Carter Doctrine. During the State of the Union Address I recall at one point murmuring to my wife that GWB was invoking the Carter Doctrine with respect to Iraq. Tis a pity that at 79 President Carter appears to have forgotten this doctrine he espoused.

You may recall, that on January 23, 1980, in his State of the Union Address, President Jimmy Carter announced a new American policy that came to be called the Carter Doctrine. Referring to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Mr. Carter stated:

Let our position be absolutely clear: An attempt by an outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force.

In the most recent SOTU Address, President Bush explained

Year after year, Saddam Hussein has gone to elaborate lengths, spent enormous sums, taken great risks to build and keep weapons of mass destruction. But why? The only possible explanation, the only possible use he could have for those weapons, is to dominate, intimidate, or attack.

With nuclear arms or a full arsenal of chemical and biological weapons, Saddam Hussein could resume his ambitions of conquest in the Middle East and create deadly havoc in that region.

Has Carter really forgotten what it's like to be President? Has he forgotten his own contribution to foreign affairs?

Of course Carter has a history of conceding -- which brings me to Tip O'Neill's comments (see paragraph titled The 1980 Election) on Carter concerning his 1980 concession speech before the polls closed: "You guys came in like a bunch of pricks, and you're going out the same way"

Blizzard? Just back from shoveling snow -- it appears we got off light -- my wife figures we got 12.5 inches at our house -- although friends in the area are reporting 18 inches (Herdon, Reston). I heard it was 2 feet in Leesburg. Is it a blizzard? Not in this area.

Blizzard is a term of art that includes not just a heavy snowfall but also high winds -- specifically:

Blizzard: The following conditions are expected to prevail for a period of 3 hours or longer.

Sustained winds or frequent gusts to 35 mph or greater; and,
Considerable falling and/or blowing snow (i.e., frequently reducing visibilities to less than 1/4 mile).

What we need is a term for a really big snow.

Update My sister in Ashburn says she got 22 inches. Also I see the Weather Bureau officially decided to call this a Blizzard. So it appears that I was on the Southern end of things -- that it was especially bad from here north to Boston.

JFK Was Right They are jelly dougnuts.

Marines. Last thing -- this really ticked me off:

Several of my fellow Marine wives, however, have experienced verbal and physical abuse in the past few weeks from so-called "peace protesters." One woman was told from another car at a stoplight that her husband was a baby killer, and that they hoped he would die. Another, and her young son, were yelled at and manhandled by a group of protesters as they were passing through the area. Why did this happen? Because the wives either had a Marine Corps sticker on the car or a Marine Corps shirt on.

My mother, a Marine wife, btw, gave me a baseball cap with the Marine Corps emblem, the eagle, globe and anchor, embroidered on it for Christmas. I gave it to my son -- not because I am ashamed of the Marines -- on the contrary, I have so much respect for the Marines, I didn't want to appropriate any of the honor that is due a Marine -- I didn't want anyone to think that I was a Marine or had ever served as one. But if it's coming to this, I'm going to go get that cap and wear it to show support for the Marines and their families.

These creeps never have the guts to tell it to the Marines.

Bishops. As a follow-up to my comment below about apologizing for the Episcopal Bishops, I must note that I have always been fond of the bishop of my own diocese, the diocese of Virginia, Bishop Peter Lee. No, I don't always agree with him -- nor he with me, but that's part of being a Christian -- neither of us is perfect and we need each other in the process of being made into saints. I was particularly pleased to read this statement in our church bulletin about 10 days ago:

Christians have a bias for peace and peace-making. We continue to pray that the nations of the world may find a peaceful way to remove the threat of weapons of mass destruction from Iraq. We have many people in our diocese directly working for such an outcome, beginning with the Secretary of State, General Colin Powell, a faithful member of St. John’s Church, McLean. We support them with our prayers.

And we have faithful members of our diocese whose work for peace is to assure the strength of our diplomacy through their active military service. Last Sunday at St. Mary’s, Arlington, I participated in the baptism of a little girl held in the arms of her Marine colonel father just two days before he was deployed.

Please send me the names of those in your congregation on active military duty and I will send them the Armed Forces Prayer Book and the Episcopal Service Cross as signs of our support for their sacrificial service.

