Back in 2000 John McCain was campaigning for the Republican nomination up here. It was late winter. The crowd gathered at the Littleton VFW was wearing parkas and snow boots, looking shaggy and upcountry, and leaving muddy footprints on the floor. The McCain bus was more or less on time, maybe only ten minutes late. As Senator McCain entered the room, everyone stood up in his honor.
I've seen a fair number of presidential candidates blow thru here, looking for votes. McCain is the only one of 'em where the voters respected him enough to stand for him.
God Speed John McCain. I wish you the best possible luck in the face of your dreadful diagnosis.
Friday, July 21, 2017
Thursday, July 20, 2017
Slow News Day. OJ parole hearing all day.
That's all Fix has been showing, the OJ parole hearing, then hours of chit chat about it, replay of OJ's white SUV humming thru LA back in the 1990's. Me, I don't care, OJ was a news item from the 1990s. It's now the 2010's, and I just don't care about OJ any more.
Old Glory still waves
Color photo inside today's Wall St Journal. Shows a small convoy of US fighting vehicles on the move in northern Syria. Five MRAPS and Strykers on wheels, and a white pickup truck bringing up the rear. All six vehicles mount flagstaffs with good sized American flags flying from them. Clearly the vehicle crews think letting every one know that they are Americans will assist in a friendly reception by the locals. If the crews thought the flags would draw fire, they would not fly them.
America, and what we stand for, still has friends in Syria.
America, and what we stand for, still has friends in Syria.
Wednesday, July 19, 2017
Stupid Party commits Hari-kari, in public
We voted for Republicans last year to get rid of Obamacare. Now, nearly a year later, the Stupid Party has been unable to get its act together and vote for anything. We are stuck with Obamacare, double and triple premiums, $6000 deductibles, 30 hour work weeks, less that 2% GNP growth. Guess where your Congressional majorities will go in 2018.
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
Do Airbus and Boeing have competition in the airliner business?
Wall St Journal thinks so. They cite China's Comac C919, Canada's Bombardier CS300, and Russia's Irkut MC-21-300, all coming on line shortly. Very shortly, the Comac C919 and the Irkut
MC-21-300 just made their first flights in May this year. They both have at least one year, probably more, of flight testing and certification paperwork to do before they can sell them. Bombardier is farther along, their first flight was back in February of 2015, the flight testing and paperwork is done, and they are delivering them.
We are talking standard single aisle airliners, seating 160 to 200 passengers, selling for $100 million each, the bread and butter airliner. The bigger flashier planes 787, A380 and such don't sell nearly as many.
So what happens? Right now the Boeing and Airbus planes are a little more fuel efficient, have excellent reputations, and cost a tad more than the new comers. Reputation counts. Aeroflot was pleased to announce a few years ago, that all their international flights now used western built aircraft. They retired most, perhaps all, of their fleet of Russian built Ilyushins, mostly because they scared the passengers.
MC-21-300 just made their first flights in May this year. They both have at least one year, probably more, of flight testing and certification paperwork to do before they can sell them. Bombardier is farther along, their first flight was back in February of 2015, the flight testing and paperwork is done, and they are delivering them.
We are talking standard single aisle airliners, seating 160 to 200 passengers, selling for $100 million each, the bread and butter airliner. The bigger flashier planes 787, A380 and such don't sell nearly as many.
So what happens? Right now the Boeing and Airbus planes are a little more fuel efficient, have excellent reputations, and cost a tad more than the new comers. Reputation counts. Aeroflot was pleased to announce a few years ago, that all their international flights now used western built aircraft. They retired most, perhaps all, of their fleet of Russian built Ilyushins, mostly because they scared the passengers.
Sunday, July 16, 2017
NBC Beat the Press
Except for a 10 minute break to the Senate healthcare bill, Chuck Todd devoted his entire one hour TV show to talking about Russians and Trump. Not that he presented any new information, he just whined about the whole scene. In the 10 minutes about the Senate health care bill, all he talked about was its chances of passing, not a word about what is in it. So much for my weekly peek at the msm, now back to real news on Fox.
Saturday, July 15, 2017
Christmas in July
Hammacher Schlemmer catalog came in yesterday. This year they offer artificial Christmas trees, with built in lights. $379 for a small (4 1/2 foot) and up to $2000 for a big one. Merry Christmas.
A Jaguar SUV??
Jaguar?? SUV's? The XK120s XK150s and XKEs are rolling over in their graves. But I saw a TV ad selling a Jaguar SUV. Who wants a Jaguar SUV? Should I want an SUV I want a real SUV with a nameplate like GMC, Ford, Chevy, not Jaguar (or Cadillac or Lincoln). Jaguar means sports cars and luxury hotrod sedans. I owned a Jaguar 3.2 liter sedan once. Nice car, black, chrome wire wheels, leather seats, walnut dash, OHV straight 6 with an oil leak that would not quit. 4 speed with overdrive. Troubles it had, power brake booster quit, a wheel came off, the hood latch failed on the road letting the hood blow clean off, heater and defroster worthless in a Minnesota winter, wire wheels were not strong enough, corner the car hard and you could hear those little ping noises as spokes broke under strain.
So Jaguar stands for elegance, sportness, and flakiness. None of which I want in an SUV. SUV's want to be rugged and reliable.
Good luck Jaguar, or Tata who bought Jaguar off the Brits, selling SUVs under the Jag name.
So Jaguar stands for elegance, sportness, and flakiness. None of which I want in an SUV. SUV's want to be rugged and reliable.
Good luck Jaguar, or Tata who bought Jaguar off the Brits, selling SUVs under the Jag name.
Friday, July 14, 2017
A Federal Department of Cyber Security?
Op Ed in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal calls for creation of one. The writers want to consolidate some 11 existing cyber security agencies into one new cabinet level department. Like we did creating the Homeland Security Dept some 15 years ago. Sounds cool. I wonder what such a new bureaucracy would do, other than draw their pay. The writers by the way, both work for Sullivan and Cromwell, a law firm doing cyber security work. They probably figure that a big cyber security department could write bigger contracts that 11 smaller ones.
