It ins't a typo, it's feature.
There are many ways to detect enemy tunneling. Soldiers have been doing it forever. With detection electronics, any tunnel can be triangulated by the sound the diggers give off as they bore into the ground. Modeling the underground using sound is a technique older than this century.
One solution for enemy tunnels is equally ancient but still germane, counter tunnel using sonar to find them and technology to kill them. Back in the old wars it was by introducing high explosive or combustion gasses to the enemy tunnel. Now? Acoustic technology is a 1000 times better.
How hard was it to put a probe into the enemy tunnel and flood theirs with lethal gas? It's a quiet end to a miner problem
Thursday, July 31, 2014
OVER THE TRANSOM FROM THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Does anyone know how to cancel a bid on E-Bay?
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Wednesday, July 30, 2014
A KIND OF POSITIVE
My apps for not posting in some time. I have not run out of things to say. In fact, there's no shortage of things I write.
Those 227 drafts are new stuff in the last two months. Most of the things I write never see the light of the tubes. I go through them every couple of months and toss the drafts. I usually toss them because I don't like their mien. There's me all over them, but I actually strive to be better than I am. That said, it seems like the bad news has no place to go these days. I stopped delivering the news back when I was in the 8th grade and surrendered my Newport Daily News paper route when we moved to the Marshall Space Flight Center. While I share some of the topical news of the day, it isn't what I started out to do here.
Dam Global Warming!
Those 227 drafts are new stuff in the last two months. Most of the things I write never see the light of the tubes. I go through them every couple of months and toss the drafts. I usually toss them because I don't like their mien. There's me all over them, but I actually strive to be better than I am. That said, it seems like the bad news has no place to go these days. I stopped delivering the news back when I was in the 8th grade and surrendered my Newport Daily News paper route when we moved to the Marshall Space Flight Center. While I share some of the topical news of the day, it isn't what I started out to do here.
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| Lake across the road in flood from the rain |
Dam Global Warming!
Monday, July 28, 2014
OVER THERE
It's an interesting piece. I don't know what the caption was but I've made my own.
Somewhere this date is accepted as the beginning of the Great War.
And, we're prepared to do it again to establish our legitimacy.
Unelected Kaisers of the New Central European Hegemony must know no boundaries.
Welcome to Belgium 4.0
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| In This Triumph We Killed All of Your Sons, Husbands and Fathers Over There |
Somewhere this date is accepted as the beginning of the Great War.
And, we're prepared to do it again to establish our legitimacy.
Unelected Kaisers of the New Central European Hegemony must know no boundaries.
Welcome to Belgium 4.0
A PROPER STORM
I miss the storms one can see from miles away.
In the place where I live now the storms sneak up on us. Not like the old days on the sea and in the desert. While I never feared the storms, one doesn't like them to just sneak up.
In the place where I live now the storms sneak up on us. Not like the old days on the sea and in the desert. While I never feared the storms, one doesn't like them to just sneak up.
ARLO IN CAIN PARK LAST NIGHT
We went to a small concert by Arlo Guthrie last night with a friend. It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it merry much. Right after he returned from the first intermission, the lady's voice supreme, from the speakers above, announced that the concert was on pause. We refused. He refused.
Throughout the venue (Cain Park) hundreds of cell phones were receiving the same Tornado Warning Alert which over-rides the silence on many a device. The muse above was insistent that there would be a 15 minute break in the concert. It was silly in one aspect but necessary in the other realm. The wind started going sideways at 50 knots. A dry pavilion and stage was flooded in the next 10 minutes.
I gave it a moment's thought. There's a thousand of us in an open air amphitheater and none of us are leaving. What's the point of a break for tornados if there is no place within 6 miles to seek shelter from a twister? Arlo was, cool. So was everybody else.
As usual, Arlo gives an outstanding concert.
Throughout the venue (Cain Park) hundreds of cell phones were receiving the same Tornado Warning Alert which over-rides the silence on many a device. The muse above was insistent that there would be a 15 minute break in the concert. It was silly in one aspect but necessary in the other realm. The wind started going sideways at 50 knots. A dry pavilion and stage was flooded in the next 10 minutes.
I gave it a moment's thought. There's a thousand of us in an open air amphitheater and none of us are leaving. What's the point of a break for tornados if there is no place within 6 miles to seek shelter from a twister? Arlo was, cool. So was everybody else.
As usual, Arlo gives an outstanding concert.
Friday, July 25, 2014
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
The water gets deeper,
and there are sharks. Have a very good summer.
It might seem like a blog sometimes, but I'm having a conversation with somebody I miss.
TWO ANCHORS
Did I tell the story of the two anchors shown in the masthead picture? John Orth and I were like light in the dark the first time we came aboard that ship in '88. The ship was not at all well.
We returned to Sitrah after a day underway conducting turnover preps, and anchored near a dozen other ships off the coast of Bahrain. We were challenged by the morning. We could not get underway because our anchor windlass motor spun like a top but the wildcat didn't move. Some mornings are like that.
Our anchor windlass was of the controlled torque slip coupling design. The windlass would go around and around but it had slipped forever the surly bonds of controlled torque. We were nailed to the bottom 500 yards off the ASRY drydock.
I could have fixed the problem with an hour of hard drilling, but the skipper said, "no." He had the faith. He was a believer in logistics. I don't need to belabor the point. He was an optimist. We transmitted a highest priority Casualty message to the fleet and the greater fleet that existed to serve us. If cordless drills existed back then, I would have wandered by the Captain's Cabin with a whirring sound every hour or two for the next 4 days.
The first response to our CASREP message is one I remember. My rest was disturbed by an irate XO who waved a signal demand from COMIDEASTFOR that suggested we cease and desist caterwauling about our failure to bring the anchor into the light of the new day and downgrade the request to, "sorry to bother you SPCC Mechanicsburg, if you've got the time, we need a vital 50 year old windlass part."
Our good friends, the parts warehouse at SPCC Mechanicsburg, were heard from a few hours later. They confessed as how they got nothing. It wasn't really a surprise. I started warming up the drill with an idea that would make the controlled torque slip coupling a sort of, a no slip coupling. Then we got a message from the MINE BATTLE FORCE, ordering us to downgrade our casualty.
That made my day. I spent 2 minutes drafting a message in response to the Mine Battle Force which mostly consisted of inviting them to help me raise 10,000 pounds of anchor plus chain so I could shove it up their ass. The skipper didn't want to send that one. On the other hand, I spent the next 4 days, while my friends at BASREC were making a new coupling, informing Bahrain Port Control that this ship couldn't move and so traffic would have to deal with us blocking the path.
You haven't lived until you see a 200,000 dwt tanker move by just 50 feet away on its way into dry dock.
seriously, 50 feet away. You look up and up and up,
The year before, I had spent looking down on fighter bombers on their way to bomb Iran or Iraq. I thought that was weird; from a bridge that wasn't 25 feet above the sea.
We had two anchors but we only had the one anchor chain and just a single wildcat. We could have slipped the anchor chain and gotten underway but it would be a long time before we ever anchored again.
Bahrain Port Control really wanted us out of the way.
We returned to Sitrah after a day underway conducting turnover preps, and anchored near a dozen other ships off the coast of Bahrain. We were challenged by the morning. We could not get underway because our anchor windlass motor spun like a top but the wildcat didn't move. Some mornings are like that.
Our anchor windlass was of the controlled torque slip coupling design. The windlass would go around and around but it had slipped forever the surly bonds of controlled torque. We were nailed to the bottom 500 yards off the ASRY drydock.
I could have fixed the problem with an hour of hard drilling, but the skipper said, "no." He had the faith. He was a believer in logistics. I don't need to belabor the point. He was an optimist. We transmitted a highest priority Casualty message to the fleet and the greater fleet that existed to serve us. If cordless drills existed back then, I would have wandered by the Captain's Cabin with a whirring sound every hour or two for the next 4 days.
The first response to our CASREP message is one I remember. My rest was disturbed by an irate XO who waved a signal demand from COMIDEASTFOR that suggested we cease and desist caterwauling about our failure to bring the anchor into the light of the new day and downgrade the request to, "sorry to bother you SPCC Mechanicsburg, if you've got the time, we need a vital 50 year old windlass part."
