Art La Flamme

I tried to go to my account page for Skype (http://ui.skype.com/ui/3/2.7.0.330/en/myaccount/[my account]).

This site is blocked according to the Kuwaiti Government filtering guidelines. If you feel this page has been blocked in error kindly fill out the form and we will investigate.

It is with your feedback that we can avoid future errors.

Thank you

Same thing happens at Skype.com, too. Interesting.

So, Kuwait. I’m back. Good to see you — been a long time.

Last time we were together, I had just loaded another boat full of really cool spy gear, and watched her sail away. We had said our teary goodbyes at the airport before I’d walked up the stairs and onto that plane for one last flight back to Germany. If there’d been dirt, I’d have scooped up a handful and shoved it in my pocket.

I like you better in the winter. Morning here with you is amazing. Your cold nights leave me nestled deep into my sleeping bag, working hard to cover every inch of me with shelter from the cold desert air. When I do it wrong, I wake with an aching jaw, from clenched teeth — a small price to pay. But those first rays of sunlight on the tent – they feel as good as fresh cookies can smell. I try to fight it, to hold off crawling out of my fart sack for as long as I can. It’s usually when my feet are overly warm that I know it’s time to go.

Sometime soon, I should get up early enough to see the sun come up. Remember that morning we spent together, back in 2003? We watched the sun come up together on Christmas morning, just me and you and those first crisp streaks of orange that unfolded first into a giant fan of color before becoming golden rays.

That was a good day, indeed.

And that sunset you just put on here? Glorious. Why doesn’t the rest of the world get that shade of last-minute pink right before the darkness all but swallows us whole? It’s the best way to know that, really, the day is done.

I think I’ll hang out here, and soak up the night some. It’s getting cold, but I don’t mind so much. I’ll try and stay awake to see your starry late-night sky. I know how hard you work, to really put on a show for us out here in the desert. No city, no industry, nothing to really get in the way of the glory above.

Maybe I’ll grab my sleeping bag and a warm hat, and see about sleeping outside with you. It’s nice to be back here in the desert with you.

Regards,
Art

I might call it an amber light.

When we arrived here in lovely Kuwait, we were inundated with a ton of briefings, one of which addressed blogging (on one slide).

Yes, blogging is OK. If I want to talk military topics, I have to do a couple of things.

I don’t plan to really talk about military stuff, but I will do the extra stuff, just to be on the safe side.

So, get ready. Looks like I’m in business.

In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve departed. Gone. Poof. Into the wind.

I am going back to Iraq.

Field Manual 30-5, Combat Intelligence, February 1951

I’ll be there for a year, or until they tell me to come home. I should get a two-week-or-so break somewhere along the way.

I’d like to keep blogging here during the year. I am sure there’d be things to write; I know, though, that the Army is a bit cautious about blogs, so I will have to see what wickets I’ll need to jump through in order to blog. Feel free to email me and ask questions; if I can answer them, I will, and if not, I’ll either lie (ok, no, not really) or I’ll just fess up that it’s not appropriate for me to answer, for whatever reason. If I upload photos, or blog here or elsewhere, or bookmark neat things, it’ll all show up in this RSS feed.

“As crutch attests”

About going

I’ve had people ask me different questions about this adventure. The questions generally fall into a couple of categories.

Aren’t you worried about going? No, not really. Things started to sink in Sunday morning, early, that it was almost time for change. I think I get more angst about the change, the picking up and going someplace, than I do about where I’m going or what I’m going to do there. I do a pretty good job of living in the now, and it’s only that slight anticipation that my now will likely change that gets me thinking about it. But no, it’s not worry. I’ll be fine.

Are you worried about being there? No, not really. I know that some have a view that Iraq is some horrible place, but that’s not a view I share. Yes, there is violence, yes there are crimes occurring. But there’s that in Los Angeles, New York, Moscow, and so on. I’m a believer — I believe in the Iraqis, in the Iraqi government, and in what we’re doing there. So no, I’m not worried about being there. I’ll be fine.

