LFTC - Letter From The Capitol

Chile: Miners Ascend, Civilized World Cheers

Trapped miners heroically beat awesome odds....

LFTC - The First "East Jerusalem" Settlement, and Abusing an Ally Today

Israeli archaeologists have uncovered a 3,700 year old wall, the oldest yet found, in Jerusalem's Old City.  Which brings to mind two thoughts.  First, does anyone think the Arabs can be trusted to preserve, let alone look for, these antiquities, when there airbrushed official history denies the First & Second Temples?  The Jordanians torched Jewish synagogues after taking the eastern section of Jerusalem in 1948, and after taking control of the West Bank Yasser Arafat's minions were caught destroying evidence of Jewish antiquity on Temple Mount.  That is how the Palestinians repaid former World's Best Mayor Teddy Kollek for turning over to control of the Muslim Waqf (religious authority) administration of what to Muslims is called Haram al-Sharif ("Noble Sanctuary"). Indeed there is a pre-1948 record of Arab desecration & destruction of Jewish holy places.  Here is more detail on how bloody-minded supposed Palestinian moderates in Fatah are--never mind Hamas.

Second, had the Obama administration's ban on settlements in so-called East Jerusalem (an appellation created after the 1948 Jordanian conquest to ratify the seizure)been in place, would this ancient treasure even have been built?

On to modern times: The Jerusalem Post reports that Israel has approved construction of 455 new settler homes within existing Judea & Samaria settlements.  a new poll run by the firm of ex-Clinton pollster Stanley Greenberg shows a majority of Palestinians in both the West Bank & Gaza holding a negative view of Hamas.  While most (no surprise) blame Israel, as usual, for their troubles, there were other surprising results noted in the Jerusalem Post article:

Nonetheless, Gazans and Jordanians both showed a surprisingly high level of support for direct negotiations with Israel. More than half of those two groups - 52% of those polled - said they believed Palestinians should negotiate directly with Israel, accept its right to exist and honor past agreements. Thirty-nine percent of Egyptians said the same, compared to 36% of Palestinians in the West Bank.

Also surprising, Greenberg said, was that while 35% of the other groups polled stressed the importance of releasing captive IDF soldier Gilad Schalit, an overwhelming two-thirds of Gazans said the same.

The poll also revealed that nearly a decade after the breakdown of the Camp DavidAccords between Yasser Arafat, then-US president Bill Clinton and then-prime minister Ehud Barak, a majority of those polled in Egypt, Jordan and the West Bank expressed regret that Arafat failed to accept the peace deal proposed there.

Fifty-six percent of West Bank Palestinians said that in retrospect, they wished Arafat had accepted the agreement, while 50% of Jordanians and 39% of Egyptians said the same. In Gaza, 57% of those polled said they did not regret Arafat's rejection of the deal.

Greenberg said that these West Bank results show a change of heart since the breakdown of the Camp David talks.

Ex-Reagan & Bush 43 senior foreign policy official Elliott Abrams demolishes Jimmy Carter's latest sally against Israel over settlements & Palestinians, in a crisp op-ed (Abrams links to Carter's op-ed, if you can stand it).  Abrams offers economic growth figures that buttress what Greenberg says (as well as what George Gilder said in The Israel Test, a book I recently reviewed in The American Spectator).

While this would seem to hold out hopes for talks, Mideast ace Barry Rubin warns Americans not to place too much faith in Mideast regional dialogue.  Re BR's full column for relevant history, but he says of Team Obama's tilt towards Syria,--despite Syria's role in bombings inside Iraq--that it is reminiscent of US appeasement of Saddam prior to Saddam's invading Kuwait:

And now the Obama administration has done precisely the same thing. Of course, Syria won't invade Iraq, it will just keep welcoming, training, arming, financing, transporting and helping the terrorists who do so.

The Obama administration has declared the war on terrorism to be over. But it also said that the US viewed al Qaida and those working with it as enemies. The Syria-based Iraqi terrorists fall into that category. America sacrificed hundreds of lives for Iraq's stability. Most of those soldiers and civilian contractors were murdered by the very terrorists harbored by Syria.

HOW CAN the administration distance itself from this conflict instead of supporting its ally and trying to act against the very terrorists who have murdered Americans?

Nominally, of course, the cheap way out was to say: We don't know who did these particular bombings. Well, who do you think did it, men from Mars? Even this is not relevant since the Iraqi demand for the expulsion of the terrorists - who have committed hundreds of other acts - came before the latest attack even happened.

Moreover, the administration not only invoked its obsession with dialogue at any price but did so in an incorrect and dangerous manner. The Iraqi government had sought dialogue, had used diplomatic means and was turned down flat.

So is this administration incapable of criticizing Syria? Even if it wants to engage in talks with Syria, it doesn't understand that diplomacy is not inconsistent with pressure and criticism, tools to push the other side into concessions or compromises.

Looking at this latest development - along with many other policy statements and events during the new administration's term so far - how can any ally have confidence that the US government will support it if menaced by terrorism or aggression? It can't. The problem with treating enemies better than friends is that the friends start wondering whether their interests are better served by appeasing mutual enemies or mistreating an unfaithful ally which ignores their needs.