Our good friends, the parts warehouse at SPCC Mechanicsburg, were heard from a few hours later. They confessed as how they got nothing. It wasn't really a surprise. I started warming up the drill with an idea that would make the controlled torque slip coupling a sort of, a no slip coupling. Then we got a message from the MINE BATTLE FORCE, ordering us to downgrade our casualty.
That made my day. I spent 2 minutes drafting a message in response to the Mine Battle Force which mostly consisted of inviting them to help me raise 10,000 pounds of anchor plus chain so I could shove it up their ass. The skipper didn't want to send that one. On the other hand, I spent the next 4 days, while my friends at BASREC were making a new coupling, informing Bahrain Port Control that this ship couldn't move and so traffic would have to deal with us blocking the path.
You haven't lived until you see a 200,000 dwt tanker move by just 50 feet away on its way into dry dock.
seriously, 50 feet away. You look up and up and up,
The year before, I had spent looking down on fighter bombers on their way to bomb Iran or Iraq. I thought that was weird; from a bridge that wasn't 25 feet above the sea.
We had two anchors but we only had the one anchor chain and just a single wildcat. We could have slipped the anchor chain and gotten underway but it would be a long time before we ever anchored again.
Bahrain Port Control really wanted us out of the way.
Thursday, July 24, 2014
METROPARKCENTRALIS
We are basking in the warm embrace of the big media. I don't think I remember the city and environs of Cleveland ever making it into the press in such a good way. We have food!
Seriously, it's a nice place. Speaking as one who inhabited the West Coast for ages, who knew? We also have some really fine cultural attractions. I won't mock them. They are treasures. I'll buy any reader a beer who comes to the MetroPark. Well, maybe just 3 or 4 of you. Get here early, beat the scrum.
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| Cuisine second to none! |
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
DUET DE MODERNE
For my love,
had you wanted to hear the words, and why? We shall carry on. Duet de moderne.
had you wanted to hear the words, and why? We shall carry on. Duet de moderne.
ISLANDS IN THE NET
I wonder about a second and third generation of policy and decision makers who are learning to adjust to the absence of the .sci networks in their lives after they move on to greener pastures. How do tech savvy people accommodate themselves in a disadvantaged environment when they leave government service and lose access to the SIPR and NSAnet?
You have to wonder don't you? The people at NSA made a huge investment in building backdoors into every single piece of tech they could find. They all got used to having back door access to every single network under their control or auspice.
Do you really think they left government service without taking the keys to the classified world wide web?
I have a theory.
You have to wonder don't you? The people at NSA made a huge investment in building backdoors into every single piece of tech they could find. They all got used to having back door access to every single network under their control or auspice.
Do you really think they left government service without taking the keys to the classified world wide web?
I have a theory.
A SHORT BLURB FROM BUSS
Speaking of the changes he has ordered in the Blue Angels, VADM Buss later declaimed that the selection criteria has been carefully rewritten to ensure no one is excluded.
“We’ve really kind of focused on clearly stating in our selection instruction that demographics and gender will not be considered as factors,” he said. “It’s really based on aviation skill, professional performance and community reputation.”But in the stunning but typical fashion used by our dear leaders these days, he couldn't leave well enough alone and had to say:
“It’s just having an outside set of eyes look at the selections to be sure you are picking the most talented and diverse team possible,” he said.Well, if Admiral Buss is to be believed, I'm almost qualified to fly for the Blue Angels and therefore should be considered for membership in the elite flying team. You know where to reach me Admiral.
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| We Are Ready Now! |
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
JEREMIAH DENTON
Jeremiah Denton, a man who was there when Hell Was In Session, has stepped into the clearing at the end of the path.
THE SPEED OF EVIL
I sometimes despair of the people who claim to love science and then turn their back on real science when it makes a meaningful contribution to the world. We've been doing genetics on crops since Gregor Mendel. We probably did it long before he quantified it but we just called it, improving the breed.
From today's Maggie's Farm,
The modern leftist doesn't merely turn their backs on helping spread drought resistant crops, they actively conspire to prevent their spread and use.
From today's Maggie's Farm,
The modern leftist doesn't merely turn their backs on helping spread drought resistant crops, they actively conspire to prevent their spread and use.
A DESCENT OF ODIOUS
I have, like Patterico, been waiting for this decision. It looks like the Courts have found against the odious Obamacare act and have ruled that insurance purchased through the National Obamacare website is not eligible for government/IRS subsidy because it is not recognized by the odious law itself.
The decision will be reviewed several more times as it is challenged to a full Bench vote and then appeal, as necessary. I have been waiting for the Law to catch up with the sleazy way that this administration administers the law.
The decision will be reviewed several more times as it is challenged to a full Bench vote and then appeal, as necessary. I have been waiting for the Law to catch up with the sleazy way that this administration administers the law.
Monday, July 21, 2014
THE RISE OF THE BOOK BURNERS
Who is out there burning books these days? I suspect it's the people who already know all there is to know and who distrust science, scientists, researchers and people who have the unmitigated effrontery to publish things that contradict the orthodoxy. The science is settled, you see. We won't tolerate any contrarian views.
Friday, July 18, 2014
MASSIVE INCOMPETENCE AND STUPIDITY
I know it isn't really incompetence or stupidity because getting more unskilled, impoverished, illegal aliens into this country to swell the already swollen ranks of illegals who vote Democratic, is the only reason that no action is being taken by the Government to end the influx of "refugees." They're not refugees. They are guaranteed future Democrat voters who will vote the party line for the next five generations.
Our own impoverished, unskilled citizens who all seem to vote Democrat at every opportunity; some multiple times in each election, are thrilled to be joined by millions more who will share the few remaining jobs for people like them and the largesse of the broken welfare state. I'm sure they'll express their happiness in the time honored way.
As I read about Jordan taking in a million refugees from Syria and settling them in camps that provide food, water, shelter and even an electrical and sewage infrastructure, I see an evasion of responsibility at the Federal level that is unconscionable. The Jordanians are capable of providing humane shelter, in an organized fashion, for 1.3 million true refugees. The U. S. Agency for International Development played a huge role in creating those camps in order to aid the refugees from Syria. Why is there no agency in the Federal Government to provide similar arrangements for refugees in this country?
Humane refugee camps safeguard both the refugees and the citizens. Instead, the Federal Government transports and then dumps tens of thousands of illegal aliens on the bankrupt state and local officials from California to Maine who are not in a position to provide material assistance on this scale. In fact, the Federal Government is the only one that could execute a policy of establishing refugee camps in this country. Any other jurisdiction would be challenged instantly in the courts.
The Federal Government abandoned its responsibilities to the nation and chose to dump non-English speaking, illiterate, unskilled migrants on the States and cities. As soon as these illegal aliens are settled in a community, they are eligible for all the benefits that any citizen is eligible to receive. They don't pay for any of them. They learn that they don't ever have to pay for anything.
Bad government! No biscuit!
Our own impoverished, unskilled citizens who all seem to vote Democrat at every opportunity; some multiple times in each election, are thrilled to be joined by millions more who will share the few remaining jobs for people like them and the largesse of the broken welfare state. I'm sure they'll express their happiness in the time honored way.
As I read about Jordan taking in a million refugees from Syria and settling them in camps that provide food, water, shelter and even an electrical and sewage infrastructure, I see an evasion of responsibility at the Federal level that is unconscionable. The Jordanians are capable of providing humane shelter, in an organized fashion, for 1.3 million true refugees. The U. S. Agency for International Development played a huge role in creating those camps in order to aid the refugees from Syria. Why is there no agency in the Federal Government to provide similar arrangements for refugees in this country?
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| Two Refugee Camps and a U.S. Military Camp |
The Federal Government abandoned its responsibilities to the nation and chose to dump non-English speaking, illiterate, unskilled migrants on the States and cities. As soon as these illegal aliens are settled in a community, they are eligible for all the benefits that any citizen is eligible to receive. They don't pay for any of them. They learn that they don't ever have to pay for anything.
