Death Penalty Stupidity

Many of you are aware of my aversion to the death penalty. I'm not squeamish on law and order, mind you, I just don't like irreversible penalties in imperfect systems. I'd love to see murderers rot in solitary with no weight rooms, TV's, or "recreation" while their minds simply decay.

So here we have the situation in which the state of Texas is getting ready to execute a guy who did not kill anyone (he was in the getaway car during a botched robbery). Putting aside for a moment the really bad rap Texas already has with respect to the death penalty, whatever state law it is that allows for the execution even of those who did not actually murder anyone seems a bit astray. According to the story, the Supremes have given conflicting guidance in cases like this one, so it seems destined to go to the Court.

Lower the Drinking Age?

A group of university presidents has come under a great deal of criticism recently for apparently advocating a re-think of the 21 year old drinking age. Obviously, their vested interest here is in limiting their exposure to liability. It seems their argument is a version of the "they don't do this in Europe (binge drink) because they have more moderate and healthy views of alcohol" based presumably on having begun to drink earlier.

I honestly don't know what to make of the argument. I don't know with any certainty that lowering the drinking age would have any of the benefit that the university presidents seek.

That said, I still want the drinking age lowered. That one can vote and die in combat three years before one can kick back a legal swig of beer is one of life's great inconsistencies. Talked to one of my brothers about this today, and his point was that the age should be 19, when most folks are out of high school. I'd probably be ok with this as a compromise.

The Horror! Border Crossings to be Tracked.

Who are these "privacy" advocates anyway? You know, the folks who bristle at the possibility that the government...charged with keeping us safe and protecting our borders....might store and use that information in future investigations.

Did anyone crossing one of our borders since 9-11 really think that the swipe of a passport didn't create data for future use? Stories like this are what give libertarians a bad name.

Synchronized Swimming Baffles Me

There was a FRONT PAGE ARTICLE on synchronized swimming in this morning's WaPost. I am baffled. Why this is considered a sport worthy of Olympic grandeur is beyond me, but then again there are many of the 28 sports at the Summer Olympics worthy of reconsideration.

Yes, yes. I realize that these women are great athletes, that it takes incredible wind and body control to do what they do. Yes, yes, yes. It is difficult and I can't do it. But then again, I can't do "Cirque de Soleil" moves either, and you don't see trapeze artists in the Olympics. What I can or can't do should not be a determinant of Olympic worthiness.

What Olympic Events do you feel are worthy of reconsideration?

Textbooks Cost Too Much? No Worries, Congress is on the Job!

The cost of college textbooks has always been a pain in the butt. One of the great bennies of a Navy ROTC scholarship was that they paid for my books...I used to watch friends really complain about how much textbooks cost; it really seemed to get them upset. But a national priority?

This morning's newspaper brings news that this national nightmare will soon be over. It appears our Congress (with apparently little else to do), is considering methods of bringing the cost of textbooks down.

I am amazed at what the Congress thinks is important.

Dispatch from Nantucket

This is my first visit to Nantucket, and it is truly a nice place (though we did pay $5.10 a gallon for gas today....). Lots of 19th century charm, beautiful beaches, really quite a spot.

But I haven't yet seen a traffic light on the island. Lots of three and four way stops, and that stalwart of the New England roadway...the rotary. Makes for a lot of unnecessary traffic pain.

Also, very little parking downtown. Lots to see and do, but a real pain to find somewhere to park.

I think I could grow to like this place quite a bit, but I am definitely having some withdrawal symptoms at not getting to the Outer Banks of North Carolina this year.

The Strategic Value of Georgia

Richard Cohen asks a few good questions in his column today. President Bush has been pushing hard for Georgia and the Ukraine's inclusion in an enlarged NATO. Had he succeeded, Russia's invasion would have triggered (or should have triggered) a massive military effort to defend Georgia by NATO forces, something we (and NATO for that matter) are unprepared to do. Some say that Russia never would have invaded; that the threat of NATO counterattack would have caused them to rethink this path. I am unconvinced. Russia's calculations are based on Russian national interests, and I imagine their view on the appetite of NATO nations to get involved in Georgia is not far from mine.

NATO enlargement has always been tricky. Our desire to embrace the nations formerly under the Soviet boot did not necessarily mean we should have entered into treaty arrangements with them. I have no regard for the Russian regime and its thuglike conduct, but I am just as sure that I don't want to be involved in fighting them because Georgia's President couldn't keep his mouth shut.

Musharraf's Exit

I have thought in the past few years that no world leader faced as many challenges as Pakistan's Musharraf. He recognized from the start that he would have to ally with the US, even though such a move was wildly unpopular in his own country. His intelligence services are riven with Islamists who have reportedly aided Bin Laden's forces in the "ungoverned" regions of Pakistan. The man was in a tough spot, and I think that on the balance, he was a good and reliable partner for us.

Pakistan after Musharraf will not be a better place. Any attempt to become more popular with the Pakistani electorate appears to include moving away from the US.

New Feature: Polling

I've added a polling feature. Let me know what you think.