Bottom Line.  Henry Kissinger's famous line after the fall of the Shah of Iran was aided by foolish Cater administration policy, that if it is dangerous to be an enemy of the United States, it can be fatal to be its friend.  The leftist trope of appeasing enemies whilst pressuring allies is aimed at moving parties towards presumed common ground.  The idea that we have much common ground with the ordinary Palestinians is a huge stretch; the idea that we have any with the likes o Syria & Iran beggars the imagination.

LFTC - Brother Can You Spare $9 Trillion?

Fox News did some arithmetic, and found that spending $100 per second it would take 2,853 years to spend the $9 TR that 44 proposes to add to the public debt.  (My calculator computes 2,853.88 years, which rounds up to 2,854 under the rules I learned in school.)  Look at it this way: There are 31,536,000 seconds in one year.  To spend $9 TR in 10 years--the period over which 44's $9 TR budget binge is to run--would take spending nearly $30,000 per second!  (To be precise, $28,538.80 per second.)

In 1931, lyricist E. Y. (Yip) Harburg penned this deathless verse as the Great Depression deepened:

Once I built a railroad, I made it run, made it race against time.
Once I built a railroad; now it's done. Brother, can you spare a dime?
Once I built a tower, up to the sun, brick, and rivet, and lime;
Once I built a tower, now it's done. Brother, can you spare a dime?

It is time to update this, with apologies to Yip (a died-in-the-wool Democrat all his days):

VOTER, CAN YOU SPARE A TRIL?

Once I owned some big banks, pumped in dough, told them "Empty the till!"

Ordered pseudo-stim'lus, little done; Voter, can you spare a TRIL?

Once I bought up GM, Chrysler too, made 'em pay union bills.

Then I Rx'd health care for each one; Voter, can you spare 9 TRILS?

Copyright  John C. Wohlstetter 2009

LFTC - Bolt In Berlin

Jamaican super-sprinter Usain Bolt lowered his 100m & 200m world records set in Beijing, 9.69 & 19:30, by an identical 0.11 seconds, to 9.58 & 19.19 respectively, in last week's world championships in Berlin.  Watch these 100m Berlin and 200m Berlin videos, plus this astonishing 150m video (an earlier special race, not in Berlin) in which Bolt timed at 14.36--faster than his 14.47 in Beijing for the first 150m of his Olympic 200m, and far faster than the 14.75 previous WR mark in this rare event--and done under wet conditions without a full warm-up!  Note also his 5.64 50m & 9.90 100m rocket splits in the 150m race.

BTW, Bolt's 200m Berlin race was run into a slight headwind (0.3/m.sec.); his 100m WR was aided by a slight tailwind of 0.9m/sec., well under the maximum allowable 2.0/sec.  His 0.11 jump in WR time for the 100m was the largest jump since electronic timing, permitting 100ths of a second to be tallied, was introduced in 1977.  This Sydney Morning Herald column adds a neat 100m race nugget: Bolt looked over his shoulder.

All 3 races show beyond cavil that Bolt simply has an extra racing gear his rivals lack.  He beat the second-place Berlin finisher, American Tyson Gay, by 0.13 sec. (Gay's time is a new US 100m record).  Only injury or disqualification or extreme fatigue can beat him so long as he is at this level, unless someone new shows up.  What is Bolt's potential?  A generation ago I was a major track buff, so let me try to sort this out.  A faster start could lead to a sub-9.50 100m--Bolt's reaction time in the 100m Berlin race was 0.146 sec  This sounds fast until you realize that typical sprinter reaction time is 0.12 sec, & that 1960 Rome Olympic 100m gold medalist Armin Hary's reaction time was 0.04 sec.  (Both figures come from author David Maraniss's fine Rome 1960 book.)  Take Bolt's 9.58 & give him a Hary start & Bolt's time drops .106, to 9.484!  Now: someone tell Bolt not to look over his shoulder.  Makes for 9.40, I say.

In the 200m, take Bolt's 150M flat race of 14.36, 0.39 faster than his 19.30 Beijing race.  Bolt covered the last 50m of his 150m WR in 4.46 seconds.  With his smooth stride he could match that for another 50m, and would hit 18.86 on a straightaway, with wet conditions.  Running a curve adds 0.2 - 0.5 sec.  Bolt runs curves very well, so figure 0.2, and makes for 19.06 on wet conditions.  On a dry surface, perhaps he goes under the magic 19.0 mark.  Also give him an allowable tailwind, instead of his Berlin headwind, and sub-19.0 seems very doable.

Is there a 400m in Bolt's running future?  9.5 & 19.0 would make for 28.5 sec. for 300m.  Say he does 10.5 for the first 100m & 20.5 for the 200m segment, each leg a full second slower than his estimated (by me) potential best, an eternity in running sprints, and he goes into the final 100m of a 400m race at 31.0.  Michael Johnson's 400m WR is 43.18.  You make the call.  Mine?  I say Bolt comes in under 43.  Will this happen?  How long before Bolt gets bored burying 100m & 200m fields, and looks for new running worlds to conquer?

Instead, Bolt was quoted this weekend as saying he would like to try the long jump, in which the WR is 30 feet 2-1/4 inches.  On pure speed & with his stride, figure Bolt tops 28 feet without training.  But there is elevated risk: the kinetic kicking movements of top long jump form carry high risk of injury.  Bolt should take another year to put his mark on the perfect sprints, then move on to aerials.

LFTC - Footballica Fantastica!

