in which Phoebe learns nuthin’

Last night’s class was mainly dedicated to sit and loose-leash walking with introductions to heel. Phoebe is already great on a leash and came with heel pre-installed, so it was kind of like a free day for her.

We’re still working on sit, but Phoebe has mastered the other skills: watch me and leave it.

The teacher loves Phoebe, describing her as a gentle soul who is one of her all time favorite pupils. That’s probably why she gets more unearned treats than the other pups. All of this might be going to her head, though. When we got home Daphne followed her around wagging her tail and wanting to know what Phoebe had learned. After the butt-sniffing and play bows, I heard this exchange:

Daphne (wagging) - What did you learn?

Phoebe - Nuthin’

Daphne - What did they teach you?

Phoebe - Nuthin’

Ahh, teenagers. It reminds me of my school years. Perhaps she needs a project. I’m thinking we’ll try to turn a salad into a steak to see if it wakes Daphne up. Of course, greyhounds sometimes enjoy a good salad.

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Visit Phoebe’s friends at the Carnival of the Dogs!

***

Want to make a fast friend by saving a greyhound in Central Texas? Check these pups out. Or go here to find a greyhound near you. You can also go here to find out why greyhounds are running for their lives.

If you have dogs who need proven leadership, go here to find a cat.

If I lived anywhere else, I might call this the first sign of spring. Here in central Texas, where there are only two seasons anymore, it is merely a sign of the continuation of fallintering.

As mentioned in previous posts (here, here, and here) my wide-ranging reading habits have collided with the news concerning the UAE ports deal.

I’m not certain the UAE deal is an inherently dangerous thing. I don’t particularly like it, but the US Coast Guard and US Customs are still the ones who will really be managing port security and it’s not like our ports aren’t already being managed by foreign entities. I’d prefer they be managed by US companies, but they aren’t and haven’t been for a long time. I’d be more worried if we were selling the Coast Guard, though I wonder how much it’s actually worth considering the age of its fleet. One upshot of all this is that it seems Congress is finally getting around to its role of providing a check on the executive branch.

It does, however, bring up the larger question of how secure our ports are and how good a job are we doing to ensure the Coast Guard has the necessary equipment and manpower to do the job. I seem to remember Kerry bringing this up a time or two during the election, and it sometimes gets quick mention in the news, but I don’t think its something people think about much, at least until the past week, which is probably the best thing about the UAE story.

While reading about the UAE port security deal, I found a number of blogs with interesting things to say about all of this.

Dwayne at Boating Safety Law and News… discusses the difficulties surrounding inspection of container ships. Probably one of the greatest threats when you consider how easily a ship can be hijacked and then used for smuggling along with how difficult it is to inspect every container. (There’s also some nice photography on that blog as well.)

A blog I just discovered through some technorati tag searching, Gun Toting Liberal, brings up some fair points concerning potential security issues despite the fact that the UAE is an ally. GTL points out that Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein were once allies as well. The bottom line being that it isn’t inherently racist to want to look at this more closely.

Tyler at The Texas Whip and Scottage at Perspectives of a Nomad both look into Bush’s business dealings and the way in which decisions often appear to be made for the benefit of certain cronies. In many ways this whole deal seems to be just typical Bush.

For a very knowledgeable blog about port and maritime security, check out Whispr Wave’s Port Security, Maritime Security, and Homeland Security Blog. I’m not linking a specific article. There are too many to pick just one, but there is a lot there that’s worth looking into.

And for a bit of humor on the subject, check out Ironicus Maximus.

A few years back, in my debate coaching days, my kids had a topic that focused on preservation of marine natural resources. One issue that kept coming up in debate rounds was whether or not the US Coast Guard had the resources to effectively protect the environment and our ports, both of which are included in its duties.

Over the course of helping my students with their research during that debate season, I developed an increased appreciation for the Coast Guard and its ability to, as its unofficial motto states, “do more with less.”

Since the Coast Guard holds primary responsibility for port security, it seems that we should be ensuring that it has everything it needs to protect our ports, much less stay afloat. At the time (2003-2004 school year) the USCG was still badly underfunded. So I decided to see if much had changed. While researching my last post, I found a claim that the USCG apparently ranks 38th oldest among the world’s 40 largest navies. I wondered if that was true and if so what is being done to change that. It seems that funding has gone up, but there is still quite a bit of work to be done.