Bad government! No biscuit!
THINK ABOUT IT
From the blogsite of Watts, a guest post about a drive through Yellowstone Park.
The photographs at the link are amusing.
Finally, just before leaving the Park, a pika ran across the road. This is an endearing little creature, much smaller than a rabbit, with no tail and huge ears. It is supposed to be threatened by climate change. I got to thinking about that … the temperature in the park ranges from over 100°F (37°C) in the summer to minus 40°F (-40°C) in the winter. The pika survives that without a problem … and he’s supposed to be endangered by a change in average temperature of a couple of degrees? Seems quite doubtful …
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| There. Fixed it. A non-endangered by global scamming Pika. |
The photographs at the link are amusing.
Thursday, July 17, 2014
A SHOUT OUT FOR THE THIEF!
A very nice lady I know wrote a book that was published in 1996. Something happened yesterday that made me curious about how well that book was selling these days at Amazon. I was fascinated to watch it climb from a Best Sellers Rank of 2067th place to 117th place in Amazon Kindle sales in just 10 hours.
I decided to compare her sales ranking against somebody really rich and famous who just published her own book and is currently on tour crisscrossing the land, beating the bushes to find people to buy it, accompanied by a torrent of free, non-stop main stream media publicity.
18 year old book written by a really nice author who is currently swanning around the Greek Isles with her family:
Latest book published by former Secretary of State and First Lady of the United States:
I'm laughing how Megan's book is categorized at Amazon. Don't you think anything written by a Clinton would come under the categories of Royalty, Fairy Tales, Folk Tales and Myths? I certainly do! And yet, Amazon categorizes Hillary under Gender Studies, Women's Studies and Political.
I know tis but a fleeting thing, but those are good too.
Update: The Thief is now at #92 on the Kindle Best Sellers list at Amazon.
I decided to compare her sales ranking against somebody really rich and famous who just published her own book and is currently on tour crisscrossing the land, beating the bushes to find people to buy it, accompanied by a torrent of free, non-stop main stream media publicity.
18 year old book written by a really nice author who is currently swanning around the Greek Isles with her family:
Latest book published by former Secretary of State and First Lady of the United States:
I'm laughing how Megan's book is categorized at Amazon. Don't you think anything written by a Clinton would come under the categories of Royalty, Fairy Tales, Folk Tales and Myths? I certainly do! And yet, Amazon categorizes Hillary under Gender Studies, Women's Studies and Political.
I know tis but a fleeting thing, but those are good too.
Update: The Thief is now at #92 on the Kindle Best Sellers list at Amazon.
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
PARADISE BANKRUPTED BY DEMOCRATS
It's no surprise to me that democratic policies can bankrupt paradise. In Puerto Rico's case the democratic machine took a hundred years and constant infusions of American dollars to do what Castro did in just 10 years. Eventually though, other people's money dries up and the people are left holding the bag. When they refuse to pay anymore, nobody pays and the little people who invested in mutual funds, bonds, and stocks are wiped out when the misgovernment of the day opts to avoid paying and simply defaults on all the money it borrowed from its creditors.
Read the article and look at the numbers. Those numbers are the underlying facts staring us in the face as politicians and the people who elect them continue to believe passionately in spending money they don't have and never will. Sometimes that ends in anarchy but mostly it ends in the worst form of tyranny this planet has ever seen.
--Democrat Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla told Bloomberg News last year that Puerto Rico had a constitutional and moral obligation to not default on the island’s $73 billion of debt. But he just passed a law giving local court proceedings the power to cancel much, or all, of the island’s bond debt.
--Puerto Rico's economy is shrinking at a 6% annual pace.
--"Of their $73 billion of debt, $56 billion is in the form of municipal bonds and a quarter of that is held by unsuspecting investors in their tax-free mutual funds. On a per capita basis, that debt burden works out to $14,000 per resident; 10 times the average of the 50 states and higher than every state except California and New York."
-- "In addition to debt, Puerto Rico also has a public employee pension plan that is only 11.2% funded. The current $30 billion in unfunded pension liabilities would add another $6,000 in per capita liability to each Puerto Rican resident."
The original article is pitched in such a way as to lay the blame for Puerto Rico's problems on an inability to speak and read English and claims 90% of the population cannot do either. I don't think that has anything to do with the problem they find themselves faced with today. The problem as I see it, is that we have people trading in bond markets that suffer no penalties at all for lying or failing to do their fiduciary duty to the people and institutions they sell them to. The people that bought and traded all those worthless bonds should be sliced up and used to chum for sharks in Long Island Sound.
The numbers are bad for Puerto Rico. One might almost say that the situation is hopeless. On the other hand, this is what it looks like for the United States in comparison with other leaders in the shameful national debt category:
You could read more about it at The Atlantic and oddly, another article in another Atlantic.
Can you imagine the day when everybody repudiates their debts as unpayable? If Europe goes over the edge it will make everybody follow. I think the last time that happened was 1929. This sort of charade is only viable as long as the major powers say that it is. The first to collapse will take down all the rest. That is why, even the utterly insolvent United States Government, raced to send trillions of dollars to prop up the EU banks that were going under as the Euro failed in all the countries to the left of US.
Read the article and look at the numbers. Those numbers are the underlying facts staring us in the face as politicians and the people who elect them continue to believe passionately in spending money they don't have and never will. Sometimes that ends in anarchy but mostly it ends in the worst form of tyranny this planet has ever seen.
--Democrat Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla told Bloomberg News last year that Puerto Rico had a constitutional and moral obligation to not default on the island’s $73 billion of debt. But he just passed a law giving local court proceedings the power to cancel much, or all, of the island’s bond debt.
--Puerto Rico's economy is shrinking at a 6% annual pace.
--"Of their $73 billion of debt, $56 billion is in the form of municipal bonds and a quarter of that is held by unsuspecting investors in their tax-free mutual funds. On a per capita basis, that debt burden works out to $14,000 per resident; 10 times the average of the 50 states and higher than every state except California and New York."
-- "In addition to debt, Puerto Rico also has a public employee pension plan that is only 11.2% funded. The current $30 billion in unfunded pension liabilities would add another $6,000 in per capita liability to each Puerto Rican resident."
The original article is pitched in such a way as to lay the blame for Puerto Rico's problems on an inability to speak and read English and claims 90% of the population cannot do either. I don't think that has anything to do with the problem they find themselves faced with today. The problem as I see it, is that we have people trading in bond markets that suffer no penalties at all for lying or failing to do their fiduciary duty to the people and institutions they sell them to. The people that bought and traded all those worthless bonds should be sliced up and used to chum for sharks in Long Island Sound.
The numbers are bad for Puerto Rico. One might almost say that the situation is hopeless. On the other hand, this is what it looks like for the United States in comparison with other leaders in the shameful national debt category:
You could read more about it at The Atlantic and oddly, another article in another Atlantic.
Can you imagine the day when everybody repudiates their debts as unpayable? If Europe goes over the edge it will make everybody follow. I think the last time that happened was 1929. This sort of charade is only viable as long as the major powers say that it is. The first to collapse will take down all the rest. That is why, even the utterly insolvent United States Government, raced to send trillions of dollars to prop up the EU banks that were going under as the Euro failed in all the countries to the left of US.
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
A LONG AGO UP TO DATE BIT OF GENIUS
When I look at this picture today I am struck by how much it resembles America as it used to be before the socialists decided that no place should be spared their loving and caring attentions.
Somehow, in this giant city of millions of diverse people, all of whom share access, nobody ever sold out Central Park and decided to clear it, develop it, mine it, build on it or let a million people camp there forever.
Yet.
Monday, July 14, 2014
GUNMEN KILL WOMEN
It's hard to believe how far the news services have fallen from the good old days when a newsman's writ was to ferret out the facts, record them and then publish them in a form that could be as salacious as they liked but which all bore the same hallmarks of news reporting: who, what, when, where, why.
