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Friday, August 02, 2002
Bad Karma
Here's an amusing article on some of the "interesting" moments in the Philadelphia Phillies 119 year history.
• Outfielders Oscar Gamble and Byron Brown became the first baseball casualties of the Flower Generation. Both were hospitalized after attending a San Francisco party where LSD-spiked punch was served.
• Lefthander Mike Wallace, a hippie, punched out righthander Barry Lee Lersch, a preppy, in the Greater Cincinnati Airport after Lersch called him a "bleeping Hell's Angel.''
Traficant Uncovered
Okay, here is where you can find a picture of ole' Jimbo without the rug.
UN-Jenin Report
I had not posted anything on the UN Report on the Israeli Actions at the Jenin Refugee Camp because (1) so many other bloggers had written, and written well, about it; and (2) the report did not say much that I have not previously written.
Still, I need to write about some aspect that I found most satisfying. As everyone knows, the report rejects any claim of a massacre; puts the number of dead Palestinians at 52, and concedes that at least 2/3 were in armed battle with the IDF -- not "innocent civilians"; found that the Palestinian terrorists purposefully, and in contravention of international law placed themselves in the midst of civilians to use them as shields; and faulted Israel, essentially, for being mean.
The part I enjoy is found somewhere in every story written, but usually buried near the bottom:
The 42-page document was based on information from U.N. officials, private relief organizations, documents in the public domain, the Palestinians, Jordan, Qatar and Spain, on behalf of the European Union. Israel did not respond to a request from Annan asking for help in its preparation.
A UN report that exonerates Israel, rejects the wild Palestinian lies, er claims, and was assembled with the help of human rights organizations. All the while Israel, did not try to provide any more information than it had provided publicly during the events. That, to me, is really quite astounding.
The U.N. findings on whether or not there was a massacre in Jenin mirrored those of Human Rights Watch. But the organization criticized the report for failing to ascribe responsibility for serious violations or ask for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.
Amnesty International said in London that the report was consistent with many of its own findings.
The report said up to half the 52 Palestinian casualties in Jenin may have been civilians, but it was impossible to determine a precise figure. Human Rights Watch documented 22 civilian deaths, the report noted.
That was from the AP story. Not everyone is happy with the outcome and seems to read things a little differently. The Headline:
UN issues 'seriously flawed' report on Jenin killings
Long awaited investigation repudiates massacre claim and fails to blame Israel
Now, keep in mind the highlighted areas from Amnesty Int'l and Human Rights Watch.
Human rights groups said yesterday the report was "seriously flawed".
Actually, buried later in the story is some of the context of that quote.
"The UN's report is seriously flawed," said Miranda Sissons, a co-author of the HRW report on Jenin. "It could have done much more and it doesn't move us forward in trying to establish the truth. It's a good example of the dangers of doing a report with no access to evidence on the ground."
Couple that with the AP summary of HRW's position, and the real criticism of the flaws is that no blame is given or calls to arrest anyone. Of course, that was not really the point if the goal was to find the truth of the events -- not blame.
Allegations of a massacre have obscured the issue from the moment they were first made by Palestinian officials without evidence.
And subsequently repeated, decried, and trumpeted by papers like The Independent without any evidence. But that's not really important.
An investigation by The Independent inside Jenin shortly after the fighting unearthed numerous corroborating accounts of atrocities.
They can't admit they screwed up in calling it a massacre, so they need to shift the language.
Good thing they are not biased or anything.
Thursday, August 01, 2002
A Vague Letter is Clear
Following the "admonishment" letter concerning Sen. Robert Torricelli (D-N.J.), for his ethical lapses, the "Senate Ethics Committee is declining to release any files or transcripts from its investigation ...beyond the three-page letter." Instead, they feel the letter speaks for itself. This despite a vagueness in the letter:
Others argued that it's not clear from the committee's wording of "inconsistencies" whether the panel was referring to something Torricelli said or if the panel was more troubled by Chang's credibility, given that the sixth finding in the letter followed a finding that noted Chang's untrustworthiness.
The failure to release any documentation or transcripts of the hearings has "watchdog groups" and Sen. McCain pissed. There is no hard and fast rule, but generally the documents are released, as McCain well remembers from his rebuke for being part of the "Keating Five."