I do not normally post sports stuff, but this NFL Fantasy Football video (2:36) captures in a nutshell the astonishing athleticism of America's pro players.  Problems off the field many have, but watch this to see some memorable feats.

LFTC - Neil & Buzz Landed on the Moon, Whoopi Lands on Mars, Marion on Venus

Begin Friday with a few laughs, before getting to the serious stuff: Check out this "The View" video (1:44) of Whoopi Goldberg questioning whether Neil & Buzz landed on the Moon.  Whoopi styles herself a fan of Capricorn One (1978), a Hollywood flick with a stellar cast (sorry about that), about a faked Mars landing that starred, among others, America's favorite 1990s multiple murderer & ex-NFL great, one Orenthal James Simpson.  Here is the summary, which, note well, is signed by Anonymous:

Classic conspiracy tale about the first manned mission to Mars. All appears to be going well until the astronauts are pulled off the ship just before launch by shadowy government types and whisked off to a film studio in the desert. It transpires that the space vehicle has a major defect which NASA just daren't admit. At the studio, over a course of months, the astronauts are forced to act out the journey and the landing to trick the world into believing they have made the trip. Meanwhile, a Journalist (played by Gould) is getting suspicious and every clue he uncovers seems to result in an attempt on his life! The astronauts are just about to splashdown when a further twist to the tale occurs, leaving them with no choice but to try and escape... Written by MT

When the head of NASA's manned Mars missions discovers that the capsule meant to carry the astronauts will suffer a catastrophic failure, he forces the three astronauts to participate in a hoax by broadcasting their 'Mission' from a studio built at a now abandoned air force base. Over the many months of the mission, the astronauts send broadcasts to Earth on their progress and all goes well until their space capsule burns up on re-entry. They soon realize that the only way for the hoax to be maintained is for them to die and they make a desperate attempt to escape their captors. Throughout this period, an investigative reporter gets wind of the fact that something is amiss with man's first mission to Mars and slowly puts together the pieces of the mystery. Written by garykmcd

Charles Brubaker is the astronaut leading NASA's first manned mission to Mars. Seconds before the launch, the entire team is pulled from the capsule and the rocket leaves earth unmanned much to Brubaker's anger. The head of the programme explains that the life support system was faulty and that NASA can't afford the publicity of a scratched mission. The plan is to fake the Mars landing and keep the astronauts at a remote base until the mission is over, but then investigative journalist Robert Caulfield starts to suspect something. Written by Col Needham {col@imdb.com}

Brolin, Waterston and Simpson play astronauts agreeing to spare the government embarrassment by faking their Mars landing after their spacecraft is unsafe for a manned takeoff. When mission controller Holbrook plots to kill them in a staged capsule fire, they try to expose the truth. Gould stars as a journalist determined to crack the conspiracy and Telly Savalas is an eccentric farmer coming to Gould's aid. Written by Anonymous.

To be fair, Whoopi has company: French actress Marion Cotillard, winner of an Oscar for her portrayal of Edith Piaf in La Vie En Rose (2007), Cotillard believes not only that the Moon landing was faked, but that 9/11 was an inside job.  Cotillard's star-logic is that planes have hit other towers and those never collapse, so how come the WTC Towers collapsed so quickly?  Her answer: it was the cheapest way to destroy an uneconomic building.  She should stay out of the construction business.

Bottom Line.  NASA did not make it to Mars, but Whoopi did.  Whoopi could tell Marion about the WTC Towers actually having collapsed, except that Marion is on Venus.  Whoopi & Marion cannot communicate, because a cabal known as "The Neo-Matarese Circle"--NASA, the CIA and Sarah Palin--are blocking all transmissions between the two planets.

Bonus.  Enjoy this "La Vie en Rose" audio (3:09) of the real Edith Piaf singing one of her trademark songs.

LFTC - Magic Flute 35 Millennia Before Mozart

Yahoo News reported last week that scholars have excavated part of what is now the world's oldest known musical instrument: an ivory flute.  Actually, three of them, found in Germany, which represent the first confirmation that Stone Age humans played music.  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's 1791 opera, Die Zauberflote, premiered months before the genius composer passed away, at age 35.  We now know that Mozart's magic instrument was not mankind's first.

Traffic Jam Over Siberia

MyWay reports on the world's first mid-space collision between orbiting satellites, over Siberia: a Russian bird launched in 1993 and a Motorola Iridium low-earth orbit communications satellite launched in 1997.  Space jaywalkers beware.

Health Care: Israel Innovates

While the Palestinians innovate in ways to kill innocents by the carload, and poison the minds of children they do not dupe into becoming suicide bombers, Israeli surgeons have unveiled a novel wound-healing technique that employs a special laser to weld wounds shut, with minimal scarring.  Earlier efforts to use lasers for this were defeated by problems in avoiding burns.  The new device is controlled so that burns do not occur.

Dark Matter at the South Pole?

A New York Times front-pager this week reported on how scientists at the South Pole have detected what may be dark anti-matter particles emitted by a pulsar--what is created by a supernova explosion.  Enjoy 5 pages away from the mess of current events and contemplate the greater cosmos for a few minutes.  Savor, too, the amusing goof the Times admits to at the end--one anyone, myself included, could make--which I note only for a chuckle at our common human propensity to commit bloppers.

Happy Thanksigiving!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL LFTC READERS!  For holiday cheer, enjoy this amusing video ad (1:01) featuring Robert DeNiro.