Long years ago at the beginning of the War For Oil, the world's news arms banded together and decided to eschew foreign terms from their news reports. All killers and terrorists were simply branded, 'gunmen.' Gunmen were found to be gunning down various unworthy people all over the world without explanation or criticism. It was not, said the news mouthpieces, their job to explain what motivated gunmen or what made their victims so unworthy, so they stopped even trying.
In America, it quickly became apparent that the news apparatchiks adopted the new style enthusiastically because they were getting beaten up all the time for describing the people accused of horrible crimes or on trial for horrible crimes. The proletarian masses were quickly beginning to sense that an enormous percentage of the most outrageous violence was being carried out by a small minority of people. The news people felt a duty to cover that up.
In British news it wasn't hard to spot that the same sort of cover up was at work as the press labored mightily to blame things on gunmen or youths. Up until a few years ago some of the lesser news services still had the gall to refer to some vicious attackers as young Asian men in an attempt to muddle just who was carrying out most of the most vicious and senseless attacks.
I just finished reading the BBC's little bit of not-the-real-news about Gunmen attacking in Iraq. It wasn't at all about what I thought it would be from the headline but you can make up your mind from this capture.
There seems to have only been one news service that saw fit to describe the attackers. It's OK though, the rest of the so-called news services found it acceptable to brand all the women killed as prostitutes. They seem OK with labeling some of the victims of these vicious attacks because, somehow, in their minds, it justifies the attackers.
Only the turnips at the BBC could write something this blandly stupid:
"The motive for the killings is not clear. No group has said it carried out the attack.
Reports said the two buildings were suspected to be brothels.
Writing left on the door of one of the buildings read: "This is the fate of any prostitution," AFP news agency reports."
HUMBLE UBIQUITOUS TRILOBITES
Little known today, trilobites were once the tastiest morsel left in the seas. Our link goes on to make the rather astonishing claim that, Trilobites are, "Extinct, but not a failure."
Roughly 250 million years ago, at the end of the Permian period, something killed 90 percent of the planet's species. Fewer than 5 percent of the animal species in the world ocean survived this Great Dying.
Nothing lasts forever, but the Trilobites are the world champions for surviving the longest on earth. Some researchers blame the rise of atmospheric CO2 for the Late Permian Extinction. They blame some sort of manmade climate change for intense global warming that led, inevitably, to Skynet and the rise of the Machines!
Roughly 250 million years ago, at the end of the Permian period, something killed 90 percent of the planet's species. Fewer than 5 percent of the animal species in the world ocean survived this Great Dying.
Nothing lasts forever, but the Trilobites are the world champions for surviving the longest on earth. Some researchers blame the rise of atmospheric CO2 for the Late Permian Extinction. They blame some sort of manmade climate change for intense global warming that led, inevitably, to Skynet and the rise of the Machines!
Friday, July 11, 2014
THROW THEM FROM A VERY GREAT HEIGHT
Sometimes, I get diverted by other news at the bottom of the news item I'm reading. It can be illuminating. How could I have missed this story?
You get that these two young men, having already fallen 200 feet and lived, now face prosecution and up to a year in jail for....wait for it..... hold on.....
Yes, yes, I know, it's shades of Alice's Restaurant and the Group W bench.
One day, as a very junior officer, one might say, the most junior officer on board, I and another man went and visited with the Commander of the Bahrain Self Defense Force. I had been stamped with a co-lateral duty in addition to my primary duty as Auxiliaries Officer. In addition to my duties as Legal Officer for the ship, I also filled my spare time by serving as Middle East Force Postal Officer, Wardroom Mess Treasurer, Voting Officer...well, the usual sort of thing.
The visit I paid on the august commander of the Self Defense Force was to see if maybe he would be willing to let two of our usually very responsible sailors go forth from his country's jail. You know, as I think back on that day, I wonder what skids were greased before I ever left the ship. Can you imagine, seriously, sending an Ensign and the Engineering Department Master Chief to see the head of any other country's Self Defense Force (Police) with a nicely phrased respectful request to let our sailors go?
Thought not. We had nobody from the Embassy. We had no potentates and pontiffs. We had me and we had the man who wears the stars.
The general was exceedingly courteous and greeted us both as we came into his office. He got up from his desk and came around to shake my hand and to more vigorously shake the hand of Master Chief Meisberger. As he shook the Master Chief's hand he said, "at last, I meet the man who wears the stars!"
We sat down at his request and he sent for tea. We quaffed. We talked. We raised the unpleasant subject that brought us to his fine office that day. Was there I wondered, any chance of getting our sailors out of the hoosegow.
"Ah," he said. "Those poor men, they have just been released from hospital."
The thing was, they'd been snotty with a cab driver and they kicked his cab down by the souk. The cabby, naturally, took umbrage. He and the security guards from the Regency Hotel took down our sailors and called the police who, showed up, cuffed our men, tossed them in the back of a jeep and drove off towards the hoosegow.
They cuffed the guys with their hands in front. The younger one of our sailors suggested to the older one that maybe, when the jeep slowed down for a red light, that they jump out and run away. Which, both being drunk beyond reason, they did.
In Bahrain, one slows down to 40 mph for a red light. Only an idiot would stop at one.
They suffered an enormous number of broken arms and one of them broke his jaw when it hit the pavement.
The General gave my small request just an instant of thought before saying, "they have suffered enough. Of course you may take them with you."
That was the ample justice of one of the nicer emirates. Contrast with the justice one finds after falling over the dam in Maryland. I'd have said those two guys suffered enough. On the other hand, I'm notoriously easy on felons and lawbreakers.
That story happened just exactly as I said but can you imagine? The CO didn't go, the XO didn't go. The Department Head didn't go. Nobody from the embassy went. A single O-1 and an E-9 went to get those guys. Sure, the Master Chief had them all outnumbered but I cannot actually imagine this happening anywhere at all in the wide world in this day and age. It was, at the time, just about what I expected out of that miserable crappy co-lateral job. On the other hand, I got to watch Captain Franklin D. Julian work himself up into a towering rage before he held Captain's Mast. That really was fun.
Two kayakers who were injured after falling 200 feet over the face of the dam at Prettyboy Reservoir have been charged with trespassing.
Paul K. Hare, 22, and Stephen D. Sparks, 21, both of Parkton, are charged with criminal trespassing and face $1,000 fines and one year in jail, said the Baltimore Environmental Police, which patrol the reservoir.
You get that these two young men, having already fallen 200 feet and lived, now face prosecution and up to a year in jail for....wait for it..... hold on.....
"Police said they were in a no trespass zone and had been boating without permits."
Yes, yes, I know, it's shades of Alice's Restaurant and the Group W bench.
One day, as a very junior officer, one might say, the most junior officer on board, I and another man went and visited with the Commander of the Bahrain Self Defense Force. I had been stamped with a co-lateral duty in addition to my primary duty as Auxiliaries Officer. In addition to my duties as Legal Officer for the ship, I also filled my spare time by serving as Middle East Force Postal Officer, Wardroom Mess Treasurer, Voting Officer...well, the usual sort of thing.
The visit I paid on the august commander of the Self Defense Force was to see if maybe he would be willing to let two of our usually very responsible sailors go forth from his country's jail. You know, as I think back on that day, I wonder what skids were greased before I ever left the ship. Can you imagine, seriously, sending an Ensign and the Engineering Department Master Chief to see the head of any other country's Self Defense Force (Police) with a nicely phrased respectful request to let our sailors go?
Thought not. We had nobody from the Embassy. We had no potentates and pontiffs. We had me and we had the man who wears the stars.
The general was exceedingly courteous and greeted us both as we came into his office. He got up from his desk and came around to shake my hand and to more vigorously shake the hand of Master Chief Meisberger. As he shook the Master Chief's hand he said, "at last, I meet the man who wears the stars!"
We sat down at his request and he sent for tea. We quaffed. We talked. We raised the unpleasant subject that brought us to his fine office that day. Was there I wondered, any chance of getting our sailors out of the hoosegow.
"Ah," he said. "Those poor men, they have just been released from hospital."
The thing was, they'd been snotty with a cab driver and they kicked his cab down by the souk. The cabby, naturally, took umbrage. He and the security guards from the Regency Hotel took down our sailors and called the police who, showed up, cuffed our men, tossed them in the back of a jeep and drove off towards the hoosegow.
