Contrary to some, I don’t feel sorry for Larry Craig

An e-mailer to Talking Points Memo says s/he’s kind of willing to cut Craig some slack:

Sure, he’s a hypocrite, sure he’s probably gay or bi or whatever, and sure, I despise his politics. The problem is, I'm torn between the schadenfreude of watching another one of the Family Values crowd being shown up, and feeling really bad for the guy, because he didn't do anything.

Look at the police report. Did he directly ask a cop for sex? No. Did he expose himself lewdly (as opposed to exposing himself to use the facilities)? No. Did he do anything that was unambiguously sexual? No.

I, on the other hand, feel nothing but schadenfreude for Craig at this time.

The people I feel sorry for is gays and lesbians, especially in places like Idaho (next door to Matthew Shepard's Wyoming!), where gay and lesbian visibility is almost totally beat down because of people like Craig.

As for the e-mailer’s later Walter Jenkins reference (the LBJ aide arrested more than 40 years ago in similar circumstance), it’s ultimately the fault of gay-bashers like Craig that people still get picked up in men's rooms for somewhat iffy solicitation charges. Assuming Craig has been self-knowingly in the closet for the decade or more that seems to be the case, he knows the rules of the game on anonymous pick-ups, too. He's got nobody but himself to blame for causing the rules to be what they are, and for playing by them, rather than being honest and true to himself and living out his sexual preferences without squalor.

Not just enlisteds leaving the Army

Officers from West Point are refusing to re-up after their initial term:

West Point cadets are obligated to stay in the Army for five years after graduating. In a typical year, about a quarter to a third of them decide not to sign on for another term. In 2003, when the class of 1998 faced that decision, only 18 percent quit the force: memories of 9/11 were still vivid; the war in Afghanistan seemed a success; and war in Iraq was under way. Duty called, and it seemed a good time to be an Army officer. But last year, when the 905 officers from the class of 2001 had to make their choice to stay or leave, 44 percent quit the Army. It was the service’s highest loss rate in three decades.

Col. Don Snider, a longtime professor at West Point, sees a “trust gap” between junior and senior officers. There has always been a gap, to some degree. What’s different now is that many of the juniors have more combat experience than the seniors. They have come to trust their own instincts more than they trust orders. They look at the hand they’ve been dealt by their superiors’ decisions, and they feel let down.

The gap is widening further, Snider told me, because of this war’s operating tempo, the “unrelenting pace” at which soldiers are rotated into Iraq for longer tours — and a greater number of tours — than they signed up for. Many soldiers, even those who support the war, are wearying of the endless cycle.

Meanwhile, many Army generals are bringing this on themselves by their arrogance:

Soon after (Lt. Paul) Yingling’s article appeared, Maj. Gen. Jeff Hammond, commander of the Fourth Infantry Division at Fort Hood, Texas, reportedly called a meeting of the roughly 200 captains on his base, all of whom had served in Iraq, for the purpose of putting this brazen lieutenant colonel in his place. According to The Wall Street Journal, he told his captains that Army generals are “dedicated, selfless servants.” Yingling had no business judging generals because he has “never worn the shoes of a general.” By implication, Hammond was warning his captains that they had no business judging generals, either.

The article linked is an excellent one about an Army career development school for captains. Many of them there are ready, willing and able to challenge general officers’ perceptions and comments about Iraq. Who knows? Maybe we will see more and more material, in various forums, like the recent New York Times column from members of the 82nd Airborne.

A primer on China’s lax environmentalism

Judging by the tenor of the story, we shouldn’t expect changes soon. How bad is the problem? A brief graf illustrates:

But China is more like a teenage smoker with emphysema. The costs of pollution have mounted well before it is ready to curtail economic development. But the price of business as usual — including the predicted effects of global warming on China itself — strikes many of its own experts and some senior officials as intolerably high.

The details of the problem?

The level of particulate (pollutants) is measured in micrograms per cubic meter of air. The European Union stipulates that any reading above 40 micrograms is unsafe. The United States allows 50. In 2006, Beijing’s average PM 10 level was 141, according to the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics. Only Cairo, among world capitals, had worse air quality as measured by particulates, according to the World Bank.

And, it’s not just air pollution. Half of China lacks access to quality water supplies. Between the two, about 750,000 Chinese a year are killed by pollution.

On air pollution, a large problem is Chinese factory inefficiency:

Chinese steel makers, on average, use one-fifth more energy per ton than the international average. Cement manufacturers need 45 percent more power, and ethylene producers need 70 percent more than producers elsewhere, the World Bank says. …

Chinese buildings rarely have thermal insulation. They require, on average, twice as much energy to heat and cool as those in similar climates in the United States and Europe, according to the World Bank. A vast majority of new buildings — 95 percent, the bank says — do not meet China’s own codes for energy efficiency.

Part of the problem is that American businesses that outsource production to China also outsource pollution, and know that’s what they are doing. (Actually, not all the pollution is ultimately outsource; particulate pollution in L.A. comes partially from China.) The Chinese government, instead of making death threats against corrupt managers, should insist American businesses include at least a few dinero to help China pay for improving its pollution mess. Most of these American businesses have enough sunk costs in Chinese manufacturing that they’re not going to baulk.

Up to this point, both the failure of Beijing to think of something like this, and the willingness of American companies to outsource pollution has been a damning indictment on what is known as capitalism.

I want the crack that National Geographic Adventure has been smoking

Despite NGA’s almost hucksterish claim, St. George, Utah is NOT, NOT, NOT a community with a “progressive mindset.” And, in ranking Las Vegas the No. 1 place to live and play, NGA shamefully ignores the fact that Vegas’ long-term growth, especially with its current lifestyle, is unsustainable due to the combination of global warming and continued Southwestern drought.

Oh, and how can not a single Pacific Coast community crack its list of top 10 waterfront towns?

Couldn’t have said it better about financiers in the credit bubble myself

So, I’ll let Bill Fleckenstein say it for me:

One final comment about the financial world: It's populated with rich, hypocritical whiners. Wall Street, the hedge-fund community and their lap dogs in the news media continually brag about how much they love capitalism and free markets.

Yet when the creative-destruction component of capitalism rears its ugly head, they want the central planners to bail them out immediately, before they take any pain. And the ones clamoring the loudest are the very same folks who behaved the most irresponsibly.

Fleckenstein goes on to note that the Financial Standards Accounting Board has allowed much of this bubble to happen right along with the Fed, through it’s officially signing off on counting Level 3 values, based on fair value being measured using “unobservable inputs,” as part of a company’s assets.

See this Bloomberg article for how far Wells Fargo is running with this ball.

Shame on the Brazos Valley Council of Governments

In its “Images” magazine, it glories coal-fired power plants while giving only brief, in-passing mention to FutureGen clean coal plants, and none to solar or other alternatives, let alone promoting the idea that Texas A&M should be doing more research on both alternative energy and conservation.