India Meets the Moon!

In late October India launched its first Moon mission.  America last saw the Moon's surface in 1972.  Congratulations!  The Times of India reports that on Wednesday, Nov. 12, India's satellite attained planned orbit around the Moon, subject to fine-tuning.  Enjoy both fascinating articles.

Time Travel Time

Time and Date is a comprehensive global time database.  For Americans, all save those living in Honolulu are to set their clocks ahead one hour as of 1 AM Sunday, November 2.  ("Spring forward; fall back.")  I fondly remember from my youth calling 637-1212 to hear the Time Lady give me the time, thinking she was speaking to me live.

From Scotland With Love

Sent to me online, hope it is true, for a weekend light moment:

SIGN IN A STORE WINDOW
  "WE WOULD RATHER 
DO BUSINESS WITH
1,000 AL-QAIDA TERRORISTS  THAN WITH
ONE SINGLE
ENGLISH, BRITISH OR AMERICAN SOLDIER!" 

This sign  was prominently displayed in the window of a
business in Campbeltown  Scotland and you are probably
outraged at the thought  of such an inflammatory statement.
   
However, we are a society which holds Freedom of Speech as perhaps
our greatest liberty. 
   
And after all, it is only a sign.
You may ask, 
"What kind of business would dare post such a sign?"

Answer:

A Funeral Home 

Who said morticians had no  sense of humour?)

Financial Meltdown: Japan Folds, Spins, Mutates?

A anonymous online source informs us that following the problems in the sub-prime lending market in America and the run on HBOS in the UK, uncertainty has now hit Japan.

In the last 7 hours Origami Bank has folded, Sumo Bank has gone belly up and
Bonsai Bank announced plans to cut some of its branches. Yesterday, it was
announced that Karaoke Bank is up for sale and will likely go for a song,
while today shares in Kamikaze Bank were suspended after they nose-dived.

Samurai Bank is soldiering on following sharp cutbacks, Ninja Bank is reported to have taken a hit, but they remain in the black. Furthermore, 500 staff at Karate Bank got the chop and analysts report that there is something fishy going on at Sushi Bank where it is feared that staff may get a raw deal.

With all the Doom & Gloom, I thought LFTC readers should enjoy a chuckle.

Barack's West Bank Baker

No, NOT James Baker.  A real baker.  A Palestinian baker in Ramallah has named a creation of his the Obama bagel.  Yes, bagel.  What next, McCain matzoh ball soup in Tel Aviv?

Internet of Yore; China Today, Shark Summer, Barack Sack

Enjoy this "Pepper and Salt" cartoon from the Wall Street Journal, and enter the weekend laughing.  Double your fun with this YouTube video (1:35): boarding a train in China.  Here is more Borowitz from an LA Times piece, with my favorite being "sharks predict a big summer."  What would a summer at the beach be without sharks?  Chief Brody, call your office.  One LA Times columnist, Joel Stein, offers his list of things about Barack Obama that comedians can use for jokes; we will see if he is "Imused" for it.  Charles Krauthammer, serious but with mordant wit, cracks the Obama Joke Puzzle: Nothing is funnier than the candidate's outsize vanity.  What can be funnier than Obama using the Brandenburg Gate as a campaign backdrop (which the Germans are now dissuading)?  How about his asking that Americans speak Spanish & French, neither of which he speaks?

Can Russia Beat China?

From an LFTC reader, taken from an online wag:

At the Russian military academy, a General gave a lecture  on "Potential Problems  and Military Strategy."  At the end of the lecture he asked if  there are any questions.  An  officer stood up and asked: "Will there be a third world war?   Will Russia take part in it?"
The  general answered both questions in the  affirmative.
The  officer asked: "Who will be the enemy?
The  General: "All indications point to China."
All  the audience is shocked, the officer asks: "General, we are only 150  million, there are 1,500 million Chinese.  Can we win at  all?"
The  General: "Just think about this.  In modern warfare, it is not  the quantity that matters but the quality.  For example in the  middle east we have had a few wars recently where 5 million Jews  fought against 500 million Arabs, and Israel was always  victorious."
After  a small pause the officer asked, "Do we have enough  Jews?"

NASA Goes for Sunny Side Up

Check out this article on a great idea NASA has: launch in 2015 a mission to go to the Sun.  This sounds like a 1960s ethnic joke (A: "Why are the Americans always first in space?  Why can't we be first just once?"  B: "I've got a secret.  We are going to surprise the Americans, so let them go to the Moon.  We're going to go to the Sun!"  A: "Go to the Sun?  Are you out of your mind?  You'll be burnt to a crisp before you get within 10 million miles!"  B: "Our engineers got that problem licked: We're going at night!").  But it isn't: Solar Probe + will be launched (hopefully) in 2015, on a 7-year journey, to eventually, come 2022, enter the Sun's corona; the craft will, it is hoped, survive into 2025, when the solar cycle will hit a maximum.  On the way it will circle Venus seven separate times and be slung back towards the Sun.  Enjoy a fun science read--short and in plain English.

Government Chemistry

Begin with a chuckle, circulated by online wags:

Science Reveals Heaviest Element Ever Discovered

Research has led to the discovery of the heaviest element yet known to science.  The new element, Governmentium (Gv), has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons, and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it a mass of 312.

