After the Great Depression was kicked off by the 1929 stock market crash Congress passed some laws intended to prevent a recurrance, ever again. One of the contributing factors to the 1929 crash was big banks playing the stock market, with depositors money. And in the 1930's Congress passed a law preventing banks for buying and selling stocks. This was the Glass-Steagall act and it remained the law of the land for 60 years. Banks hated Glass-Steagall 'cause there is a lot of easy money to be made in the stock market, particularly if you have a lot of money to invest. It took the banks 60 years of solid lobbying and "campaign contributions" to finally repeal Glass-Steagall some time during the Clinton administration.
And now after Great Depression 2.0, kicked off by banks making dumb ass mortgages, people are calling for some regulation to curb big and brain dead banks from crashing the economy. Bernie Sanders is calling for reinstatement of Glass-Steagall. Actually this is a fairly good idea. Banks primary purpose is to finance construction and house sales, and finance business activity. Buying and selling stocks just soaks up bank assets and does not contribute to economic growth.
The other thing banking needs is some incentives to write decent mortgages. The "Ninja" mortgages (No income, No job or assets) caused the crash of 2007. A mortgage must not exceed the real market value of the property, in fact the buyer ought to put up 10% or so of his own money to buy the place. And the bank needs to see that the borrower is gainfully employed and is making enough to make his monthly mortgage payments.
One way to make this happen is to require that the bank that issues the mortgage must hold that mortgage to maturity. If the bank knows that it will b holding the bad should the borrower default, they will be fairly careful not to write mortgages for untrustworthy borrowers.
Thursday, January 14, 2016
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
Where was their air cover??
Two US Navy small craft some where in the Persian Gulf (the Obama administration won't say exactly where) where captured by the Iranians. Where was US air cover? There were two boats, each one ought to have had a working radio. The Gulf isn't very big. Jet aircraft can be anywhere in the Gulf in a matter of minutes. Some aircraft ought to be on five minute alert in such a near-to-war zone. My fighter unit kept two fighters on five minute alert 24/7, and that was back in heart of the US, namely the state of Minnesota.
Those two boats should have radioed for air cover as soon as the Iranians hove into sight, and they should have had air cover within 15-20 minutes of making the radio call.
Let's guess, Obama didn't want to upset the Iranians and he refused to allow the jets to take off.
Those two boats should have radioed for air cover as soon as the Iranians hove into sight, and they should have had air cover within 15-20 minutes of making the radio call.
Let's guess, Obama didn't want to upset the Iranians and he refused to allow the jets to take off.
Nevada wises up
Nevada state government decided to cut back on the goodies offered to the home solar cell freeloaders. About time, and NH ought to follow suit. The current deal offers to buy all the electricity the home owner produces, at full retail rate, for ever. Home owners use their sales earning to pay their electric bills. Since solar cells produce no electricity after sunset, all solar cell owners are connected to the regular electric grid and use utility provided juice to keep their lights on, their TV's playing, and their oil burners burning. Up here a practical sized home solar panel can reduce the home owner's electric bill to zero in the summer, and make a worthwhile dent in it in the winter.
Net result, solar cell owners get a free ride from the ordinary rate payers. The cost of providing grid power is mostly in paying off the generators, the transmission lines, the local wires and poles. The utility workers spend most of their time fixing stuff that storms tear down. Very little money goes to fuel. Compared to paying off the enormous loans that built the system, the cost of fuel is negligible. All the home solar cells do for the utility is save a little bit of fuel. The utility still has to build and maintain a physical plant big enough to serve all the customers at night and on cloudy days. Home solar cells don't save the utility a nickel when it comes to their major costs.
Which is why all solar installations require subsidy from rate payers and tax payers.
Anyhow, the two solar cell companies operating in Nevada are crying and threatening to hold their breath (actually to stop selling solar in Nevada).
Net result, solar cell owners get a free ride from the ordinary rate payers. The cost of providing grid power is mostly in paying off the generators, the transmission lines, the local wires and poles. The utility workers spend most of their time fixing stuff that storms tear down. Very little money goes to fuel. Compared to paying off the enormous loans that built the system, the cost of fuel is negligible. All the home solar cells do for the utility is save a little bit of fuel. The utility still has to build and maintain a physical plant big enough to serve all the customers at night and on cloudy days. Home solar cells don't save the utility a nickel when it comes to their major costs.
Which is why all solar installations require subsidy from rate payers and tax payers.
Anyhow, the two solar cell companies operating in Nevada are crying and threatening to hold their breath (actually to stop selling solar in Nevada).
Cannon Mountain Ski Weather
We got three inches of powder snow last night. Not all that much, but better than nothing. It's cold, 16F, good for snow making.
Tuesday, January 12, 2016
Power grows out of the chimney of a factory
To paraphrase Mao TseTung. The pollsters (they telephone me every day) are asking about the most important issue in the upcoming election. "Jobs and the economy" and "national security" are the two serious choices. I say that if we have jobs and the economy then we can build or buy all the national security we need. A thriving economy pays taxes that the government can spend on troops, rations, ammunition, uniforms, fuel, fancy $200 helmets for the troops, outrageously expensive warplanes and warships. It will pay for overseas missionary efforts, foreign aid, bribes to friendly governments, propaganda, Doctors without Borders. It will pay for US imports which are life to third world countries. It will pay for research and development efforts that result in better weapons for our forces. A good economy allows us to take in immigrants who will grow the economy even further.
Cannon Mountain Ski weather
We got a dusting of snow yesterday, not enough to stick a ruler in to measure, but better than rain. It's cold again, 17F this morning, so the mountain is making snow. The weatherman is promising one to three inches this afternoon.
Monday, January 11, 2016
Gallup says 43% of voters are registered independents
And registered Democrats slightly out number registered Republicans. 29 to 23 per cent.
Which means the Republican candidate needs better than HALF of the independent votes to win. Which means we in the stupid party MUST nominate someone acceptable to independents. Else we get Hillary keeping all of Obama's stuff in place for another four years, maybe eight.
Is The Donald the man to attract better then half of the independents???
Which means the Republican candidate needs better than HALF of the independent votes to win. Which means we in the stupid party MUST nominate someone acceptable to independents. Else we get Hillary keeping all of Obama's stuff in place for another four years, maybe eight.
Is The Donald the man to attract better then half of the independents???
No way is Obama's justice department gonna indict Hillary
Doesn't matter what the FBI finds. Indicting Hillary will go a long way to electing a Republican president, who will undo as much of Obama's work as he can. Obama cannot want that. The Fox newsies are talking up FBI work on Hillary's secret emails on the private server. Now they are talking about corruption charges to go along with the classified flap. Ain't gonna happend, Obama won't let it.
Sunday, January 10, 2016
Chinese pressure on the NORKs
I hear TV newsies talking about this. The question is what can we do about the NORK nuclear weapons program. The answer from a number of newsies is to get the Chinese to apply pressure on the Kim regime to back off on the nuclear program. Sounds good.
But it won't work. The Chinese don't dare apply any serious pressure, such as cutting off their economic support. North Korea is in such tough shape that only shipments of fuel and food from China keep it running. The Chinese fear that cutting the shipments would destabilize the Kim regime, leading to a total collapse. North Korean agriculture is so screwed up that it cannot feed their people, and their industry is so feeble that they have invited the South Korean to set up maquiladoras in the north to employ some of their people. The only things keeping the Kim regime in power are the secret police and the army. Should either of these fail in a clutch, North Korea comes undone.
The Chinese don't want this. They would loose their buffer state between China and bustling prosperous and pro American South Korea. They fear that the South Koreans would subvert Chinese citizens away from communism and the one true way of Mao Tsetung. Plus giving the Americans listening posts and air bases right on their border rather than way off down south on the 38th parallel.