I found an article on USA Today that contained some disconcerting information about the state of the US Coast Guard. The article, “Coast Guard plagued by breakdowns” (7-7-05) lists the following about the Coast Guard’s aging fleet:

• In fiscal 2004, the engines on the Coast Guard’s 95 HH 65 helicopters suffered power losses at a rate of 329 per 100,000 flight hours, up from 63 per 100,000 flight hours in fiscal 2003. The comparable Federal Aviation Administration standard is 1 per 100,000 flight hours.
• There have been 23 hull breaches — holes that let in water — requiring emergency dry-dock repairs in the 49 110- and 123-foot patrol boats since 2001.
• Each of the dozen 378-foot cutters, most of which operate in the Pacific, suffers a significant engine or hydraulic or refrigeration system breakdown on every patrol.
• For all major cutters and patrol boats, the number of unscheduled maintenance days was 742 in fiscal 2004, up from 267 in fiscal 1999. The loss of cutter days in fiscal 2004 equated to losing 10% of the major fleet for an entire year.

This is all quite disturbing considering that the USCG of all the services is the one most responsible for protecting our ports, which are arguably the greatest weakness in our homeland security program.

The article cites one former Coast Guard officer who claims the USCG is operating at the level of a third world navy.

USA Today ran a related article called “Sailing far from smooth on Coast Guard’s Decisive” (7/5/05) that further outlines the problems facing the Coast Guard and lists estimated maintenance costs for the Coast Guard’s fleet.

Looking into issues relating to the Coast Guard’s budget, it seems there is to be an increase from 8.1 billion to 8.4 billion. I don’t really know if that’s a lot of money (for fleet maintenence - it would be a lot for me) or not, but Senator Olympia Snow of Maine who chairs the Senate Subcommittee on Fisheries and the Coast Guard had this to say about some of the specifics:

I am pleased that President Bush’s budget request contains an increase in funding for the Coast Guard. However, the President’s request for the Deepwater program, which will provide the Coast Guard with the ships and aircraft it needs to complete its many crucial missions, falls short of a funding level that would enable accelerating the program. The strain of the Coast Guard’s rapid operational escalation has fallen on the backs of its 42,000 men and women who faithfully serve our country. It has also taken a significant toll on the ships, boats, and aircraft that the Coast Guard uses on a daily basis, forcing them to do more with less. We must do all we can to shift this burden off our people and instead provide the Coast Guard with the necessary tools – and Deepwater accomplishes that goal.”

The President’s 2007 Coast Guard Budget Request is $8.2 billion, a four percent increase over the FY2006 enacted budget of $8.04 billion. The administration’s Deepwater (the Coast Guard’s recapitalization and modernization program) request is $934.4 million, just $1 million more than last year’s appropriation.

While it’s good that Coast Guard funding is increasing, albeit slightly, perhaps we should be asking why there isn’t a movement to step up the CG’s modernization program. Perhaps leaving the Coast Guard with antiquated tools is yet another cost of the war in Iraq? With all the hubub about the UAE ports deal, I can’t help but wonder if we aren’t missing the boat here. (Ouch - I couldn’t resist)

I love Daphne. She doesn’t get as much blogspace around here as the others because all the attention is a bit frightening what with terms like ‘page hits’ and ‘links.’ She doesn’t want to get linked and then hit. That’s understandable. She is, though, one of the sweetest, most affectionate dogs I’ve ever met. She’s also not that bright. She just goes bob-bob-bobbin’ along through life, unable to discern the difference between ‘good girl’ and ‘no’ or ‘ach!’ We’ve never taken her to dog school because she’s very well behaved and, quite frankly, it would scare the hell out of her.

On a lark, I decided to try a little homeschooling to see if Phoebe’s lessons could be picked up by this hound who will eternally be waiting for the short bus. Shockingly, Daphne figured out, ‘watch me,’ ‘leave it’ and is even on the way to ’sit.’ She’s learning it faster than Phoebe did. Perhaps we have been wrong about Big Daph. Perhaps there is a bit of brain rattling around in that happy little head of hers.

As I’m sitting here relating this tale of canine education, I realize that Daphne actually has had some formal schooling. More so than the average hound. Three years ago, after having a growth removed, she came with me to school so that I could keep an eye on her to make sure she didn’t remove her stitches. She spent a week behind my desk studying The Great Gatsby, which she enjoyed, though she still often wonders what happened to that little dog Tom bought for Myrtle. After Myrtle’s death, Tom tells Nick about crying when he found the leash, but Fitzgerald never resolves the issue of the dog’s fate, something that Daphne sees as a major gap in the story. I told her that most likely Tom found the dog a good home, but I don’t know if she believes me.

And here’s a picture of Frosty Phoebe, The Polar Hound out braving last weekend’s Arctic blast when the temperatures dropped all the way down into the upper thirties.

Don’t forget to visit Friday Ark #75 and The Carnival of the Dogs.

***

Want to make a fast friend by saving a greyhound in Central Texas? Check these pups out. Or go here to find a greyhound near you. You can also go here to find out why greyhounds are running for their lives.

If you have dogs who need proven leadership, go here to find a cat.

I admit I’ve always been fascinated by pirates. My wife is into serial killers, with me it’s pirates. The more I think about it, though, the issue of modern piracy takes on great significance when we remember that pirates are the forerunners of maritime terrorists just as thieves and bandits became the bushwhackers of the US Civil War.