Mop Top
Now here's a real shocker. It is being reported that convicted felon, Rep. Jim "people volunteer to work on my farm all the time" Traficant's hair is really a toupee. I know, I know. You tell me it can't be true, but according to the Summit County Sheriff:
Some people thought the hair was too unruly to be a toupee. But Sheriff Drew Alexander said the newly sentenced Traficant had to remove the hairpiece this week during a routine search while being booked into the Summit County Jail.
Judging by my referrer logs, a lot of people are looking for a photo of Jimbo, sans the piece. There isn't one yet. But have no fear:
But federal prisoners aren't allowed to wear toupees, so Traficant must give it up when he's sent to federal prison soon, said Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Traci Billingsley.
Wednesday, July 31, 2002
More on the Hebrew U Bomb
This piece from UPI is very detailed, and has a simple summary of what this was from an American bystander:
Several of the wounded in Wednesday's bombing were newcomers arriving from abroad to attend the university's summer program for U.S. and other students. Daniel Fraham, 20, of Indiana said he arrived on a summer exchange program and had just left friends in the cafeteria when the bomb went off. He said he returned to check on his friends.
"Everything was crazy. It was a nightmare. I saw a young girl being covered over with a sheet. This is real terrorism. Not activism. Not politics but terrorism. How can it be anything else?" he said.
"The people here didn't have anything to do with the conflict. They were just studying," he said.
Bolstering the EU or just their influence?
Nice analysis from Martin Walker in UPI on the recent Germany-France meeting.
Ostensibly, the agenda was about cultural affairs and the media, and how to use them to relaunch the concept of 'Europe' to a public that seems bored and increasingly irritated by the whole idea of European Union and enlargement and ever more power seeping away from the national capitals to Brussels.
But Villepin made it clear Tuesday that for France the real issue was for Berlin and Paris to agree a compromise on the vexed issues of reforming both the EU institutions and its costly agricultural policy before the big EU summit in December that formalizes the entry of 10 new member states from Eastern Europe. For Paris, making it clear that France and Germany still make up the EU's directing duo, even after enlargement, is hugely important.
...
But the Schwerin summit was hailed as a success, because it had to be. Although it was not on the formal agenda, Paris and Berlin have a common interest in one crucial matter of European affairs that impinges directly on domestic policy for both countries. Having adopted the euro currency, the two countries are also locked into the EU's 'Stability Pact' that requires them to balance their budgets and in no circumstances allow deficits to exceed 3 percent of gross domestic product, and are finding the experience deeply uncomfortable.
...
So far only one country has broken the barrier -- Portugal. And the unspoken main order of business at Schwerin was for Chirac and Schroeder to agree to go soft on Portugal this autumn to ensure there would be no embarrassing precedent that could lead to fines on Paris and Berlin next year. The Stability Pact has not been pronounced dead, but it might as well be.
What the world's financial markets will do to the euro, when they realize that the new currency's one control mechanism is being stealthily dismantled, has yet to be determined.
I have no insightful analysis here. I just feel like going, BWAH-HA-HA-HA!!!!!
DMCA Abuse Alert
Declan McCullagh, writing for C/Net News, writes of HP using the DMCA to threaten those who disclose a flaw or vulnerability in their server products.
HP has threatened to sue a team of researchers who publicized a vulnerability in the company's Tru64 Unix operating system.
In a letter sent on Monday, an HP vice president warned SnoSoft, a loosely organized research collective, that its members "could be fined up to $500,000 and imprisoned for up to five years" for its role in publishing information on a bug that lets an intruder take over a Tru64 Unix system.
HP's dramatic warning appears to be the first time the DMCA has been invoked to stifle research related to computer security. Until now, it's been used by copyright holders to pursue people who distribute computer programs that unlock copyrighted content such as DVDs or encrypted e-books.
Apparently one of the researchers, who operates under an alias, published a link to a simple program that lets the user gain full administrator privileges on the server, on a posting/mailing list concerning security flaws. It also seems that the server model in question was considered crap, and is now being phased out. It also doesn't help HP, that the knowledge of the flaw has been there since at least the spring.
SnoSoft representatives stressed in an interview that they wanted a cordial relationship with HP. They provided a copy of an e-mail message sent before the July 19 posting in which HP had discussed a deal with SnoSoft, asking what it would "cost for you to share, under NDA, the problems you have discovered to date for Tru64 Unix V5.1 and/or V5.1a."