I cannot see China risking the loss of the Kim regime just to make the Americans happy.
But it won't work. The Chinese don't dare apply any serious pressure, such as cutting off their economic support. North Korea is in such tough shape that only shipments of fuel and food from China keep it running. The Chinese fear that cutting the shipments would destabilize the Kim regime, leading to a total collapse. North Korean agriculture is so screwed up that it cannot feed their people, and their industry is so feeble that they have invited the South Korean to set up maquiladoras in the north to employ some of their people. The only things keeping the Kim regime in power are the secret police and the army. Should either of these fail in a clutch, North Korea comes undone.
The Chinese don't want this. They would loose their buffer state between China and bustling prosperous and pro American South Korea. They fear that the South Koreans would subvert Chinese citizens away from communism and the one true way of Mao Tsetung. Plus giving the Americans listening posts and air bases right on their border rather than way off down south on the 38th parallel.
I cannot see China risking the loss of the Kim regime just to make the Americans happy.
Saturday, January 9, 2016
The Weapon Shops of Isher by A.E. Van Vogt
Classic science fiction published in the early 1950's, say 65 years ago. The Weapons Shops sold fabuluous firearms, which among their other miraclous properties, would only fire when held by their rightful owner. That was science fiction.
Today we have Obama calling for the invention and production of such weapons. But would anyone buy them? Most people, myself included, want a firearm that will reliably go bang when the trigger is pressed. We don't even trust safeties, every shooter can remember the time he missed a shot because the safety was still on. Which accounts for the popularity of the Glock handgun, it has no safeties.
If we don't trust simple mechanical safeties, who is gonna trust some micro processor based system that has to recognize who is holding the gun and prevent it from firing if it is in the wrong hands? Not me.
I suppose such Weapons Shop magic might work off a finger print sensor on the grip or an RFID tag carried by the rightful owner. All of which stops working when the battery runs down. To say nothing of gloves foiling the fingerprint sensor, or the owner forgetting to have the RFID tag on his person, plus a bunch of other Murphy's law failures.
I'm surprised that a president of the US can call for science fiction devices and nobody laughs at him.
Today we have Obama calling for the invention and production of such weapons. But would anyone buy them? Most people, myself included, want a firearm that will reliably go bang when the trigger is pressed. We don't even trust safeties, every shooter can remember the time he missed a shot because the safety was still on. Which accounts for the popularity of the Glock handgun, it has no safeties.
If we don't trust simple mechanical safeties, who is gonna trust some micro processor based system that has to recognize who is holding the gun and prevent it from firing if it is in the wrong hands? Not me.
I suppose such Weapons Shop magic might work off a finger print sensor on the grip or an RFID tag carried by the rightful owner. All of which stops working when the battery runs down. To say nothing of gloves foiling the fingerprint sensor, or the owner forgetting to have the RFID tag on his person, plus a bunch of other Murphy's law failures.
I'm surprised that a president of the US can call for science fiction devices and nobody laughs at him.
Friday, January 8, 2016
Cars, Cars, and more cars
NPR this morning said that 17.5 million new cars had been sold in 2015. Damn, that's a lotta wheels. There was a time, back in the 60s, when a 5 million car year was considered good. And consider that a car easily lasts 10 years these days. Keep up a 17.5 million a year sales rate for 10 years, and you have 175 million cars on the road. For a population of 300 and some million. That's a car for every two citizens.
Then the NPR greenies went on to wail about the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE). The sales figure are "cars and light trucks" and light trucks are selling well. The light trucks (SUVs count as light trucks), get about 20 mpg at best, the little econobox cars might get 35. Obama wants 50 mpg in a few years. I got news for him. We won't ever have a 50 mpg CAFE except by lying. We do some of that already, flex fuel (gasoline or alcohol) cars give the CAFE a big boost just by bureaucratic fiat.
Was I Detroit, I'd make all my production "flex fuel" because it's easy and cheap to do, and I get all sorts of CAFE improvement for every flex fuel vehicle produced. Just a little attention to gasket materials in the fuel system, using only gaskets that are alcohol proof, a bit more code in the microprocessor to recognize the fuel and for alcohol program the injectors to throw in a good deal more than for gasoline, and presto chango, I have a flex fuel vehicle. Good for a 20 mph bump in my CAFE.
Then the NPR greenies went on to wail about the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE). The sales figure are "cars and light trucks" and light trucks are selling well. The light trucks (SUVs count as light trucks), get about 20 mpg at best, the little econobox cars might get 35. Obama wants 50 mpg in a few years. I got news for him. We won't ever have a 50 mpg CAFE except by lying. We do some of that already, flex fuel (gasoline or alcohol) cars give the CAFE a big boost just by bureaucratic fiat.
Was I Detroit, I'd make all my production "flex fuel" because it's easy and cheap to do, and I get all sorts of CAFE improvement for every flex fuel vehicle produced. Just a little attention to gasket materials in the fuel system, using only gaskets that are alcohol proof, a bit more code in the microprocessor to recognize the fuel and for alcohol program the injectors to throw in a good deal more than for gasoline, and presto chango, I have a flex fuel vehicle. Good for a 20 mph bump in my CAFE.
Thursday, January 7, 2016
Particles: Nova's story of the Higgs Boson and Large Hadron Collider
Nova on NPR ran this show. The subject matter is fascinating, the mysterious "God Particle", the biggest particle accelerator ever built. Claims to discover the basis of "the standard model" or the fundamentals of space time.
The TV show had a lot of shots of physicists and bigwigs partying and drinking champagne to celebrate major milestones. Some cool shots of big pipes running down endless tunnels. Shots of physicists bicycling to and from work.
It did not explain what the Higgs boson is, or why we expected it to exist. No mention of the boson's mass, electric charge, spin, lifetime, or how we would detect one, should one form. No discussion of the accelerator, what keeps the particle beam on course running down the pipes. No discussion of what fields are used to accelerate the particles down the 50 mile radius particle racetrace. No mention of how close to the speed of light the particle speed reached. No mention of how the accelerator compensated for the growth of particle mass as the speed of light is approached. No mention of what particles were accelerated, I assume protons, but it would be nice to know. CERN had a serious accident in the early days, the particle beam came off the track and burned a hole thru the wall of the vacuum chamber. They didn't bother to show the damaged piece of pipe up close. The camera swept over a stack of pipes, one of them was burned black on the outside, but that was it.
They interviewed a number of the physicists, but they all talked about metaphysics, what it means, what it might mean, the goodness of doing it. That ain't science. Science is observations and measurements tied together with theory. Nobody talked science.
Really too bad. I guess the TV show producers know little science themselves , and don't care much about it.
The TV show had a lot of shots of physicists and bigwigs partying and drinking champagne to celebrate major milestones. Some cool shots of big pipes running down endless tunnels. Shots of physicists bicycling to and from work.
It did not explain what the Higgs boson is, or why we expected it to exist. No mention of the boson's mass, electric charge, spin, lifetime, or how we would detect one, should one form. No discussion of the accelerator, what keeps the particle beam on course running down the pipes. No discussion of what fields are used to accelerate the particles down the 50 mile radius particle racetrace. No mention of how close to the speed of light the particle speed reached. No mention of how the accelerator compensated for the growth of particle mass as the speed of light is approached. No mention of what particles were accelerated, I assume protons, but it would be nice to know. CERN had a serious accident in the early days, the particle beam came off the track and burned a hole thru the wall of the vacuum chamber. They didn't bother to show the damaged piece of pipe up close. The camera swept over a stack of pipes, one of them was burned black on the outside, but that was it.