There are probably 300 million computers in the country, pretty much all of 'em running Windows, the world's most vulnerable operating system. Some fraction of these (1/10th? 1/4?, maybe even 1/2?) have critical data, voter registration, credit card data, phone bills, driver registrations, title deeds, stock ownership, bank accounts, and more. Destruction or even just tampering with any of this stuff would cause all sorts of havoc. Not to forget national security stuff , codes, ciphers, location and numbers of nuclear weapons, plans for warplanes, operational orders, size and strength of the armed forces, war plans, effectiveness of weapons, and more. And finally there is control of things like the electric power grid, nuclear power plants, the phone network, the Internet, even city traffic lights. Putting out the lights, even just fouling up the NYC traffic lights would be very very expensive.
Keeping all this stuff secure is low level work, the system administrator of each of how many million computers, has to insist on strong user passwords, disabling passwords of employees leaving the outfit, weekly backup, keeping each machine up-to-date on Microsoft patches, keeping critical machines in locked rooms, insisting on periodic password changes, searching for and eradicating malware, insisting that only one firewall machine be on the public internet all the rest go thru the firewall machine to get to the net. It's the unsung efforts of a vast number of low level workers that keeps us as secure as we are. I don't see how a high level cyber security department would help out here.
Users, commercial, military, and state, ought to come together and pressure Microsoft to close the many gaping holes in Windows security. Microsoft ought to disable autorun (we spread Stuxnet on the Iranians via autorun). Microsoft ought to remove the Basic language interpreters inside Word, Excel, and probably other stuff. The Basic capability is never used by real users, and allows damaging malware to be hidden inside harmless looking documents, sent as e-mail attachments to infect victim computers. And there are dozens of other Windows loopholes that anyone versed in Windows internals can tell you about. Concerted pressure from all users might shape the Microsofties up.
As for the controlling of things, electric power generators, transfomers, trains, rolling mills, air traffic, etc. One simple rule will do a lot of good. Never pass control or monitoring signals over the public internet or the public telephone network. Run your own dedicated line, preferable fiber optic, preferably on your own poles. Make it so hackers would have to climb a pole and tap a line to gain control. Fiber optic is much harder to tap than traditional copper pairs.
We have a huge army of under employed lawyers in this country. Tell the affected companies that we will sic those lawyers on them should they equipment fail because some hacker gained control over the internet. Keep it off the internet and we will be much safer.
There are probably 300 million computers in the country, pretty much all of 'em running Windows, the world's most vulnerable operating system. Some fraction of these (1/10th? 1/4?, maybe even 1/2?) have critical data, voter registration, credit card data, phone bills, driver registrations, title deeds, stock ownership, bank accounts, and more. Destruction or even just tampering with any of this stuff would cause all sorts of havoc. Not to forget national security stuff , codes, ciphers, location and numbers of nuclear weapons, plans for warplanes, operational orders, size and strength of the armed forces, war plans, effectiveness of weapons, and more. And finally there is control of things like the electric power grid, nuclear power plants, the phone network, the Internet, even city traffic lights. Putting out the lights, even just fouling up the NYC traffic lights would be very very expensive.
Keeping all this stuff secure is low level work, the system administrator of each of how many million computers, has to insist on strong user passwords, disabling passwords of employees leaving the outfit, weekly backup, keeping each machine up-to-date on Microsoft patches, keeping critical machines in locked rooms, insisting on periodic password changes, searching for and eradicating malware, insisting that only one firewall machine be on the public internet all the rest go thru the firewall machine to get to the net. It's the unsung efforts of a vast number of low level workers that keeps us as secure as we are. I don't see how a high level cyber security department would help out here.
Users, commercial, military, and state, ought to come together and pressure Microsoft to close the many gaping holes in Windows security. Microsoft ought to disable autorun (we spread Stuxnet on the Iranians via autorun). Microsoft ought to remove the Basic language interpreters inside Word, Excel, and probably other stuff. The Basic capability is never used by real users, and allows damaging malware to be hidden inside harmless looking documents, sent as e-mail attachments to infect victim computers. And there are dozens of other Windows loopholes that anyone versed in Windows internals can tell you about. Concerted pressure from all users might shape the Microsofties up.
As for the controlling of things, electric power generators, transfomers, trains, rolling mills, air traffic, etc. One simple rule will do a lot of good. Never pass control or monitoring signals over the public internet or the public telephone network. Run your own dedicated line, preferable fiber optic, preferably on your own poles. Make it so hackers would have to climb a pole and tap a line to gain control. Fiber optic is much harder to tap than traditional copper pairs.
We have a huge army of under employed lawyers in this country. Tell the affected companies that we will sic those lawyers on them should they equipment fail because some hacker gained control over the internet. Keep it off the internet and we will be much safer.
Thursday, July 13, 2017
$9000 per kid, per year, State Aid to education.
That's what NHPR said this morning. That's just state aid, the town puts in more. That's a lot of dough. Say 20 kids to a classroom. Call it $180,000 total. You can hire a decent teacher for $45,000, and buy her/his healthcare for $14,000. What's the excess $121,000 going for? Building maintenance? More non teaching administrators? Pay offs?
NHPR did mention that NH spends more on education than most states. And I have noticed that most towns have really nice, quite new, school buildings. Far nicer than the tony private prep school I attended.
NHPR did mention that NH spends more on education than most states. And I have noticed that most towns have really nice, quite new, school buildings. Far nicer than the tony private prep school I attended.
Wednesday, July 12, 2017
ObamaCare, RyanCare, McConnellCare
First we have Obamacare, which is the law of the land, and will remain so unless Republicans get their act together. Obamacare has doubled and tripled people's health insurance premiums, saddled them with $6000 co pays or deductibles, cut workers hours from 40 down to 30 a week, and determined that small businesses stay small to avoid the killer costs that come when the 50th employee is employed. Obamacare offers government handouts to some people sometimes. How much and who is eligible is up to federal bureaucrats, who have 10,000 pages of Obamacare law in which to find words to justify what they want to do. Which means the bureaucrats can do what ever they want to do. And Obamacare tries to tax the healthcare industry to pay for healthcare; which doesn't work. And the health insurance companies, after loosing barrels of money on Obamacare policies, are refusing to write new ones.
