Moon Rise Over Francis Peak

Moon rise over Francis Peak (12 November).

Delicate Arch

This was an impressive sight in person, well worth the hike. May 2004

Sunrise on Red Castle

View near our campsite in the high Unita's, Aug 2004. Brook trout in the stream and moose in the meadows. Red Castle is about three and a half miles away.

The Message on Iraq

Protein Wisdom summarizes the message that must be repeated to combat the “BIG” lie (H/T Instapundit):

Clearly, the important administration arguments are beginning to coalesce: 1) Criticism of the war is not by itself unpatriotic 2) Similarly, answering anti-war critics is not challenging their patriotism 3) But opportunistic and cynical anti-war critics who are trying to walk back their own votes and level spurious charges at the Administration (they lied to take is into war) are themselves lying 4) These lies are hurting the country and the troops. 5) The burden of proof, in a post 911 world, was on Saddam Hussein to prove he’d disarmed; we could not wait for the threat to become imminent before acting 6) The cause the troops are fighting for is just and right 7) Iraq is moving toward freedom; and things on the ground are improving daily, regardless of what the MSM and prominent Dems would have us believe.

These points, taken together, form an easy, concise, and—most importantly—a factually correct counter-narrative to the Dem / MSM narrative that has preached confusion, failure, quagmire, American criminality (torture, WP), and the relentlessness of an insurgency whose battleground savvy and knowledge of the Arab world are thwarting the plans of our confused military leaders and civilian war
commanders. Oh. But we LOVE THE TROOPS!

The Senate - Classify under Invertebrates

I disagree with Senator McCain on many things (notably the McCain-Feingold act banning political speech) but today he is spot on. He shames the Senate for wavering on support for the Iraqi people.

World Trade Center Conspiracy...

Michelle Malkin notes the DesNews story about BYU professor Stephen E. Jones and the "inside job" taking down the World Trade Centers. She provides a link to Popular Mechanics debunking these conspiracy theories.

Muslim Terrorists don't Even Exist

Deseret News and reporter Elaine Jarvik provide a front page forum for BYU professor Steven E. Jones conspiracy theory that the World Trade Center (WTC) building collapse were inside jobs and “Muslims are (probably) not to blame for bringing down the WTC buildings after all”. Unfortunately Ms Jarvik's report goes no further than to parrot Jones statements. I suppose an “Earth is Flat” expose based solely on Flat Earth Society statements is the next step for the Deseret News.

Ellen Jarvik appears not to have performed any research besides reading Jones’ paper. There is no challenge to his statement that steel buildings can’t collapse due to fire alone. I would have expected Ms Jarvik to check with structural engineers for their opinion. Much is made of the fact that WTC 7 fell even though it was not hit by an airplane. Mr. Jones claims this is unprecedented. Did the DesNews bother to check? There are probably other similar buildings that have burned but I would have liked to know if there are any that burned for 7 hours without any attempt to quench fires. If not, that certainly would make the WTC 7 an unusual case. Again, no effort is mentioned by the paper to check this.

Jones is convinced explosive squibs severed steel columns and brought the buildings down. It is hard for me to think explosive squibs were necessary for the buildings hit by planes. Surely the 767 shaped hole in one structure provides a clue. If exterior columns were severed by the airliner, I would think the same could happen to interior trusses securing floors But then if planted explosives weren’t necessary for bringing down the two larger buildings, why should I believe someone somehow snuck into WTC7 and wired it for demolition?. Further, Jones believes smoke puffs blowing outward from the building prove the use of explosive charges. Since the buildings were already burning; why didn’t the reporter ask if this could have been smoke blown out as building floors fell?” Dauntless, our DesNews reporter shows no skepticism with Jarvik’s claims. No consultation with structures or explosive demolition experts were made.

The reporter needed to ask some questions, but maybe that would have ruined a thesis running in Western papers lately - Muslim terrorists don’t exist.

More Question the Media

Joel Mowbry notices the reluctance of the media to use the M-word. At the end he asks the same question I did:

The role Islam—whether as opportunistic rallying cry, through hateful teachings in the name of the religion, or otherwise—played in the riots is something we might not know for some time. If ever. But it is certainly relevant. So why do so many in the mainstream media consider it not even worth mentioning?

Media Avoids Naming Names

Mark Steyn notes how the media fails to identify Islamic terrorists as perpetrators of terrorism they commit. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation even refuses to acknowledge terrorism exists. The Washington Post goes out of its way (with nothing to back up their assertion) that rioting in France has nothing to do with Islam (H/T Powerline including here). Why do the mainstream media de-emphasize Islamic connections with violence committed by Muslims, particularly those committing it in the name of Islam?