These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons.  Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert; however, it can be detected, because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact.  A tiny amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction normally taking less than a second, to take from four days to four years to complete.

Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2-6 years.  It does not decay, but undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places.  In fact, Governmentium's mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganization will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes, not to mention multiple oxymorons.

This characteristic of moron promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration.  That hypothetical quantity might normally be called "critical mass" but, in this unique case it is known as "critical mess"..

When catalyzed with money, Governmentium becomes Administratium (Am), another just-discovered element that radiates just as much energy as Governmentium since it has half as many peons but twice as many morons.

Great Quotes, and Great Lessons

Check out these Great Quotes (3 min. video) sent me by an LFTC reader.  My favorites: (1) "Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend." - Dr. Martin Luther King; (2) "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." - Eleanor Roosevelt; (3) "Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character." - Albert Einstein; (4) "Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again intelligently." - Henry Ford; (5) "If a man does his best, what else is there?" - George S. Patton; (6) "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." - Teddy Roosevelt.

At the risk of appearing politically incorrect, the first three quotes should be absorbed by Barack Obama's race-obsessed, America-hating congregation (forget the present and former pastors there, as both are lost causes); racial grievances, victimization and presumed entitlement to eternal compensation (the perfect equality that allegedly will terminate compensation for racial discrimination will never come about in any imperfect society, which all human society is), all these are a prescription for perpetual failure.  Henry Ford's contribution exemplifies the "can-do" spirit that makes American entrepreneurs the world's finest.  The last pair strike a common theme, i.e., that the limits of human beings are no excuse for not trying to excel.

Oh, the Ronald Reagan quote is incomplete.  His full quote, from the 1980 campaign, was: "A recession is when your neighbor loses his job; a depression is when you lose your job; and a recovery is when President Carter loses his job."

America's Foremost House of Cards

LFTC readers, check out this YouTube video of the re-creation, in 2 minutes, 36 seconds, of America's foremost house of cards, and how it all ends.

Death of an Essential Human Idea

On December 4, 2007, the London Times published an extraordinary lament by Anne Whitfield, brought to my attention by an alert LFTC reader, on the demise of common sense.  It was written with wit and wistfulness, and should not be missed.

Explorer Turns Fifty

January 31, 50 years ago, saw the launch of America's first satellite, Explorer I.  Unlike Sputnik I, launched October 4, 1957, our space bird did real science research: discovering the Van Allen radiation belts.  This yesterday LA Times op-ed tells the story.  The other part of the tale is that Werner von Braun and his Army team put the Explorer launch together in 56 days, after the December 6, 1957 2-second fizzle of the Navy's Vanguard rocket.

Bobby Fischer: Death of a Wayward Boy Genius

Chess legend Bobby Fischer's passing evoked memories of his magical chess prowess, and his subsequent tragic descent into paranoid, anti-Semitic madness.  A column by the New York Sun's Daniel Johnson, himself a serious chess player in his youth, suggests that Fischer was kept from madness by his passion for chess and his equally passionate desire to destroy the Russian (Soviet) chess machine during the Cold War.  Fischer's anti-Semitism surfaced in his youth, when he expressed admiration for Hitler, because the Nazi racialist genocidist had imposed his will upon the world.  Yet, Johnson writes, he couldn't have been mad then, else he could not have won the world chess championship.

Edward Rothstein's New York Times appreciation explores the intersection of child genius and abstraction, and the terrible price it can extract.  Child prodigies excel in mathematics, music and chess.  Rothstein writes:

There may be only three human activities in which miraculous accomplishment is possible before adulthood: mathematics, music and chess. These are abstract, almost invented realms, closed systems bounded by rules of custom or principle. Here, the child learns, is how elements combine and transform; here are the laws that govern their interactions; and here are the possibilities that emerge as you play with signs, symbols, sounds or pieces. Nothing else need be known or understood — at least at first. A child’s gifts in such realms can seem otherworldly, the achievements effortlessly magical. But as Bobby Fischer’s death on Thursday might remind us, even abstract gifts can exact a terrible price.

Books have been written, and movies made, about mad geniuses in mathematics and music.  I regard the late, legendary Russian piano virtuoso, Vladimir Horowitz, as a person whose volatile temperament placed him close to, but not over the line of, madness, having attended two of his concerts.  His eccentricities were legendary.  Horowitz excelled at the physical and emotional extremes of pianism, ranging from the exquisite tenderness of a child to the demonic onslaught of mythology's Furies.  Yet in mid-career (long before I heard him), Horowitz walked off the concert stage for twelve years (1953 - 1965), at the height of his artistic prowess.  Fortunately for me and other enthralled listeners, Horowitz returned, and even, in later life, became more comfortable as an elder statesman of his storied artistic generation.  It is easy to imagine that if compositions with extreme emotional extension can drive a performer over the edge, so can efforts to master bewildering, exponentially expanding permutations in grandmaster level chess.

I was traveling in Scandinavia when Fischer's epic world title match against Boris Spassky, in the summer of 1972, began.  Spassky, interestingly, was an attractive, youthful champion, not at all like the aged, impassive Russian champs of yore; in the West, he'd have been more popular than the reclusive, paranoid, grouchy Fischer.  In the event, Fischer, who once won 20 games in a row in grandmaster competition, a feat unheard of ever and unmatched since, stumbled early against Spassky, but recovered and eventually steamrollered him.