Then we have a House bill to change some things. It passed the House, just barely. Just what it does is unknown to me, although it is hard to imagine it being worse than Obamacare.
And the Senate is working on its own version of reform. We don't know much about it, and Senate Leader McConnell has not been able to get the Republicans on board with it. At a guess the Senate bill will be similar to the House bill, but since we don't know much about the House bill, that doesn't tell us voters much.
We voters elected Trump and the Republicans to fix Obamacare. We don't understand just how that might happen, but we know we want the ridiculous co-pays to go away, and the premiums come back down to where they were before Obamacare. And we want to have at least two health insurance companies competing for our business. And we want to be able to buy "hospitalization only" insurance because it used to only cost $3000 a year whereas Obamacare's cover- everything policies cost four times as much. A lot of people who are in good health, and have a little money in the checking account, like the idea of insurance only for the big expensive stuff, and pay the ordinary stuff out of pocket.
If the Republicans cannot get their act together, we voters will throw the bums out in 2018 and elect Democrats. If the Republicans (the stupid party) does not understand that, good riddance.
Then we have a House bill to change some things. It passed the House, just barely. Just what it does is unknown to me, although it is hard to imagine it being worse than Obamacare.
And the Senate is working on its own version of reform. We don't know much about it, and Senate Leader McConnell has not been able to get the Republicans on board with it. At a guess the Senate bill will be similar to the House bill, but since we don't know much about the House bill, that doesn't tell us voters much.
We voters elected Trump and the Republicans to fix Obamacare. We don't understand just how that might happen, but we know we want the ridiculous co-pays to go away, and the premiums come back down to where they were before Obamacare. And we want to have at least two health insurance companies competing for our business. And we want to be able to buy "hospitalization only" insurance because it used to only cost $3000 a year whereas Obamacare's cover- everything policies cost four times as much. A lot of people who are in good health, and have a little money in the checking account, like the idea of insurance only for the big expensive stuff, and pay the ordinary stuff out of pocket.
If the Republicans cannot get their act together, we voters will throw the bums out in 2018 and elect Democrats. If the Republicans (the stupid party) does not understand that, good riddance.
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
Swaps Rules to Get Revamp
Headline of a piece in today's Wall St Journal. The global swaps market is $486 TRILLION. Yikes. I consider "swaps" to be a form of Wall St gambling. Wall St is supposed to raise money to grow the economy, build factories, finance new construction, buy inventory, stuff that employs people and creates salable product. Even the Journal was unable to describe how a "swap" works.
Much of the piece was about the Consumer Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) whining about the sales data being furnished to them by privately owned swaps data repositories. As you might have guessed, each repository furnishes data in a different format. CFTC hasn't bothered to write data swabber programs to put all the data into a common format for CFTC's programs. Tough cookies CTFC. Get your act together and fix the problem, don't waste everyone's time whining about it.
Apparently after Great Depression 2.0 Congress set up the reporting requirements "to help unwind failing market participants that posed a risk to the entire system" By which they mean the taxpayer will bail out the swaps sellers next time the market goes south. Why in God's name do we want to give a US government guarantee to Wall St gambling debts? Let 'em go broke.
Our government at work.
Much of the piece was about the Consumer Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) whining about the sales data being furnished to them by privately owned swaps data repositories. As you might have guessed, each repository furnishes data in a different format. CFTC hasn't bothered to write data swabber programs to put all the data into a common format for CFTC's programs. Tough cookies CTFC. Get your act together and fix the problem, don't waste everyone's time whining about it.
Apparently after Great Depression 2.0 Congress set up the reporting requirements "to help unwind failing market participants that posed a risk to the entire system" By which they mean the taxpayer will bail out the swaps sellers next time the market goes south. Why in God's name do we want to give a US government guarantee to Wall St gambling debts? Let 'em go broke.
Our government at work.
Monday, July 10, 2017
The Economist writing about "The German Problem"
Sub title: "Why Germany's current account surplus is bad for the world economy". The Economist goes on to write "At bottom, a trade surplus is an excess of national saving over domestic investment". That's a crock. Trade surpluses happen when you manage to sell abroad more stuff than you buy from abroad. Having an array of good products at the right prices, helps with the sales end. Having a good domestic supply of quality product helps keep imports down. Germany has a lot of world class products, look at Mercedes, Porsche, VW, Lowenbrau, Airbus, and many others. Who wants to buy an import when the domestic product is as good as you can get any where?
If the world wants to cut down on Germany's trade surplus, the world will have to offer products as good as or better than German products, at a competitive price.
Writing like this makes me wonder where the Economist's writers went to school. If their economic writers are so deluded (in a magazine named the Economist!) do their other writers know anything at all?
If the world wants to cut down on Germany's trade surplus, the world will have to offer products as good as or better than German products, at a competitive price.
Writing like this makes me wonder where the Economist's writers went to school. If their economic writers are so deluded (in a magazine named the Economist!) do their other writers know anything at all?
You talk to everybody when you are running for President
Everybody. They might vote for you, they might contribute money (in return for favors after the election), they might have intelligence (dirt) you can use, they might put in a good word for you, they might be planning a stab in the back. You never know, so you talk to everybody you have time for. You want to increase your candidate's name recognition, talking about him with everybody will increase it.
Given all that, I fail to see any interest in today's msm flap about Trump campaign workers, (Donald Trump Jr and Jared Kushner) talking with a low name recognition Russian lawyer. So what? Everybody in the world wants something from the US, everybody in the world starts by talking to the presidential campaign people. So what else is new?
Given all that, I fail to see any interest in today's msm flap about Trump campaign workers, (Donald Trump Jr and Jared Kushner) talking with a low name recognition Russian lawyer. So what? Everybody in the world wants something from the US, everybody in the world starts by talking to the presidential campaign people. So what else is new?
