The Daily Parker

Politics, Weather, Photography, and the Dog

Officially a quagmire

Via Talking Points Memo, the White House is planning to stay in Iraq indefinitely:

When last we left the Bush administration's so-called benchmarks for strategic progress in Iraq—that is, the political progress that military success allows—they weren't being met, and the White House didn't care. Now that the year's almost over and the administration is beginning to bring the "surge" troops home, it's worth asking: what happened to the benchmarks? The New York Times reports that the administration has quietly given up on them, preferring nebulous goals for which it's easier to claim success.

We still have (up to) 420 days, 22 hours, and 30 minutes left in the worst presidency in history.

Home

Phew. Aside from a 10-mile backup on I-65 north of Indianapolis, the return trip went fine. Parker has now logged three entire days in the car without puking. And now he's curled up in his crate on his smelly blanket just waiting for me to turn out the light. Smart dog.

Today's Daily Parker

Another one from Ninth Street, Durham:

This was, of course, from Wednesday, not today. Wednesday it was warm; this morning it was below freezing. Apparently it does get cold in Durham, though "cold" here isn't "cold" back home.

Jamie mentioned several times that the weather in Durham is much preferable to the weather in Chicago, because apparently she has forgotten last August. I guess it depends whether you prefer warm or cold weather.

Tomorrow we're heading back to Chicago. Straight through. Twelve hours. Whee.

Today's Daily Parker

For a while yesterday I moved Parker's crate near the quasi-veranda, so he could get light and air while I went shopping for Thanksgiving fixins:

It's warm in Durham again: 22°C already. I can definitely deal with the weather in North Carolina this time of year. (Not so much in July, though.) We took advantage of it after my shopping trip and went on a 3.8 km walk around the neighborhood in the fading afternoon light:

British nuclear security

Via Bruce Schneier, apparently the physical security of British nuclear weapons until around 1998 consisted of, essentially, a bicycle key:

To arm the weapons you just open a panel held by two captive screws - like a battery cover on a radio - using a thumbnail or a coin.

Inside are the arming switch and a series of dials which you can turn with an Allen key to select high yield or low yield, air burst or groundburst and other parameters.

The Bomb is actually armed by inserting a bicycle lock key into the arming switch and turning it through 90 degrees. There is no code which needs to be entered or dual key system to prevent a rogue individual from arming the Bomb.

Oh. Well. Of course. Why use a hard-to-forge sequence of letters and numbers like the U.S. or U.S.S.R. when a little key will do?

So what prevented an accidental (or deliberate) British detonation until Tony Blair fixed the problem? Why, tradition, of course, what what!

The Royal Navy argued that officers of the Royal Navy as the Senior Service could be trusted: "It would be invidious to suggest... that Senior Service officers may, in difficult circumstances, act in defiance of their clear orders."

(Insert nervous laughter here.)