Fischer made chess, briefly, at least, an "in" pastime in the US.  But chess is far too cerebral a game to be truly widespread in popularity in a physical sports-crazy country like America.  It will remain a Russian obsession.  But for a brief shining moment, nearly 36 years ago, a troubled genius held the chess world, and much of the wider world, in the palm of his hand, as he became not only America's first world chess champion, but the game's first true international superstar.  And that singular honor no one can ever take away from him.

The Great White Fleet: A Centennial

Washington Times columnist Austin Bay reminds us of a grand episode in early 20th century American naval history: The Great White Fleet, which set sail Dec. 16, 1907, from Norfolk, Virginia, on a 43,000-mile journey that took 14 months, ending on February 22, 1909--fittingly, George Washington's calendar birthday.  Bay points out that it took private logistical assistance for the voyage to succeed, which led the Navy, a generation later, to develop full-scale logistical support.  Anticipating the military's role in disaster relief, the fleet provided assistance after the Dec. 28, 1908 earthquake that devastated Messina, Italy, killing 100,000 and destroying 90 percent of buildings in the two towns on opposite sides of the Straits of Messina.

WSJ editor Bret Stephens cites two points about the GWF: Teddy Roosevelt was rebuffing pacifists in Congress who opposed its mission, and the GWF sent a cautionary signal to japan, which allied with us in World War I; only with the scrapping of the GWF, per the disastrous Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, was the road to World War II in the Pacific opened.  Maintaining our naval posture in the 21st century, Stephens writes, is essential to sending the right signals to a rising, aspiring Asian hegemon: China.

Here is a naval history site with more on the fantastic voyage of the Great White Fleet.

Latin Lovely, and an Unlovely Endorsement

I know it is retrograde male chauvinism to observe this, but in electing Argentina's Christina Kirchner President, female beauty reigns in the "Paris of the South" (Buenos Aires).  Her policies  may be akin to those of Hillary, but Argentina's new Evita will never be mistaken for our own aspiring Evita.  (The WSJ's Mary Anastasia O'Grady profiles the new Prez's awful economics.)   As for Hillary, she can cheer up.  According to NRO's Deroy Murdock's latest column Hillary has been endorsed by a fresh constituency that sees spiritual beauty in her candidacy: Palestinian terrorists.  Next: Will the UN General Assembly back Hill?

Notre Dame: Where Are the Irish?

Notre Dame was creamed by USC, 38-0 on Saturday (the gory details), the worst loss ever for ND versus the Trojans.  Which brings to my mind the ditty--VERY politically incorrect--that my late father first sang to me about 50 years ago, to the chorus of "The Notre Dame Victory March" (known to many as "Cheer for Old Notre Dame"):

Shame, shame on old Notre Dame
Where are the Irish that brought you fame
You're a team of Poles and French
While all the Irish warm the bench
Watch Schwartz send Plotz through the line
Where in the blazes is O'Brien
You've a lot to answer for
Oh, shame on old Notre Dame

For completeness here is the original: both the opening verse, and then the chorus of the "Notre Dame Victory March" in all its glory.

If LFTC does not post tomorrow, you will know that the P.C. Furies have struck again....

A Scrooge Election? Advice for the Candidates

The Daily Telegraph (UK)advises readers on 50 ways to be more frugal.  This has grand possibilities for our 2008 campaign season.  Herewith LFTC's own "Frugality Guide" to the candidates (and to some possible candidates).  Frugality need not be monetary.

Al Gore:   Fly small corporate jets only.

John Edwards: $200 haircut ceiling.

Barack Obama:  One Oprah fundraiser per month.

Hillary Clinton:  Asian-American campaign fundraising limited to 4 percent of total (equals estimated Asian-American share of the US population).

Rudy Giuiliani:  One "Here's how I did the impossible in New York" reference per debate.

Mitt Romney:  One over-practiced candidate smile per questioner.

John McCain: One "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb bomb Iran" song per month.

Fred Thompson: One late-night talk-show appearance per month.

Mayor Mike (Bloomberg):  One-percent limit of his total assets for a campaign war-chest (still exceeds $50 million).

 

Big Brother WAS Watching and IS Remembered, Not Fondly

A 9/4 Daily Telegraph story tells us what we suspected all along: Big Brother, in the form of English authorities, spied constantly on George Orwell during the 1930s and 19340s, suspecting him of Communist sympathies.  The author who not only penned 1984 (1949), but also wrote Animal Farm (1945), savagely satirizing the Communists, and Homage to Catalonia (1938), savagely attacking the socialists for their crime during the Spanish Civil War, and who wrote The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), savagely attacking British socialism, was suspected of being a Commie.  Give me a break!

But give me three full cheers for Georgia, which, in the shadow of Russia, opened a memorial museum on the Stalin reign of terror in Georgia.

Fly the Fortune-Teller's Skies

Nepal Airlines has a new air safety recipe to ensure your safe air travel.  Read it and pray.

Belgium Goes Medieval!

The New York Times reports that Belgium has two dozen couples who live their lives as close as possible to how Europeans lived during the Middle ages (medicine not included).  Yearning for a simpler time, when the lands that now comprise Belgium were relatively secure, seems to be the animating factor.  Says one re-enactor, regarding Mondays back on the job: "For the first 30 minutes at work, I am still living in medieval times in my head.  Then the phone rings and I snap out of it."  Says another: "You can be in big trouble if both you and your partner are not into being medieval.  My wife doesn't mind if I dress up in medieval clothes at home."  Neither do I.