Sunday, July 9, 2017
NBC's Beat the Press, my weekly dose of MSM
Chuck Todd was pushing the "Russian" story. He thinks the Russians somehow influenced our election. He advanced NO evidence. Spent a lot of time on this narrative. Then he trashed Trump over Trump's disparagement of US intel services. US intel has made some major goofs, failing to predict the fall of the USSR, predicting that Saddam had nukes, leaking the fact that we were tapping Bin Ladin's satellite phone to the NYT, allowing Bradley Manning and Edward Snowdon free run of their classified, and others. I have little faith in CIA or NSA anymore, and I don't see anything wrong with the President expressing doubts about US intel stories. Chuck Todd has a problem with it, probably because a whole bunch of US intel people are Democrats who attempt to destabilize Republican administrations.
Then he read off a poll praising the MSM. If you pay for the poll, the poll will say anything you like.
Then someone made this amazing statement "The base won't permit any bipartisanship". I doubt that. The base (either base) has some things they want, and other things they don't want. Congresscritters who vote for (or fail to vote at all) things the base wants, and against things the base doesn't want, will be voted out of office. Just ask a bunch of Democrats who voted for Obamacare and are now out of office.
And finally there was a lot of talk condemning Trump for failing to take Putin to task over Russian election meddling. Just how do they know this, when the meeting was just Trump, Putin, Secretary of State, Russian Foreign Minister and two interpreters is beyond me. Did NBC bug the conference room? Both Trump and Putin issued statements after the meeting. I know Trump's statement would never fail to make Trump look good, and Putin's statement is likely a lie from end to end.
Anyhow back to real news on Fox News for me.
Then he read off a poll praising the MSM. If you pay for the poll, the poll will say anything you like.
Then someone made this amazing statement "The base won't permit any bipartisanship". I doubt that. The base (either base) has some things they want, and other things they don't want. Congresscritters who vote for (or fail to vote at all) things the base wants, and against things the base doesn't want, will be voted out of office. Just ask a bunch of Democrats who voted for Obamacare and are now out of office.
And finally there was a lot of talk condemning Trump for failing to take Putin to task over Russian election meddling. Just how do they know this, when the meeting was just Trump, Putin, Secretary of State, Russian Foreign Minister and two interpreters is beyond me. Did NBC bug the conference room? Both Trump and Putin issued statements after the meeting. I know Trump's statement would never fail to make Trump look good, and Putin's statement is likely a lie from end to end.
Anyhow back to real news on Fox News for me.
Saturday, July 8, 2017
647 Hp Mustang. Only $450,000
Looks sleek and hot. Top speed of 216 mph. That's smoking hot. But the engine is a 3.5 liter V6???. My Buick has a 3.5 liter V6. Turbocharged and all, what ever happened to the 427 V8 that won Le Mans 50 years ago. Ford plans to build 250 a year. For people that plan to race them, it's probably a deal. For us ordinary folk, $450,000 is a helova lot of money for a car.
Friday, July 7, 2017
Fed Governor Urges Housing Finance Fix
Headline of a Wall St Journal piece. Fed Reserve governor Jerome Powell wants more private investors to buy into Fanny and Freddy, so that next time Fanny and Freddy go bust, private investors will lose money rather than taxpayers. Everyone always thought that Uncle Sam stood behind Fanny and Freddy even though the fine print in the enabling laws did not so state. This wide spread belief allowed Fanny and Freddy to borrow money on the credit of the United States, which meant they could raise money for 3-4%, really cheap. But when Fanny and Freddy went bust in 2008, Uncle decided us taxpayers were on the hook for $140 billion to avoid besmirching the reputation of the US treasury.
Fanny and Freddy didn't cause much trouble until the 1980's when they started buying mortgages off banks. The real estate industry loved this, it made more mortgage money available. Sell a mortgage to Fanny or Freddy, and presto, the bank has the cash to make yet another mortgage. Fanny and Freddy recovered the money by selling bonds on Wall St. They said "Look, these bonds are 'backed' by real estate." Suckers fell for this, and for a while the bonds sold like hotcakes.
The banks, now that they could unload their mortgages started writing really bad mortgages, "sub prime" and "alt-A" to borrowers who would never be able to pay off the mortgage. No matter, long as we dump this worthless mortgage on Fanny and Freddy we are OK. This continued until the sucker investors wised up to the fact that "backed by real estate" meant nothing. They didn't have the right to foreclose and repossess the real estate. So the bonds stopped selling, and Fanny and Freddy went Chapter 11. For $140 billion. This touched off Great Depression 2.0.
In actual fact, we ought to shut Fanny and Freddy down, for good. We don't need them to "make more mortgage money available". Mortgages are profitable and safe. We used to say "Safe as houses". If the borrower fails to pay, the lender gets the house. Home mortgage borrowers are strongly motivated to keep up the payments, who wants to explain to a spouse that they are getting evicted? Far more secure than the stock market.
Shut down Fanny and Freddy. The real estate industry (brokers, builders, appliance makers, lumber industry) will cry a lot, but life will go on.
Fanny and Freddy didn't cause much trouble until the 1980's when they started buying mortgages off banks. The real estate industry loved this, it made more mortgage money available. Sell a mortgage to Fanny or Freddy, and presto, the bank has the cash to make yet another mortgage. Fanny and Freddy recovered the money by selling bonds on Wall St. They said "Look, these bonds are 'backed' by real estate." Suckers fell for this, and for a while the bonds sold like hotcakes.
The banks, now that they could unload their mortgages started writing really bad mortgages, "sub prime" and "alt-A" to borrowers who would never be able to pay off the mortgage. No matter, long as we dump this worthless mortgage on Fanny and Freddy we are OK. This continued until the sucker investors wised up to the fact that "backed by real estate" meant nothing. They didn't have the right to foreclose and repossess the real estate. So the bonds stopped selling, and Fanny and Freddy went Chapter 11. For $140 billion. This touched off Great Depression 2.0.
In actual fact, we ought to shut Fanny and Freddy down, for good. We don't need them to "make more mortgage money available". Mortgages are profitable and safe. We used to say "Safe as houses". If the borrower fails to pay, the lender gets the house. Home mortgage borrowers are strongly motivated to keep up the payments, who wants to explain to a spouse that they are getting evicted? Far more secure than the stock market.
Shut down Fanny and Freddy. The real estate industry (brokers, builders, appliance makers, lumber industry) will cry a lot, but life will go on.
