Interesting story, though:

Several U.S. Army soldiers killed in a helicopter crash in Iraq last week were to be witnesses in the homicide trial of their former superior.

Honolulu’s KITV reported Sunday that some of the soldiers who died in the crash had been scheduled to testify in the trial of Sgt. 1st Class Trey Corrales, who is accused of orchestrating the death of an Iraqi detainee this year.

Corrales, who was in the same Hawaii-based platoon as the soldiers killed in Wednesday’s crash, allegedly shot the detainee repeatedly June 23. He is accused of then ordering his subordinate and fellow defendant, Spc. Christopher Shore, to continue shooting the man. The detainee died from those wounds.

Retired military lawyer Earle Partington said the loss of the witnesses could prove detrimental to the prosecution’s case against the pair.

“If these witnesses are no longer alive, there is no way for the accused or their counsel to question them. Unfortunately, it could mean that there is no trial,” Partington told the TV station. “Obviously, it depends on what witnesses the government still has.”

Actually, we had met previously, but Molly was coming over to visit.

Masked QPP, one carrying a large rock, tried to incite a riot among peaceful protesters. They failed, and were caught. After staying silent for two days, Quebec finally admitted that the police were indeed involved. Read the details here, with video clips. Oh, Canada!

It looks as though California’s going to be chasing after North Dakota to grow industrial hemp. Here’s the story:

A newly proposed law in California would establish a five-year pilot program for farmers to grow industrial hemp in four counties. The law would also define “industrial hemp” as separate from marijuana under the state’s health and safety code.

Hemp is a sustainable and environmentally friendly crop which contains less than 1 percent of THC. It is used in skin products, as fertilizer, medicine, building material, fabric, paper, fuel, and can be converted into fully biodegradable plastics. The United States is the only industrialized nation where hemp is not an established crop, much to the delight of oil, coal, and chemical industries which benefit from the ban.

Cultivation of hemp is currently illegal under US federal law thanks to the lobbying of the aforementioned groups. The California Narcotic Officers’ Association has testified that the passage of such a bill would only make law enforcement more difficult because farmers might hide illegal marijuana in their legal hemp fields. I could be wrong, but it seems like this association is either admitting that they’re too incompetent to do their jobs correctly, or they’re making the case for the legalization of marijuana so that they’re not forced to make the distinction. Either way, I say let the layoffs begin.

More here.

Glenn Greenwald has an excellent post today, calling on Democrats to demand an independent Attorney General of unimpeachable integrity—and not one of Bush’s incompetent hack loyalists, such as Michael Chertoff. However, The Wife suspects that Bush may propose Harriet Miers—after all, he thought she was qualified for the Supreme Court and she’s probably available.

It’s back-to-school time and advice to students is coming fast and furious. Here’s an example of advice specifically for a college student:

Right about now, America’s students are heading back to school for the Fall semester. Last week, I gave some very specific advice about using a wiki to store and organize notes, but keeping good notes is just part of being a successful student. Over the weekend, I decided to offer up some more general, all-purpose advice for students. Whether you’re just starting college or returning, the tips below will help you make the most out of the coming school year.

1. Get organized! Pretty self-explanatory, that one. But here’s a few things you an do to make that vague advice a little more practical:
   • Write everything down. Get a Moleskine notebook and a packet of Post-It “Durable Tabs”. Divide the notebook into sections for your todo list, projects (stuff that takes more than a step or two to finish, e.g. research papers, club activities, etc.), and notes. Stick that and a nice pen or mechanical pencil in your pocket, purse, or backpack. Carry it everywhere. Use it. Religiously. Write down assignments, appointments, trips to the library, shopping lists, phone numbers, classroom numbers, everything and anything that crosses your mind. I keep todos on the right-hand page and notes on the back of the left-hand page. Or figure out some other system — use index cards, a DayPlanner, a PDA, whatever works, but use it.
   • Review your lists regularly. Weekly, if you can. Bring your todo list up to date. Write down your upcoming deadlines. Copy your notes into a OneNote or EverNote file on your computer. Transfer email addresses and phone numbers into whatever software you use for contacts. Make sure you haven’t forgotten anything important, and brainstorm your ideas for the coming week.
   • Have an inbox. Pick a place in your dorm room or apartment or wherever you end up living and put all your new stuff (assignments, papers, books, things you bought at the store) there. Go through it every day and put everything where it belongs — into your todo list, in a desktop file box, into whatever drawer or closet it belongs in.