Victory in Europe (VE) Day, 08 May 1945

How’s your family taking it? Well. I don’t like saying that we take separation well, or that we’ve done this enough times that it’s not new. That sucks. But it is true — we have done this enough times, for the war, for other missions, for schools and the like, that we’re pretty good at it. My wife runs the house, with or without me there. The kids have their routines, with or without me there. We have mail, and email, and sometimes video chats. My wife covers down on the gift shopping for us when I’m not there, and I work hard to draw out of our kids info on what’s going on in their lives. I don’t like being apart, much less for a year, any more than I like missing another set of birthdays, another holiday season, another recital or event. But it happens, especially when service to the Nation and to the Republic comes before family.

What’ll you be doing there? I’m a staff guy. There’s no door kicking for me, no jumping out of a helicopter as it gets ready to set down on the objective. I sit and think deep thoughts, ask questions, give a briefing from time to time, and make an all-out effort to avoid making PowerPoint slides (not just while in Iraq, but in life in general). It’s not a bad deal, and it’s stuff that I’m actually well suited to do. But through all that, I remain ready to all of those basic soldier skills we expect of every soldier; if they need an extra gunner, I go.

Band-Aids, circa 1944

What do you do?

And every time I get ready to go somewhere, I seem to end up fielding questions from friends / family: What can I do to help while you’re gone?

So, some thoughts on that, too.

Email. You have my email address, right? A note, something personal from time to time, would be cool. Sure, send me the link to that NY Times article; even better is cutting and pasting it into the email itself (because some web sites get blocked or require that I go to an MWR (Morale, Welfare & Recreation) computer to see) or as an attachment. Best, though, is including it and offering up your thoughts on it, too.

Actual mail. You have stamps, right? As long as there have been literate soldiers, there have been letters from home in their pockets. An actual letter is awesome, probably all the more so in this age of email. Yes, it takes longer to write, yes, your penmanship might be a bit off, but so what. Real letters are awesome. Throw in an article from the hometown newspaper, or something from Time or Rolling Stone or Hot Rod, and you’ll make my day.

If you want to go above and beyond that, well, there’s a ton of other things you can do.

Wounded Warrior Transition Units. Find your local military installation, and get in touch with the Wounded Warrior unit. These are the units where our banged up, battered, and slightly-damaged guys go to mend. Guys and gals whose role in life is to get better, after something has happened to them. Want to help someone locally, to help make the world a better place and to maybe honor our soldiers just a bit? Contact the unit, and see how you can help.

Family Readiness Group. Peek around and find the local unit near you. They might be on a base, they might be a Guard or Reserve unit in your area. This is the group of spouses, kids, and extended family (parents, loved ones, boyfriends / girlfriends, etc) who are working to help each other and themselves while their loved ones are gone. Sometimes there are problems to be solved, sometimes there are bake sales to raise money to send care packages to their loved ones.

Army Emergency Relief. AER is help for soldiers in need. A quick loan in a jam or a grant in a time of need, it’s money to help soldiers during their hour of need. It’s run locally — here‘s the link to the one at Walter Reed Army Medical Center — and it’s tax deductible.

Footlocker, packed in 1946

No wallowing

I suppose it would be easy to wallow in my own misery, over having to go. Or over having to go someplace again, or over having to go for a year. There are a million reasons one could be upset about going, or be upset about a loved one going.

But I won’t. I don’t think I can. Things could be so much worse.

As I was getting ready to go, I was looking for those last little things I would need to take with me, I made a stop off in the footlocker that had belonged to my wife’s grandfather. The photos in this post — I took the photos that day as I was peeking here and there.

Los Angeles Times, 08 December 1941

On December 7th, he got the call. He left the next morning, heading off with the 32nd Cav, his National Guard unit. Apparently, he bought the paper on the way that day. He came home from the war in 1946.