More on Wheelchairs and Airports

From a very learned friend:

"P.S. In economics as you likely know, they talk of the concept of adverse selection that focuses on the notion that when a subsidy or support is in place in a given organization for a given challenge, those with that challenge seem to overly populate that organization or entity. In the Navy, problem pregnancies and, more profoundly, families with exceptional health challenges are likely examples of this. In airports, the ready availability of wheelchairs and the services related likely lead to an uptick in those in need of a wheelchair. If you really want to see this in action as one of your commenters alluded to, go to Disney World where folks in wheelchairs are given accelerated access to rides with almost no limit on how many of their "family" they can take with them. Once again, I suspect many, many folks need this support and I am glad they get to enjoy the park but there is no doubt in my mind that there is a statistically significant increase in the use of wheelchairs when these "extra" benefits are in place."

Gender Differences in Investing

Fascinating read this morning on the differences in the way men and women invest their money. Surprise, surprise, men are less risk-averse (how often do you see women doing insanely risky things in everyday life? I mean, they are simply much smarter than we are). But in investing, risk equals reward, so there is a chance that women's conservatism leaves money on the table.

I found it interesting to see toward the end of the story, that mixed gender investment clubs actually did better than single gender. Wisdom of the crowd at work?

Three Cheers for Women's Volleyball!

My goodness, but those shorts are fetching!

Major Shortage in the Army

Interesting article this morning on the shortage of Majors in the US Army. Lots of folks leaving the Army after multiple pumps in "the suck" (Iraq, Afghanistan) is leaving headquarters staffs short of the people they need to plan and execute operations.

I head a bit of this first hand during my recent trip to Fort Sill. One of my friends (not the guy I went to see) is also a brigade commander (Colonel level command), and when I asked him his major challenge, he said without hesitation "people." When I asked him to elaborate, he began to count out the "gapped" billets on his staff, many of which would be filled (in a better resourced Army) with Majors.

This is a tough one to crack. The Army is tired. But nothing soothes the martial soul like victory, and our Army is winning the war it is fighting. Along the way, we are creating a generation of warriors with unmatched combat experience, folks who will serve the nation well for years to come. I think the Army will get past this point in a few years, once Iraq begins to truly become less of a concern.

Flyclear.com--Shorter Lines in Airports?

I returned about an hour ago from a trip to Washington National Airport (much as I revere Ronald Reagan, I am not a fan of using the new name) to have my fingerprints and eye-scans taken as the last step in signing up for the Flyclear.com service.

I saw this first at the San Francisco Airport. Next to the maze like arrangement used to squeeze the rabble through security was a straight line to a dedicated metal detector. Entrance to this Valhalla of airport security speed was restricted to those carrying a special ID, obtainable through the website above. I asked a few people who traveled quite a bit if they had heard of this new service, and the answers I got back were generally positive.

For about $10 a month, your fingerprints and a print of your retina (available at little kiosks at major airports), you can obtain this card that entitles you to this special line. As the job I've taken (to begin September 2) will require regular travel, and since I already have a longer than usual dance with security due to my Steve Austin hip, I figured I'd give this system a try. One thing that might rile the libertarians among you, is that you must agree to have your retina scan shared with some other government agencies. This was ok with me.

Do any of you have experience with it? Let me know

CW Strategic Pause

I'll be heading off to a dude ranch in Wyoming at the end of the week, so I'll be out of the blog business between the 22nd and the 30th of August. I will even miss the UVA home opener against Southern Cal (don't ask for my tickets, they've already been given away).

I thank all of you who regularly read, and I hope you'll put a little note in your personal calendar to return to the site on the 31st.

The Michael Phelps Phenomenon

I was talking to my kitten earlier, who was also in an airport awaiting a flight, though hers was to somewhere else and she had the added benefit of dealing with her girls. In the course of our often interrupted discussion, we chatted a bit about Michael Phelps.

She's not a huge fan of this blog, I need to tell you. She's not as convinced that the world needs to hear my opinions as I am, and since she disagrees with so darn many of them, she believes I'm largely just exhibiting my stupidity. But I think that my creation of this blog has unlocked in her some long-time suppressed voice of commentary. Today she chose to unburden herself on Michael Phelps.

Her position? That while he's certainly a great athlete and a great Olympian, his feats are not anywhere near as worthy as they are being made out to be, largely because he really is doing the same thing over and over again, with some minor modifications. His dominance is manifest, she says, but the reason he is racking up so many medals is that there are so many medals available for doing essentially the same thing. She asks hypothetically about the great soccer player, who may play on two gold medal Olympic teams in a row, but who "only" has two gold medals to show for it.

I'm inclined to agree with her on this one. Phelps is clearly great, perhaps the greatest swimmer of all time. But let's not confuse medal counts with dominance.

Your thoughts?

Some Thoughts While Traveling

I'm sitting in the sterile comfort of the Admiral's Club in concourse D at Dallas Fort-Worth Airport. I always chuckle when I go to Admirals Clubs, remembering when I was a aide to a real live Admiral. We were in an airport somewhere (in uniform) and he said, "hey kid, follow me." And with that, we made off for the Admiral's Club. Granted, I knew all his frequent flier numbers and whatever other travel bonuses existed then, and I knew he wasn't a member. I said to him, "Sir, I wasn't aware that you were a member." He said, "I'm an Admiral, aren't I?" at which point he blew past the front desk minders and we made ourselves comfortable for several hours. I loved that man.

