Welcome Parker Liam into this world

On yesterday afternoon, 12:01 p.m. to be precise, our son, Parker Liam was born into this world, weighing in at 7 pounds, 12 ounces and measuring 19 inches long. Above are some phots we took on the first day of his life.

My Life in June 2006

As both of you who read this know, my life is about to take a dramatic shift. In what is due to be 9 days (give or take), my wife will be giving birth to our first child; a boy.

For the sake of posterity, it is important that I attempt to tell my son what today is like in Milwaukie, Oregon this June 11th, 2006.

First, today is your Grandfather, I mean Uncle's birthday. He is 55 this year. For the rest of my life, I will never forget his birthday, because one year, he gave my sister (your Aunt) a briefcase, which had one of those cool combination thingies, and the combination was his birthday: 6/11/55. That must have been 20 years ago, but I still remember that to this day.

Today it is going to be 78 degrees. That is a little warmer that the average this time of year (about 72 degrees), but far below the highs we have seen. I got most of my yard work done yesterday (on Saturday) and am having your Uncle Mat (not biologically related, so far as I know) over, probably for a barbecue.

The dogwood in our front yard is long past bloom. It is now full of green leaves and provides a lot of shade, which is very helpful during the hotter Summer months.

Your Mother is resting as we speak. The pregnancy has been pretty problem free for her, but she is having a difficult time using her hands, due to swelling associated with carrying you. She also is having difficulty sleeping, but that is SOP (standard operating procedure) with pregnancy. Worrying about bringing you into this world can be pretty stressful.

As you will probably be aware by the time you are old enough to read this, you are very fortunate to have been born in this nation. While young, we have an extremely interesting history, and we live in a country in which even poor people might be considered wealthy by some other countries standards.

Locally, the biggest stories in the news are the Rose Festival, which is supposed to coincide with the blooming of the roses in this part of the world, for which our nearest metropolitan neighbor is named (the Rose City). There was the Starlight Parade last night (your Father hates parades) and a carnival downtown to celebrate this event.

Nationally, most news relates to the war in Iraq, politics and the economy. By the time you read this, most people will still dislike politicians, the economy will be viewed positively (4.6% unemployment and 3.5% GDP growth; come on, people), and hopefully, the war in Iraq will have turned the corner with the death of the terrorist insurgent leader, Abu Mu'sab al-Zarqawi.

Of course, all that matters to your Mother and me is that you are born safely and soon. We look forward to seeing you!

Rest in Anguish, Abu Mu'sab al-Zarqawi

The recent killing of al-Zarqawi in Iraq highlights some of the brave and tedious work that our military is doing, risking their lives to improve Iraqi society. Zarqawi (as he is most commonly known) was a polarizing figure in Iraq. If you believe in the United States, his death can only be a good thing. It is best he wasn't tried or killed in some kind of gun battle. Further, propaganda or not, it is even better than one of his own allegedly gave him up.

What is somewhat disturbing, however, is the thought that his death may lead to more violence. Oh really? More than what: trying to start a genocide? The good news is that al-Qaeda in Iraq may be on its last legs. Task Force 145 (special operators that have followed him for 3 years) was patient and taught the world, "it doesn't matter who you are or how well you are hid; so long as we want to get you, we are coming and you better keep looking back for us."

There are alot of people still on that list, including Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin-Laden and apparently, Imad Mugniyah, who was recently spotted working with Syria to overthrow the Qatari royal family.

Hey guys, we are coming. What was tha......... (boom).

The Killing of Civilians and the Fog of War

I was having a discussion with an acquaintance of mine. She asked me if I had seen the coverage of the most recently released military investigation regarding Haditha in Iraq. I told her I had. She then started talking about unjust wars, psychopaths, massacre's, Bush, etc.

In this morning's Washington Post, Major Peter Kilner of the US Army describes a very real problem in this country today. There is one group of people who are looking for any excuse to show that this is an illicit war and everything about it is wrong, including the behavior of our troops. There is another group of people who look to excuse all soldiers behavior because they are our soldiers. Major Kilner then went on to say that neither group is correct. Some soldiers are not bad people, they are just given poor leadership.

Although I have never been in battle, I would presume that being shot at and returning fire can tweak your mind a little. It is at this time that seasoned officers and Non-commissioned officers must guide younger, more inexperienced soldiers to do the right thing.

I couldn't agree more. Further, my response to my acquaintance was that 1) war is hell, and 2) before believing every claim of atrocity by Iraqis and other foreigners living in Iraq, allow an investigation to take place. If these troops are guilty, they will be tried, convicted and sentenced, just as if they had committed crimes in civil society.

The truth of the matter, however, is that atrocities happen in every war. They happened in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, the Civil War, the War of 1812, the Punic Wars, the Crusades. Atrocities are not a function of what makes a war "just." Only history can make that determination.