They cuffed the guys with their hands in front. The younger one of our sailors suggested to the older one that maybe, when the jeep slowed down for a red light, that they jump out and run away. Which, both being drunk beyond reason, they did.
In Bahrain, one slows down to 40 mph for a red light. Only an idiot would stop at one.
They suffered an enormous number of broken arms and one of them broke his jaw when it hit the pavement.
The General gave my small request just an instant of thought before saying, "they have suffered enough. Of course you may take them with you."
That was the ample justice of one of the nicer emirates. Contrast with the justice one finds after falling over the dam in Maryland. I'd have said those two guys suffered enough. On the other hand, I'm notoriously easy on felons and lawbreakers.
That story happened just exactly as I said but can you imagine? The CO didn't go, the XO didn't go. The Department Head didn't go. Nobody from the embassy went. A single O-1 and an E-9 went to get those guys. Sure, the Master Chief had them all outnumbered but I cannot actually imagine this happening anywhere at all in the wide world in this day and age. It was, at the time, just about what I expected out of that miserable crappy co-lateral job. On the other hand, I got to watch Captain Franklin D. Julian work himself up into a towering rage before he held Captain's Mast. That really was fun.
MY KIND OF LAWYER
Had this up at his place. I swiped it. It is not the kind of language one expects from an esquire.
I wonder what happened to the story 3 months ago. It must have been dire because I think almost any competent lawyer could have taken that video and turned it into gold. The thing I object to is that this goes on and on and the only feeble barrier laid out anywhere against such police misconduct is when a lawsuit succeeds against the city and the tax payers who pay for those abusive police. The law breakers are never prosecuted, never go to jail, don't get fired and show up at work and your house the next day.
Thursday, July 10, 2014
FLEET OFF
Where was all this when I made every port call a raid on their bookstores my first priority after dropping off and picking up the ship's mail and then setting up the wardroom admin?
This is/was the fleet. The smallest one of all, on the left, retired tonight. Just now. I never had sound canceling head phones. I crossed the Pacific Ocean 40 times with just that little iPod on the left for accompaniment. The music it gave was more than enough to deaden the noise of the trip. Yeah, it pretty much worked the whole way out, recharged, and all the way back.
One way or the other, we're going to find out what compression does to ancient digital storage. The CDs I no longer have were used to populate that little thing 14 years ago with the music of albums I really liked.
If push comes to shove, I know of a way to get it all back. I'm left hoping that the Raytheon master clear works on Apple too. I'm going to keep hoping that right up until it bursts into flames.
This is/was the fleet. The smallest one of all, on the left, retired tonight. Just now. I never had sound canceling head phones. I crossed the Pacific Ocean 40 times with just that little iPod on the left for accompaniment. The music it gave was more than enough to deaden the noise of the trip. Yeah, it pretty much worked the whole way out, recharged, and all the way back.
One way or the other, we're going to find out what compression does to ancient digital storage. The CDs I no longer have were used to populate that little thing 14 years ago with the music of albums I really liked.
If push comes to shove, I know of a way to get it all back. I'm left hoping that the Raytheon master clear works on Apple too. I'm going to keep hoping that right up until it bursts into flames.
FLEET OF A BILLION WORDS
Buck rightly took me to task for sending to a well deserved oblivion some posts about democrats and climate scarers causing genital warts. It's all true and I have models that show that, but never mind. We were running on empty. He reminded me of the music. Music is one of the best paths to memories, if you like it.
It doesn't matter what you say though, music is a direct path into anybody's memory. If not the music of the times, then the music of life. No, not the music of the era, but the music of what brought the world to life when it mattered more than you imagined. We all have that. It can be the most obtuse music of life and still, in the memory, it brings back that day, that instant, like nothing else. I don't have anything from the time which is no more, but I do have fun memories of sound with my daughter. Red neck yacht club and beer for my horses, whiskey for my men is as good as it gets for bringing the past to life with my little pilot.
I can hear "ode to joy" almost anytime and go back. It's like 'Scotland the Brave'. The memory that abides were playing both Scotland the Brave and Baba O'Reilly to wake people to the day back when we, who were awake, enjoyed that prerogative. It was a short lived time back when life and death merged far closer than most of the guys knew. Sometimes the cat got out of the bag and they suspected, but not because we weren't trying really hard to convince them that we knew what we were doing. All of us went into the field, only 5 or 6 of us actually knew the grisly details... if we did it right.
We really worked hard to make it the most boring thing in life.
It doesn't matter what you say though, music is a direct path into anybody's memory. If not the music of the times, then the music of life. No, not the music of the era, but the music of what brought the world to life when it mattered more than you imagined. We all have that. It can be the most obtuse music of life and still, in the memory, it brings back that day, that instant, like nothing else. I don't have anything from the time which is no more, but I do have fun memories of sound with my daughter. Red neck yacht club and beer for my horses, whiskey for my men is as good as it gets for bringing the past to life with my little pilot.
I can hear "ode to joy" almost anytime and go back. It's like 'Scotland the Brave'. The memory that abides were playing both Scotland the Brave and Baba O'Reilly to wake people to the day back when we, who were awake, enjoyed that prerogative. It was a short lived time back when life and death merged far closer than most of the guys knew. Sometimes the cat got out of the bag and they suspected, but not because we weren't trying really hard to convince them that we knew what we were doing. All of us went into the field, only 5 or 6 of us actually knew the grisly details... if we did it right.
We really worked hard to make it the most boring thing in life.
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
LIMITS
I never knew fear growing up. I still don't. Rooftops and the deep woods held no fear for us. There remain places I won't go without a gun, but fear? No. Ever since forever, I figure, I can take them. Still, I like this song.
MAKES ONE WONDER
This guy is in charge of the war on drugs, or, at least all military forces on our southern border. He makes one wonder.
All the sound and fury and he doesn't stop human bodies and children flooding across our southern border. What chance does he have, or we, of stopping a flood of crap that losers kill for?
We made our choice to create the Al Capones and Bugsy Malones when we outlawed liquor and gambling in a previous example of unbelievable stupidity. Why does anybody think we can stop drugs from crossing the border when we cannot seem to stop anything from making it across at our own checkpoints?
I know, he has a dream.
All the sound and fury and he doesn't stop human bodies and children flooding across our southern border. What chance does he have, or we, of stopping a flood of crap that losers kill for?
We made our choice to create the Al Capones and Bugsy Malones when we outlawed liquor and gambling in a previous example of unbelievable stupidity. Why does anybody think we can stop drugs from crossing the border when we cannot seem to stop anything from making it across at our own checkpoints?
I know, he has a dream.
ENDLESS WAR AS HEADLINES
The news from Nineveh and Babylon isn't so good these days.
The news from the last light of civilization in the Middle East is even less good. I can skip lightly over the news that the enemies of the race have acquired the weapons of mass destruction that everybody now swears blind Saddam didn't have, but the news at the Jerusalem Post is a scroll of rocket attacks, one after another, every day, around the clock from people and territories that have shown nothing but contempt for all the care and aid lavished on them by the West.
I think that even the Israelis are finally beginning to crack under the strain of endless attack. It sounds like they have taken the gloves off officially. It looks like some are fed up with the endless murder.
60 years of war does interesting things to the psyche. We have all of history to look at. I sort of remember a quote from last week about how wars never last more than 30 years. To paraphrase, after 30 years of war we have killed the first and next generation interested in perpetuating war. Something seems to have gone amiss in the valley of the Jordan River. Like the Vale of Kashmir, there is such concentrated hate it perpetuates itself long after reason has fled.
The last major report by U.N. inspectors on the status of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program was released about a year after the experts left in March 2003. It states that Bunker 13 contained 2,500 sarin-filled 122-mm chemical rockets produced and filled before 1991, and about 180 tons of sodium cyanide, "a very toxic chemical and a precursor for the warfare agent tabun."
The U.N. said the bunker was bombed during the first Gulf War in February 1991, which routed Iraq from Kuwait, and the rockets were "partially destroyed or damaged."