HP has known about the Tru64 vulnerability "for some time," SnoSoft's Finisterre said, but never fixed the problem. An HP spokesman said he did not know if a patch had been released.
Another researcher, who uses the alias K2 and is part of the ADM hacking group, released a similar exploit in 2001 that also gave a person complete access to a Tru64 Unix system.
Finisterre said that while he wanted to resolve the dispute with HP, he resented receiving DMCA threats. "We are like the guys that found out that Firestone tires have issues on Ford explorers," he said. "It's not our fault your Explorer has crap tires. We just pointed it out. We should not get attacked for pointing out issues in someone’s product nor for proving it is possible."
...
Tru64 Unix came in last place in a recent survey by a computing research firm. As a result of HP's acquisition of Compaq Computer, Tru64 is being phased out over the next few years, and its features are supposed to be folded into HP-UX.
So this is how the new HP/Compaq is going to operate.
Bomb at Hebrew U
A bomb went off at Hebrew University in Jerusalem in a cafeteria at an international students center. At least seven people are dead, and eighty injured. It is unclear whether it was a suicide bomber or a planted explosive. Hamas has claimed responsibility, and big surprise, they claim it is retaliation for the Gaza air strike. Disgusting.
Speaking of disgusting, I hate even using a Reuters article but AP doesn't have anything yet. I noted (and I know others have previously noted this) that Reuters has started referring to the second Intifada as the : "Palestinian uprising for independence." What really struck me was that they used the phrase THREE times in this one article. I suppose they believe that if you repeat a lie often enough you will actually believe it.
Previously, it seemed that colleges were left alone by the terrorists. Arguably, there is a lot more sympathy for the Palestinians on the campuses with more leftists who oppose Sharon. The cynic in me can't help but wonder if there is some Israeli, Michael Moore-esque clown who will decry the terrorist attack in part for striking at people who don't support Sharon ( a la, Moore's comments about terrorists hitting NYC when most of the people there didn't support Bush).
UPDATE: According to this AP article, it was a planted explosion. Also, it appears that universal peacemaker, Rev. Jesse Jackson, has canceled his scheduled meeting with Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of Hamas, following the bomb. Jesse should be grateful it happened before his meeting. He would have lost even more credibility (if that's possible) if he had done the meeting, said nice things about Yassin ("I believe he desires peace" or such), and then the attack had occurred.
One other thing, was this quote from Yassin:
Yassin, the spiritual leader, told Associated Press Television News that the Israelis should have expected Wednesday's attack.
"When Israel bombs a civilian building full of women and children, and kills 15 people, this is the response they should expect," Yassin said. "Today's Israeli government should bear responsibility."
Wonder what sort of response the Palestinians and specifically, Yassin, should expect.
Tuesday, July 30, 2002
Blaming Ethicists
I touched briefly on this a couple weeks ago regarding a different WSJ column suggesting new codes of conducts for businesses to include reporting on its economic health. (Quick recap: bad idea.) An op-ed in the WSJ (subscription req'd) now asks "where are the ethicists?" The author, Gordan Marino is a professor of philosophy at St. Olaf College. Specifically, he is asking about all the ethics companies and consultants that companies hire to draft codes of conduct. His contention is that the ethics business is basically a joke and a racket. He even cites a fairly well-known blogging source:
Perhaps because ethics officers are not inclined to ask questions and make demands that will get them canned. Perhaps because, as Peter Morgan and Glenn Reynolds have argued in "The Appearance of Impropriety," the army of ethics doyens is simply a public relations ploy. Even within the guild, there is a sense that many ethics consultants are in the business of peddling Hollywood stage fronts.
But disingenuousness apart, the growing fantasy that ethics is just another area of expertise, and that we can subcontract the work of moral reflection, is a parlous one.
Prof. Marino is slightly off on his timeline of ethics in business which he notes as becoming popular in the 80s following insider trading scandals, because "It was soon discovered that companies with ethics codes and programs received fewer punitive judgments in court than companies without ethicists."
There is no question that there are plenty of Ethics Sites out there. I also can't disagree about the money to be made on the subject matter -- that borders on a complete racket.