Elizabeth Vargas Steps Down as Anchor of ABC Evening News. NOW Claims a Conspiracy to Set Women Back

The problem with special interest groups is that when they have too much time on their hands, they end up attacking problems which don't actually exist. Such is the case with Elizabeth Vargas' recent decision to step down from the anchor desk at ABC evening news to have a child.

Kim Gandy, from the National Orgainzation for Women (NOW) claims, "It just doesn't strike me as a logical explanation. I don't think there are too many men who would be happy to be removed from the anchor chair."

Gandy was so fired up, in fact, that she, along with two other womens' special interest groups, sent a letter to Disney (parent company of ABC News) indicating that Disney was engaging in "a dispiriting return to the days of discrimination against women that we thought were behind us." They linked the "demotion" of Vargas, who will return to ABC news, once again co-hosting 20/20 with John Stossel, with the cancellation of "Commander-in-chief," the drama featuring Geena Davis as the President of the United States.

Of course, there is a grand conspiracy to make women voluntarily leave the work force to become barefoot and pregnant again.

But Vargas herself denies this. She claims a combination of circumstances, including an unexpected pregnancy (Vargas is 43), and the injury of her co-anchor, Bob Woodruff in Iraq led her to this decision. She felt that being a full-time mother to her newborn was more important than anchoring the nightly news.

Geez, Kim Gandy, that is an awful step back for women: someone realizes that the birth of a child is more important than the rigors of the nighly news! "Give me a break!", as John Stossel might say.

More Graft in Washington

This morning, the Washington Post printed a story about William Cohen, former Republican Senator from Maine and Defense Secretary under President WJ Clinton.

For those of you who don't know, Secretary Cohen retired from public office at the end of 2000, as President Clinton's term came to an end. Once he left office, he competed in the very legal lobbying sweepstakes. Secretary Cohen opened a D.C. firm and started selling his services.

What exactly are Secretary Cohen's services? Access. Secretary Cohen was able to guarantee (more or less) access by his clients to powerful decision makers in Washington who would create legislation benefitting Secretary Cohen's clients.

Folks, this is the game. This is exactly why politicians spend millions of dollars to get a job that "only" pays $200,000 per year. I've always had a problem with the math, but like in finance, you must consider the net present value of your investment.

First, the millions you spend to become a federal politician generally aren't your own millions of dollars (but Secretary Cohen actually went into significant deficit spending to serve the public interest). The big payoff, though (unless you are as blatant as Rep Jefferson of Louisiana) is when you can earn hundreds of thousands of dollars for introducing your new client (i.e. Lockheed Martin) to your good buddies still in Congress.

Do you want to know why these guys don't want term limits? It is because their lobbying would have less of an impact on people they never met.

The unfortunate part is that everything these guys are doing is legal, if not seriously unethical.

"Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama bin Laden"

I was amazed to learn that most of bin Laden's speeches have been censored by western media. After reading this book, I just can't undertand it. It's not as if these speeches make bin Laden more palatable. I guess one of the reasons however, is that al Qaeda's war against the West is not commensurate with the Western narrative: they hate our freedoms.

What is important to learn about bin Laden is that he views all of the Muslim world (from Morocco to Indonesia) as one nation. This is a difficult concept for Westerners to grasp. We think in very nationalist terms. The second most important thing to understand regarding bin Laden, and hence the al Qaeda oranization is that their list of grievances against the West goes back to approximately 1917, or the Sykes-Picot agreement, where following World War I, Britain and France organized zones of influence and essentially redrew the map of the Middle East, including the beginnings of a Jewish state in the middle of everything.

The list is actually quite comprehensive and includes Western agreements with oil-producing autocratic regimes (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, etc.) which helped to prop up these governments which brutally oppressed their people, overthrowing governments (Iraq, Iran, etc.), creating the state of Israel and evicting Palestinians in 1947, supporting (arming) Israel in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, supporting Israel in its invasion of Lebanon, basing troops in Saudi Arabia, and supporting other nations which oppress Muslims (Russia, India and China).

What bin Laden has learned from this behavior is that while the West talks the good talk about freedom and democracy, the reality is that it makes things happen with its war machine.

So far, all of the above is hard to argue. The West, including America, has done all of the above. Where most rational people will depart with bin Laden is his decision to attack civilians in the West, because they pay taxes and vote for their respective governments which make these policies. In these cases, violence will beget violence. This is alright for bin Laden who does not fear violence and in fact is probably attempting to create an apocalyptic war to end the world. It is his firm belief (and supported by an awful lot of Muslim scholarship, including the Quaran) that he will be judged in the right.

For Westerners, the most difficult concept to grasp is that we (as predominantly Christians) believe in turning the other cheek, peace, doing good works, etc. will lead us to heaven. The Salafi branch of Islam believes that defending their nation against non-believers, converting new peoples to Islam, and doing good works (helping the poor,etc.) will lead them to heaven. This is not too different than Crusades-era Christendom who were promised, by the pope, no less, that Crusaders would be immediately sent to heaven upon their death.

Sometimes bad concepts are hard to extinguish.