Bryan Strawser

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Bryan Strawser

Been Busy

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Haven’t blogged a whole lot lately, had alot going on.

Spent six days away from home – two days in Providence, Rhode Island teaching a class, and then three days in Minneapolis for some interviews,meetings, and fun.

Unfortunately, those interviews didn’t turn out quite the way that I had hoped, so no promotion for me in the near future. But that’s ok, pretty happy doing what I’m doing.

Came back for a week’s vacation – and ended up spending that entire vacation sick.

I did work on a new personal programming project – EzyRank which is now up and running. Seems to be doing well at around 200,000 pageviews daily, so I certainly can’t complain about that.

Started raking leaves today until my throat started hurting, will go back out and do that in a bit.

Bought Command and Conquer Generals: Zero Hour and have enjoyed that so far.

Having some friends over for dinner.

Hmm, that’s a good update for now 🙂

John Robb on Bush v. Reagan Speeches

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Ed Cone questions whether Bush’s “build democracies” speech will be remembered in the same light as Reagan’s “tear down this wall” speech. First, I think a better comparison is with Reagan’s “evil empire” speech, as Bush mentioned himself. Both are calls to action. However, the similarities end there.

Reagan proposed active and relatively bloodless (at least for us) engagement against a totalitarian empire that was poised at the edge of collapse. Reagan only helped accelerate the inevitable in his years as president by growing the economies of the world in peace. The active confrontations with the dying Soviet Empire was limited to a spending war in defense and support for groups that opposed Soviet military encroachment (Afghanistan). In contrast, while Bush’s call to action does identify the appropriate trend to support, his strategy for doing so is fatally flawed. The invasion of Iraq threw a bomb into the process of democratization in the ME and elsewhere. It created an unstable soil for the growth of democracy.

The contrast in vision is most evident in Reagan’s reference to Winston Churchill:

Sir Winston Churchill refused to accept the inevitability of war or even that it was imminent. He said, “I do not believe that Soviet Russia desires war. What they desire is the fruits of war and the indefinite expansion of their power and doctrines. But what we have to consider here today while time remains is the permanent prevention of war and the establishment of conditions of freedom and democracy as rapidly as possible in all countries.”Well, this is precisely our mission today: to preserve freedom as well as peace. It may not be easy to see; but I believe we live now at a turning point.

[John Robb’s Weblog]

Dave is Working on some Cool Stuff

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A picture named burns.jpgI can’t recall being as excited about a piece of software since I was working on Manila in 1999. Part of the puzzle is finished. The items in the RSS feed for this weblog can be routed to categories. Now to the back-end. As the page is published, we watch for items with categories, and route them to the appropriate place. So if you want to get caught up on all the news from the Edwards campaign, there will be a place for that. Now of course a grad student could be working specifically on news of Edwards, maybe even on the press bus with Edwards. Maybe two grad students. Maybe thirty-two. And maybe the student who’s working on Boston weather comes across something relevant to Edwards-watchers. This shouldn’t be a problem. I told my friend Adam Curry in an email, the idea is that I can write for 100 weblogs, and 100 people can write for a specific weblog. We can get the overhead very low. This is how we’re going to scale up to cover the 2004 election. It’s a moon mission. Each user will get some new software and an assignment. It’ll be a project like 24 Hours of Democracy in 1996, a demo of neat net tricks and a way for people with weblog skills to make a difference. And of course if an event like 9/11 comes along, we’ll be that much better prepared to cover it. [Scripting News]

Iraq Attempted Last Minute Deal to Avert War

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I expect this to be a huge issue as the election approaches, especially if any of these documents come to light.

As American soldiers massed on the Iraqi border in March and diplomats argued about war, an influential adviser to the Pentagon received a secret message from a Lebanese-American businessman: Saddam Hussein wanted to make a deal. Iraqi officials, including the… [Gulf War Online]

Hanson on The Middle East

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Do not look for the Islamic community here to acknowledge that the United States, in little over a decade, freed Kuwait, saved most of the Bosnians and Kosovars, tried to feed Somalis, urged the Russians not to kill Chechnyans, belatedly ensured that no longer were Shiites and Kurds to be slaughtered in Iraq, spoke out against Kuwait’s ethnic cleansing of a third of a million Palestinians — and now is spending $87 billion to make Iraqis free.

