. The Jerusalem Post has an interesting article titled "Analysis: Terrorism has truly become war, and we need to rethink how we fight it". One of the major questions in the election cycle we've just completed was how we ought to fight terrorism. President-Elect Obama essentially proposed to fight it in the same way that President Clinton fought it: as a half-assed law enforcement problem. President Bush and Senator McCain have proposed to fight it for what it is: a war that was declared on us, in which the best defense is an effective offense.
Speaking of the war, there's good news on the Afghan front: following similar news in August, the UN reports that Afghan opium cultivation is down by nineteen percent. Opium has been the big underlying problem (vice the overlying military problems), and the Taliban's economic center of gravity has been opium since before the start of the war. The best way to cripple the Taliban on a logistical level will be to eliminate opium, in part or as a whole. Here's a review of some of the developments over the last few months.
There's obviously a lot of progress yet to be made with respect to the opium problem. These developments are a step in the right direction, but we need more such steps, and we need them now and continuously.
As I mentioned previously, I hung out with M@ and Mrs. Mike Nelson on Saturday evening; unfortunately, Mrs. Mike Nelson's young and impressionable sister, the Fashionista, was unable to join us. So, I don't remember what brought the whole subject up, but when we were out on Saturday night, Mrs. Mike Nelson brought up the topic of the huge vampire gatherings in New Orleans, and how fun it would be to attend one - not because we're into vampire stuff, but because it would be interesting to watch all of the vampire devotees. The sequence went as follows:
Mrs. Mike Nelson: It would be really fun to go to one of those big vampire parties that they have in New Orleans.
The Fly: Aren't those things sort of uncomfortably sexual?
Mrs. Mike Nelson: Well, we just won't take [The Fashionista].
Awesome. Have a great day, folks, and check back tomorrow - now that Thanksgiving's over, I'm assuming that the major news outlets will start actually working again. Great success.
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