He is even right about the lower penalties handed out to companies with ethics codes or codes of conduct, but they date back to the 40s for many larger corporations. Most were originally established to declare their opposition to collusion, price fixing, and gouging -- things that would attract antitrust actions from the government (though that did not prevent major fines and convictions of executives and companies). In the 70s they were expanded in light of of international scandals of bribery and corruption between international corporations and foreign governments (leading to the FCPA -- Foreign Corrupt Practices Act). Presently Codes of Ethics can serve as at least a partial shield in civil actions (sexual harassment and discrimination suits). For federal criminal actions, codes of conduct that are found to be more than window dressing, can reduce the level of penalty. The government created the incentives to have these voluminous codes of ethics, not the consultants. They merely provide a service. I have done some writing on this matter.
I guess the point of Professor Marino's piece is simply that ethics are not something you can hire someone to create and instill in people. He gets to it in the last paragraphs:
More important than the lack of philosophical foundation, the idea of ethics experts invites us to believe that the ethical implications of what I am doing are not my business but rather the business of the ethics office down the hall. After all, if there are experts on ethics, then who am I, a non-expert, to pass moral judgments?
Be they ethics audits, codes or "ethics fitness seminars," none of the numinous pseudo-products of the ethics industry will restore integrity to commerce. The issues that provoked the present crisis were not overly subtle. You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows, and CEOs do not need a business ethicist to tell them right from wrong. What they need is the character to do the right thing, which is to say, the mettle to avoid the temptation to talk themselves out of their knowledge of right and wrong even if that knowledge lowers their profit margins.
To which most people would say, "no s**t." The philosophy professor appears to be convinced that somehow by contracting out to ethics consultants leads to some sort of moral relativism or absolution of responsibility by individuals within a company. I don't buy it. Consultants provide a service. Their job is to provide a framework of what constitutes legal and ethical actions by company employees, it has never been to provide absolution.
Growing Nicely
My daughter takes much of my time at the moment. This photo is already a couple weeks old. 
Front Row Seat
So we went to the Bris yesterday. Took the little one with us, and the wife ended up with a great view of the circumcision. She wishes she hadn't. It's one of those things where there was more blood than you would like to see. Afterwards, she turned to me and said, "I don't think I want to have a boy."
I just did my best to keep the inappropriate comments limited to an occasional whisper to a friend who before hand, wondered about the kind of vehicle a Moyel drives, since most travel to cover regions. "Is it, like a 'Good Moyel Truck'?" I responded, "No, more like the 'Oscar Meyer Wiener-Mobile'."
--
"Please, no flash photography."
"Just like the 'Operation' game -- It takes a very steady hand... BZZZZZTT!!!!!"
"I wonder if Moyels use a practice penis to keep their skills sharp?"
I thought the father was going to pass out. He had his head turned away the entire time, and his body was straining to be as far away while still holding the wine dipped cloth in his son's mouth.
The little one was quiet throughout. She just made us pay that night since her sleeping and eating patterns were messed up by the amount of time in the car seat. Running on very low sleep today.
Only Independents Must Beware
Yes Jim "Everyone Does It" Traficant was expelled by the House of Representatives for his conviction, following the decision by the House Ethics Committee (HEC), but he is apparently the exception that proves the cease fire. Traficant is an Independent, officially. He was a Democrat, but officially left the party and votes with the Republicans more often.
Being a member of the HEC, though, must be the easiest job. According to this, there has been a cease-fire in the House concerning Ethics charges. Apparently after the mid-90s ethics charges brought against Gingrich and various other Congressmen of both parties, there was a "reform" of the process. Outside organizations and individuals may no longer bring charges. Only sitting members of the House may file a claim of Ethics violations against another member. This has created a stale-mate, where if one side would even consider filing an Ethics charge, the other side would retaliate. So despite what appears to be a legitimate issue for the HEC to investigate:
GOPstrategists and party officials had been contemplating for months filing ethics charges against [Rep. Paul] Kanjorski [(D-Pa.)], who has steered more than $9 million in federal contracts to companies owned in part or controlled by his four nephews and daughter.
Two of the companies involved in the controversy, Cornerstone Technologies and Pennsylvania Micronics, were also at one time tenants in a building co-owned by Kanjorski. Several individuals familiar with the situation have publicly stated in news reports that Kanjorski was essentially in control of the two firms.
The matter was dropped to prevent politcising the ethics process.
Democrats threatened to retaliate by filing their own ethics charges against GOPlawmakers, including Majority Whip Tom DeLay (Texas).
