but this i know with all my heart -- His wounds have paid my ransom
"Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy." Proverbs 31:8-9 (NIV)
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NEW YORK (CNN) -- The source of a mysterious maple syrup-like smell that has periodically blanketed New York is not a particularly aromatic pancake house but a New Jersey factory involved in the processing of fenugreek seeds, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Thursday. The source of New York's sweet-smelling aroma has been identified as a food-flavoring firm in New Jersey.
The sweet aroma first descended upon Manhattan and northern New Jersey in October 2005, initially triggering several building evacuations as well as concern the scent was physically harmful. Authorities from the Office of Emergency Management soon concluded it posed no danger to the public.
The odor made several return appearances in subsequent years, each time confounding nostrils before vanishing as perplexingly as it arrived.
Comparing information about local wind speed, wind direction and air humidity against the locations of citizen complaints about the smell, officials from the city's Department of Environmental Protection narrowed down the potential source to four factories in northern New Jersey that produce food additives and fragrances.
Last week, when several dozen residents of Upper Manhattan called to complain about the smell, the environmental department, having developed a new evidence gathering procedure, gathered air samples from each suspected source in canisters. Tests revealed the pungent perpetrator of that incident was a Hudson County facility owned by Frutorom, a company that develops and manufactures flavors for the food, fragrance and pharmaceutical industries.
The specific chemical agents responsible for the scent are esters, compounds "created by the reaction between an alcohol and an acid" during the processing of fenugreek seeds, according to Bloomberg.
Toasted fenugreek seeds are often used in the production of artificial syrups and in the cuisines of a number of cultures.
The mayor said New Jersey officials, who cooperated with New York in the investigation, had concluded that Frutorom had not violated any rules. He said New Yorkers will have to tolerate the syrup smell's occasional return, noting that it's a relatively benign odor.
"All things considered I can think of a lot of things worse than maple syrup," he said.
With the exception of Leon Panetta, I must say that I have been pleasantly surprised with nearly every one of President Obama's national security picks, especially Secretaries Clinton and Gates and National Security Advisor Jones.
The administration's new ambassador to Afghanistan -- former Army Lieutenant General Karl Eikenberry -- also gets a thumbs-up in my book. He's a soldier's soldier: a career infantry officer who's not only Ranger-qualified, but served in the 75th Ranger Regiment as well; Master Parachutist Wings; Combat Infantryman Badge; a battalion commander in the 10th Mountain Division; the former commander of Combined Forces Command Afghanistan, etc. Yet General Eikenberry would also be right at home in Foggy Bottom: two masters degrees from Harvard and Stanford and an advanced degree in history from Nanjing University (he speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese and is married to a Chinese-American).
I tell you, if President Obama keeps hiring all these intellectually facile, technically competent, decidely non-partisan and pragmatic realists to serve in his cabinet, it's going to make me regret all that I once said and thought about his lack of foreign policy experience.
Now, if only his domestic policy picks would pay their taxes....
WASHINGTON: The Obama administration has picked Lieutenant General Karl Eikenberry, a former top military commander in Afghanistan, to be the next U.S. ambassador to Kabul, an administration official said Thursday.
Tapping a career army officer who will soon retire from the service to fill one of the country's most sensitive diplomatic jobs is a highly unusual choice.
But Afghanistan specialists say that Eikenberry, who served in Afghanistan twice, including an 18-month command tour that ended in 2007, knows the players and issues there well. That is a valuable commodity in a year when the United States will send thousands of additional troops to Afghanistan and the country will hold presidential elections.
The administration official spoke anonymously because the appointment had not been made public.
Eikenberry has a track record for spotting problems in Afghanistan early. He sounded some of the first alarms about a resurgent Taliban and the need to keep the country from backsliding into anarchy.
He was also an early and vigorous champion of building up the Afghan Army to combat the Taliban, a top priority for the Obama administration. And the general repeatedly warned that the United States could not prevail in Afghanistan and defeat global terrorism without addressing the havens that fighters with Al Qaeda had established in neighboring Pakistan.
The appointment indicates that Eikenberry has the backing of Richard Holbrooke, President Barack Obama's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Eikenberry not only has good relations with Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, but in his current job as deputy chairman of NATO's military committee in Brussels, he has also developed close ties with European allies that could be useful in coaxing them to offer more support for the Afghan mission. NATO has not met its pledges for combat troops, transport helicopters, military trainers and other support personnel in Afghanistan, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates has openly criticized the allies for not fulfilling their promises.
If the Senate approves Eikenberry, it would mean that four of the new administration's most influential voices on Afghanistan policy will be active-duty or retired generals, fueling the concerns of some critics that the Pentagon has too much sway over America's foreign policy.
General David Petraeus, the head of the Central Command, General David McKiernan, the top commander in Afghanistan, and General James Jones, a retired Marine Corps officer who is Obama's national security adviser, are all expected to play important roles in carrying out Afghanistan policy.
Eikenberry, a West Point graduate with master's degrees from Harvard and Stanford, would replace William Wood, who is finishing a two-year tour as America's chief diplomat in Kabul.
Mark Landler contributed reporting from Washington, and Carlotta Gall from Kabul.
Wow -- it's been a long time. Short update: living in Chicago, waiting for active duty orders (if all goes well I should head to TBS in June). Life is full and blessed, and though I occasionally feel guilty about being so behind on all manner of "social responsibilities" (wall posts and voicemails and the what-not), I've resigned myself to the fact that I will never be the "put-together" guy who always manages to keep track of birthdays, posts weekly blogs and responds to emails within 24 hours.
"A man's got to know his limitations." Clint Eastwood as Harry Callahan in Magnum Force
Sigh. I suppose so. But may I never fail those closest to me.
*****
Just had to share this -- 40 inspirational cinematic speeches in two minutes. Goosebumps.
*****
Favorite movie from the first half of the year: WALL·E
Self-sacrifice moves me so. Is that why I am so devastated by what Christ did on the cross? Or is it the other way around? In any case, this deceptively-child-like tale of a robot's single-minded, ever persistent, selfless devotion just struck a chord in me. To love like this...!
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