5 years. Sure, he got R&R from time to time, but still — five years. That’s a long time. That’s a lot of letters to write. That’s a lot of great experiences with your kids that you’ll never get back.

Late in his life, when I was a lieutenant stationed in Germany, he came to visit us. I made the time to go show him all of our equipment — M1A2 tank, M2 infantry fighting vehicle, M109A6 self-propelled howitzer, and everything on down to machine guns and pistols. It was fascinating to hear his views of our military today — our equipment, our organizations, our capabilities, our training. He had been, at times, want for things as simple as a heavy machine gun that worked reliably — that’s hard to reconcile today with my worries about things like access to email and Skype. Understanding this history not just of my profession but of my own Army and the sacrifices asked of our soldiers in the past, is helping me balance the pressures of heading back to Iraq.

I don’t know how much, if any, difference I’ll make, but I’ll do my best.

Alright, that’s enough for now. More later — whenever that is.

The kids and I made one last Mini adventure today: Ka’ena Point Satellite Tracking Station.

Me, at the far point.

If you remember, about a month ago the kids and I went to ride bikes at Ka’ena Point State Park and had an awesome time. When we were doing that, I noticed some odd structures up on the ridge above the point itself — one of which looked like a giant golf ball.

Look for the golf ball.

Today, we went to that golf ball, and to pretty much all of the other stuff up there. A guy I know works up there, and offered to show us around.

The shimmering Pacific.

Nice drive. I think it’s probably less than 2000 feet climb, on a government maintained road (meaning, not so good). The drive was pleasant, but wow, from up there the view is stunning.

The drive up.

I uploaded some of what I took, here. I also made a Google Earth file, with embedded photos (here). The ocean was smooth and silky, and the clouds were breathtaking.

More of the ocean.

And the wild pigs? Cute.

Didn’t congress vote on something, to make it all possible?

Why, then, am I reading this:

(Treasury Secretary) Paulson also said the government is no longer planning to buy troubled mortgage assets, the original goal of the plan. Therefore, it must come up with new ways to help homeowners and slow the tide of foreclosures, which it had hoped to do once it owned the troubled loans.

And who exactly hacked off on that one, sir? You know, we elect members of Congress, and they do our bidding. You were appointed — so WTF?

Hey, Congresswoman Pelosi — remember when I said it was time for you to start actually leading? Hello! It’s time.

Wife and I were talking about dinner tonight, and the prospect of us each running some errands beforehand. I urged that we make sure that one of us is back in time to get the oven going, if we’re going to bake potatoes to go with out leftover chili.

“Last time we had potatoes,” I said, “I think they were microwaved.”

“Yeah,” she said, “they were.”

“They were pretty mantlery.”

“So, that’s our new word for just not right?”

“Yep.”

We have another we use — Pesci. It’s that feeling you get when you’ve eaten something that might not ultimately agree with you, when normally it would.

As in: “”Oh, man. I had that turkey sandwich for lunch, and now I’m feeling a bit pesci.” It is, of course, named after Joe Pesci, for no reason other than watching him in a movie leaves me with that same feeling.

Feel free to adopt these, too.

The wife and kids and I went to the local water park today.

I did not bring a camera. I have no idea what I was thinking.

It was a water park. It was Veteran’s Day — TONS of military folks. Tattoos galore.

Lots of beautiful ones. Lots of military ones — Army this, and Marine Corps that.

And lots of ass antlers. In German it’s arschgeweih — a compound of Arsch (ass) and Geweih (antler or horns).

In the US, they seem to be called a “tramp stamp” — though I have to say, the German phrase sounds exponentially better.

Most of they time, they come in one of two kinds (or, so it has been my observation.

1. Wings. Usually a tribal design, but something flowing from the small of the back / top of the butt crack, out to the sides some. Size varies, but it’s often fairly good size.

2. Something tiny. Maybe a ying yang deal. Maybe a heart. Often, something in some Asian script that no one can read and that may in fact be a good idea for dinner tonight. But a small icon or image in the same spot.

