January 2005

There were 85 posts published in January 2005 (this is page 13 of 15).

“A ‘Broken’ Force”

Another leaked memo:

The U.S. Army Reserve, tapped heavily to provide soldiers for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is “degenerating into a ‘broken’ force” due to dysfunctional military policies, the Army Reserve’s chief said in a memo made public Wednesday.
“I do not wish to sound alarmist. I do wish to send a clear, distinctive signal of deepening concern,” Lt. Gen. James Helmly said in a Dec. 20 memo to Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker.
. . .
“While ability to meet the current demands associated with OIF (Operational Iraqi Freedom) and OEF (Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan) is of great importance, the Army Reserve is additionally in grave danger of being unable to meet other operational requirements including those in named OPLANS (operational plans) and CONUS (continental United States) emergencies, and is rapidly degenerating into a ‘broken’ force,” Helmly wrote.

Hmmm. Sounds awful similar to the “our military is being stretched too thin” argument that a certain presidential candidate was making three months ago.
Thought exercise: if America’s social security issues are a “crisis,” and malpractice lawsuits are a “crisis,” does this not constitute a “crisis” in our military?

When Air Masses Collide

What happens when a “Pineapple Express,” an “Arctic Express,” and system from the Gulf of Mexico all meet? We may soon find out.

“Don’t sound the alarm,” weather service meteorologist Johnny Burg said. “But tell everybody to just pay attention to future forecasts.”
The three storms are likely to meet in the nation’s midsection and cause even more problems, sparing only areas east of the Appalachian Mountains. Property damage and a few deaths are likely, forecasters said.
“You’re talking a two- or three-times-a-century type of thing,” said prediction-center senior meteorologist James Wagner, who has been forecasting storms since 1965. “It’s a pattern that has a little bit of everything.”
. . .
The same scenario played out in 1937, when there was record flooding in the Ohio River Valley, said Wagner, of the prediction center.
He was worried about the Ohio and Tennessee River valleys as the places where the three nasty storm systems could meet, probably with snow, thunderstorms, severe ice storms and flooding. Some of those areas already are flooded.

I don’t put much stock in long-range weather forecasts (or short-range ones for that matter), but this is something to keep an eye on.

BSC Is Lame

More evidence to file into the we-already-knew-that files. Simply put, the system cannot cope when there are three or more teams vying for supremacy. So if there are multiple undefeated teams in contention, the two with the highest preseason rankings will get to go to the championship game. Or if there are several one-loss teams in the hunt, it will likely feature the two which lost earliest in the season.
Either way, teams–and college football fans–get screwed. And we’ll continue to miss out until the NCAA implements an eight (or more) team playoff.

Vounteer State Blogging Balkinization

Thus far South Knox Bubba has done a good job of keeping Tennessee bloggers unified under the Rocky Top Brigade banner. But now I’m getting a whiff of Volunteer State factionalism in the air.
Bill Hobbs is calling for Nashville bloggers. Meanwhile, Brock at Dark Bilious Vapors is working on a fancy icon for Memphian bloggers.
What could this mean? Might we be headed toward a contentious civil war blogging supremecy? And what about the Knoxville bloggers? And the south of Knox wannabes? Are the K-Towners going to be left in disorganized obscurity while the sister cities coalesce?
Stay tuned.