{"id":11982,"date":"2013-02-08T13:00:12","date_gmt":"2013-02-08T21:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/?p=11982"},"modified":"2013-02-09T12:09:49","modified_gmt":"2013-02-09T20:09:49","slug":"do-what-you-have-to-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/do-what-you-have-to-do\/","title":{"rendered":"Do what you have to do"},"content":{"rendered":"

View 761 Friday, February 08, 2013<\/p>\n

I have been working fairly steadily and making progress on Lucifer\u2019s Anvil, so I was late noticing that today the KUSC (Local Good Music station) pledge drive started. Like KUSC this place operates on the Public Radio model: it\u2019s free, but it\u2019s supported by subscribers, and if we don\u2019t get enough subscribers it will go away.  I am pleased to say that we get enough subscribers, but of course they have to be renewed, which means that sometimes I have to bug the readers about subscribing and renewals. I don\u2019t do that except during the times when KUSC does pledge drives. It\u2019s that time again. It\u2019s time to Pay For This Place<\/a>. <\/p>\n

My interview with Leo Laporte last Wednesday<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Triangulation interview.  <\/p>\n

[Note that for the first six minutes or so of the show, there is a typo in the on-screen caption which lists your Web site URL.]<\/p>\n

<http:\/\/twit.tv\/show\/triangulation\/90<\/a>><\/p>\n

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Roland Dobbins <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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The Los Angeles Police Department remains on tactical alert, as it would during a riot, meaning that all available officers are available at all times. The City remains in a state of siege, largely because the Christopher Dorner Manifesto \u2013 an 11 page document written by the former Naval Reserve Office and former LAPD Police Officer \u2013 in essence declares war not only on LAPD but on all law enforcement officers, and the relatives of at least some LAPD officers. He has already killed the daughter of a former LAPD captain and her fianc\u00e9, and killed and wounded other police officers not part of LAPD. He\u2019s certainly armed and dangerous. He has also generated some sympathy among \u2018the people\u2019 but it is hard to tell how much from the news media, which alternates between exploitation and hysteria.<\/p>\n

The manifesto itself was withdrawn from where it was posted on the Internet by a local LA radio station, but of course there have to be copies available. I didn\u2019t look very hard. The Christian Science Monitor has this. http:\/\/www.csmonitor.com\/USA\/Justice\/2013\/0208\/Christopher-Dorner-manifesto-A-guide-to-ex-cop-s-rampage<\/a><\/p>\n

Meanwhile I am due to go to Boston beginning at 0 dark thirty Wednesday morning, while the biggest snowstorm in history is hitting the New England area. I am still planning on going on the theory that the storm will be over before Tuesday, but we\u2019ll see. The airports may all be closed. They may not be. Interesting times.<\/p>\n

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This morning Rush Limbaugh was castigating President Obama for not being in the command scene during the last of the Benghazi crisis. According to Limbaugh, the President told the Secretary of Defense \u201cDo what you have to do,\u201d and vanished from scene.<\/p>\n

If this is true, I would say it is to the President\u2019s credit, and reminiscent of President Reagan who, told of the opportunity to capture a known terrorist by taking him from an EgyptAir 737 now in flight. The risks and benefits were explained. The President ordered the military to do it. When asked if he wanted to be kept up to date on the operation, he said, \u201cSure. Let me know when you\u2019ve got him.\u201d This in contrast to President Carter, who was on the phone to Colonel Beckwith at all phases of the doomed attempt to rescue the American embassy personnel held captive in Tehran. As von Moltke the elder put it after his success against the Austrians at Sadowa, his was probably the last battle in which a general did not have a telegraph wire from supreme command up his bum. That was prophetic of Carter but not always. Reagan told his people to do the job and got out of the way. <\/p>\n

This sounds like what President Obama did. If we seek enlightenment on why so little was done after that, we have to ask the Secretary of Defense and the duty officers in command \u2013 why the President\u2019s blank check wasn\u2019t passed along to the theater commander. \u201cDo what you have to do\u201d sounds like the kind of orders that put heart in a soldier. Why didn\u2019t Panetta call the theater commander and simply say, \u201cThe consulate is under attack. Use whatever resources you have to get the American personnel and consulate employees out of the consulate and safe house. The President says do what you have to do. I\u2019ll get out of your way now.\u201d<\/p>\n

We can ask why nothing was done, but it\u2019s hard to say the President didn\u2019t give the right order.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s lunch time, and it\u2019s snowing in Boston.<\/p>\n

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Mr. Pournelle, <\/p>\n

Just in case no one else points this out, Dorner’s manifesto document is not 11 pages long. It is actually 22 pages, and the "media" have been conducting significant editing on the document.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.soopermexican.com\/2013\/02\/07\/news-media-scrub-cop-murderers-manifesto-of-pro-obama-pro-hillary-loved-msnbc-pro-gay-and-anti-gun-comments\/<\/a><\/p>\n

If you have the 11 page version, you’re not getting the full story; presumably it will get no media play that Mr. Dorner is rabidly in favor of the Democrat party…<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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It\u2019s pledge drive time. This place operates on the public radio model. It\u2019s free to everyone but it\u2019s supported by subscriptions. If you haven\u2019t subscribed this would be a good time to do it, and if you haven\u2019t renewed your subscription in a year, this would be a time to do that. You have been reminded. Subscribe or renew now.<\/a><\/p>\n

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View 761 Friday, February 08, 2013 I have been working fairly steadily and making progress on Lucifer\u2019s Anvil, so I was late noticing that today the KUSC (Local Good Music station) pledge drive started. Like KUSC this place operates on the Public Radio model: it\u2019s free, but it\u2019s supported by \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-view"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11982\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}