They interviewed a number of the physicists, but they all talked about metaphysics, what it means, what it might mean, the goodness of doing it. That ain't science. Science is observations and measurements tied together with theory. Nobody talked science.
Really too bad. I guess the TV show producers know little science themselves , and don't care much about it.
Washing Windows 8, yet again
Killing off crapware, specifically hpservice.exe. This baby shows up in Task Manager as a "process", ie a program loaded into ram and running, but does not show a window to control it or observe results. I tried to DISABLE it in task managers startup tab. Did not work, when I powered up next day hpservice.exe was still running. Net searching had told me that hpservice.exe was not a regular Windows service but just got loaded by a key in the registry. So I started up regedit (more difficult to do in Win 8 than in XP) and searched for a key that said "run" or "runonce" and the hpservice.exe name. No dice. Could not find the desired key let alone zap it.
Went back to Task Manager, and yup, the SOB was still there, big as life. Some fumbling around and I tried "Control Panel"," Administrative Tools", "Services" And there it was, a service, set to "AUTOMATIC" start, which means load and run every time the computer boots up. I changed that to "DISABLED".
I checked for hpservices in Task Manager this morning, and he is dead and gone.
Moral of story: Don't believe everything you see on the net.
And, Win 8 works just fine without hpservice.exe.
Went back to Task Manager, and yup, the SOB was still there, big as life. Some fumbling around and I tried "Control Panel"," Administrative Tools", "Services" And there it was, a service, set to "AUTOMATIC" start, which means load and run every time the computer boots up. I changed that to "DISABLED".
I checked for hpservices in Task Manager this morning, and he is dead and gone.
Moral of story: Don't believe everything you see on the net.
And, Win 8 works just fine without hpservice.exe.
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
Do the NORKS have the H-bomb?
And does it matter? The first fission bombs used in WWII had a yield that changed over time. Up until recently the yield was "classified" but all writers said it was 20,000 tons (20KT) of TNT equivalent. Recently, after declassification of 70 year old work, the yield is now given as 12 KT. These two plain straight fission bombs each leveled a city, with a severe damage radius of a couple of miles. This is so bad, that it doesn't really matter if you have more powerful bombs. A 20 KT yield fission bomb is so terrible that bigger bombs aren't that much more terrible.
As a cold war stunt, the hydrogen bomb, a fission-fusion device was developed. This device used a fission bomb's heat as a trigger to set off a hydrogen fusion reaction, boosting yield to 1000 KT (a megaton MT) And for a while in the 1950's the Americans and the Russians would exchange bragging rights to the greatest yield. In actual fact, a yield of 100KT is enough to do anything that is needful. The Minuteman missile warheads were all 100KT devices at a time when 1000 KT H-bombs were available.
So now to the NORKS. They have been doing nuclear testing for some years now. The first test was so puny (1KT) that we didn't really believe they had nukes until radioactive fallout was detected in the atmosphere, the seismic signal was so weak as make us doubt the NORKS had done anything at all.
So this morning, the NORKS claimed to have tested an H-bomb. But the seismic signal was still pretty weak, about 6 KT yield, less than the Hiroshima fission bomb of 70 years ago. Color me unimpressed. Might have been a fizzle, where the fission bomb trigger went off but the hydrogen fusion reaction did not light off. I don't think it's an H-bomb until the yield reaches 1000 KT, which is a long way from 6 KT.
As a cold war stunt, the hydrogen bomb, a fission-fusion device was developed. This device used a fission bomb's heat as a trigger to set off a hydrogen fusion reaction, boosting yield to 1000 KT (a megaton MT) And for a while in the 1950's the Americans and the Russians would exchange bragging rights to the greatest yield. In actual fact, a yield of 100KT is enough to do anything that is needful. The Minuteman missile warheads were all 100KT devices at a time when 1000 KT H-bombs were available.
So now to the NORKS. They have been doing nuclear testing for some years now. The first test was so puny (1KT) that we didn't really believe they had nukes until radioactive fallout was detected in the atmosphere, the seismic signal was so weak as make us doubt the NORKS had done anything at all.
So this morning, the NORKS claimed to have tested an H-bomb. But the seismic signal was still pretty weak, about 6 KT yield, less than the Hiroshima fission bomb of 70 years ago. Color me unimpressed. Might have been a fizzle, where the fission bomb trigger went off but the hydrogen fusion reaction did not light off. I don't think it's an H-bomb until the yield reaches 1000 KT, which is a long way from 6 KT.
The 11th Commandment (again)
Somebody is running a lot of TV ads, on Fox News, trashing Marco Rubio for missing votes in Congress. The ads are sponsored and paid for by a PAC that I have never heard of before. ("Right to Rise"?) I assume this PAC is working for some other Republican candidate, but I have no idea which one.
Too bad the MSM doesn't take a look at this PAC and let us know who is really behind the "trash Rubio" movement. Of course doing a story like that would require getting off their butts and going out on the streets and doing some digging. It's easier to just read the poll results over the air, and do a bit of pontificating.
Postscript:
I just googled on Right to Rise and got some hits. Wikipedia called Right to Rise a JEB Bush super PAC.
Too bad the MSM doesn't take a look at this PAC and let us know who is really behind the "trash Rubio" movement. Of course doing a story like that would require getting off their butts and going out on the streets and doing some digging. It's easier to just read the poll results over the air, and do a bit of pontificating.
Postscript:
I just googled on Right to Rise and got some hits. Wikipedia called Right to Rise a JEB Bush super PAC.
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
Washing Windows 8 (yet again)
Today's first crapware kill is hpmsgsvc.exe, This is an HP program, not Micro$oft. Web searching returned a lot of hits, but few of the hits actually knew anything about hpmsgsvc. It's been around for a good while. Fair number of hits talked about troubles back in Windows 7, where hpmsgsvc would go crazy and hog all the available CPU time. The few knowledgeable hits say the hpmsgsvc is a kludge that lets you "hook" a program to a function key so that you can start that program for just touching one key. Why anyone would want to do that, it's an ancient DOS idea, is unclear. If I want to set a program for easy start, I just put its icon (a shortcut) on my desktop, and then the program will start with the click of the mouse.
Hpmsgsrv is NOT a regular Windows service, which means you cannot kill it off with the Administrative Tools Service manager. I killed it with Task Manager. The old three finger salute (control-alt-delete) still works to bring up task manager. Hpmsgsrv in in the process list only it tries to hide itself under the name hpservices. No matter. STOP shuts down the copy in RAM. Select the "Startup" tab in task manager and set hpservice to Disabled. Underneath hpservices is a second bit of crapware calling itself "Hp Smart Adapter". He is now gone too. Web searching tells me that HP Smart Adaptor was nagware that specialized in selling you genuine HP accessories. I don't need that either.
I will have to check tomorrow that the "disable" in task manager really works. If it fails and lets hpmsgsvc come back to life, I plan to go after it with regedit. According to web sources, a Run key in the registry starts hpmsgsrv. If necessary I will use the search function in regedit to locate and then zap a registry key that contains "run" and the program name (hpservices.com). This probably won't be necessary, task manager is supposed to have done all this, but just in case a new Micro$oft feature doesn't work, I have a backup plan.
Hpmsgsrv is NOT a regular Windows service, which means you cannot kill it off with the Administrative Tools Service manager. I killed it with Task Manager. The old three finger salute (control-alt-delete) still works to bring up task manager. Hpmsgsrv in in the process list only it tries to hide itself under the name hpservices. No matter. STOP shuts down the copy in RAM. Select the "Startup" tab in task manager and set hpservice to Disabled. Underneath hpservices is a second bit of crapware calling itself "Hp Smart Adapter". He is now gone too. Web searching tells me that HP Smart Adaptor was nagware that specialized in selling you genuine HP accessories. I don't need that either.