It said the sarin munitions were "of poor quality" and "would largely be degraded after years of storage under the conditions existing there." It said the tabun-filled containers were all treated with decontamination solution and likely no longer contain any agent, but "the residue of this decontamination would contain cyanides, which would still be a hazard."
According to the report, Bunker 41 contained 2,000 empty 155-mm artillery shells contaminated with the chemical warfare agent mustard, 605 one-ton mustard containers with residues, and heavily contaminated construction material. It said the shells could contain mustard residues which can't be used for chemical warfare but "remain highly toxic."Those were evidently the WMD that Saddam 'never had.'
The news from the last light of civilization in the Middle East is even less good. I can skip lightly over the news that the enemies of the race have acquired the weapons of mass destruction that everybody now swears blind Saddam didn't have, but the news at the Jerusalem Post is a scroll of rocket attacks, one after another, every day, around the clock from people and territories that have shown nothing but contempt for all the care and aid lavished on them by the West.
I think that even the Israelis are finally beginning to crack under the strain of endless attack. It sounds like they have taken the gloves off officially. It looks like some are fed up with the endless murder.
60 years of war does interesting things to the psyche. We have all of history to look at. I sort of remember a quote from last week about how wars never last more than 30 years. To paraphrase, after 30 years of war we have killed the first and next generation interested in perpetuating war. Something seems to have gone amiss in the valley of the Jordan River. Like the Vale of Kashmir, there is such concentrated hate it perpetuates itself long after reason has fled.
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
A FASCINATING PROSPECT
From Patterico, a possibility that the law we could not see coming, may be hoisted by its own petard.
To review from my original post on the matter: The law’s plain language says subsidies are available only when a health plan is purchased on an exchange “established by the state under section 1311.” 34 states refused to establish an exchange, after which the HHS Secretary invoked her authority to set up federal exchanges under a different section: section 1321. Then the IRS promulgated a rule that said exchanges set up by the Secretary under section 1321 were actually exchanges “established by the state under section 1311.”
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit say: “state” does not mean “federal government.” The exchanges established by the HHS Secretary under section 1321 are not “established by the state under section 1311.” Making the point even clearer: a “state” is defined in the ACA as “each of the 50 States and the District of Columbia,” they note, and not the federal government.
The Obama lawyers say: oh, come on. Don’t look at the plain language of that one provision. You gotta look at the whole law and the intent of Congress.When a cast of thousands write a fiendishly complex bit of evil, one has to accept that room for error is made, and into error space creep the dissenters, and from there, they take it to the courts, and the same people that rejoice as the courts strike down laws enacted by clear pluralities and majorities at referendums are left feeling mightily abused when the same process is used by their enemies.
Monday, July 7, 2014
THAT AINT GRACEFUL
It's pretty cool though. Late at night, when whossname was away, me and my little pilot used to watch the indoor flying on youtube. We never saw one of these though. Captain America, eat your heart out.
PREDICTABLE TO A FAULT
The nation's newest class of fighter plane is grounded worldwide with engine problems. Congress kind of suspected this would happen because it always happens these days with fighter procurements. They appropriated $3 billion dollars for an alternative engine designed by the team of General Electric and Rolls Royce. Then they killed it.
Predictably, the President and Defense Department scoffed at the idea of an alternative engine for the most expensive weapons program in history and finally killed funding for the engine a couple of years ago just as it became clear that the Joint Strike Fighter engine was deeply flawed.
This is not the first time that a fighter has been delivered to the military with deficient engines. History is replete with examples. The one I remembered offhand was the F-14 TOMCAT.
I don't think the Air Force knows how to guard things anymore. They can't even keep track of their nuclear weapons. The U.S. Marines lost sight of the requirement to provide meaningful security for its aircraft based in a war torn country that is mostly under the control of Taliban terrorists.
The U.S. military long ago dropped the facade of guarding military bases from terrorists. One terrorist in a dump truck driving through a dozen or two dozen F-35s or F-22 Raptors parked on an unguarded parking ramp on a base that is only "virtually" protected because the bean-counters replaced the guards with remote operated TV cameras, is going to cost us a fortune.
Do you ever wonder how many terrorists have surged across our southern border in the last few months? How many of our home grown little muslim terrorists are off picking up terror job skills fighting in Syria or Iraq or Somalia? How many get handed a visa by a State Department worker at the embassy and consulates in Saudi Arabia?
Predictably, the President and Defense Department scoffed at the idea of an alternative engine for the most expensive weapons program in history and finally killed funding for the engine a couple of years ago just as it became clear that the Joint Strike Fighter engine was deeply flawed.
Obama administration officials told ABC News the president would veto the 2012 defense authorization bill if it included language that would extend the life of the alternate engine program.
The weak point of the Tomcat was in its engines, which were initially a pair of TF30-P-412 axial flow turbofans, rated at 12,350 lb.s.t. dry and 20,900 lb.s.t with afterburning. This engine was essentially similar to the TF30-P-12 that had been used for the F-111B. With this engine, the F-14A was decidedly underpowered. On several occasions, fan blades broke free from the shaft, damaging the surrounding airframe structure and systems and causing the loss of the aircraft. Very early in the flight test programs there were problems encountered with engine stalls at high angles of attack. These stalls would usually take place when coming either in or out of afterburner or at low power settings when at high angles of attack. These engine problems were exceedingly vexing and resulted in the loss of several aircraft.We should keep in mind that every time one of these fighter planes crashes or burns it costs us $160 million dollars. That is inevitably going to lead to the most cautious and risk averse training regime in history. Typically, when that happens, the training becomes completely unrealistic and divorced from reality. Plans are written based on capabilities encountered and defeated in training scenarios and then they turn into garbage in the harsh light of reality.
I don't think the Air Force knows how to guard things anymore. They can't even keep track of their nuclear weapons. The U.S. Marines lost sight of the requirement to provide meaningful security for its aircraft based in a war torn country that is mostly under the control of Taliban terrorists.
The U.S. military long ago dropped the facade of guarding military bases from terrorists. One terrorist in a dump truck driving through a dozen or two dozen F-35s or F-22 Raptors parked on an unguarded parking ramp on a base that is only "virtually" protected because the bean-counters replaced the guards with remote operated TV cameras, is going to cost us a fortune.
Do you ever wonder how many terrorists have surged across our southern border in the last few months? How many of our home grown little muslim terrorists are off picking up terror job skills fighting in Syria or Iraq or Somalia? How many get handed a visa by a State Department worker at the embassy and consulates in Saudi Arabia?
OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN
Movie review.
There were actors and actresses in the movie, I'm pretty sure. It was about willful painful stupidity on a massive repetitive scale. There were explosions and knives and hand to hand combat. There were helicopters going manno-y-helicoptero against emplaced anti-missile guns and missile defense systems on the white house roof.
It was one lone man against an army of commandos from NorK and winning. I'm not really sure how the Force of Order neutralized the dump truck machine gun positions. I'm guessing poison gas was involved.
It was staggering the number of trained killers who eschewed firing from cover for advancing bravely into the fire from mini-guns fired from aircraft or 50 caliber machine gun fire from trucks. It must be a dominant gene that controls that because otherwise you'd think that sort of behavior was weeded out after Agincourt and Crecy.
I was hoping the bad guys were aliens. I guess I should have stuck to Independence Day.
OTOH, it was as if the bad guys all worked for the New York Times. They share the same values and appreciation for history.
There were actors and actresses in the movie, I'm pretty sure. It was about willful painful stupidity on a massive repetitive scale. There were explosions and knives and hand to hand combat. There were helicopters going manno-y-helicoptero against emplaced anti-missile guns and missile defense systems on the white house roof.
It was one lone man against an army of commandos from NorK and winning. I'm not really sure how the Force of Order neutralized the dump truck machine gun positions. I'm guessing poison gas was involved.
It was staggering the number of trained killers who eschewed firing from cover for advancing bravely into the fire from mini-guns fired from aircraft or 50 caliber machine gun fire from trucks. It must be a dominant gene that controls that because otherwise you'd think that sort of behavior was weeded out after Agincourt and Crecy.