Prescription Rate for Opioids Falls
Headline of a Wall St Journal piece today. But looking at the charts that accompany the piece, not very much. Average prescribed dose did fall from maybe 60, down to maybe 48 "morphine milligram equivalents" what ever that may be. Prescriptions per 100 patients peaked around 80 and is now down to 70. Damn, 70 out of 100 patients get opioid prescriptions? That's a lot. In my whole life, just once a dentist prescribed percoset after a painful extraction. That was 30 years ago, one prescription, which didn't put a buzz on me as good as a shot of bourbon did. For that matter, aside from childhood earaches I don't remember having to deal with pain, not even the sort of pain that aspirin will deal with. Somehow I find it hard to believe that 70 out of 100 patients are experiencing pain worthy of an opioid prescription.
The Journal piece did not discuss guidelines for prescribing opioids. Surely there are some? Other than recommendations for drug company salesmen?
The Journal piece did not discuss guidelines for prescribing opioids. Surely there are some? Other than recommendations for drug company salesmen?
Thursday, July 6, 2017
Eye catching photos
Front page color spread in the Wall St Journal. Against a background of Mosul blow all to pieces, burned out cars and piles of rubble, we have a young girl, looked to be 7 years old or so. Light brown hair, blue eyes, pink dress. She could have come off any suburban street in the USA. Makes you wonder how she wound up in war torn Mosul.
Same issue, page three, we have a photo of the US destroyer that collided with that container ship off Japan. It's a formal photo from stock, tied up to the dock, crew is manning the rails. Large ship, big enough to be a cruiser in WWII. Clearly a new ship, all her topside structures have walls slanted in, (tumblehome) to reflect enemy radar beams up into the sky rather than straight back to the enemy receivers. Just one popgun on the foredeck, looked to be 75 mm. Which is a dinky cannon for ship that size. Even army tanks carry 120mm guns these days. I hope she has lots of missiles, and that the missiles work when needed.
Same issue, page three, we have a photo of the US destroyer that collided with that container ship off Japan. It's a formal photo from stock, tied up to the dock, crew is manning the rails. Large ship, big enough to be a cruiser in WWII. Clearly a new ship, all her topside structures have walls slanted in, (tumblehome) to reflect enemy radar beams up into the sky rather than straight back to the enemy receivers. Just one popgun on the foredeck, looked to be 75 mm. Which is a dinky cannon for ship that size. Even army tanks carry 120mm guns these days. I hope she has lots of missiles, and that the missiles work when needed.
Wednesday, July 5, 2017
NORKs are gaining on missiles to nuke LA
They tested a missile yesterday that has the range to reach Anchorage Alaska. Won't take 'em long to stretch the range enough to hit LA. They have nukes. If we let them proceed, get the nuke mounted on the missile and the range stretched just a bit, they will be a helova a lot harder to deal with. You cannot threaten to do regime change on a regime with nukes. They will nuke you. We ought to deal with the NORKs before they get their nuclear tipped ICBM into action. Like right now.
We have tried diplomacy, lets make a deal, for twenty years. The NORKs never lived up to any of the deals they signed. They aren't going change.
We could start up the Korean War again. This is so awful that nobody wants to go there. The NORKs have more guns and stuff than they did back in the 1950's. South Korea's capital is within artillery range of North Korea. Needless to say, the South Korean are not in favor of having Seoul shelled into ruins.
We could do a surprise air strike to take out their nuclear and missile facilities. Most people think the NORKs are so dispersed and so dug in that we couldn't destroy enough facilities to do any good.
We could attempt to destabilize the NORK regime. Looks chancy, the Kims (Grandfather, Father, and Son) have been arresting and executing their political opponents for 60 years. I don't think there are enough left alive to do us any good.
We could pressure the Chinese to cut off the NORKs supplies of food and fuel. The Chinese like having the NORKs around. It gives them a buffer between the pushy South Koreans, who are hand in glove with the Americans. And they enjoy having the NORKs sticking it to the Americans while their own hands remain clean. Trump has tried, and all he has gotten is lip service.
We could tell the NORKs that the next missile we see standing on a launch pad gets attacked, right then and there.
We could off Kim Jong whats-his-face. That would destabilize the heck out of the NORK regime.
Anyone have any other ideas?
We have tried diplomacy, lets make a deal, for twenty years. The NORKs never lived up to any of the deals they signed. They aren't going change.
We could start up the Korean War again. This is so awful that nobody wants to go there. The NORKs have more guns and stuff than they did back in the 1950's. South Korea's capital is within artillery range of North Korea. Needless to say, the South Korean are not in favor of having Seoul shelled into ruins.
We could do a surprise air strike to take out their nuclear and missile facilities. Most people think the NORKs are so dispersed and so dug in that we couldn't destroy enough facilities to do any good.
We could attempt to destabilize the NORK regime. Looks chancy, the Kims (Grandfather, Father, and Son) have been arresting and executing their political opponents for 60 years. I don't think there are enough left alive to do us any good.
We could pressure the Chinese to cut off the NORKs supplies of food and fuel. The Chinese like having the NORKs around. It gives them a buffer between the pushy South Koreans, who are hand in glove with the Americans. And they enjoy having the NORKs sticking it to the Americans while their own hands remain clean. Trump has tried, and all he has gotten is lip service.
We could tell the NORKs that the next missile we see standing on a launch pad gets attacked, right then and there.
We could off Kim Jong whats-his-face. That would destabilize the heck out of the NORK regime.
Anyone have any other ideas?
Monday, July 3, 2017
NPR said drug rehab doesn't work, just this morning
On the FM this morning, they had a piece about drug rehab. It was not encouraging. They said the success rate was down around 5%, i.e. 95% of the druggies who go thru rehab go back to using drugs shortly after they leave rehab. They did say that more psychotherapy was needed in drug rehab programs. They did not bother to describe the treatment plan in existing drug rehab programs.
Sunday, July 2, 2017
The Grunge Look rides again
Wall St Journal, Saturday's "Style and Fashion" page. They are selling guys clothes this time. Whole page of color photos of four to five guy groups of models, wearing the in things. Despite the clothes being new and clean, the models manage to look scruffy. The clothes are a jarring patchwork of colors that don't go together, and never were very good. Gray, brown, lemon yellow, pink, black. Real guy colors those. These guys never learned how to tie a tie, brush their hair or put on a happy face. They all wear surly expressions. And a spread of man bags. Call the whole page a no sale for me.