I will have to check tomorrow that the "disable" in task manager really works. If it fails and lets hpmsgsvc come back to life, I plan to go after it with regedit. According to web sources, a Run key in the registry starts hpmsgsrv. If necessary I will use the search function in regedit to locate and then zap a registry key that contains "run" and the program name (hpservices.com). This probably won't be necessary, task manager is supposed to have done all this, but just in case a new Micro$oft feature doesn't work, I have a backup plan.
Monday, January 4, 2016
The 11th Commandment
"Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican" Attributed to Ronald Reagan. Well with a dozen candidates going for the Republican nomination there is gonna be a few sharp elbows thrown. But, if you are gonna violate Reagan's 11th commandment, you oughta make it over something real.
Right now we got Republicans trashing other Republicans for missing votes in Congress. If you are running for president you gotta get your butt out of Washington and go meet voters out in the real world beyond the DC beltway. If you do that, you will miss some votes inside the Beltway. To criticize candidates for campaigning is pure BS. If you wanna trash somebody, find a real issue.
Right now we got Republicans trashing other Republicans for missing votes in Congress. If you are running for president you gotta get your butt out of Washington and go meet voters out in the real world beyond the DC beltway. If you do that, you will miss some votes inside the Beltway. To criticize candidates for campaigning is pure BS. If you wanna trash somebody, find a real issue.
Support your Friends, trash your enemies
Right. Saudi Arabia and Iran are in a tiff. The Saudis just broke off diplomatic relations with Iran. Saudi is a long time friend of the US, Iran is a long time enemy.
So what does Obama do? Does he back up the Saudis? No way, he calls for "restraint" on both sides.
Especially as Iran is a much stronger country than Saudi. All Saudi has going for it is oil, and the money it brings. Saudi has no industry to speak of, a minute population, their national territory is a desert, they have to import everything. Iran is right next door, the sea in between them is so small as to permit passage in a canoe.
The Iranians have ten or fifty times the population of Saudi and enough industry to build nukes. And plenty of oil.
And we expect middle east Arab countries to send troops to defeat ISIS when we won't even back up a long time friend like Saudi?
So what does Obama do? Does he back up the Saudis? No way, he calls for "restraint" on both sides.
Especially as Iran is a much stronger country than Saudi. All Saudi has going for it is oil, and the money it brings. Saudi has no industry to speak of, a minute population, their national territory is a desert, they have to import everything. Iran is right next door, the sea in between them is so small as to permit passage in a canoe.
The Iranians have ten or fifty times the population of Saudi and enough industry to build nukes. And plenty of oil.
And we expect middle east Arab countries to send troops to defeat ISIS when we won't even back up a long time friend like Saudi?
Sunday, January 3, 2016
Washing Windows 8 (again)
Today's Windows 8 crapware kill is a service called "Bonjour". Bonjour is an Apple invention for "hands off networking". Bonjour works by going on the local network and finding all the other computers, shared printers, and other useful stuff, and with such info it can then support programs that want to talk with other stuff on the network. All of these activity runs in parallel with the regular Microsoft networking support which has been there since Win98 and has gotten better over the years.
Itunes is the program that wants Bonjour support. I don't have an Ipad, so I don't run Itunes. There are a bunch of other Apple programs, none of which I had ever heard of, which Wikipedia lists as wanting Bonjour as well. I don't care about them and so adieu to Bonjour.
Bonjour being a service, is best killed using the Windows services tool. Get to "Control Panel". I have "Control Panel" as an icon on the desktop. Some long ago tweaking of "Personalizations" gave me that very useful desktop icon. If you don't have the icon, do the bang-the-mouse-on-the-righthand-screen-edge thing to bring up the Charms bar. Select the "Settings" charm. Inside "settings" select "control panel".
Once in Control panel select "Administrative Tools". Then select "Services". This shows every service in the machine and allows you to stop them, start them, and program Windows useage of the service. Services are programs that Windows loads into RAM at boot time, or upon demand. STOP means just shut down the copy in RAM. I usually STOP a service, just to make sure I have control. Then reprogram the "Startup type" to "manual" or "disabled". Manual means don't load and run the service until some program asks for that service. I set Bonjour to "manual" and it never started up, indicating that no program every requested the Bonjour service. "Disabled" means never load and run the service no matter how hard programs beg and plead for the service.
With Bonjour service turned off, I could still access my desktop from the laptop and transfer fines back and forth. Home networking runs just fine without Bonjour, the regular Microsoft networking carrying the freight.
Itunes is the program that wants Bonjour support. I don't have an Ipad, so I don't run Itunes. There are a bunch of other Apple programs, none of which I had ever heard of, which Wikipedia lists as wanting Bonjour as well. I don't care about them and so adieu to Bonjour.
Bonjour being a service, is best killed using the Windows services tool. Get to "Control Panel". I have "Control Panel" as an icon on the desktop. Some long ago tweaking of "Personalizations" gave me that very useful desktop icon. If you don't have the icon, do the bang-the-mouse-on-the-righthand-screen-edge thing to bring up the Charms bar. Select the "Settings" charm. Inside "settings" select "control panel".
Once in Control panel select "Administrative Tools". Then select "Services". This shows every service in the machine and allows you to stop them, start them, and program Windows useage of the service. Services are programs that Windows loads into RAM at boot time, or upon demand. STOP means just shut down the copy in RAM. I usually STOP a service, just to make sure I have control. Then reprogram the "Startup type" to "manual" or "disabled". Manual means don't load and run the service until some program asks for that service. I set Bonjour to "manual" and it never started up, indicating that no program every requested the Bonjour service. "Disabled" means never load and run the service no matter how hard programs beg and plead for the service.
With Bonjour service turned off, I could still access my desktop from the laptop and transfer fines back and forth. Home networking runs just fine without Bonjour, the regular Microsoft networking carrying the freight.
Secrets of being a Superpower: Immigration
Having a large population is one secret. At 300 and some million, the United States population is larger than all but maybe China and India. And we have a very high grade and valuable population. Americans are loyal to America, to democracy, to the rule of law, to liberty. They all speak, read, and write English. Most have graduated high school, and many have made it thru college. For instance US Army recruits can read and write, drive a motor vehicle, change its oil and tires, work a telephone, and many other skills. I bet the Chinese and Indian armies are not so blessed.
It was the great 19th century surge of US immigration that built our population to its current level. Without that vast in pouring of people, we would be about where Canada is today. Canada is a worthy country and all, but with a population of only 30 million they just don't count for as much as we do with a 300 million population.
To maintain our position in the world we need to keep our population up. We can admit one million immigrants a year, into our population of 300 million and turn them into Americans, loyal productive citizens who add to the wealth and strength of America. We have plenty of people to choose from, everyone in the world wants to come to America, where the streets are paved with gold. We ought to pick the best, the young, the educated, the able bodied, and those who have demonstrated loyalty to America by serving as translators or who enlisted in the US armed forces.
While we are at it, we ought to do something about the 10-11 million illegals already in the country. I don't have the heart to deport them all. It would look too much like the Nazi's loading Jews into cattle cars for the trip to Auschwitz. I think any who are gainfully employed, have stayed out of trouble with the law, are raising children ought to be given papers making 'em legal to be in the country and hold a job. And after a few years, let them jump thru a few more hoops and grant them citizenship.
It's a hostile world out there, and we need more American citizens to confront it.
It was the great 19th century surge of US immigration that built our population to its current level. Without that vast in pouring of people, we would be about where Canada is today. Canada is a worthy country and all, but with a population of only 30 million they just don't count for as much as we do with a 300 million population.