I was hoping the bad guys were aliens. I guess I should have stuck to Independence Day.
OTOH, it was as if the bad guys all worked for the New York Times. They share the same values and appreciation for history.
Saturday, July 5, 2014
NEWS OF THE REALM
I sometimes find Drudge's juxtapositions amusing.
I've long thought the best way to lose weight was communism. If anybody knows demons, it's cops, and the idea of protesters blowing smoke at Obama sounds about right.
I've long thought the best way to lose weight was communism. If anybody knows demons, it's cops, and the idea of protesters blowing smoke at Obama sounds about right.
FRUSTRATED KINGMAKER
A tragedy foreseen years too late by the OSD Tsar that thought he could create the next King of Iraq. He didn't choose wisely but he doesn't blame himself. No. He blames America. It was apparent that Maliki was uncoupling the wheels from the cart back in 2011 when he tried to have the Vice President arrested. He utterly failed to get rid of the only enemy he absolutely needed to have killed while resisting arrest. Typical.
The sunni Vice President got away to Kurdistan and how they must be laughing, those clever Kurds in the north, watching the unleashing of islam II.I on poor mainstream Iraqis. It's kind of astonishing that the Truth Ministry actually wrote an insightful piece on the coming collapse 3 years ago. You know them, they hardly ever let the truth see the light of day.
It occurs to me that the next step is almost bound to be an intervention from Elam as it watches the collapse of the Iraq that American power built on the bones of Sumer and Akkad.
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
The sunni Vice President got away to Kurdistan and how they must be laughing, those clever Kurds in the north, watching the unleashing of islam II.I on poor mainstream Iraqis. It's kind of astonishing that the Truth Ministry actually wrote an insightful piece on the coming collapse 3 years ago. You know them, they hardly ever let the truth see the light of day.
It occurs to me that the next step is almost bound to be an intervention from Elam as it watches the collapse of the Iraq that American power built on the bones of Sumer and Akkad.
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
Friday, July 4, 2014
ON BEING PRESIDENTIAL
One of the most despicable things about the current president is his penchant for playing fast and loose with the Constitution. OK, that is too weak. He blithely ignores the Constitution and the separation of powers and does things as his own autocratic tendencies move him. What I don't get though, is why 'Mr. Executive Action' hasn't yet released his brothers and sons from Guantanamo. That place was created by real executive action and could be swept away tomorrow with a stroke from the famed autopen.
He literally wouldn't have to lift a finger to make it happen as he promised many years ago, right about the time he commenced a detailed study of the idea of importing Canadian oil into this country though some radical new device called a pipeline. If I was into actual conspiracy theories rather than simply creating them and floating them about, I'd speculate that somebody with deep pockets is paying him to keep the cousins and nephews on ice while they consolidate their gains in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Egypt, Yemen and Syria.
As with Bill, who suddenly, somehow, amassed a $100 million dollar fortune on the strength of being president, won't we all be shocked to find out that the Won has found great riches while in office and retires to Hawaii with half a billion dollars in his bank account? I wonder where he is planning to locate his presidential library and what he'll do with the two or three pages of notes he scribbled while in office.
He literally wouldn't have to lift a finger to make it happen as he promised many years ago, right about the time he commenced a detailed study of the idea of importing Canadian oil into this country though some radical new device called a pipeline. If I was into actual conspiracy theories rather than simply creating them and floating them about, I'd speculate that somebody with deep pockets is paying him to keep the cousins and nephews on ice while they consolidate their gains in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Egypt, Yemen and Syria.
As with Bill, who suddenly, somehow, amassed a $100 million dollar fortune on the strength of being president, won't we all be shocked to find out that the Won has found great riches while in office and retires to Hawaii with half a billion dollars in his bank account? I wonder where he is planning to locate his presidential library and what he'll do with the two or three pages of notes he scribbled while in office.
Thursday, July 3, 2014
SCIENCE IN AMERICA TODAY
From al jazeera of all places, an interesting article from an ethics researcher who tells nothing but lies.
It's like the Tuskegee syphilis case never even entered her sphere of thought. Ever.
It does take all kinds. My doctor told me I was dead.
I failed to believe him but there may be some room in there for debate...given time.
The paper, published in the journal Pediatrics, states: 'We advocate for the incorporation of a new clause into the consent forms for pediatric genetic testing that clearly states that any incidental information about parentage will not be revealed, regardless of the result.'Imagine. You go to a doctor and you submit to testing and the doctor feels nothing less than a moral obligation to lie to you. And feels good about it. So good, she publishes her belief that you deserve to be lied to because, doctor.
It's like the Tuskegee syphilis case never even entered her sphere of thought. Ever.
It does take all kinds. My doctor told me I was dead.
I failed to believe him but there may be some room in there for debate...given time.
INDEPENDENCE DAY
Happy Independence Day!
Anybody who believes in liberty should be encouraged to fight for it. Anybody opposed to tyrants and dictators should be encouraged to fight against them. The two are not necessarily the same.
Anybody who believes in liberty should be encouraged to fight for it. Anybody opposed to tyrants and dictators should be encouraged to fight against them. The two are not necessarily the same.
EVOLUTION IN ACTION
This reads like a primer on the effects of deliberate breeding for vicious stupid and corrupt. It's like reading the history of Russia. Since the dawn of time, the Middle East has been weeding and pruning the smart, urban, educated people out of its gene pool. They started reducing civilizations almost 5000 years ago. If the death of the land wasn't done by locals, it was being done by outsiders. The victors and spoilers had the people who knew how to build civilization massacred along with all their children. All that is left today are the people who never understood civilization except that they knew it was extremely bad for people that practiced it. Every society has its Pol Pot ready to spring into action against civilization. Only the Middle East and Africa reliably return them to power.
It is a pretty tough neighborhood but it isn't all blighted. Most of us are more familiar with the dry side of the Persian Gulf but this part of the world wasn't referred to as the fertile crescent for millennia because it was an endless barren wasteland of sand.
In the meantime, I think we'd do well enough to leave them alone for a couple of generations. The nobs keep telling us that we have created a worldwide problem of global warming by burning all the oil under the desert. OK, if the entire area reverts to utter barbarism and we don't get any more oil from there, won't that make the Earth better? It's not like we need oil from the Middle East.
One should always keep in mind that the ones who attacked the United States on 9/11 and unleashed the TSA and Homeland Security upon us all, came from our putative 'friend' in the region, Saudi Arabia.
I say, look on the bright side. The Kingdom won't survive what it unleashed.
It is a pretty tough neighborhood but it isn't all blighted. Most of us are more familiar with the dry side of the Persian Gulf but this part of the world wasn't referred to as the fertile crescent for millennia because it was an endless barren wasteland of sand.
In the meantime, I think we'd do well enough to leave them alone for a couple of generations. The nobs keep telling us that we have created a worldwide problem of global warming by burning all the oil under the desert. OK, if the entire area reverts to utter barbarism and we don't get any more oil from there, won't that make the Earth better? It's not like we need oil from the Middle East.
One should always keep in mind that the ones who attacked the United States on 9/11 and unleashed the TSA and Homeland Security upon us all, came from our putative 'friend' in the region, Saudi Arabia.
I say, look on the bright side. The Kingdom won't survive what it unleashed.
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
A PLEASANT LITTLE TRIP
We were off to the rock-bound coast of Maine and had a great trip, as usual. We stopped along the way and spent a night at my alma mater. I hadn't seen the place since I went to Department Head School in Newport, RI back in 1985. I barely recognized the campus. University Park is brand new and shiny. I like it, but this Penn State is not the same one I attended a mere 33 years ago.
We drove on to spend the next day and night at Newport, RI. I have not been back there since 1985 either. I meant to attend graduation from the War College long ago, because those of us who cannot make it there full time are welcome to attend graduation ceremonies with our class, but I was otherwise detained at the time... I think I was suddenly in Thailand, if memory serves. We visited two of the houses I used to live in there. The first was a little different but still wonderful. The second, unchanged. They were each at opposite ends of Cliff Walk. One was above Bailey's Beach and the other was on Annandale Road above Easton's Beach.