So here I am, waiting for a bit for a flight to Baltimore (Hon) amidst the well-heeled and travel savvy. People here simply LOOK better than the hoi-polloi running about the airport, and even the children sprinkled about are well-behaved. No one here is rushing. No one here seems the least bit concerned about anything.

Some thoughts on airports, flying, travel in general:

--Is there some connection between the ready availability of wheelchairs and the number of people who appear to need them? Let's say for the sake of argument that there are 15000 people in this airport right now...I'll wager that you couldn't find a 15000 person town in this country with as high a concentration of those needing wheelchairs as you will find in this airport. I'm just sayin'.

--Let's talk about cowboy hats. Why in God's name would a man wear one on an airplane? He invariably has to remove it, as its back rim must contact the headrest behind him. He certainly cannot be wearing it to hide bed head, as most cowboy hat wearing gentlemen have dressed themselves to the nine's in the garb of the west, with lots of Hai-Karate or other suitably inexpensive toilet water providing olfactory evidence of their presence even before the loud drawl is heard. I just don't get it. Baseball hats? Yep. Bed head. Pull down over your eyes on a bright flight. Socially acceptable just about anywhere. Cowboy hat? No, I just don't get it.

Conventional Weapons in Trident Submarines

Time to get a little Navy geeky on you. For the better part of the last 50 years, the US strategic nuclear force consisted of the famous "triad" of long-range bombers, land-based ICBM's in silos, and submarine launched ICBMS. The great thing about the sub-launched leg of the triad was its stealth and survivability; that were an enemy to launch a devastating counterforce strike on the US (against our missile silos and bombers), we'd have a response option. Our "boomer" (ballistic missile submarine) force is currently 14 Ohio Class boats, each with 24 Trident D-5 missile cells (with each missile capable of carrying a number of independently aimed warheads). But the boomers are getting old, and the submarine force is diligently working to replace them.

Currently, the boomer force does one thing and one thing only; it deploys boats out on patrol, where they silently wait for launch orders we hope will never come. It is an expensive but critical mission, and we must continue to invest in keeping this leg of the triad robust (though the triad itself has grown more unbalanced as the bomber force and land based forces have declined faster than the sub force).

It is time to think differently about this capability, and I see evidence that that thinking is well underway. The National Research Council has suggested that we arm our Boomer force with conventional as well as strategic nuclear weapons. Under these scenarios, the ability to have a quick strike option with the capability to target virtually anywhere in the world in under 1 hour gives us a much better ability to deal with what are known in the biz as "fleeting" targets. The big problem with such a capability is that when the boomers went to sea ONLY with nuke missiles in them, any launch detected by overhead assets would set off counterstrike alarm bells in the countries with such a capability...namely Russia and China. By placing conventional warheads on these ICBM's, we put China and Russia in the unenviable position of having to decide if they (or someone else) is being targeted with nukes or conventional weapons. Solving this notification problem is essential to fielding this world-wide quick-strike capability, and I'm glad we are moving down this path. I'd like to get to the point where we don't have anymore "the terrorist just left the compound" issues.

That said, those boomers can do even more than just launch nuclear and conventional ICBMs. We need to move forward with making these stealthy and survivable platforms into truly strategic assets. They must go to sea with a mix of nuclear and conventional weapons, in addition to being able to quickly re-seed satellites that may have been shot down AND to act as part of our missile defense shield by carrying the large missiles necessary for National Missile Defense.

The satellite re-seed capability is essential. We know the Chinese would seek to "punch our eyes out" in battle by targeting our overhead assets. Doing so though is incredibly complex and very, very expensive. Therefore, we should make the proposition dauntingly expensive for them. Put submarines to sea (and land base) with generic, software programmable satellites that can be quickly launched to cover gaps and outages caused by enemy ASAT weapons.

The re-creation of the Ohio Class follow-on as a truly strategic asset is not getting a lot of press today, but inside the Pentagon, strategists are beginning to realize the game-changing nature of this capability.

Phelps and the Olympics

Great race last night for Michael Phelps, and thank heaven for the automated timing system and slow -motion cameras, because I can't imagine the human eye being able to see his margin of victory.

I read where he eats about 10,000 calories a day. Putting aside for a second the fact that he burns virtually all of that out with his ridiculous work-out schedule, wouldn't it be interesting to just for one day, try to eat that many calories? I wonder what that's like. Maybe I'll try it soon.

Intelligent Design

No, I'm not here to talk about some Creationist vision of how to combat Darwinism; I'm here to talk about the ridiculously designed little personal coffee pots that adorn so much of what passes for hotel accommodations these days. You know the ones--top opens toward the back, industrial strength cord, never enough coffee supplied...

But what really gets me is how difficult it is to pour water (or coffee for that matter) without spilling. It is almost as if manufacturers have provided America with "dribble" pots in order to entertain themselves at sales meetings.

Am I the only one who notices this?