To maintain our position in the world we need to keep our population up. We can admit one million immigrants a year, into our population of 300 million and turn them into Americans, loyal productive citizens who add to the wealth and strength of America. We have plenty of people to choose from, everyone in the world wants to come to America, where the streets are paved with gold. We ought to pick the best, the young, the educated, the able bodied, and those who have demonstrated loyalty to America by serving as translators or who enlisted in the US armed forces.
While we are at it, we ought to do something about the 10-11 million illegals already in the country. I don't have the heart to deport them all. It would look too much like the Nazi's loading Jews into cattle cars for the trip to Auschwitz. I think any who are gainfully employed, have stayed out of trouble with the law, are raising children ought to be given papers making 'em legal to be in the country and hold a job. And after a few years, let them jump thru a few more hoops and grant them citizenship.
It's a hostile world out there, and we need more American citizens to confront it.
Saturday, January 2, 2016
Is this Right? Wall St Journal new year's predictions
Let's see here. WSJ makes twelve predictions. Number 2 is "The Fall if Islamic State" by Walther Russell Mead, who ought to know better. Walther thinks that IS has antagonized the French, the Russians, the Merkins, and scared the bejesus out of the surviving Sunni Arab regimes left in the middle east, and thus it will get crushed. Maybe. But an ideology so strong as to pull European teenagers to fly to Turkey and hike across the border into Syria to carry an AK47 for IS is going to be hard to stop.
"A Grand Bargain on Energy" Jeffry Sachs (Columbia University Earth Institute) thinks there is a role for wind and solar energy. He does not explain how wind and solar keep my lights burning after the sun goes down on a windless day. If my juice goes off, my oil burner stops working and my pipes freeze.
"Bookstores are Back" by Ann Patchett, owner of a startup bookstore. I wish her a lotta luck. Up here our beloved Village Bookstore, after 20 years of operation, went out of business, and it being revived on a much smaller scale. Between the price competition from the Walmarts of the world, E-books, and the ridiculous price of hardbacks, bookstores have a tough row to hoe.
"Cooperation with China" by Orville Schell, outlines the well know tension spots between the US and China and is so pleased to find that the Chinese and Americans can agree about "Climate Change". How groovy. Not a word about US-Chinese trade, the largest trade relationship in the world. You would think having most of your economy connected to trade with the US might just possibly create a few common interests. Mr. Schell does'nt mention this at all,
Ah well, four out of twelve duds ain't too bad. Betcha the NYT did worse.
"A Grand Bargain on Energy" Jeffry Sachs (Columbia University Earth Institute) thinks there is a role for wind and solar energy. He does not explain how wind and solar keep my lights burning after the sun goes down on a windless day. If my juice goes off, my oil burner stops working and my pipes freeze.
"Bookstores are Back" by Ann Patchett, owner of a startup bookstore. I wish her a lotta luck. Up here our beloved Village Bookstore, after 20 years of operation, went out of business, and it being revived on a much smaller scale. Between the price competition from the Walmarts of the world, E-books, and the ridiculous price of hardbacks, bookstores have a tough row to hoe.
"Cooperation with China" by Orville Schell, outlines the well know tension spots between the US and China and is so pleased to find that the Chinese and Americans can agree about "Climate Change". How groovy. Not a word about US-Chinese trade, the largest trade relationship in the world. You would think having most of your economy connected to trade with the US might just possibly create a few common interests. Mr. Schell does'nt mention this at all,
Ah well, four out of twelve duds ain't too bad. Betcha the NYT did worse.
Cannon Mountain Ski Weather
Well, we got a half inch of snow yesterday. Not much, but better than nothing, better than rain. It's cold enough for snow making, just barely. It's 30F right now. Snow is forecast for tomorrow.
Friday, January 1, 2016
Windows 10 anyone?
I gotta plump Micro$oft program on my laptop that pops up and urges me to upgrade to Windows 10 every other day. My children tell me Win 10 doesn't offer anything except a faster video interface for games. I gave up on games after Adventure, and that was a long time ago. The Internet tells me Win 10 sends your username and password to Micro$oft for use in cracking your computer. Past experience tells me that each new Windows runs slower and sucks up more RAM and disk than the previous one.
Anyone got any good experiences with Win 10?
Anyone got any good experiences with Win 10?
Another year down
2015 is not gonna be my favorite year. The stock market slide sucked value out of my retirement savings. The economy still sucks. We still have Obama pissing in the soup. We have ISIS terrorists killing in California. We still have global warmers trying to force us all back into a Hiawatha lifestyle.
On the other hand, it could be worse. My health is still good. My three children are all graduated from college, gainfully employed, and doing well.
2016 looks to be a year of pure presidential politicking, non stop, ad nauseum. Newsies love this story because it is so simple that even they can understand it. All they have to do is read poll results over the air and make a few obvious comments. My big fear is the Republicans (aka the stupid party) may screw up and loose to Hillary in November.
On the other hand, it could be worse. My health is still good. My three children are all graduated from college, gainfully employed, and doing well.
2016 looks to be a year of pure presidential politicking, non stop, ad nauseum. Newsies love this story because it is so simple that even they can understand it. All they have to do is read poll results over the air and make a few obvious comments. My big fear is the Republicans (aka the stupid party) may screw up and loose to Hillary in November.
Thursday, December 31, 2015
Feel the Bern. Suppose Bernie wins the NH primary?
This is not impossible according to polls. Bernie is the next door Senator, he has plenty of name recognition. Who knows what it would do to the Democratic nomination race?
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
Toasters, the last 65 years of progress
65 years ago my father brought home a new GE two slice pop up toaster. It toasted for my family, my grandmother's family, my brother's family, and was turning out beautiful golden brown toast up until last year. At which point one heating element opened up and went dark. I took it apart and spliced the nichrome wire with a bit of brass tubing crimped with vicegrips. That kept her going for another year, when another heating element died. I couldn't fix that one. So ho, off to Wally Mart and a brand new Black and Decker toaster.
Well, it came in a nice Ferrari Racing Red plastic case and it had bigger toast slots that could accept that big country white bread, and bagels. Had a special button for bagels, and another for "frozen". Trouble is, the damn thing stopped toasting over Christmas, when I had five house guests up for Christmas. Service life less than half a year, as opposed to the GE which lasted 65 years.
Since it was still shiny and new, I took it apart. Problem was the toaster tray hold down. Magnetic it was, an electro magnet on a PC board pulled on a steel lug on the pop up mechanism. One, just one toast crumb had fallen on, and stuck to, the magnet pole piece and prevented the magnet from sucking hard enough on the steel lug to keep the handle down. A pass with the shop vac got the crumbs under control, and a wipe with a rag got the stickum off, and it worked on the bench. It even worked after I replaced the cover. We shall see how long it lasts. It is in a benign environment, no small children, just me using it.
Wanna bet it doesn't last for 65 years? GE never should have sold it's small appliance division to Black and Decker.
Well, it came in a nice Ferrari Racing Red plastic case and it had bigger toast slots that could accept that big country white bread, and bagels. Had a special button for bagels, and another for "frozen". Trouble is, the damn thing stopped toasting over Christmas, when I had five house guests up for Christmas. Service life less than half a year, as opposed to the GE which lasted 65 years.
Since it was still shiny and new, I took it apart. Problem was the toaster tray hold down. Magnetic it was, an electro magnet on a PC board pulled on a steel lug on the pop up mechanism. One, just one toast crumb had fallen on, and stuck to, the magnet pole piece and prevented the magnet from sucking hard enough on the steel lug to keep the handle down. A pass with the shop vac got the crumbs under control, and a wipe with a rag got the stickum off, and it worked on the bench. It even worked after I replaced the cover. We shall see how long it lasts. It is in a benign environment, no small children, just me using it.