Piracy often goes unreported because it can tie up a ship and crew in port for weeks while investigations go nowhere. Of special concern here is the fine distinction between pirate and terrorist incidents which might also go unreported.

While exploring the ‘net for more information, I found the article “Hazardous Seas” (4-1-05) at The Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA Online) that examines the link between piracy and maritime terrorism. It’s an interesting piece and one that is certainly worth reading.

The JINSA article describes one incident that sounds unlike a standard pirate attack:

On March 26, 2003, heavily armed pirates off the coast of Sumatra boarded the chemical tanker Dewi Madrim. After commandeering the bridge and driving the ship for an hour through the Straits of Malacca, the pirates suddenly fled with the ship’s first mate and captain but inexplicably made no request for ransom money, according to The Economist, October 2, 2003. Both remain missing and there is growing concern that they could be forced to instruct terrorists on ship handling.

The anomalies surrounding the Dewi Madrim incident led the London-based analysts at Aegis Defence Service to conclude that the hijackers were in fact terrorists gaining experience operating a large vessel and learning navigation skills for an eventual attack. According to “The New Piracy,” an article published by Charles Glass in The London Review of Books, December 18, 2003, ADS maritime expert Dominic Armstrong referred to the incident as particularly alarming, “They (the pirates) were fully armed with automatic weapons, which is a departure from the norm. They went straight to the bridge rather than the safe room. And instead of ransacking the crew’s goods they steered a laden tanker for an hour through the Malacca Straits… the implication is that what we are seeing… is the equivalent of a flight-training school for terrorists.”

Whether by terrorists or pirates an incident in the Malacca Straits would have devastating consequences for the global economy, not to mention the local environment. (New Zealand news source Stuff touches more on the security issues in that part of the world.)

Piracy has been steadily increasing over the past ten years but it appears that what is often classified as piracy is in actuality the preparation and training of terrorists all of which continues to highlight the need for port security to be taken seriously.

I’m not sure that port operations being managed by UAE or any other foreign company makes us less secure considering that port security ultimately rests with the US Coast Guard, which according to Wikipedia has the 38th oldest of the world’s forty largest navies. Perhaps we should be asking if the US Coast Guard has adequate resources to protect our ports from the various dangers that are probably steaming our way.

In this week of port security issues that have suddenly entered the news cycle, it seems fitting that I have been reading Dangerous Waters: Modern Piracy and Terror on the High Seas by John S Burnett, which I picked up after reading The Outlaw Sea. Burnett’s book suggests a host of issues that makes the security of our ports all the more important.

Burnett began his investigation into modern piracy after he was attacked on his sailboat by a group of Indonesian pirates in the South China Sea. Over the course of researching the issue, he spent time on a VLCC (very large crude carrier - one of the largest ship types) as well as with the Malaysian authorities who attempt to stop piracy, and then on a smaller refined products tanker traveling from Singapore to Ho Chi Minh City, through the most pirated waters in the world.

It’s a fascinating book that takes the reader into a world that few of us who aren’t involved in shipping or blue water sailing ever consider.

Burnett captures the fear of piracy that many crews live with on a daily basis as they practice and engage in antipiracy defenses that are too often inadequate. He relates the tales of survivors of pirate attacks and tells the stories of ships that simply disappeared sometimes never to be heard from again and other times to be found flying new flags and boasting new names.

Two common themes emerge throughout the book: stealing a ship is easy and it happens all the time. Whether the vessel is a private sailboat, the largest oil and chemical tankers, or a container ship full of random cargo, it is very easy to climb aboard while the ship is moving slowly through narrow channels or even when underway on the high seas. Whole ships are stolen, the crews killed and tossed overboard or marooned on small islands. The ships are repainted at sea, their names changed and with new papers forged and new flags hoisted these phantom ships can deliver illegal immigrants, stolen goods, guns, drugs, or even a weapon of mass destruction to nearly any port in the world. A tanker full of volatile cargo could easily become a weapon simply by pointing it at a target, or it could be an environmental catastrophe resulting when a crew is tied up while being robbed thus leaving no one to steer the ship.

The second issue Burnett addresses is the frequency of pirate attacks, particularly in the South China Sea and in the Straits of Malacca that separate Singapore and Malaysia from Indonesia. It is distressingly common for ships of all sizes to be robbed - a frightening prospect when one considers the kinds of dangerous cargo some ships carry - and in many cases for them to disappear completely with no trace of the cargo, the crew, or the ship itself. Burnett focuses on the Southeast Asia region where the problem is particularly acute since so much of the world’s shipping travels those lanes, but it is increasingly occurring along the African coast, the Middle East, the Caribbean, and South America.