Sometimes it’s something in between.

There’s another variant — the tummy tag. It’s often around the belly button, and often is a sun of some variant. Think New Mexico.

But, through all this, there’s one constant — they’re on women.

When we were in Egypt this summer, we saw a classic arschgeweih on a guy at the pool. And wow — those big wings looked soooooooooo wrong.

Today, at the water park, we saw all three on (thankfully) different guys. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Don’t believe me? Check these out.

The wife and I, we call them Mantlers.

Over turkey chili tonight, I made passing reference to the band 7 Seconds. It was in the same sentence in which I referenced The Dead Milkmen, Aerosmith, and Run-DMC.

My wife thought that perhaps 7 Seconds was an unheard of band. I protested, and she started to add caveats.

Somewhere in all that, I opened Firefox and pinged Wikipedia to see if 7 Seconds has an entry in Wikipedia. They do.

I think that’s a milestone. Think it might be mainstream? If it’s in Wikipedia, it is.

The wife and kids and I went to MINI to the Max at Aloha Tower on Sunday morning, here in Honolulu. It was a mix of a Mini car show, toy drive, and sales event for the local Mini dealership. It was sponsored by the dealership, the local Mini club (Hawaii Mini Motoring Club), and a few others.

One thing I did get a chance to do there was talk about my Mini, and Minis in general. Not hard to do — I love my car, and I love the Mini. And I love my Mini adventures — I put a sheet of paper on the dash, encouraging folks to ask about driving the Alps, or the Ring, or across America, or the Dragon.

I spent some time chatting with a guy who was there with his family. Not a Mini owner, but he is considering one. The dealership invited him to come down – and he was very pleased that he did. At the show, there was just about one of everything — Coopers, Cooper S’s, supercharged, turbo charged, Clubmans, stripes, stock, street racers, etc.

He isn’t in a hurry to buy a car. But he did have a million questions. Gas mileage. Stock / OEM run-flat tires, vs. after market.

I encouraged him to:

Read. Rummage around the Mini website, and check out all of the things.

Ask questions of owners. Find some Mini websites (like NAM, or Coopernation, or a local Mini Club, like the Tar Heels or HMMC) and join in their forums; they’re always receptive to questions from prospective buyers, and the forums probably have questions to answers you haven’t even thought up yet. And go to Mini events in the area — Mini owners tend to be social, and tend to enjoy talking about their cars.

Consider used Minis. Motoringfile has great buyer’s guides, for 2002-2006 Mini Coopers (R50) and Mini Cooper S’s (R53). With 2007 came new engines (turbo, not supercharged) and slowly also some other changes. Nothing wrong with a good, used Mini.

Test drive EVERYTHING. If you’re going to buy new, try one of each. See what heated seats actually feel like, if you’re considering buying them. See how noisy a convertible is at highway speed. Put your foot into a 210-bhp John Cooper Works monster. Make the dealer earn their money, and leave no question unanswered. And if you’re considering used, find the local Mini club and ask folks to take you out for a drive, or to let you try theirs, too.

I ran across this just now, at CNN.

A hit single by convicted pedophile Gary Glitter is to be removed from coursework for a British examination after complaints by child abuse campaigners.

British children’s charity Kidscape said Monday the inclusion of “I’m The Leader Of The Gang” in a list of “related listening” for GCSE music coursework aimed at high school-aged students was inappropriate.

The glam rocker’s name was spotted on briefing notes sent to teenagers by a school teacher who told The Sun newspaper he thought it was “completely inappropriate.”

How many signers of the American Declaration of Independence were slave owners?

Is slave ownership on about the same level of badness as the crimes for which Gary Glitter was tried, convicted and sentenced? I suspect that it is, in the eyes of many. Yet we don’t discount those who worked to gain American freedom.

Leave the music in. It did nothing wrong; Glitter did.