We pray for peace. We uphold our leaders and our military in our prayers. And in a fallen world, we understand that one of the responsibilities of international leadership is to name the threats to peace and to participate in removing them, by diplomacy if possible, by measured, necessary force as a last resort.

Pray that we may participate in planting seeds that will grow into an international order that promotes justice, peace and love. Among the risks of taking leadership internationally is that we may fall into the false assumption that American interests are always the interests of others. The President got it right at the conclusion of his address on Tuesday night:

“America is a strong nation and honorable in the use of our strength. We exercise power without conquest and sacrifice for the liberty of strangers.

“Americans are a free people who know that freedom is the right of every person and the future of every nation. The liberty we prize is not America’s gift to the world, it is God’s gift to humanity.”

So at a time of international uncertainty, people of faith return to our knees in prayer and set about on our work of aligning ourselves with the God who is spreading seeds of justice, peace and love.

The entire pastoral address may be read here, however, this is the relevant section dealing with Iraq.

BTW, if you do know of anyone stationed overseas who would benefit from a Prayerbook, the details may be found here.

On the Nightstand. Sometimes when it rains, it pours -- but this can be a good thing. I put my name on the list at the library for books and sometime they all come in at once. I had hoped to take Col. Alexander's book on Tarawa (Utmost Savagery) with me on my trip last week -- this was a gift from my father-in-law last year. When I started reading it, I realized with the names it would be a book I'd need to take on an airplane -- a place where I can give it my undivided attention to a long block of time. That book is on the top of my reading stack for the books I own. However, the week before my trip both The Last Jihad and The Demon in the Freezer came up on the reserve list.

So I checked both out and took Jihad with me and left Demon home for my daughter to read. Unfortunately, while I was out, Christopher Buckley's newest book, No Way to Treat a First Lady, became available. I finished Jihad last night -- it was so-so (Tom Clancy doesn't need to worry) -- there were several key features that just don't work which ruined it for me. Since it looks like I might be able to renew Demon, I'm going to put that on the back burner and plunge into the Buckley book.

If you haven't read it, Buckley's White House Mess is the funniest book about US politics I have ever read -- so I'm really looking forward to this Clinton-inpired novel. Premise: after a tryst with a presidential donor the first couple has a horrendous argument and, the next morning, the first lady discovers the Prez dead in the bed. She's charged with the assasination of a President bringing on the "Trial of the Millennium" Buckley is a fun writer who clearly enjoys his craft -- example the first lady's name is "Beth MacMann" -- her nickname in the tabloids is “Lady Bethmac.” Speaking of funny books and politics, the best passage in a book about politics is in Jeff Greenfield's The People's Choice -- there's a scene fairly early on where a candidate throws away the prepared speech to wing it. I was reading this while riding on the train and I literally laughed until I cried. The rest of the book doesn't hold a candle to Buckley (mainly because Greenfield has a little axe to grind), but that passage is sterling.

Dear Diary. I was out of town last week in a part of the country Mark Byron spent some time in. I was auditing legal cases and during the week I was there I reviewed 155 cases -- our whole group did 300 combined -- but then they did interviews whereas I just plowed through paper. What prevented me from blogging was that the hotel charged .10 a minute for phone calls after a standard minimum (yes, even local calls) -- normally I'm on-line all night after dialing up the local UUNET connection.

My oldest daughter is away at Teenpact all week this week -- it's an intensive educational seminar for teen aged students focused on the government of the state. Here's an article from World magazine if you are intrigued. I'm driving down tomorrow to meet with her and give the operation a look over.

Still Out -- everything's fine -- mostly -- I'm just a lot busier with work than I expected -- carrying over to personal time so I might be out another week.

On the go -- back later.

Rest In Peace Thirty-six years and six days after Apollo One. Seventeen years and three days after the Challenger space shuttle. Now these voyagers are joined by Mission Commander Rick Husband, Pilot William McCool, Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon, Mission Specialist David Brown, Payload Commander Michael Anderson, Mission Specialist Laurel Clark and Mission Specialist Kalpana Chawla. May God Bless you and your families. Thank you to all those who "boldly go where no man has gone before." You are aware of the risks and still go.


Well said, Mr. President:

In the words of the prophet Isaiah, "Lift your eyes and look to the heavens. Who created all these? He who brings out the starry hosts one by one and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing."