Next page features blue jeans. According to the Journal, lycra is out, the in jean is straight cotton denim. They have a picture of a blonde model, standing in a parking lot, wearing denim jeans, a baggy white top, a silk scarf, and high black boots. The show a spread of jean, all blue, all stone washed, starting at $850 from Dior, and working down to $80 from the Gap. Last pair of jeans I bought was $35 from Sears.
The Journal needs to work on their fashion writers. Show me some stuff I might like to wear, rather than stuff that makes me laugh.
Next page features blue jeans. According to the Journal, lycra is out, the in jean is straight cotton denim. They have a picture of a blonde model, standing in a parking lot, wearing denim jeans, a baggy white top, a silk scarf, and high black boots. The show a spread of jean, all blue, all stone washed, starting at $850 from Dior, and working down to $80 from the Gap. Last pair of jeans I bought was $35 from Sears.
The Journal needs to work on their fashion writers. Show me some stuff I might like to wear, rather than stuff that makes me laugh.
Saturday, July 1, 2017
Friday, June 30, 2017
F35 Turns the Corner
Cover story in Aviation Week. The F-35 A (the Air Force model, no V/STOL) made it to the Paris Air Show this week. Le Bourget outside of Paris. It flew, showed off some really impressive low and slow manuvering close to the ground. With 40,000 pounds of thrust, it's hard to stall this baby, just pull the stick way back, shove the throttle all the way forward, and the engine will make the plane go up, even if the wing isn't doing much in the lift dept. Apparently they have done some work in the engine, the plane is now certified for 7 G. Used to be limited to 5 G (not much) because any more G caused the engine rotor to rub on the engine casing, which caused a fire, resulting in the total loss of one F35. They have done something about the problem, and 9G is promised in the future.
Up beat article. No talk about lack of software, horrible costs, ridiculously long development cycle.
Up beat article. No talk about lack of software, horrible costs, ridiculously long development cycle.
You cannot pay for healthcare by taxing healthcare
Every dollar sucked out of health care by Obamacare taxes, causes the health industry to raise prices to get even. Obamacare had a bunch of taxes on healthcare, there was a medical device tax, a cadillac plan tax, personal tax for being uninsured, and some others that I have forgotten. The healthcare reform bills before Congress would zap all the Obamacare taxes.
The democrats are crying and calling this "a tax cut for the wealthy". Yeah right. Democrats always say that any tax cut is "for the wealthy".
They ought to pass a one page bill that says "Obamacare is completely revoked, repealed, null and void. All Obamacare offices are closed, their personnel must be laid off, their files burned, and the buildings are to be sold. All Obama care regulations are hereby rendered null and void.
Pass that. Then if you have the votes, pass separate laws on pre-existing conditions, children remaining on the parent's policies, make health insurance premiums deductible on income tax, fund opioid treatment, and any other little Obamacare goodie you like. If you have the votes.
The democrats are crying and calling this "a tax cut for the wealthy". Yeah right. Democrats always say that any tax cut is "for the wealthy".
They ought to pass a one page bill that says "Obamacare is completely revoked, repealed, null and void. All Obamacare offices are closed, their personnel must be laid off, their files burned, and the buildings are to be sold. All Obama care regulations are hereby rendered null and void.
Pass that. Then if you have the votes, pass separate laws on pre-existing conditions, children remaining on the parent's policies, make health insurance premiums deductible on income tax, fund opioid treatment, and any other little Obamacare goodie you like. If you have the votes.
Thursday, June 29, 2017
Ivanhoe (1952) Great Costume Drama
The story is set in Merrie Old England, right after the Third Crusade. It's in Technicolor which means the color is bright and solid, none of this modern arty "fade-the-color-out-to-black&white" stuff. I first saw this flick at age nine in the old Cinema at Shoppers World out on Rt 9 in Framingham Mass. Loved it back then. I'm much older now. I popped a DVD of Ivanhoe into the DVD player last night. It's still a fine movie. It has a very young Elizabeth Taylor as Rebecca of York, ultra cute, forceful, with a serious crush on the leading man. That's Ivanhoe, played by Robert Taylor (no relation) who was a solid, competent, decent looking leading man in a bunch of movies back then. Ivanhoe is one of the best roles Robert Taylor ever had. And we have Rowena of Rotherwood, blonde, beautiful, played by Joan Fontaine, an old childhood sweetheart of Ivanhoe's and bound and determined to wed him, and not let that ultra cute Rebecca make off with him.
Costumes are great, they look extremely medieval. Workers and peasants are dressed in drab browns and grays. Nobility dresses in brighter colors, each actor wears a distinctive costume that makes it easy to tell who is who. Rowena and Rebecca have very nicely tailored medieval gowns which show off their figures to great advantage. The cast all speak clearly and distinctly, every line of dialogue is sharp and understandable. Dialogue has a proper medieval sound to it, a bit of Shakespearean flavor, no jarring twentieth century turns of phrase. For instance Locksley (Robin Hood) cries out to his merry men "Away Arrows", no anachronistic cries of "Fire". You never "fire" arrows, that only works on firearms. You shoot or loose arrows.
The camera man does it right, every scene is properly lit, none of this modern turn off the lights and let the audience struggle to figure out what is happening stuff. And no annoying "shake-the-camera" shots. The sound man places the mikes properly so we can hear everything, and avoids mixing the score or the sound effects over the dialogue.
The movie has a great love interest, lots of medieval politicking, and lots of action. Great scenes of jousting on horseback, with lists, and spectators, lances and shields, solid lance hits hurling the bad guys off their horses and into the dirt. We see Locksley and his archers take Front-de-Beouf's castle by escalade and flights of arrows. Single combat on horseback between Ivanhoe and Brian Bois Gilbert.
All in all, a great flick. You can get it from Netflix.