Off from work, I headed out for a short run today. After loading my iPod and Garmin, I opted at the last minute to grab a camera as I headed out the door.

And I’m glad I did. I ended up taking close to a hundred photos over the 50 or so minutes it took to run the 5.25 miles.

Photos are on Flickr, here — only a couple of them are restricted to family / friends. I also fired up Google Earth and made a file about the run — and embedded links to some of the photos. That file is here.

In actuality, I like the Google Earth file better. I think it’s a neat, neat way to show photos and tell a story. For me, I run with my Garmin Forerunner 305, and then load the record of the run into my Mac. The Garmin software gets the data from the GPS, but then I use Trail Runner to convert it quickly to the Google Earth format. (Trail Runner is nice, but the repeated requests to donate ($35!) is annoying). After I’ve uploaded the photos to Flickr, I then go back into Google Earth and manually add in icons for the photos. In the comments section for each icon, I add <> and between those img src=”", with the URL for the actual image (not the page) from Flickr where I have the photos. Works like a charm.

The run was just a couple of minutes short of the length of the American Edit album I was listening to. Perfect timing. American Edit — fantastic album. I’ve got the 2008 version loaded these days (torrent), and I told iTunes to play it as a gapless album, which works ideally.

When I run, I really benefit form music with some energy. Lately, it’s been Feed the Animals by Girl Talk — which is awesome, but entirely not appropriate for kids. It, too, is best listened to in a gapless form, which you can get by downloading the whole album as a single track. I ran across Girl Talk when I saw the movie Good Copy Bad Copy, but it’s really in a style similar to stuff I already like — Go Home Productions, DJ Riko, Miss Frenchie, McSleazy, etc.

For a run that lasts an hour, I can deal with music. I’m not sure about you, but at some point, music isn’t enough. I think this is one of the reasons why I favor 6 or 7 mile runs — after that, I need something more. I need audio books after that. And that means longer runs more often, to get through the book — like two or three a week. And I’m not ready to go back to that level of running. I loved the time in Germany when was running the K?nigstuhl all the time. That was awesome. But you need something special to do that, that often. If I can find a way to run west, across the Kunia Highway, I could go back to that.

Without music, my mind wanders. Shoot, with music my mind wanders. Today I was listening to music and working through the hardware and software configuration options for a touch-screen music server for Iraq, while comparing a Windows solution to a Unix solution. Not planned — my mind just wandered there. Later I caught myself debating the merits of a strong court system in Iraq, vs. autonomy for the Kurds. I wonder what I could get accomplished if I could run and take notes / make sketches.

Two last comments about the run today.

1. There is nothing flat on this island. It was always up or down. Which can be great, and which can suck. Sometimes, at the same time.

2. This place is glorious. I could retire here, and spend every day watching just the clouds.

I’ll run when in Iraq — of that I have no doubt. I really, really doubt the scenery will compare.

So, there’s a new President-elect.

The easy thing would be say, “Watch how he engages Iran (or North Korea)” as the indicator of where we are going as a nation.

Nah. That’s too easy.

Watch how he handles Syria. Iran and North Korea — those are both already boiling. Those are the obvious and easy ones to deal with. Those are, as we say, 5 meter targets. Greatness will be found in building a solid relationship with Syria, as Syria has a finger in both Lebanon and Iraq.

If he gets picked up for a second term, watch for his engagement with India or China. I don’t think it’ll be both — but I could be wrong. India would be easier, but China would be a wise long term investment.

Now what?

Over dinner, I asked the wife what she thought would happen, now that it looks like SEN Obama will be the next US President and the Democrats are taking increased control of the House and the Senate.

As we tossed around ideas, I found that a lot of the things I was pondering were things for Congress to do, not the President. They were things that Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi could have been having the House work on all this time, during this past couple of years when the Democrats controlled Congress while the GOP had President Bush in office.