From there we went on to our place in Maine. We like Maine a lot. It's a pity they have no internets there but I'm sure they're working on that and as soon as they figure out the electricity thing I'll bet they cotton on to digital in no time at all. I thought I could get around the apprentice digital trogs by bringing a hotspot with me but I failed to consider the ISPs in Maine. They have a monopoly there. They have a service plan that rivals the fire departments that you find in the Rumford Meteor. When the RM talks about various fire departments in Maine's remarkable ability to "save the basement" almost every time there is a fire in a structure....well that's the attitude of Maine's businesses to the idea of offering ANY kind of wifi. They don't get it. Neither does Sprint or Verizon Maine. They had network issues for weeks.
I keep telling them that there must be some economic advantage to offering internets but the business owners aren't impressed. I must have it wrong. So I went kayaking. We went sailing. We went on cruises. We went out and about and attended concerts and we ate out. Somehow, I survived without the internet. I may write a book about it.
We drove on to spend the next day and night at Newport, RI. I have not been back there since 1985 either. I meant to attend graduation from the War College long ago, because those of us who cannot make it there full time are welcome to attend graduation ceremonies with our class, but I was otherwise detained at the time... I think I was suddenly in Thailand, if memory serves. We visited two of the houses I used to live in there. The first was a little different but still wonderful. The second, unchanged. They were each at opposite ends of Cliff Walk. One was above Bailey's Beach and the other was on Annandale Road above Easton's Beach.
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| 1 Jeffrey Road |
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| View from the deck of our place in Maine |
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| Rivendell in Montpelier, VT |
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
A VIEW THROUGH THE GATE
I suspect it is mostly a NYT-writer-kind-of-fabulism on display, but it is worth reading. The underlying basis for a civil society is a civil society of shared values. I get the sense that the place this man comes from is a society that doesn't share any of the values of mine.
The wasteland described by D Watkins is not confined to Baltimore. What he described is what every major city I have ever lived in has at its core; Oakland, Baltimore, Washington, DC, New York, LA, Chicago, Memphis, Detroit, Cleveland. In every case, someone has piled every single bane of civilization on the people that live there. One foul blight after another has contributed to an endless parade of misery, poverty, illiteracy, dependency, violence, and soul destroying inhumanity.
The time is not that far when some clever soul will discover a way to imperson a machine with all the writings and teachings and facts known about a man, such as Martin Luther King, Jr, and then ask it what it thinks of the current situation on the ground in America. Just by looking at the pictures out of his time and era I can be sure that the machine would be appalled and then turn about and quest in vain for who spent the last 60 years doing this to American citizens living in the greatest cities of the world.
I think that some people did deliberately create the society we see today. Callous people with enormous power created every step of the path that led from the signing of the Civil Rights Act to the complete destruction of the society and people that occupy the core of our major cities today. All of this didn't happen without detailed planning and a whole lot of effort to make things fall apart in just such a way that leaves almost no way out.
In all the years I spent in the military I met a number of people that did make it out of places like Cabrini-Green but altogether they probably amounted to less than 1% of the people living in such places. As the Armed Forces grow more selective, fewer and fewer can even begin to qualify to enter the Armed Forces. I know, we are told to never ascribe to malice what can be explained by stupidity, but looking at what happened to people like the author of the link above, I think it must be malice to make so much of the society that we enjoy, fail for those at the heart of our cities.
As I said at the beginning though, it may be that all this was launched on the basis of another pack of lies brought to us by another Blair. I don't believe it, but it could happen. Stranger things have.
The wasteland described by D Watkins is not confined to Baltimore. What he described is what every major city I have ever lived in has at its core; Oakland, Baltimore, Washington, DC, New York, LA, Chicago, Memphis, Detroit, Cleveland. In every case, someone has piled every single bane of civilization on the people that live there. One foul blight after another has contributed to an endless parade of misery, poverty, illiteracy, dependency, violence, and soul destroying inhumanity.
The time is not that far when some clever soul will discover a way to imperson a machine with all the writings and teachings and facts known about a man, such as Martin Luther King, Jr, and then ask it what it thinks of the current situation on the ground in America. Just by looking at the pictures out of his time and era I can be sure that the machine would be appalled and then turn about and quest in vain for who spent the last 60 years doing this to American citizens living in the greatest cities of the world.
I think that some people did deliberately create the society we see today. Callous people with enormous power created every step of the path that led from the signing of the Civil Rights Act to the complete destruction of the society and people that occupy the core of our major cities today. All of this didn't happen without detailed planning and a whole lot of effort to make things fall apart in just such a way that leaves almost no way out.
In all the years I spent in the military I met a number of people that did make it out of places like Cabrini-Green but altogether they probably amounted to less than 1% of the people living in such places. As the Armed Forces grow more selective, fewer and fewer can even begin to qualify to enter the Armed Forces. I know, we are told to never ascribe to malice what can be explained by stupidity, but looking at what happened to people like the author of the link above, I think it must be malice to make so much of the society that we enjoy, fail for those at the heart of our cities.
As I said at the beginning though, it may be that all this was launched on the basis of another pack of lies brought to us by another Blair. I don't believe it, but it could happen. Stranger things have.
MAKING A SKEPTIC THE OLD FASHIONED WAY
The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration is making skeptics at an alarming rate. They do it by lying to the people over and over and over and then lying about it. That is also exactly what every single member of the global climate scam has done since Al Gore launched the great South Sea Scam.
Oddly enough, there is nothing wrong with being a skeptic. It is exactly people like us that force scientists and scam artists to fabricate arguments from data that win us over to their point of view. The Climate Scammists have so far been most unwilling to provide either the data they used to derive their models or the corrections they have applied to the data to justify their models. They haven't shown us the data or the adjustments. They have flat refused to discuss the matter with us. That's not science.
Wattsupwiththat examines the latest bit of chicanery from the fabulists that labor at NOAA. It's worth a look. I like the Zombie weather stations.
The facts are hard to find. There are other reporters who cover the climate scam who I trust to share the data, who derive different conclusions from it but who I can respect for at least being able and willing to discuss 'adjustments' and 'refinements' that are so necessary if we are to be shown comparisons of apples with apples and oranges with oranges. The ones I value make a good faith attempt to get to the bottom line on the science of climate. They are willing to discuss the data.
I accept that the climate changes. The only people who avow that climate doesn't change over the centuries are the climate scammers who keep attributing that bit of idiotic nonsense to the skeptics who they refer to as, deniers. Nothing I have ever seen though has given me any reason to believe that mankind is changing the climate on a global scale. Every time you hear one of the scammers or a politician tell you that you need to spend trillions of dollars on climate nonsense, you need to ask them, how that will reverse the damage they allege has already happened and return the planet to its pristine state. Your mileage may vary.
Oddly enough, there is nothing wrong with being a skeptic. It is exactly people like us that force scientists and scam artists to fabricate arguments from data that win us over to their point of view. The Climate Scammists have so far been most unwilling to provide either the data they used to derive their models or the corrections they have applied to the data to justify their models. They haven't shown us the data or the adjustments. They have flat refused to discuss the matter with us. That's not science.
Wattsupwiththat examines the latest bit of chicanery from the fabulists that labor at NOAA. It's worth a look. I like the Zombie weather stations.
The facts are hard to find. There are other reporters who cover the climate scam who I trust to share the data, who derive different conclusions from it but who I can respect for at least being able and willing to discuss 'adjustments' and 'refinements' that are so necessary if we are to be shown comparisons of apples with apples and oranges with oranges. The ones I value make a good faith attempt to get to the bottom line on the science of climate. They are willing to discuss the data.
I accept that the climate changes. The only people who avow that climate doesn't change over the centuries are the climate scammers who keep attributing that bit of idiotic nonsense to the skeptics who they refer to as, deniers. Nothing I have ever seen though has given me any reason to believe that mankind is changing the climate on a global scale. Every time you hear one of the scammers or a politician tell you that you need to spend trillions of dollars on climate nonsense, you need to ask them, how that will reverse the damage they allege has already happened and return the planet to its pristine state. Your mileage may vary.
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