Costumes are great, they look extremely medieval. Workers and peasants are dressed in drab browns and grays. Nobility dresses in brighter colors, each actor wears a distinctive costume that makes it easy to tell who is who. Rowena and Rebecca have very nicely tailored medieval gowns which show off their figures to great advantage. The cast all speak clearly and distinctly, every line of dialogue is sharp and understandable. Dialogue has a proper medieval sound to it, a bit of Shakespearean flavor, no jarring twentieth century turns of phrase. For instance Locksley (Robin Hood) cries out to his merry men "Away Arrows", no anachronistic cries of "Fire". You never "fire" arrows, that only works on firearms. You shoot or loose arrows.
The camera man does it right, every scene is properly lit, none of this modern turn off the lights and let the audience struggle to figure out what is happening stuff. And no annoying "shake-the-camera" shots. The sound man places the mikes properly so we can hear everything, and avoids mixing the score or the sound effects over the dialogue.
The movie has a great love interest, lots of medieval politicking, and lots of action. Great scenes of jousting on horseback, with lists, and spectators, lances and shields, solid lance hits hurling the bad guys off their horses and into the dirt. We see Locksley and his archers take Front-de-Beouf's castle by escalade and flights of arrows. Single combat on horseback between Ivanhoe and Brian Bois Gilbert.
All in all, a great flick. You can get it from Netflix.
$82,000 per year for Nursing Home??
From Wednesday's Wall St Journal. Headline "Nursing Homes Balk at Senate Bill". The nursing home industry is largely paid for from Medicaid and the industry fears the reductions in Medicaid funding will cut into their revenue. Tough.
I can send a child to college for only $40,000 a year. You'd think all those PHD college profs, and all those overpaid and useless administrators would be more expensive than staffing a nursing home. Put another way, that $82,000 a year comes out to $224.65 a day. I can rent a first class Washington DC hotel room for half of that. I means these are nursing homes, not hospital ICU's. They provide a room with a bed, maid service, three squares a day, and somebody on the front desk 24/7 in case of emergency. Somehow I think you could do that for DC hotel room rates.
Note to self. Hope my health holds up so I can die peacefully in my bed at my home. Plead with my children to take me in should I no longer be able to shop and cook for myself.
I can send a child to college for only $40,000 a year. You'd think all those PHD college profs, and all those overpaid and useless administrators would be more expensive than staffing a nursing home. Put another way, that $82,000 a year comes out to $224.65 a day. I can rent a first class Washington DC hotel room for half of that. I means these are nursing homes, not hospital ICU's. They provide a room with a bed, maid service, three squares a day, and somebody on the front desk 24/7 in case of emergency. Somehow I think you could do that for DC hotel room rates.
Note to self. Hope my health holds up so I can die peacefully in my bed at my home. Plead with my children to take me in should I no longer be able to shop and cook for myself.
Wednesday, June 28, 2017
McConnell lacks the votes to pass Healthcare reform
Might have guessed it. As of this morning's TV some ten "Republican" senators won't vote for McConnell's health care bill. These "Republicans" are throwing away Republican chances in the 2018 election. Us voters voted Republicans in to get Obamacare out. We know that Obamacare has doubled the price of insurance and thrown a lot of people out of work. Once we figure out that Republicans cannot do anything, they are gone and the Democrats will be back in charge.
And, to add insult to injury, these ten "Republicans" haven't told anyone (voters, newsies, McConnell) what is wrong with McConnell's bill. Does it cut too much from some pet program? Is it really just a patch on Obamacare to keep it running a while longer? Does it lack something they care about? They ought to have some reasons they can express on TV for scuttling their own party and turning the country back over to the Democrats in 2018. To say nothing of ruining their personal chances of re-election.
And, to add insult to injury, these ten "Republicans" haven't told anyone (voters, newsies, McConnell) what is wrong with McConnell's bill. Does it cut too much from some pet program? Is it really just a patch on Obamacare to keep it running a while longer? Does it lack something they care about? They ought to have some reasons they can express on TV for scuttling their own party and turning the country back over to the Democrats in 2018. To say nothing of ruining their personal chances of re-election.
Tuesday, June 27, 2017
US spends 19% of GNP on healthcare
That's twice as much as any other country in the world spends. And American health, as measured by life expectancy and infant mortality, is not a good as about 10 other countries. In short, for spending twice as much, we don't get any healthier.
So Congressional attempts to cut the expense of Obamacare are the right thing to do. We ought to cut healthcare spending down to 10% of GNP, from 19% today. Every other country in the world offers health as good as in the US, and spends only 10% of GNP doing it. It they can do it, so can we.
So Congressional attempts to cut the expense of Obamacare are the right thing to do. We ought to cut healthcare spending down to 10% of GNP, from 19% today. Every other country in the world offers health as good as in the US, and spends only 10% of GNP doing it. It they can do it, so can we.
Sunday, June 25, 2017
Anti Russian voter hacking measures we ought to take
Go to paper ballots. Keep them after the election in case of a recount. Get rid of voting machines which are nothing more than desktop computers running a ballot program. And could be hacked at the factory, at the polls, over the net, every which way, and you could never figure out what happened.
Let's have some security on voter registration lists. If hostile hackers managed to erase say 10% of all Republicans registered, that would throw the election to the Democrats. A voter shows up at the polls, and he isn't on the registration list, he doesn't get to vote. Ten percent of either side is enough to decide most elections.
Since we cannot do any paperwork without putting it on computer these days, we need some security on the machines that hold the voter registration lists at cities and towns. The machine[s] that store and modify the voter registration lists must NOT be connected to the public internet in any way shape or fashion. Keep the machines in a locked room and only allow a minimum of people access to them. Backup the voter registration list[s] every week or so, and store the backups off line and off site. When new voters are registered give them a printed certificate of registration that they can use to prove they registered should the computers mess up some how.
Let's have some security on voter registration lists. If hostile hackers managed to erase say 10% of all Republicans registered, that would throw the election to the Democrats. A voter shows up at the polls, and he isn't on the registration list, he doesn't get to vote. Ten percent of either side is enough to decide most elections.