And as we talked, I realized that I continue to be disappointed in Pelosi and crew — it’s not like they’ve been passing all kinds of laws, trying to do what they think is right, only to have the President veto them time and time again. Really, they’ve done nothing to bring about change, not using the power of Congress to draft law and enact change.

Also, I realized that I am, in fact, very disappointed in Congress rushing to approve the recent financial bail out. I use to have a commander — then-LTC Tim Reese, who just retired as a COL — who use to preach effort to emphasis. The more important something was, the more he put emphasis on something, the more effort went into making it a reality. Yeah, sure, he talked about storming castles, seizing hilltops, and stuff like that, but the concept is, I think, a fundamental truth for effective leadership.

Because of that, Congress disappointed me at a very core, fundamental level for their handling of this giant financial mess. They took the first draft, pork barreled it, and approved it. Recession, here we come — I have no doubt about that. Our country is going into the crapper because of their willingness to rush to do the wrong thing, versus investing time and effort into doing the hard right thing, namely, finding the best solution for our road ahead. It just irks me.

But Congress has been irking me for a while now. You can’t blame President Bush for invading Afghanistan or Iraq — he asked Congress for their blessing, and they gave it to him. The fucking gave it to him. Congress could have told him to pound sand, told him he was nuts, invited him to take along walk off a short pier — any number of things, other than approving his request. They didn’t. If you’re not thrilled about the US war on terror, blame Congress.

So, put those three things together — Congress not willing to write laws, Congress not putting effort to what the voters of this country see as needing emphasis, and Congress willing to make the easy wrong choice over the hard right one — and I am concerned about what change we will seen in out country, with these elections.

The change won’t come from Congress. SEN Obama could be the greatest President ever, but he’d have to fight Congress and the Congressional leadership every damn step of the way. Congresswoman Pelosi and SEN Reid need to change, or they need to go. The House and the Senate are going to have to actually do things, if our country is going to see change.

Now, I have some things I would like to see — change for our country. Yes, I have been and still consider myself to be a Republican. I am Moloka’i — leave the government out of things when possible, and let people live their lives and solve their problems. But that’s never going to happen — I know this to be true.

I’d like to see a policy on the Long War. It’s not Iraq, it’s not Afghanistan — it’s the long cultural struggle over the role of America and her interests and culture, and the core concepts of (dare I say?) democracy and free will. The President will need to develop and implement the policy, but then Congress will need to develop and send to him laws to codify it.

This is important because I know I am not alone in wondering if America is still a super power — or even if there is still such a thing. Our President needs to figure out just where we are, in order to understand where to take us. We are a nation…. well, we are an Army at war, and a nation kind of tangled up in some messes. And our economy may / may not be in the toilet. What should we be doing is as important a question, I think, as what can we do.

I’d like to see changes on torture. And interrogation. And rendition. And human rights. The President will need to develop and implement the policy, but then Congress will need to develop and send to him laws to codify it. America needs to do what is right, always. A long time ago, the Army beat into my head one simple concept that applies to this: As a leader, if it appears that you are wrong, you are wrong. And these days, from what I’ve read in the media, a lot of people seem to think that what America has been doing, and continues to do, appears to be wrong. Yikes — that frightens me.

The President needs to take a stand against genocide. The President needs to lead our nation in taking action to prevent genocide, and interceding when it starts. The President needs to ask how we can help in places like Darfur and the Congo today — directly or indirectly helping. And Congress needs to agree. The President will need to develop and implement this as policy, but then Congress will need to develop and send to him laws that allow him to do it. Why? It is, as I see it, the right thing to do, and not really subject to debate.

I’d like to see some changes on security in America. I’d like to be able to go to an America airport and not take off my shoes — like I do at airports in every other country on this planet. I’m not advocating eliminating security – just taking a good hard look at what is needed, and then how we are acting to meet those security needs. It needs to be fluid, capable of ongoing change. I’ve watched, with apprehension, the addition of all kinds of security measures, and have bit my tongue so many times, wondering how and when a decision could be made to undo these changes. How do we off-ramp security measures? The President will need to review and, if needed, develop and implement new policies, but then Congress will need to develop and send to him laws to codify it. If SEN Obama wants to impress me as President, he can display common sense in his every day actions.