The vow of retaliation over an ethics complaint against Kanjorski was made in conversations between Steve Elmendorf, Minority Leader Richard Gephardt's (D-Mo.) chief of staff, and Scott Palmer, the top aide for Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.).
"Communications have been made to the Republican leaders. We don't think the ethics process should be politicized,"said Elmendorf. "We do not think the ethics process should be used as a political tool."
Good to see Congress can be trusted to oversee it's own activities.
cadence and cliches
Bill Simmons does a fantastic Sports Century/Biography parody using the movie Halloween. If, like me, you've watched way too much sports on TV you know how dead on he captures the style, cliche and even cadence of the various commentators.
NARRATOR: "Ironically, Brackett's daughter, Annie, became the first casualty of the night. As she hopped in her car to see her boyfriend, Myers lunged from the backseat, strangling her and slitting her throat. As he was bringing the body inside, Annie's friends, Linda and Bob, arrived at the house."
Jim Nantz: "Next stop: Murderville!"
Hubie Brown (TNT): "OK, you're Michael Myers. You have a tremendous amount of upside for a serial killer, but you have to understand, you've been locked up for the past 15 years. You just killed somebody, so you're a little worked up. Now you're in an empty house with a dead body, and two kids arrive that are all over each other. You end up watching them having sex in the guest room. You feel a little left out, you're a 21-year-old virgin, your hormones are running wild, and you're a homicidal maniac to boot. You're telling me that you aren't absolutely itching to kill these two kids?"
Dan Dierdorf (CBS Sports): "Bob heads downstairs to get beers. Myers lunges out of a closet, picks Bob up by the throat, then rams the knife in his chest so hard that Bob remains hanging on the door. Ho-ho-ho-ho! You think this kid wasn't strong? I'm tellin' ya, this kid was some kind of strong!"
And I don't even care about slasher movies.
Guilty Until Innocent Identity
Merely having the same name as someone with an outstanding warrant will keep getting you detained by the police in Cuyahoga County (Cleveland area).
The police picked up Betty Horton again - just not the right one.
Betty Horton, a 44-year-old mother from Cleveland's West Side...
But police handcuffed Betty three times in the last eight months, thinking she might be Bettie Horton, a 37-year-old with a last-known address on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive who is wanted on a year-old arrest warrant for drug charges. The most recent case was Saturday.
The two women - linked by a common surname and a homonymous first name - have never met but are entangled in a confounding case of mistaken identity.
...
And although it might seem like a simple thing to cross-check a Social Security number, for example, this kind of mix-up is not unusual, or even avoidable, until local authorities get better technology, authorities said.
The problem is compounded because Bettie Horton has used several aliases - one of them "Betty" - and has used Betty's birth date before. Burkhart said the department will delete Betty's birth date from Bettie Horton's computer records, but "this isn't going to end the problem. She'll still be stopped."
Note that this isn't full identity theft, since she hasn't used her social security number. Basically the police are saying, "you are screwed anytime we interact." As for the police excuse that they lack the technology, bulls**t. They run driver licenses all the time. They are claiming their databases only have a birthdate and name cross-checked against warrants.
Surely there must be a card or something she could show to avoid lengthy detention and being handcuffed.
Horton went the next day to the Sheriff's Department, where an institutional guard gave her a form with her name, address, date of birth and Social Security number. In big, stamped letters, the card also touted her clean record.
Just when she was about to write the scare off as a one-time nightmare, it happened again. Horton arrived at the Justice Center on June 4 to visit an inmate. Shortly after she showed the guards her driver's license, officers handcuffed her.
She went back to the Justice Center the next day to get another card showing her clear record. Horton was armed with that card when, on Saturday night, Cleveland police officers stopped her for speeding on the Detroit-Superior (Veterans Memorial) Bridge. But again, Horton was handcuffed and put into the back of a patrol car.
She filled out forms twice. Had the form with her when the police stopped her, and they still threw her into the back of the patrol car in handcuffs to verify. What the hell is the point of filling out and getting the form certified if the cops ignore it? This strikes me more as laziness by the cops in verifying an identity, then anything else.
Monday, July 29, 2002
Paraphrasing
"You know Cliffy, if we can drink and eat through that, I think we can drink and eat through anything."
I'm paraphrasing Norm Peterson following the Bris episode of Cheers. I get to test my own abilities today, as my friend's son has his Bris in Pittsburgh. The wife already seems queasy about the whole thing.
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