December 2004

There were 57 posts published in December 2004 (this is page 8 of 10).

General Schwarzkopf Is Angry

Poor Rumsfeld. It appears that the no-armor-because-of-physics and other assorted excuses have rubbed a few people the wrong way:

SCHWARZKOPF: The humvee was never considered an armored vehicle to begin with. So the system they’ve come up with is a jerry-rigged system which really doesn’t give you much protection when you’re going against being blown from a bump, a mine on a side of a road, or something of that sort.
But they deserve every bit of protection that we can give them. Absolutely. And I was very, very disappointed–let me put it stronger, I was angry about the words of the secretary of defense when he laid it all on the Army. I mean, as if he as the secretary of defense didn’t have anything to do with the Army, if the Army was over there doing it themselves screwing up.

Cue another Bush statement on what a great job the Secretary of Defense is doing.

First Snow

The first snow flurries of the season have been fluttering around Knoxville last night and today. I guess winter is officially here.
Your results may vary.
UPDATE: According to the official Resonance weather archives, the first snow last year occurred on November 28. This valuable trivia provided to you free of charge as a public service.

Google Digital Library

This looks like it will be an nice tool for Internet users:

The libraries of five of the world’s most important academic institutions are to be digitised by Google.
Scanned pages from books in the public domain will then be made available for search and reading online.
The full libraries of Michigan and Stanford universities, as well as archives at Harvard, Oxford and the New York Public Library are included.
Online pages from scanned books will not have adverts but will have links to online store Amazon, Google said.

They say no advertising now, but I bet they figure out some creative ways to work some embedded advertising links in there.
At any rate, this will be one more excuse not to go to a brick and mortar library. Incidentally, I went to the local public library a couple weeks ago. It had been so long since I’d checked out a book there that my card was invalid. That’s pretty bad.

Vote Of No Confidence

Senator McCain attempting to straddle the fence again:

Senator John McCain said Monday that he had “no confidence” in Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, citing the secretary’s handling of the war in Iraq and troop levels there that Mr. McCain deems insufficient.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Mr. McCain, an Arizona Republican who is a senior member of the Armed Services Committee, said his comments were not a call for Mr. Rumsfeld’s resignation. President Bush “can have the team that he wants around him,” the senator said.

I guess this is McCain trying to pretend he’s not a party soldier even as he continues the march of a GOP soldier. If he really doesn’t have faith in Rumsfeld, why doesn’t he call for a change? This isn’t the Department of Commerce we’re talking about. People are dying because of decisions being made in the Pentagon. That should prompt dissatisfied senators to take a hard stand.

Finger or Ring?

Bad choice:

When Marine Lance Cpl. David Battle learned he’d either have to sacrifice his ring finger or the wedding band he wore, he told doctors at a field hospital in Iraq to cut off the finger.
. . .
Doctors were preparing to cut off Battle’s ring to save as much of his finger as they could.
“But that would mean destroying my wedding ring,” he said. “My wife is the strongest woman I know. She’s basically running two people’s lives since I’ve been gone.”
With his approval, doctors severed his finger, but in the chaos that followed, they lost his ring.

I’m guessing that had he gone with saving the finger, it probably won’t have been misplaced on the way home.
I’m not married, so perhaps I’m not the best judge of this, but isn’t replacing a wedding ring a lot easier than replacing a finger? Even when you factor in sentimental value?