   Organized doesn’t necessarily mean “clean”, just keep a general system so you know that what you need is somewhere you can fin it. Remember that you need ideas, too — write them down and keep them safe! Read the rest of this entry »

He stayed too long, and he never was Attorney General, but simply Bush’s personal lawyer.

I had a dream last night that I had to write a short paper on each of Shakespeare’s sonnets. In the dream, I had to explain the “engine” that drove each sonnet—the central theme and the interaction of images. In the dream, the instructor pointed out that a chess problem (I was specifically thinking of helpmates, wherein Black cooperates with White to achieve the mate), having a unique solution is not enough—the problem must also illustrate a theme. If the problem doesn’t, it has no point.

I woke up and started thinking about the dream, which actually didn’t seem a bad idea for a little project. In fact, I have a copy of Helen Vendler’s The Art of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, which includes a CD of some of the sonnets being read aloud. I could rip the CD, select a single track—i.e., a single sonnet—and make a single-sonnet playlist, playing it with repeat so that I could listen to the sonnet repeatedly as well as read it. Then a short paper on the sonnet, and then read what Helen has to say…

Simple improvements to overcome design defects:

1. Two thick rubber bands on top so you can grind pepper even after handling, say, a raw chicken you’re preparing to roast.

2. Tape over opening to peppercorn reservoir so that it doesn’t open and spill peppercorns while you’re grinding.

I will, of course, send a link to this post to the company. Perhaps they can ship the Magnum Plus peppermill with these modifications in place.

For a rather grim look at the actual US policy toward the United Kingdom, take a look at this review:

Cold War at 30,000 Feet: The Anglo-American Fight for Aviation Supremacy
by Jeffrey A. Engel

Our Battle with Britain
A Review by Max Hastings

Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt lavished such extravagant rhetoric upon the Anglo-American alliance in the Second World War that illusions about its reality persist to this day. By 1945, not only was the United States victorious, its participation in the war had also been profitable. The nation was wealthier than ever. Britain’s defiance of Hitler, however, had rendered it bankrupt. The contrast between the two nations’ circumstances engendered deep British bitterness and envy, intensified by Congress’s abrupt termination of Lend-Lease, the program that had provided billions of dollars worth of material to Allied nations, the moment peace was declared.

It seemed to many British citizens monstrously unjust that having suffered so much, including heavy damage to the physical fabric of their country, they should thereafter be treated with skinflint ruthlessness. Many Americans, for their part, perceived a new world in which the United States’ only rival for supremacy was the Soviet Union. They were impatient, indeed scornful, of residual British pretensions, above all to empire.

The US set about exercising hegemony without much pity for its ally’s plight. Even a loan to London roused significant congressional opposition, reflected by the representative who vowed never to “vote for one dollar [for British aid] to take food out of the mouths of my people.” This was a trifle excessive when Americans were eating handsomely, while the British found themselves forced to celebrate peace by introducing bread rationing. But US skepticism was scarcely di-minished when Britain, with what critics deemed a characteristically self-indulgent sense of entitlement, set about using its borrowed American cash to create a welfare state, rather than to modernize its battered and decrepit industrial base. It also strove to sustain worldwide strategic commitments far beyond its shrunken means.

Through the decades that followed, the British experience was dominated by a struggle for solvency. This was rendered exceptionally difficult by the fact that before 1941 — the year Lend-Lease was introduced and the year of Pearl Harbor — the nation’s entire securities and foreign assets portfolio and gold reserves had been liquidated in order to buy American weapons. By 1945 Britain, a trading nation, had precious little to sell that the world wanted to buy. The US, by contrast, began the postwar commercial contest possessed of both political influence and vast resources.

Read the rest of this entry »

This morning was a shave stick morning, of course. I used Mama Bear’s Sandalwood Vanilla shave stick, and the Simpsons Chubby 1 Best Badger produced a fine lather.

I did the first pass with the English President open-comb, using a Feather blade and hoping—against all odds—that the asymmetry would thereby disappear. No such luck, though I did get more action from the shy side. I think with a Feather blade and some technique adjustments, I can find good use for the razor.

The second pass was with the Wilkinson Sticky, using a Wilkinson blade. I used this razor to reconfirm that the Sticky is a good shaver but by no means aggressive. A sharp blade is required, and your technique must be adjusted to the razor. At first, I thought it was too mild, but by shaving daily with it for a while, I learned to wield it well, and I now get very good shaves.

The final pass was with the HD and an Astra Superior blade. Very nice, solid razor and solid finish.

The aftershave was the Royall Mandarin from the Carmel Drug Store, and I immediately decided that I must use Honeybee Spa’s Orange Burst shave soap with this aftershave as soon as possible.