And, really, I’d like to see SEN Obama excuse himself from the public spotlight, in order to be with his family and to mourn the loss of his grandmother. I can image how emotional this time would be, just in winning the election, but it must be exceptionally tough to lose her at this time. If he wants to put effort to emphasis, I would not fault him in any way.

So, there it is. What do you think?

[Updated: New Congo link]

The kids and I drove up to the North Shore, to go to Ka’ena Point State Park for a bike ride. I had crazy hopes that we’d actually ride all the way out to the point there, but we didn’t even come close.

Knowing that the “road” from the south had washed out some years ago (great description of that route, here), I figured / hoped we’d do okay on the dirt road on the north side.

And by road, I mean something that looks like this:

There’s always been a road around the whole island, it’s just that this one was pretty much abandoned in the 40′s when private companies stopped maintaining it and the new State of Hawai’i wasn’t ready to take on its upkeep. Now, it’s left as a nature preserve — which is very cool.

There’s now about a 6 or 8 mile stretch, all the way out to the point, that’s just a park. Vehicles are permitted, but really, you do need a truck since the road isn’t much of a road. But, it is idea for bike riding. Not so much for single speed bikes, like my daughter rides, but more for mountain bikes.

Some folks were fishing, some were just out for a drive. We passed one couple hiking to the point, and another guy out for a run (he runs the length and back, he said). Lots of trucks — big trucks, dirty trucks, trucks that look like they get used.

The surf looked pretty strong. Online I’ve seen that it’s surfed less, but folks report big waves through the area. I’d rather not surf there — the lava shoreline would be a mean thing to hit.

On the way out, we ran into a park ranger. She told me to go to this website, because it has details of all of the hiking on the island. And I gotta say — cooooool website!

If you’re interested, I made a Google Earth file, here. Also, there are more photos of the trip on Flickr, here.

PS — After Iraq, I’m doing a LOST tour of Oahu, which will include returning to Dillingham Airfield.

Is he passing a kidney stone or something?

Worst zombie face, ever.

We went and got her from the port today. She’s got two new and tine scratches on the passenger door — the shipping folks acknowledged that the scratches are new, so we’ll work out something to get her fixed. It’s why we have insurance.

I was thinking earlier that the arrival of Tess Turbo marks the closure of a pretty good summer of motoring. Since late August, Tess Turbo and I made it through the Nordschleife at the N?rburgring, across the Alps, onto a boat to Baltimore, across America to Kansas City via Hermann, MO, and then on to Augusta (and the welcome arms of M2C2, the Mini Motoring Club of the Carolinas) and the Dragon with the Tar Heel Mini Motoring Club, before heading to HI.

Wow.

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Today looks to be a bad day. Horrible weather.

“Mostly sunny with isolated showers until mid morning… then partly sunny with scattered showers in the late morning and afternoon. Haze through the day. Highs 80 to 85. Light winds becoming south around 10 mph in the late morning and afternoon. Chance of rain 50 percent.”

I think we’ll go to the beach anyway. Just because we can.

We had our graduation ceremony today. Now, I just wait 21 or so hours, and then fly to my new home in Hawaii.

I will be off the net for a while. Probably a good long while. And that’s a good thing. Hit me on email, or follow this — my foot steps across the internet, if you want to follow along.

The United States of America mismanaged detainees during the initial phases of the Global War on Terror (GWOT) because it did not understand its own history. The American administration failed to capitalize on its own lessons learning during the establishment of Prisoner of War (POW) procedures during World War II (WWII), and the legal precedents established in Johnson v. Eisentr?ger (1950). This is important because civil rights groups and others are legally challenging the US Government on its detention policy.

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