Random Thoughts...





It's refreshing to see a little science injected into the global warming debate. As a former scientist myself, I was always a little puzzled by the sheer flimsiness of the case for the global warming theory that posited that a buildup of "greenhouse gases" could cause a catastrophic heating of the globe. As someone who pays heat bills, it's just not that easy to insulate. I mean, I wish that CO2 was a good insulator. Just my wife's continual, uh, conversation should have saved me a fortune by now.



They were for it before they were against it. Honestly, do they think that no one is paying any attention? Personally, I think waterboarding is a godsend. Apparently, according to the former CIA guy who interrogated him, Zubaydah cracked after 35 seconds of this, and gave up information that thwarted dozens of attacks, probably saving hundreds, if not thousands of innocent lives. Can somebody explain why we should risk hundreds of lives to spare a terrorist 35 seconds of discomfort? No physical harm? Come on...

Bret Stephens has a pretty good take on the NIE. Putting it gently, the track record of these things hasn't been too good. If you're the person making policy, you have to view this as information that may be correct--or it may not. It's a damn sight more dangerous to be wrong if you think they're not developing nukes and they do, than the other way around, no?

So, they scrapped their program in 2003? That's interesting. Let's see, what happened in 2003? Oddly enough, if in fact this thing is true, it represents vindication for Bushie, does it not?

More likely, it's just more evidence of the ineptitude of our intelligence. But there is one other possibility. Could it be a giant disinformation ploy? Apparently, much of the new information that led to the new conclusion came about in the form of wiretaps on phones that the Iranians probably knew were tapped, and a big "report" that somehow found its way into the hands of US intelligence. Could it be that we issued this NIE to bluff the Iranians into believing that we believed them? Or perhaps to frighten the Europeans into believing that they're on their own against Iran? Hmmm...