A quick check of the Kuala Lumpur based International Maritime Bureau’s Piracy Reporting Center’s weekly piracy report reveals the fact that not much has changed since Burnett wrote in 2002. Attacks are still occurring with great frequency and little public awareness. Where this issue becomes one that affects everyone is in the connection between piracy and terror. Pirates are motivated by greed, terrorists by ideology, but the techniques for stealing a ship are the same and the implications of a suicide navy composed of a fleet of phantom ships is truly frightening to consider.

If Burnett is right in his assessment of the ease of taking a ship and the lack of coordinated response by the world’s naval powers, then port security and the security of shipping in general is tenuous at best. Piracy in all of its forms from opportunistic fishermen who see the chance to mug the crew of a slow-moving ship to crime syndicates out to steal cargo or terrorists seeking to wreak havoc will likely continue until someone sinks a cruise ship, blows up a chemical tanker or detonates a bomb hidden in a container ship in a busy port, or runs a VLCC aground in a major shipping lane.

All of this highlights the need for increased port security, but more importantly for better security in the world’s shipping lanes. Port security is important but I wonder if securing the world’s shipping lanes might not be more important. By next week, there will be something else in the news and all this will be forgotten probably until it’s too late.

Hypnotized by wheels rumbling all through the night

Outside my car, North Texas, transformed, a foggy ocean—
deep, impenetrable, broken by ghosts of signs that manifest mysterious—
and vanish

Punk rock radio—blaring sonic wind—pushes outward—
a star core against the pressure of the fog—
infinite silence

Worlds unseen beyond the mist lead into other destinies: farm and field—
town and school; fast food off ramp and neon light—
Wichita Falls

I accelerate, but I am not moving

©2003

I’ve always loved driving through thick fog. There’s something soothing about the way everything seems so quiet even as large trucks float past. Buildings, ordinarily rooted to their familiar spots, appear to have moved farther from the road or to have disappeared altogether until I get a bit closer and outlines emerge only to be swallowed up again as I continue along the highway.

This morning, sipping my coffee and listening to NPR talk about email encryption when it felt like they should have been discussing werewolves and witches, I drove through the all encompassing fog, unable to see the exit signs. I took the one that seemed right and drove alone into a silent realm. It was the correct road, but a different world where I found myself waiting at the last stoplight before school.

The light hangs above a lonely crossroads such as the one where Robert Johnson might have made his famous deal with the devil. I sat waiting for the light to change when a large shape appeared and grew out of the fog. The shape grew familiar, forming into a school bus that passed in slow motion. I watched the kids drift by, their faces blank. One little girl stuck her tongue out at me, and then they were gone, swallowed by the fog. I nearly choked on my coffee from laughing.

Yesterday was English/Language Arts Testing Day for Texas high school students. The other tests occur in April, but ELA is sooner so that the essays can be graded.

Watching the kids test - and as per regulations unable to read, write, or do anything other than stare at a room full of miserable kids for three hours – I had plenty of time for thinking about standardized high stakes testing. It ain’t good.

I’ve seen too many very bright, literate kids struggle mightily with these tests because their thinking is not standard or their writing is not formulaic. I’ve seen kids who are clearly bound for advanced university work risk graduation because they get caught up on one particular subject. The greatest injustice I’ve seen is reflected in the eyes of Hispanic kids, new to the US, who must, if they are to graduate, pass the test in a new language. I’ve had brilliant students fail math, science, writing, the whole shebang, because they are not yet brilliant in English.

Of course, kids who haven’t opened a book since first grade or done a shred of homework (and have still somehow made it to eleventh grade) will usually fail and rightly so. Sadly, these kids have made choices and have been enabled by a system that passes them along out of fear of parents (who can’t officially be blamed) and politicians (who pass out blame so officially) who make it the teachers’ fault, the schools’ fault. The result is that districts work ever harder to focus on these few days of testing, these meaningless snapshots that tell us so little that we didn’t already know.

Where does that leave us? Students learn nothing from standardized testing. Those who excel in school, who love learning, have it beaten out of them by a yearlong time suck. Those who do poorly in school have all their negative impressions about the purpose of school reinforced by the test that ultimately just verifies what their professional teachers already knew after the first round of assignments came in. Schools are rated and ranked based on their collective performance on these tests that cater to mediocrity, standardized thinking, formulaic writing and rote memorization. It leaves us with the mistaken belief that we are improving our schools when in fact we are discouraging the very thing we should be fostering: love of learning.

Learning should be fun, exciting, and leave a person filled with wonder when looking out at the natural world or the works and story of humanity. We should be teaching kids to ask questions rather than spit out answers. Slavish devotion to test data kills all that. Schools adjust their curricula to match the test, which, let’s remember, is a minimum skills test. What happens when the mandated focus of public schools is minimum skills, when you shoot for a target so low? Sadly, you hit it. Every single time.