I Feel Your Pain, Frank. Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the U.S. Frank Griswold indicated that one of the crosses he bears is being an American:

I'd like to be able to go somewhere in the world and not have to apologize for being from the United States.

I know what he means. I'd like to go somewhere in the world where I didn't have to apologize for my nutty bishops.

Programing Notes. Sorry again for the sparcity and the lack of completing things I started -- I've been busy. Thanks to David Janes, I may have RSS feed. (not that I know anything about this -- if the feed ain't listed in chowhound, I don't know about it.)

Shiloh means, so I am told, peace, or messenger, or place of rest. I just received a note from a classy lady, Shiloh Bucher, responding to my brief comments on her blog. Her seventeen-year-old sister, Mellie, was killed in a car accident December 30.

Please say a prayer for this person, this messenger. Pray that she and her family may have peace and a place of rest. There is nothing we can do or say but to pray and ask the Almight to bestow His tender mercies.

Reviews of the big event. The Super Bowl, that is:

Jay Leno:

Congratulations to Tampa Bay! What a game! 48-21. Or as they call that in Hollywood, the second marriage.

Before we talk about that game, if you saw the news from San Diego yesterday you know the whole city was like a giant party. Everywhere you went in San Diego. It was so big, people sneaking over the border from Mexico that day are being asked to bring chips and salsa with them.

I actually watched the Super Bowl in Tijuana with Raiders Center Barret Robbins.

Do you know this story? Robbins went awol on Friday two days before the game. He went to Tijuana on a drinking binge, had his stomach pumped, missed the Super Bowl. Even worse, after that he even missed the toilet bowl.

Not a good day for the Raiders. During the game Oakland used the "no huddle offense”. They did that, then they also used the "no rushing offense” the "no passing offense” and of course the famous "no scoring offense.”

You know what was really pathetic? I saw a lot of Raider fans, they could be seen crying after the game. Well, that was mostly from police teargas. Nothing to do with the game.

You think the Raiders players are too old? Jerry Rice is like 64 now? Gannon is like 51, 52? You know the pirate logo on their helmet? You know why the pirate wears a patch? Glaucoma.

I don’t know if anyone else noticed, but on the back of Rich Gannon’s helmet, did you see that sticker? "Ask me about my grandchildren.”

Well folks the ratings are in – almost a billion people watched the Super Bowl. Apparently, the only ones who weren’t into the game were the Raiders.

I guess you heard about Oakland Center Barrett Robbins missing the Super Bowl. Missed it! But he was in three of the beer commercials.

You know who I feel sorry for, Jerry Rice – to get beat like that in front of your great grandchildren.

Because the game was here in California, Governor Gray Davis called the winner’s locker room. That was embarrassing – because the state is so broke he had to call collect.

and

Craig Kilborn:

Good news! The Oakland Raiders have now gone over 48 hours without giving up a touchdown!

Today when talking to reporters, Raiders Quarterback Rich Gannon got upset with a reporter and threw a pen at him. The pen was then intercepted by another reporter.

Looking on the sunny side: Rich Gannon threw five touchdown passes. Sure, three went to the Bucs, but at least they had swords on the side of their helmets.

I'm not a good loser, so I'll keep it short -- congratulations to Tampa or Tampa Bay or whatever it is you want to be called.

The Raiders got their butts kicked.

Experts Pick. Twelve of the ESPN experts pick the Bucs to win tomorrow, versus 5 who pick the Raiders. Meanwhile, over at SI, the experts back the Raiders 4-1.

Go Raiders. Beat the Bucs.

As a fan, I really wish there was a two week break -- there have been so many stories on my team, and I'm so overloaded right now, I've missed many.

Thankfully, there is Christian Raider fan (hey, watch it -- that's no oxymoron) Darth Freeman's Raider News and Opinion webpage.

We wear the Silver,
We wear the Black
We never retreat,
We always attack.

Master Key Defect -- There's a story in the NYTimes announcing an ATT researcher is publishing a defect in the system of master-keys that would allow someone to easily defeat a lock system on a building that is master-keyed. The paper quotes Marc Weber Tobias, "a locks expert who works as a security consultant to law enforcement agencies" as saying "I view the problem as pretty serious," he said, adding that the technique was so simple, "an idiot could do it." The story also notes that this is known to some locksmiths: "The technique is not news to locksmiths, said Lloyd Seliber, the head instructor of master-key classes for Schlage . . ."