Since we cannot do any paperwork without putting it on computer these days, we need some security on the machines that hold the voter registration lists at cities and towns. The machine[s] that store and modify the voter registration lists must NOT be connected to the public internet in any way shape or fashion. Keep the machines in a locked room and only allow a minimum of people access to them. Backup the voter registration list[s] every week or so, and store the backups off line and off site. When new voters are registered give them a printed certificate of registration that they can use to prove they registered should the computers mess up some how.
Saturday, June 24, 2017
What is in those two healthcare bills?
We have one bill passed in the House, and second one about to be voted on in the Senate. But I have no real idea what each bill does. For that matter I don't know all the things tucked away in 10000 pages of Obamacare. Nobody does really. Nobody can read and understand 10000 pages of legal gobble-de-gook.
The health care bill I like would repeal the Obamacare requirements that have forced a lot of workers into part time work. It would spell out who gets government subsidies and how much. It would allow the sale of "hospitalization only" insurance which is a quarter the cost of "Obamacare covers everything" insurance. It would require insurance companies to maintain coverage on insured patients who get sick, and allow such "pre existing conditions" patients to even change insurance companies should they need to (say like they took a new job) . Uninsured patients who get sick would have to pay something more to get insurance than ordinary patients. Medicaid should be reserved for mothers, children and the truly disabled. Able bodied grownups should get a job with health insurance or pay for their own. Health insurance premiums should be deductible on federal income tax to even things up between the self employed and the company employee who gets tax free health care thru hisher job.
I have no idea if either of the Congressional health care bills have any of these things. Neither do the newsies.
The health care bill I like would repeal the Obamacare requirements that have forced a lot of workers into part time work. It would spell out who gets government subsidies and how much. It would allow the sale of "hospitalization only" insurance which is a quarter the cost of "Obamacare covers everything" insurance. It would require insurance companies to maintain coverage on insured patients who get sick, and allow such "pre existing conditions" patients to even change insurance companies should they need to (say like they took a new job) . Uninsured patients who get sick would have to pay something more to get insurance than ordinary patients. Medicaid should be reserved for mothers, children and the truly disabled. Able bodied grownups should get a job with health insurance or pay for their own. Health insurance premiums should be deductible on federal income tax to even things up between the self employed and the company employee who gets tax free health care thru hisher job.
I have no idea if either of the Congressional health care bills have any of these things. Neither do the newsies.
Friday, June 23, 2017
"Slants" is derogatory?
An Asian American rock band wanted to call themselves "The Slants". Some well fed bureaucrat refused to let them trademark the name. He claimed "Slants" was derogatory.
Strange. I was in the Air Force, I did a turn in South East Asia during the Viet Nam war. We had a lot of bad names for things we didn't like, the enemy, the locals, the food, the weather, the service, and others. I don't remember "slant" as one of them. "Slope" you heard, and slant-eye ( as opposed to round-eye) you heard, but I don't remember "slant" by itself as a put down.
Any how they took this one to the Supreme Court, and won, The band may trademark "Slants". Owners of the Washington Redskins, and the Cleveland Indians, both facing similar harassment from bureaucrats are relieved. They figure they will win their Supreme Court cases.
Welfare for lawyers.
Strange. I was in the Air Force, I did a turn in South East Asia during the Viet Nam war. We had a lot of bad names for things we didn't like, the enemy, the locals, the food, the weather, the service, and others. I don't remember "slant" as one of them. "Slope" you heard, and slant-eye ( as opposed to round-eye) you heard, but I don't remember "slant" by itself as a put down.
Any how they took this one to the Supreme Court, and won, The band may trademark "Slants". Owners of the Washington Redskins, and the Cleveland Indians, both facing similar harassment from bureaucrats are relieved. They figure they will win their Supreme Court cases.
Welfare for lawyers.
Suppose we assassinate Kim Jong whats-his-face, NORK dictator
That ought to slow 'em down a bit. The NORKs already have nuclear weapons and rockets. It's only a matter of time (a year? two? three?) before they have a nuke mounted on a rocket with the range to reach US soil. We need to prevent that. Nobody wants to start up the Korean War again, that is too awful to bring back. Diplomacy has been tried for twenty years or more to no avail. Getting a nuclear deterrent (strike force) is so important to Kim that no amount of diplomacy will get him to stop.
If we bumped off Kim, it would leave a leadership vacuum. There would be a struggle between the various number 2 men to take his place. Kim has been executing anyone who looks dangerous to him and so the bench of number 2 men is pretty thin. To take over as NORK dictator you have to have some name recognition and some friends to back you up. We don't know if anyone up north has both the name recognition and the friends required.
The NORK regime might just come apart. It's already under strain, what with peasants starving the the villages and shortages of nearly everything. The only thing holding it together is the army and the secret police. With Kim gone, nobody knows if they would stay loyal to the regime. They might not. At which point, there are very strong forces to pull North and South Korea back together. Much stronger forces than any number 2 man struggling to take over could muster. That result would be wonderful for us and for South Korea.
How to off Kim? Simplest is a smart bomb thru his bedroom window. Or a Hellfire on his official limousine (with Kim inside it of course). Or a very gutsy sniper team parachutes in somewhere, gets to within 500 yards of Kim, plugs him and then boogies to a pickup spot and waits for the Jolly Greens to pick them up.
If we bumped off Kim, it would leave a leadership vacuum. There would be a struggle between the various number 2 men to take his place. Kim has been executing anyone who looks dangerous to him and so the bench of number 2 men is pretty thin. To take over as NORK dictator you have to have some name recognition and some friends to back you up. We don't know if anyone up north has both the name recognition and the friends required.
The NORK regime might just come apart. It's already under strain, what with peasants starving the the villages and shortages of nearly everything. The only thing holding it together is the army and the secret police. With Kim gone, nobody knows if they would stay loyal to the regime. They might not. At which point, there are very strong forces to pull North and South Korea back together. Much stronger forces than any number 2 man struggling to take over could muster. That result would be wonderful for us and for South Korea.
How to off Kim? Simplest is a smart bomb thru his bedroom window. Or a Hellfire on his official limousine (with Kim inside it of course). Or a very gutsy sniper team parachutes in somewhere, gets to within 500 yards of Kim, plugs him and then boogies to a pickup spot and waits for the Jolly Greens to pick them up.
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