And Still I Persist

I’ve always enjoyed Ron Silver as an actor — but now I admire him for his humor as well:

The presidential electoral cycle is upon us. That means conventions. Conventions have platforms. I propose a platform that will make the world like us again. Just like they always did.

It may take 12 steps to get clean and sober, but only 6 to make the world realize just how super the U.S. can be.

1. We can start by helping the Arabs retake Andalusia. Having conquered it once, it belongs to them forever. This goes for most of the Balkans as well as Austria up to the gates of Vienna. All infidels should convert to Islam. This is inevitable as Islam means “submission.” Needless to say, we should all follow the code of Sharia. It’ll work wonders. No need to tie up the courts with gay marriage cases; we can just kill all the homosexuals. How much better will our soap operas be when the cheating wives get stoned to death?

What’s wrong with honor killings of women? Or keeping them uneducated or illiterate? Why can’t heroism be defined as hiding behind women and children while trying deliberately to kill women and children? Able-bodied men should be free to dance and march in the streets, burn flags, shoot guns into the air and contort their faces into grimaces fueled by impotent rage because they are victims (all 360 million of them, let alone their 1.2 billion co-religionists) of the 13 million Jews who run the world (see Chavez, Walt and Mearsheimer). Notwithstanding sitting on more than half of the world’s oil reserves and the massive wealth they have, it is only proper that the rest of the world be responsible for and pay for the Palestinians not given citizenship in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and the 20 other Arab countries….

As the saying goes, read the whole thing.  ..bruce w..

I’ve previously posted feedback from readers on how the media performed during the San Diego Fires as well as how the government performed. At the same time that I solicited that feedback, I also asked for suggestions on how our coverage here at “And Still I Persist” might have been better. Feedback and my own observations after the jump.

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Headline: “Gov’t IT project ‘failed’ with $12mil misappropriated”

Location: Vietnam.

VietNamNet Bridge – More than 20% of the funds already disbursed for a multi-million dollar project that aimed to computerise Government offices nationwide has been misallocated, according to a new report from the State Audit Agency.

The State Audit Agency said Project 112 had misallocated nearly VND195bil (US$12mil) in funds.

Of that amount, VND110bil ($6.8mil) had been misused at 43 sub-projects at ministries and provinces, according to reports released by the agency last week.

In April, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung called a halt to the project after discrepancies were reported in the allocation of state funds.

Welcome to the wonderful world of IT projects! ..bruce..

[UPDATED 11/01/07 0734 PDT] - The San Diego Union-Tribune has an excellent article by Alex Roth and Mark Sauer discussing to what extent government agencies handled things better this time than back in 2003. It particularly notes the need for more fire stations (with matching firefighters and equipment) to meet the risk of large-scale fires such as these.   ..bruce w..

As noted in the previous post, I solicited feedback on what the media, the government, and we ourselves could have done better in responding to the San Diego fires. Here are some of your comments about the goverment response (click on ‘Read the article’ to get to them); on the whole, they were more positive than the feedback about the media.

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Last week I commented on how courage, heroism and American self-reliance was on full display last week as the area faced its most wide-spread disaster in at least a generation. As the weeks go forward we are going to read dozens of stories about people who saw a chance to make a difference and did it regardless of the cost to themselves.

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

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A shrill voice pierced Ray Chaney’s headset as he flew a small plane about a mile above the U.S.-Mexico border on Oct. 21. The air traffic controller looked helplessly at the sea of flames below. Chaney, a battalion chief for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and coordinator of the aerial assault on the fire, called off incoming tankers loaded with retardant. He directed water-dumping helicopters to circle in low to try to spot the victims.

“‘We’re burned over! We have a casualty and burns, we need help!’” Chaney recalled hearing. Three of the firefighters huddling together in the inferno gave him enough information to direct the helicopters. The fourth firefighter had disappeared, and the others feared he was dead.

The first to spot the victims was Michael Wagstaff, a contract pilot flying a helicopter tanker for the U.S. Forest Service.

What happened next, according to firefighters who witnessed it, was one of the most heroic acts in a week of many.

Wagstaff landed on a smoldering patch of scorched ground long enough for the firefighters and the son to pile on board. The father had died in the flames. Chaney, flying above, put out a call for medical help.

“They are heroes,” said Ruben Grijalva, chief of the department. “I have heard about the pilot and that it was a heroic effort. I’m sure there are going to be a lot of Medals of Valor that come out of this incident.”

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I would be very interested to hear if Mr. Wagstaff was a formerly a military pilot. He is undoubtedly a hero, and acted bravely to rescue people when seconds mattered.

More from the San Diego Union Tribune:

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SAN DIEGO – Mike Wagstaff flew his helicopter into blinding smoke to look for four firefighters and a teenage boy who were badly burned. Eventually, Wagstaff would rescue the entire crew and the boy, whose father was killed in the fire. But he said he doesn’t feel like a hero.

“Not really. No,” Wagstaff said in an interview Tuesday. “A lot of people do, and I’m grateful to that. But I was just doing my job.”

In his first public interview, Wagstaff, 48, shared his story while standing before his helicopter at Gillespie Field in El Cajon. He wore sunglasses and a tan pilot jumpsuit.

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See the video here.