Wanna bet it doesn't last for 65 years? GE never should have sold it's small appliance division to Black and Decker.
May be the Iraqi's can fight after all.
Looks like they took Ramadi, driving out a determined ISIS defense force. That takes some doing, a built up area is just one solid mass of firing points and good cover. When the defenders stick to their guns, advancing into a built up area is very tough. So the Iraqi's did it, which says their Army is in better shape than this spring when ISIS drove them out of Ramadi.
The Iraqi's are giving some of the credit to effective close air support from USAF. Certainly a few 750 pound smart bombs in the right places can make a lotta difference.
The Iraqi's are giving some of the credit to effective close air support from USAF. Certainly a few 750 pound smart bombs in the right places can make a lotta difference.
Cannon Mountain Ski Weather
Not great. We got some snow yesterday but after two inches down on my deck, it turned to sleet, freezing rain, and some just plain rain. Temperature has dropped back below freezing and I can hear the snow guns running right now. It will help, but the mountain needs a lot more snow to be really good. Right now Cannon is open, just a few trails, and pretty much all manmade snow. It's skiable, but we are all hoping for more snow.
Pataki hangs it up.
About time. I set up an event for him at the Littleton VFW, and NOBODY came. He seems like a nice guy and all, but what ever it is that attracts presidential voters, he doesn't have. Him pulling out does clear the underbrush a tiny bit.
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
Union Leader trashes The Donald
It got under The Donald's skin enough for him to go on a lengthy televised rant against Our Paper. Last time I remember the Union Leader dumping on a candidate was way back with William Loeb trashing Ed Muskie so hard that Muskie wept in public. Which was the end of Muskie's presidential run. The Donald had it easy compared to that.
Welcome to New Hampshire Mr. Trump.
Welcome to New Hampshire Mr. Trump.
If you are going to Hell, you still have to change planes in Atlanta
Atlanta was bragging they had served (delayed and hassled) their 100 millionth passenger this year. That's a lotta people going to Hell.
Monday, December 28, 2015
Helova Fine Christmas
All three of my children came home for this one, along with a son-in-law, a daughter-in-law and a very nice girlfriend. We had a trim the tree party, we had a massive Christmas dinner (20 people, two tables, three ovens). We had a show-old-home-movies party. We did a lot of sitting up late around the fireplace, drinking, and telling stories. I put the last children on planes home Sunday.
It was a trying time for Stupid Beast. She is a fraidy cat, used to having the house to herself and just one trusted human (me) around. Having a house full of medium strangers, who petted her, and even picked her up, was hard for her to bear. I gotta word for you, cat. Get used to it.
Lotta drivers never did learn about dimming headlights. They come up behind you, hi beams full on shining in the rear window. PITA. I would click on my hi beams after they passed me in the rain. Just to let 'em know.
Today I did a bit of recovery. Ran a wash, washed the last dishes, vacuumed the living room, make up a bed with fresh sheets. made a dump run. Between the empty bottles, and the Christmas wrappings, and stuff, it filled up the trunk of the Buick. And when I got down there, the town dump was pretty full. Santa brought a lotta stuff to Franconia. The glass recycle bin was as full as I have ever seen it, all beer and wine bottles. Whiskey mostly comes in plastic bottles these days Merry Christmas.
Dunno if I have the energy to deal with New Years on Friday.
It was a trying time for Stupid Beast. She is a fraidy cat, used to having the house to herself and just one trusted human (me) around. Having a house full of medium strangers, who petted her, and even picked her up, was hard for her to bear. I gotta word for you, cat. Get used to it.
Lotta drivers never did learn about dimming headlights. They come up behind you, hi beams full on shining in the rear window. PITA. I would click on my hi beams after they passed me in the rain. Just to let 'em know.
Today I did a bit of recovery. Ran a wash, washed the last dishes, vacuumed the living room, make up a bed with fresh sheets. made a dump run. Between the empty bottles, and the Christmas wrappings, and stuff, it filled up the trunk of the Buick. And when I got down there, the town dump was pretty full. Santa brought a lotta stuff to Franconia. The glass recycle bin was as full as I have ever seen it, all beer and wine bottles. Whiskey mostly comes in plastic bottles these days Merry Christmas.
Dunno if I have the energy to deal with New Years on Friday.
Thursday, December 24, 2015
We saw the new Star Wars movie last night
Went to the Jax Jr in Littleton. Theater was full by the time the movie started, every seat filled. It was 3D which I am only luke warm about. It was much better than the previous three Star Wars flicks. New characters, played well by new actors, some old characters, played well by some familiar actors. Costumes and sets were good, the soundman did his job, all the dialogue was audible. Lots of action, light saber duels, gun fights, TIE fighter air combat. The special effects were spectacular. Good show.
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
JEB comes to :Littleton NH
JEB came to Littleton last night. Spoke at the VFW. Place was pretty full, lots of professional video cameras, the kind with tripods and lenses a foot long. Bush turned up right on time, he spoke well, spoke from the heart. He wants to destroy ISIS, cut red tape, reform immigration making it easier to let in working age adults rather than everyone's retired parents, wants more charter schools, is luke warm on legalizing pot butr says it is a state affair, wants to tighten border security. He took questions for an hour and handled this well.
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
The only polls worth watching
Are the polls for New Hampshire and Iowa. Because, after New Hampshire and Iowa everything will change. Losers will be gone, and the loser's voters will go somewhere else, where, no body can tell. And the winners, and even the runners up will be immensely strengthened, which again changes everything. The nation wide polls right now, before New Hampshire and Iowa don't mean anything, because the results of New Hampshire and Iowa will change everything.
The newsies don't seem to understand this, they keep reporting the nationwide poll numbers.
The newsies don't seem to understand this, they keep reporting the nationwide poll numbers.
Monday, December 21, 2015
Strange Lament
I'm reading today's Wall St Journal. In the letters to the editor, we have an old NASA hand, so old he joined the outfil before it was NASA. He talks about the old old days when we all kept engineering notebooks, in which we recorded the results of lab work. Then he explains how like everyone else, we started keeping records like that on personal computers.
Then he veers off on a strange track. He claims that his new laptop cannot real his old files anymore. Obsolescence he claims. This never happened to me. In the early days I kept my records in plain ASCII text files on MS-DOS. I have stuff going back to the 80's that Windows 8 has no trouble reading. Later when Windows 3.1 cam in, I used Word. My current Word has no trouble reading my oldest Word documents.
Either this guy was using a strange OS, or some strange word processor. Or he gives up easily. Wanna bet you can download just about any old obsolete word processing program from somewhere if you do some looking?
Then he veers off on a strange track. He claims that his new laptop cannot real his old files anymore. Obsolescence he claims. This never happened to me. In the early days I kept my records in plain ASCII text files on MS-DOS. I have stuff going back to the 80's that Windows 8 has no trouble reading. Later when Windows 3.1 cam in, I used Word. My current Word has no trouble reading my oldest Word documents.
Either this guy was using a strange OS, or some strange word processor. Or he gives up easily. Wanna bet you can download just about any old obsolete word processing program from somewhere if you do some looking?
Sunday, December 20, 2015
Feeling the Bern. Hillary kisses and makes up
We watched the Democratic debate last night. It's still Bernie, Hillary, and that O'Malley troop from Maryland. They opened up with Hillary and Bernie kissing and making up over the DNC database kerfuffle. No real explaination as to what went down, but they pledged to stop what ever it was, and Bernie regains access to the data.
All three of 'em are four square for tax hikes.
All three of 'em are four square for tax hikes.