Sherlock Holmes and the Medicis

Italian forensic experts seem to have solved the 1587 murders of a Medici couple, the grand duke of Tuscany and his wife: they were poisoned by a the duke's brother, using a dose of arsenic that took 11 days to kill.  It makes for engaging reading.  Better hope that Vladimir Putin misses this news item.

You--and Me: Our 2006

Time Magazine's 2006 Person of the Year is...YOU!  Time's "You!" is the explosion of content creation, distributed over the World Wide Web, which includes the "blogosphere" of which LFTC is one tiny part.  Now, before you get excited, remember that prior honorees have not always been so charming--Hitler, Mao, etc.  Time's criterion is "most influential," whether naughty or nice by Santa's tally.  Those of us born after 1940 were collective winners before, in 1966, when Time chose the under-25 generation.  Women born since 1941 are three-time winners, as women collectively were the 1975 choice.  A machine even won once, when the PC was selected in 1982.  Also, less than flattering are the 2006 winners Time chose to highlight given in this article.

For LFTC 2006 was a year best described as unusual.  First and happiest, LFTC's extended readership family expanded.  Second, and sadly, LFTC was forced into a four-month mid-year hiatus for family reasons.  Third, and most surprisingly, my intended two-part evaluation of where we stand five years after 9/11 grew like topsy, to ten parts and 23,000 words.  Trimmed to 15,000 then roughly tripled in the past three months, and presto!  It is a book that will come out early next year.  During the writing of the online material I had no thought of morphing it into a book.  The title is still in flux during the final editing process.  The basic focus is on two wars: (1) what John Abizaid calls the "Long War"--the ideological, multi-generational component of our survival struggle with Islamism; (2) what I call the "Short War"--the race to stop Iran getting The Bomb.

Back to Time's "You!" and LFTC.  In 2005 LFTC's closing message recapped major themes covered during its first year.  For 2006 such a summary is less useful for two reasons: (1) Mideast wars so overshadowed other issues--dominating even the off-year elections; and (2) the four-month hiatus for LFTC truncated the posting corpus.  Instead, here are a few thoughts on what LFTC has become for me, and what I hope it has become for you.

For me, LFTC authorship has forced me to sharpen my thinking and writing, prioritize issues and reconsider my own positions, as evidence and argument elsewhere comes to my attention.  My positions as to what kind of wars we fight, and what to do in Iraq, for example, are by no means the same as they were even when in late September I posted the first installments of my five-year assessment.  LFTC postings made possible a relatively quick creation of a book, which I hope will present LFTC's ideas to a wider audience--within and outside of the Beltway--and thus increase website visitors to LFTC.

For LFTC readers, I hope that LFTC presents issues in a way that sharpens your thinking, too, as to what is important and what, if anything, can be done about things.  So we march forward, if not always in lockstep, side by side, into 2007.

May 2007 bring all of you good health and much happiness.

Jim Baker Negotiates With Iran

LFTC readers should end 2006, a most unfunny year indeed, with a well-earned laugh.  A Hollywood type, David Zucker, has placed on YouTube a hilarious two-minute video with actors showing how Jim Baker would negotiated with Iran.

Indonesia Invaded by USA!

Muslim pressure has not quite succeeded in forcing Indonesia's "Playboy" magazine off the stands.  Models are fully clothed, but assume suggestive poses and have come hither looks.  The link is to the article, which provides no photos for American eyes to judge.

Fly First Class Posthumously!

Travelers on a transatlantic British Airways 777 got the memory of a lifetime.  A passenger in Business Class expired of a heart attack.  As Business Class was full, the body was moved into the 80 percent full First Class cabin for the final three hours of the flight.  And you thought there was nothing worse than in-flight movies.

Surf's Up!

What can a 600-foot tsunami do, besides provide the ultimate opportunity to "hang ten"?  For the answer read the linked article.

Wynn-Breaker

Las Vegas casino mogul Steve Wynn has committed the ultimate "Oops!".  It seems that Wynn, having paid $48.4M for Picasso's "Le Reve" ("the dream") painting featuring Picasso's mistress Marie-Therese Walter, had contracted to sell it for the princely sum of $139M, which would have been a record sum (by $4M) for a painting.  Then he did it.  Gesturing laterally while near the Picasso, Wynn, whose peripheral vision has been narrowed by illness, plunked a silver-dollar size hole in the canvas.  So much for the sale; Wynn will now keep the painting, whose aesthetic value to him surely will not have been enhanced by this memory.

China: Hu's on First?

Playwright Jim Sherman wrote this after Hu Jintao was named chief of the Communist Party in China

       

HU'S ON FIRST       

By James Sherman   

       

"(We take you now to the Oval Office where Condoleeza Rice, the security advisor enters.)

       

George: Condi! Nice to see you. What's happening?       

Condi: Sir, I have the report here about the new leader of China.       

George: Great. Lay it on me.       

Condi: Hu is the new leader of China.       

George: That's what I want to know.       

Condi: That's what I'm telling you.
George: That's what I'm asking you. Who is the new leader of China?        

Condi: Yes.       

George: I mean the fellow's name.       

Condi: Hu.       

George: The guy in China.       