As an idiot and former locksmith, I want to toss in my thoughts. I'm pretty sure I know what the paper is referring to -- it's not expressly laid out -- but it's something that I explored when I was minding the lock and key shop late at night. Actually, I think most locksmiths enjoy puzzling out locks -- figuring out how to defeat them. In the shop, when not repairing locks or servicing customers, you generally practiced picking locks -- it's like some people do crossword puzzles or play computer solitaire.

Locks that are accessible to a master-key are generally easier to pick to begin with -- just because there are more possible solutions than those locks that are not master-keyed. Similarly, there are buildings, like a dorm, where there might be one building-wide master key, as well as separate master-keys that will open a floor of rooms or a suite of offices. The more master keys, the more solutions and the easier it is to solve or pick. What the ATT researcher has discovered is that it is pretty easy to deduce the configuration of a masterkey if you have one existing key -- say a visitor takes a restroom key and makes a quick imprint. By cutting your own master key, you can get into rooms without worrying about picking each door.

[As an aside, there are some locksmiths that are so good with a pick that it's as if they were using a master key -- nothing slows them down. I was not one of those.]

Actually, there's an easy solution -- don't have a master-key.

If you buy a new house, go out and get new locks -- make sure they're keyed to the same key and that there's no master-lock. While Kwikset locks are the most common, they are easy to pick. I like Schlage -- but not because they're any more difficult to pick (although, compared to Kwikset, they are) -- but because they're pretty strong locks.

If you really want security, go with Medeco locks.

Roe and Refs. This is an intermission on my notes on the Roe v. Wade case (sorry, it's been one of those weeks). I was just talking with a friend -- a Giants fan -- about the Super Bowl and we each agreed that the worst scenario -- even worse than losing a blowout -- is losing by a bad call by a referee.

Roe v. Wade was a bad call. Not just because it made abortion -- in my view the killing of babies -- legally permitted. Yes that was bad, but the problem is that there is no reason for the Court to have ruled the way it did. What it did was a lot like if the referee waved off a winning touchdown by saying there was a rule that said you couldn't throw a pass to anyone wearing a jersey number with double digits with less than two minutes left in a game.

Don't take my word for it -- look at this story by law professor Kermit Roosevelt or this one by the strongly pro-abortion reporter Tony Mauro.

Roosevelt writes:

For years now, there has been a serious disconnection between the popular perception of Roe and its standing among constitutional law scholars. It is now time to address that disconnect; it is time to admit in public that, as an example of the practice of constitutional opinion writing, Roe is a serious disappointment. You will be hard-pressed to find a constitutional law professor, even among those who support the idea of constitutional protection for the right to choose, who will embrace the opinion itself rather than the result.

This is not surprising. As constitutional argument, Roe is barely coherent. The court pulled its fundamental right to choose more or less from the constitutional ether.

Mauro quotes Jeffrey Rosen and descibes him thusly,

liberal George Washington University Law School professor and legal affairs editor at The New Republic, likens the ruling to "the mad grandfather in the attic that no one wants to look at. It's a lingering embarrassment." He adds, "The remarkable thing about Roe is that 30 years later, scholars are still trying to find a good rationale for it."

Of course, the gulf between making a mistake on the field and one in the Court is huge -- wider than the gulf between galaxies. If you make a mistake on the field, you can admit it like the NFL did and it aggravates a large number of fans for years. If you make a mistake as a Justice, people die, you destablize the law, the government and society; you politicize the courts for decades; you destroy legitimacy. Oh, and people die -- 40,000,000 in the past 30 years. Who was it, Noonan or Dreher, who wrote in the past week that it's the same as killing off everyone in New York City and California.

Since I've been doing this blog, I've mentioned the Shapiro Conjecture, by USA Today columnist, which, if you haven't read, you really should. This is the best brief explanation of how Roe has distorted the political process in the past 30 years.

This was a profoundly bad decision.

BTW -- since I mentioned the refs and the Super Bowl -- here is a list of the refs and here is an article about the head referee, Mike Carollo.