Friday, December 18, 2015
No Creditable Threat
Yeah, Right. There was no threat, creditable or otherwise, before San Bernardino. I figure ISIS will try that again, just as soon as they can find the shooters to do it. The San Brnardino shooters were unusual in that they gave no warning, aroused no suspicion of them selves before they struck, and were willing to give up their lives for their cause. You don't find shooters like that just everyday. But I figure ISIS will come up with some and send them out to kill, any day now.
Hold onto your hats, the party is gonna get rough.
Hold onto your hats, the party is gonna get rough.
Feeling the Bern. DNC cuts Sanders campaign off from "data base"
The present kefuffle over the Sanders campaign is obscure. WashPost claims that a single software vendor selected by the DNC, maintains a data base for the party AND all the candidates. Sander's campaign is accused of accessing thru the database, information (type unspecified) that belonged to Hillary's campaign, not the Sanders campaign.
Weird. On our side, the RNC maintains "Voter Vault" a list of registered republican voters and makes it available to any Republican candidate or committee. Voter Vault is built up from town voter registration lists, which are public records available to all. When phone banking, a good phone list, where the phone numbers actually answer, and are answered by Republicans, as opposed to by Democrats, is the breath of life. Over the years, the Republican Voter Vault has been pretty good in that respect. When I am phone banking, the Voter Vault phone numbers have been good.
But Voter Vault is available to all Republicans. It just has names phone numbers, and how many years each name has registered Republican. Which is all you need or want for phone banking. Nothing that belongs to a candidate. The names come from town voter registration lists. I don't know where the phone numbers come from. I don't remember giving my phone number in order to register to vote. But nothing in Voter Vault would kick off the current rumble in the democratic jungle.
Unless of course, it is a straight forward "Dump Bernie" maneuver by the DNC.
Weird. On our side, the RNC maintains "Voter Vault" a list of registered republican voters and makes it available to any Republican candidate or committee. Voter Vault is built up from town voter registration lists, which are public records available to all. When phone banking, a good phone list, where the phone numbers actually answer, and are answered by Republicans, as opposed to by Democrats, is the breath of life. Over the years, the Republican Voter Vault has been pretty good in that respect. When I am phone banking, the Voter Vault phone numbers have been good.
But Voter Vault is available to all Republicans. It just has names phone numbers, and how many years each name has registered Republican. Which is all you need or want for phone banking. Nothing that belongs to a candidate. The names come from town voter registration lists. I don't know where the phone numbers come from. I don't remember giving my phone number in order to register to vote. But nothing in Voter Vault would kick off the current rumble in the democratic jungle.
Unless of course, it is a straight forward "Dump Bernie" maneuver by the DNC.
Thursday, December 17, 2015
Do you believe in Anti Gravity??
Well I do. A strong anti gravity field exists around the mouth of every trash can and waste basket in this world. Try it. Pitch anything into the trash, and watch the anti gravity field repel it onto the floor. Pitch something clean into an empty trash can and watch the anti gravity field bounce it out of the trash and onto the floor.
Wednesday, December 16, 2015
TV Debate Watch Party
We had one for the 15 December Republican debate. It was sorta fun, watching politicians bad mouth each other is entertaining. I don't think the debate changed many voters minds. The Donald was there, of course, but he didn't make any new news generating things. Everybody ragged on The Donald over his "ban all Muslim immigration idea". Lotta talk about "boots on the ground", but no talk about what said boots were supposed to achieve on said ground. Nobody talked about invading and occupying the ISIS lands, rounding up the ISIS people living there, punishing them, and establishing a just and stable government in the area. Nobody advanced plans to get the US economy growing again.
The net result, the majority of Republicans who don't want the The Donald, 'cause we think he would loose big time, are still faced with nearly a dozen competitors, and we didn't hear anything last night that would help us settle on one. There are plenty of votes to defeat Trump, but those votes are scattered over all the other candidates giving none of them enough votes to beat anyone, not Trump, not even Rand Paul.
The net result, the majority of Republicans who don't want the The Donald, 'cause we think he would loose big time, are still faced with nearly a dozen competitors, and we didn't hear anything last night that would help us settle on one. There are plenty of votes to defeat Trump, but those votes are scattered over all the other candidates giving none of them enough votes to beat anyone, not Trump, not even Rand Paul.
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
New York is tougher than Lalaland
New York and Los Angeles both received terrorist threats by email this morning. LA bought into the threat and closed all the schools in LA. New York decided the threat was BS, and pressed on with an ordinary school day.
Lalaland needs to toughen up.
Lalaland needs to toughen up.
Obama's gun control
Obama wants to prohibit gun sales to anyone on the "no-fly" list or the "terror watch list". Bad idea. Both lists are operated by bureaucrats, probably Obama voting bureaucrats. They can put anyone they like on a list, for any reason they like, or no reason at all. They won't take anyone off a list. Denying the right to purchase firearms to anyone on a list means giving Obama the power to deny firearms to anyone he dislikes. How much do you trust Obama, or his bureaucrats?
Obama wants to "close the gun show loophole". He, and the rest of the lefties, never define just what here. Presumable it means requiring everyone who sells a weapon to anyone to go thru the back ground check hassle. Right now only real gun stores and holders of the federal firearms dealer license are required to do the background check stuff. Obama wants to force everyone, for instance a father selling a gun to his son, to do the bureaucratic dance. Which doesn't do any of us any good, but it keeps the bureaucrats on the payroll.
Then Obama has been trashing the long guns used at San Bernardino as "assault rifles". Ohhh, scary. Trouble is, there are no objective differences between deer rifles and "assault rifles". The San Bernardino rifles were ordinary Armalite style .223 self loading rifles. My antique Marlin 30-30 lever action throws a heavier slug than .223 and hits harder. And the lever action can reload faster than the eye can pick a new target. "Assault rifle" is really a styling term, if it has a black plastic stock it's an "assault rifle". Walnut stock makes it a deer rifle.
Obama wants to "close the gun show loophole". He, and the rest of the lefties, never define just what here. Presumable it means requiring everyone who sells a weapon to anyone to go thru the back ground check hassle. Right now only real gun stores and holders of the federal firearms dealer license are required to do the background check stuff. Obama wants to force everyone, for instance a father selling a gun to his son, to do the bureaucratic dance. Which doesn't do any of us any good, but it keeps the bureaucrats on the payroll.
Then Obama has been trashing the long guns used at San Bernardino as "assault rifles". Ohhh, scary. Trouble is, there are no objective differences between deer rifles and "assault rifles". The San Bernardino rifles were ordinary Armalite style .223 self loading rifles. My antique Marlin 30-30 lever action throws a heavier slug than .223 and hits harder. And the lever action can reload faster than the eye can pick a new target. "Assault rifle" is really a styling term, if it has a black plastic stock it's an "assault rifle". Walnut stock makes it a deer rifle.
Monday, December 14, 2015
A brokered Convention???
By which, the newsies mean a Republican convention where no candidate has enough votes from primary elections to say, "I got the votes, I'm it, let's get on to the balloon drop". Newsies love the idea. It would have the Republican convention generate real news, that they could cover, live and in real time. It would be a giant step backward to the old times, before primaries, where presidential candidates were actually selected at the conventions.
Don't hold your breath. We haven't had Iowa or New Hampshire primaries yet. Both events will narrow the field significantly, and the followers of the drop out candidates will float around and settle behind someone else. Chances are excellent that someone will go the the convention with an unbeatable lead. We just don't know who that might be.
The newsies are talking it up 'cause they would love to cover it, but I don't think it will happen.
Don't hold your breath. We haven't had Iowa or New Hampshire primaries yet. Both events will narrow the field significantly, and the followers of the drop out candidates will float around and settle behind someone else. Chances are excellent that someone will go the the convention with an unbeatable lead. We just don't know who that might be.