Condi: Hu.       

George: The new leader of China.       

Condi: Hu.       

George: The Chinaman!       

Condi: Hu is leading China.       

George: Now whaddya' asking me for?       

Condi: I'm telling you Hu is leading China.       

George: Well, I'm asking you. Who is leading China?       

Condi: That's the man's name.       

George: That's who's name?       

Condi: Yes.       

George: Will you or will you not tell me the name of the new leader of China?       

Condi: Yes, sir.       

George: Yassir? Yassir Arafat is in China? I thought he was in the Middle East.       

Condi: That's correct.       

George: Then who is in China?       

Condi: Yes, sir.       

George: Yassir is in China?       

Condi: No, sir.       

George: Then who is?       

Condi: Yes, sir.       

George: Yassir       

Condi: No, sir.       

George: Look, Condi. I need to know the name of the new leader of China.       

Get me the Secretary General of the U.N. on the phone.       

Condi: Kofi?       

George: No, thanks.       

Condi: You want Kofi?       

George: No.       

Condi: You don't want Kofi.       

George: No. But now that you mention it, I could use a glass of milk. And then get me the U.N.       

Condi: Yes, sir.       

George: Not Yassir! The guy at the U.N.       

Condi: Kofi?       

George: Milk! Will you please make the call?       

Condi: And call who?       

George: Who is the guy at the U.N?       

Condi: Hu is the guy in China.       

George: Will you stay out of China?!       

Condi: Yes, sir.       

George: And stay out of the Middle East! Just get me the guy at the U.N.       

Condi: Kofi.       

George: All right! With cream and two sugars. Now get on the phone.       

(Condi picks up the phone.)       

Condi: Rice, here.       

George: Rice? Good idea. And a couple of egg rolls, too. Maybe we should send some to the guy in China. And the Middle East. Can you get Chinese food in the Middle East?"

Tripping the Light Fantastic

A Colorado driver using a device brought on eBay to change traffic lights from red to green has been, alas, apprehended by John Law.  For two years the driver saved time motoring to and from the office, so his $75 fine is probably worth it.

Taiwan WILL Collide With China

Taiwan's re-unification with the Chinese mainland is inevitable--not due to China's insistence, but due to Mother Nature's, in the form of tectonic plate shifts that nudge Taiwan towards the land mass of China.  Millions of years will pass first, but, as one scientist put it, China should be patient.

Quantum Indecision

Physicists using the Tevatron (a trillion-volt monster particle collider) have discovered the quantum world's answer to "She loves me, she loves me not!": a type of quark that alternates between matter and anti-matter 3 trillion times per second.  The particle is a "strange neutral-B meson", composed of a pair of quarks; it flips from a bottom quark + anti-strange quark into anti-bottom quark + strange quark & then back.  For more on a weird world indeed check out this quark chart and also check out the article for more on Twilight Zone fare even Rod Serling did not imagine.

Don Vito, At Last!

Italian authorities have arrested la Cosa Nostra's capo di tutti capi after a 43-year manhunt, the last 13 years as number one target: Bernardo Provenzano, already convicted in absentia for several murders and sentenced to multiple life terms.  Known as "the Tractor" not for his green thumb, but because he "mowed down" opponents, and identified by DNA plus enhancement and artificial aging of a 1959 photo (taken when he was 26--he is 73 now), "the Tractor" was arrested in Sicily in his town...yes, Corleone.

Out of My League

Did you know that there are now two "leagues" promoting contests of rock-paper-scissors?

For Coney Island?

New Yorkers who remember the parachute jump ride at Coney Island more than one generation ago will enjoy trying to top a 25-mile high jump, should it come off.  But remember mom's advice: Do dress warmly.  And take a deep breath....

Weasel Wordplay

John Leo, chronicler for many years of P.C. and other ways language is twisted into a mental pretzel, offers us a neat cavalcade of prize euphemisms.  May he, a valuable national resource, never be "deinstalled."

Can Al Gore End Toad Terror Down Under?

Australia has a severe toxic toads problem.  The toads were introduced in Australia 70 years ago to  control pests.  It seemed like a good idea at the time, but now the toads have become pests themselves.  This is a job for Al Gore, himself Global Pest Number Three (Jimmy Oil is first, Mr. Bill second).  So Al, stop sucking up to the Saudis, and get to work.  It takes a pest to know one.

Crime: Safer With Cary & Sophia

The Washington Post reveals shocking news: Two economists, apparently unable to find useful work, have completed a "study" showing that ugly people are more crime-prone than beauties.  Think back over the years at how many perps you have seen on the local newscast who look like Cary Grant or Sophia Loren.  Oh yes, the project was federally funded.  Too bad Harry Truman, who once pined for a one-armed economist who could not say "on the other hand," is not with us to let fly on this abuse of taxpayer dollars.  How about a new study on why ugly people rarely become matinee idols, rarely get hired by (or married to) Donald Trump, rarely win beauty contests?....

Palestinian Prison TV

Israel holds 8,000 Palestinian prisoners.  A news report quotes an Israeli official as saying that at one prison there has not been a serious disturbance (one requiring the use of tear gas) in a year, since television service (3 Israeli channels, 1 Jordanian & CNN) has been offered the inmates.  Seems the inmates prefer the idiot box to planning riots.  Hmmm, wonder what would happen if they got to see reruns of "Baywatch?"