That the Arab world would appreciate billions of dollars in past American aid to Jordan, Egypt, and the Palestinian Authority, or thank America for its help in Kuwait and Kosovo, or be grateful to America for freeing Iraq — all this is about as plausible as the idea that Western Europeans would acknowledge their past salvation from Nazism and Soviet Communism, or be grateful for the role the United States plays to promote democracy in Panama, Haiti, the Balkans, or the Middle East.

No, in this depressing age, the real problem is apparently our support for democratic Israel and all those pesky Jews worldwide, who seem to crop up everywhere as sly war makers, grasping film executives, conspiratorial politicians, and greedy colonialists, and thus make life so difficult for the rest of us. [National Review]

Lt. Col Tim Collins’s Speech

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We go to liberate, not to conquer.
We will not fly our flags in their country
We are entering Iraq to free a people and the only flag which will be flown in that ancient land is their own.
Show respect for them.

There are some who are alive at this moment who will not be alive shortly.
Those who do not wish to go on that journey, we will not send.
As for the others, I expect you to rock their world.
Wipe them out if that is what they choose.
But if you are ferocious in battle remember to be magnanimous in victory.

Iraq is steeped in history.
It is the site of the Garden of Eden, of the Great Flood and the birthplace of Abraham.
Tread lightly there.

You will see things that no man could pay to see
— and you will have to go a long way to find a more decent, generous and upright people than the Iraqis.
You will be embarrassed by their hospitality even though they have nothing.

Don’t treat them as refugees for they are in their own country.
Their children will be poor, in years to come they will know that the light of liberation in their lives was brought by you.

If there are casualties of war then remember that when they woke up and got dressed in the morning they did not plan to die this day.
Allow them dignity in death.
Bury them properly and mark their graves.

It is my foremost intention to bring every single one of you out alive.
But there may be people among us who will not see the end of this campaign.
We will put them in their sleeping bags and send them back.
There will be no time for sorrow.

The enemy should be in no doubt that we are his nemesis and that we are bringing about his rightful destruction.
There are many regional commanders who have stains on their souls and they are stoking the fires of hell for Saddam.
He and his forces will be destroyed by this coalition for what they have done.
As they die they will know their deeds have brought them to this place. Show them no pity.

It is a big step to take another human life.
It is not to be done lightly.
I know of men who have taken life needlessly in other conflicts.
I can assure you they live with the mark of Cain upon them.

If someone surrenders to you then remember they have that right in international law and ensure that one day they go home to their family.
The ones who wish to fight, well, we aim to please.

If you harm the regiment or its history by over-enthusiasm in killing or in cowardice, know it is your family who will suffer.
You will be shunned unless your conduct is of the highest — for your deeds will follow you down through history.
We will bring shame on neither our uniform or our nation.

(On Saddam’s chemical and biological weapons.)

It is not a question of if, it’s a question of when.
We know he has already devolved the decision to lower commanders, and that means he has already taken the decision himself.
If we survive the first strike we will survive the attack.

As for ourselves, let’s bring everyone home and leave Iraq a better place for us having been there.

Our business now is north.

– Lt. Colonel Tim Collins, Royal Irish Regiment, The Royal Army

Economy Growing Fastest Since 1984

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The American economy expanded during the third quarter at the fastest rate since 1984, the government reported today, offering hope that the long economic malaise has finally ended.

Consumer spending soared, foreigners bought American-made goods at a surprising clip, and companies increased their investments in equipment and technology at a pace reminiscent of the late 1990’s boom.

Economists welcomed the report as a sign of strength not seen since 2000, but they cautioned that economic growth was almost certain to slow in the months ahead, as the effects of the recent tax cut and a surge in mortgage refinancing wear off. Indeed, the stock market ended trading with little change today, reflecting questions about the sustainability of this rate of growth. [New York Times]