The newsies are talking it up 'cause they would love to cover it, but I don't think it will happen.
Power for Kitty Hawk
The Wright Bros wanted an engine that developed 8 horsepower and weighed less than 200 pounds. They quickly discovered that no one made such an engine in 1903. They would have to make their own, from scratch. They cast their own engine block in aluminum. According to later reminiscences by Charles Taylor, the Wright's "mechanician" who built the engine, there were no drawings, it was all built from sketches. Contrary to modern practice, the pistons were cast iron rather than aluminum. It had no carburetor, and no throttle. Gasoline ran out of a tube into the intake manifold where engine heat vaporized it. Lacking a throttle, the engine ran at full power all the time. It had a chain driven camshaft that worked the exhaust valves and the ignition points. Intake valves were held closed with springs, and opened from the suction of the piston going down, no cam drive as is normal today. The hand built engine exceeded spec, producing 12 horsepower and only weighing 180 pounds.
All this from this week's Aviation Week, which is celebrating their 100th anniversary.
All this from this week's Aviation Week, which is celebrating their 100th anniversary.
Sunday, December 13, 2015
I've been hacked, courtesy of Uncle Sam
Letter came in yesterday from Office of Personnel Management (OPM). My records got hacked in the great OPM hack a little while ago.
OPM was probably running Windows, did not insist on strong passwords changed every 30 days, kept everything on line instead of off line, and gave Internet access to every computer in the building, did not run firewalls, and allowed contractors access to the data.
I suppose my Air Force service records from long ago were on the system as well as the secret clearance I held up until I retired. I wonder where OPM got my current address which they used to address the letter. That address would not have been in any of my records at OPM since I did not live here in those days. Maybe they got it off my federal income tax return? To which no one is supposed to have access except IRS?
I did notice the letter was signed "Acting Director". Apparently the previous director, the one responsible for the hack, was relieved of duty. Should have been boiled in oil.
"I'm from the government and I am here to screw you"
OPM was probably running Windows, did not insist on strong passwords changed every 30 days, kept everything on line instead of off line, and gave Internet access to every computer in the building, did not run firewalls, and allowed contractors access to the data.
I suppose my Air Force service records from long ago were on the system as well as the secret clearance I held up until I retired. I wonder where OPM got my current address which they used to address the letter. That address would not have been in any of my records at OPM since I did not live here in those days. Maybe they got it off my federal income tax return? To which no one is supposed to have access except IRS?
I did notice the letter was signed "Acting Director". Apparently the previous director, the one responsible for the hack, was relieved of duty. Should have been boiled in oil.
"I'm from the government and I am here to screw you"
Saturday, December 12, 2015
Words of the Weasel Part 41
"Progressive". That's what liberals now call themselves since liberal has become a bad word.
Friday, December 11, 2015
The Mystique of America vs that of ISIS
ISIS has a strong mystique, strong enough to get young people from Europe and even America to travel to Syria and take up arms with them. Strong enough to get a couple of fanatics in San Bernardino to shoot down 14 of their co workers in cold blood and then die in a gun battle with police.
Well, America has a strong mystique too. America where the streets are paved with gold. America from where hot pop music comes from. America land of the Hollywood movie and the Wild West. America the land of fine big powerful cars and flawless thruways. America where obstacles are over come with miraculous new technology. America that flies to the Moon. America where all men are created equal. America where any man can become rich. America which has millions of people yearning to get in. America which has taken in millions of immigrants over the last century and turned them into hardworking loyal citizens.
I'll bet that we can take in 10,000 or even more Syrian refugees, settle them, employ them, and turn them into hardworking loyal citizens just like we have done with millions of immigrants in the past. Even if a few ISIS crazies slip in with them, the bulk of them will buy into America, and tip the cops off to any terrorists hiding in their midst.
It's worked before, and I bet it will work again.
Well, America has a strong mystique too. America where the streets are paved with gold. America from where hot pop music comes from. America land of the Hollywood movie and the Wild West. America the land of fine big powerful cars and flawless thruways. America where obstacles are over come with miraculous new technology. America that flies to the Moon. America where all men are created equal. America where any man can become rich. America which has millions of people yearning to get in. America which has taken in millions of immigrants over the last century and turned them into hardworking loyal citizens.
I'll bet that we can take in 10,000 or even more Syrian refugees, settle them, employ them, and turn them into hardworking loyal citizens just like we have done with millions of immigrants in the past. Even if a few ISIS crazies slip in with them, the bulk of them will buy into America, and tip the cops off to any terrorists hiding in their midst.
It's worked before, and I bet it will work again.
Thursday, December 10, 2015
Strategy, as opposed to tactics.
Strategy is the highest level of planning and directing a war. Tactics is concerned with how to win an engagement with the enemy. For instance, at the Casablanca conference in WWII, President Roosevelt announced that the allied war aim was "Unconditional Surrender". That was strategic. It surprised our allies the British, and it shocked the German enemy. But it told the American voters, whose unflinching support for the war was essential, that the administration was not fooling around, and that we would not settle for the sort of half measures that followed WWI. Other strategic decisions of WWII were the decision to do Germany first, and the decision to invade North Africa.
Tactical decisions, are of a lower level. For instance, George Washington when he crossed the Delaware, fearing that his colonial militiamen might not be able to stand up to Hessian regulars, brought eighteen guns across the river with his infantry. When battle was joined American artillery superiority quickly decided things. That is an example of a tactical decision.
By my way of thinking, current day discussions about boots on the ground, is a tactical discussion, it is not strategic. The strategic discussion, which we have not had, is what should we do about ISIS and middle east insurgency under any name they select. We could ignore them and hope they go away or die out. We could embargo them, cut off their oil sales, access to the banking system, commercial air transport, and all imports. We could bomb them, either lightly, or back to stone age. We could infiltrate political operatives, or a modern day Lawrence of Arabia, and attempt to raise a revolution against ISIS. We could invade and occupy the ISIS lands. Or some other option that has not occured to me. These are strategic issues.
Whether to deploy American troops is a tactical decision. I only see American troops necessary if we decide to invade and occupy the ISIS lands. The lesser strategic options could be done without US troops.
Our country would be better off by first deciding upon a strategy, rounding up the political support for the strategy, and executing it. So far, nobody, Obama, the media, the Congress, the pundits, not even Rush Limbaugh, has said a word about strategy. We don't have one.
Tactical decisions, are of a lower level. For instance, George Washington when he crossed the Delaware, fearing that his colonial militiamen might not be able to stand up to Hessian regulars, brought eighteen guns across the river with his infantry. When battle was joined American artillery superiority quickly decided things. That is an example of a tactical decision.
By my way of thinking, current day discussions about boots on the ground, is a tactical discussion, it is not strategic. The strategic discussion, which we have not had, is what should we do about ISIS and middle east insurgency under any name they select. We could ignore them and hope they go away or die out. We could embargo them, cut off their oil sales, access to the banking system, commercial air transport, and all imports. We could bomb them, either lightly, or back to stone age. We could infiltrate political operatives, or a modern day Lawrence of Arabia, and attempt to raise a revolution against ISIS. We could invade and occupy the ISIS lands. Or some other option that has not occured to me. These are strategic issues.
Whether to deploy American troops is a tactical decision. I only see American troops necessary if we decide to invade and occupy the ISIS lands. The lesser strategic options could be done without US troops.
Our country would be better off by first deciding upon a strategy, rounding up the political support for the strategy, and executing it. So far, nobody, Obama, the media, the Congress, the pundits, not even Rush Limbaugh, has said a word about strategy. We don't have one.
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