It went on and on. Sessions came across as a decent guy. Three or four bunches of demonstrators were "escourted" out of the room for yelling and waving signs. They apparently got into the hearing room as spectators. I wonder how that happened. You would think the limited number of tickets to these hearings would go to newsies, politicians, and important citizens. How there were tickets left for scruffy looking demonstrators? Who knows.
A number of questions about policy were asked. I would have answered them thusly, "The attorney general enforces the laws on the books. If you don't like the current law, and judging by your questions you don't like current law, then pass another law. But as attorney general I must enforce the laws on the books, not laws you wish were on the books." Sessions didn't use this reply, which is one reason he is up for attorney general and I am not. .
Wednesday, January 11, 2017
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
Everything gets more expensive, Children and Pets
Two items from the Wall St Journal today.
1. They figure it costs $230,000 to raise a child today. That's without allowing for college tuition. Wow! I raised three children, all the way to adulthood. I didn't keep records so I don't know just what I spent, but somehow I don't think it was as bad $230K per child. Hell, I had to pay $160K per child for college educations. We didn't scrimp, we sent two of them to Westtown School, and one to Buckingham Brown and Nicholls, we took 'em skiing, sent 'em to summer camp. Worth every penny, they all turned out fine, and are a great comfort in my old age.
2. A graph showing US spending on pets, going from just under $30 billion back in 2001 to just over $60 billion today. Again Wow! A second graph broke down 2016 pet spending as $16 billion on vet bills, $24 billion on pet food, and $16 billion on pet medicines and stuff. I have a cat, very nice beast, and I feed it the $3.50 a bag cheapo dry cat food rather than the $12 a bag fancy dry cat food. Cat doesn't seem to care.
I have to wonder if either of those numbers is real.
1. They figure it costs $230,000 to raise a child today. That's without allowing for college tuition. Wow! I raised three children, all the way to adulthood. I didn't keep records so I don't know just what I spent, but somehow I don't think it was as bad $230K per child. Hell, I had to pay $160K per child for college educations. We didn't scrimp, we sent two of them to Westtown School, and one to Buckingham Brown and Nicholls, we took 'em skiing, sent 'em to summer camp. Worth every penny, they all turned out fine, and are a great comfort in my old age.
2. A graph showing US spending on pets, going from just under $30 billion back in 2001 to just over $60 billion today. Again Wow! A second graph broke down 2016 pet spending as $16 billion on vet bills, $24 billion on pet food, and $16 billion on pet medicines and stuff. I have a cat, very nice beast, and I feed it the $3.50 a bag cheapo dry cat food rather than the $12 a bag fancy dry cat food. Cat doesn't seem to care.
I have to wonder if either of those numbers is real.
Monday, January 9, 2017
About that Florida Airport shooter
Apparently the lawyers don't charge anyone with murder anymore. The Florida shooter was arranged in court today and charged with a laundry list of obscure crimes that I had never heard of, not not murder. To my way of thinking, shooting five people dead in baggage claim is five counts of murder. Lawyers of course live in their own little world. They didn't charge Dylan Roof with murder either.
And this perp walked into an FBI office in Alaska and said he was hearing voices in his head. Now that's gotta be a tip off to even the dumbest cop that this suspect has a screw loose. So our valiant FBI, instead of dealing with the matter themselves, passes the buck to the local cops, who take the nut case to a mental hospital. Where some shrink, confronted with a real live homicidal maniac who hears voices in his head, decides he is harmless and turns him loose. They ever give him his gun back. I wonder who that highly trained and experienced shrink was. And why the shrink was unable to recognize a homicidal nut case when presented with one. If we learned the name of this shrink, maybe the next time the shrink will commit the nut case rather than turning him loose. It also would be nice to learn the name of the mental hospital involved. There was a serious screwup here and the society would be better off for castigating those derelict in their duty.
And a final observation. If the passengers at Florida have been allowed to carry heat, they would have saved some lives, maybe not all, but enough.
And this perp walked into an FBI office in Alaska and said he was hearing voices in his head. Now that's gotta be a tip off to even the dumbest cop that this suspect has a screw loose. So our valiant FBI, instead of dealing with the matter themselves, passes the buck to the local cops, who take the nut case to a mental hospital. Where some shrink, confronted with a real live homicidal maniac who hears voices in his head, decides he is harmless and turns him loose. They ever give him his gun back. I wonder who that highly trained and experienced shrink was. And why the shrink was unable to recognize a homicidal nut case when presented with one. If we learned the name of this shrink, maybe the next time the shrink will commit the nut case rather than turning him loose. It also would be nice to learn the name of the mental hospital involved. There was a serious screwup here and the society would be better off for castigating those derelict in their duty.
And a final observation. If the passengers at Florida have been allowed to carry heat, they would have saved some lives, maybe not all, but enough.
The paperwork isn't done
So Congressional democrats are saying on TV this morning, regarding the men and women Trump has picked for his administration. And who need "advice and consent" of the Senate.
Of course, the paperwork is never done. Bureaucrats and Congresscritters always invent more paperwork. Was I a democrat, I'd be inventing new paperwork to slow things down and new hoops to jump thru.
Of course, the paperwork is never done. Bureaucrats and Congresscritters always invent more paperwork. Was I a democrat, I'd be inventing new paperwork to slow things down and new hoops to jump thru.
Sunday, January 8, 2017
The reproducibility crisis in science
American scientists pour forth a formidable Niagara of scientific papers every year. Generous federal research money, grants, and the pressure on university professors to publish or perish, help to increase the flow of papers.
Unfortunately, a high percentage of this flood of papers, cannot be reproduced. When other scientists attempt to obtain the same results in their lab, they cannot do it. The results claimed in the paper simply cannot be reproduced by others. In science, if the results cannot be reproduced, they must be considered quackery. Not science but B***S***.
I experienced the reproducibility problem myself some years ago. Working on a new medical device product, I consulted the literature looking for ways to do what we needed to do. I found one, it did what we needed, and I coded it up. And it worked. It's just that it didn't work as well as the author claimed. In fact my realization of the process was exactly 50% low. The author had claimed twice the performance I was able to obtain in our lab. Eventually I telephoned the author to ask him for advice. After a few minutes of conversation, the author somewhat sheepishly admitted that he had left out a factor in his computations, and yes, the algorithm only worked at half the claimed performance. Damn. After wasting a good deal of time, I would have done better using the standard Huffman coding algorithm.
And, just the other day, the Wall St Journal ran an op ed claiming that all the important medical advances have been made by privately funded research at the big drug companies. National Institute of Health funding, although ample, had not produced anything of clinical use.
Somebody ought to do a study of the effectiveness of federally funded research. Go back a lot of years. Tot up the amount of money spent, the number of papers published, and the number of products based on one of the papers that actually made it to market.
Unfortunately, a high percentage of this flood of papers, cannot be reproduced. When other scientists attempt to obtain the same results in their lab, they cannot do it. The results claimed in the paper simply cannot be reproduced by others. In science, if the results cannot be reproduced, they must be considered quackery. Not science but B***S***.
I experienced the reproducibility problem myself some years ago. Working on a new medical device product, I consulted the literature looking for ways to do what we needed to do. I found one, it did what we needed, and I coded it up. And it worked. It's just that it didn't work as well as the author claimed. In fact my realization of the process was exactly 50% low. The author had claimed twice the performance I was able to obtain in our lab. Eventually I telephoned the author to ask him for advice. After a few minutes of conversation, the author somewhat sheepishly admitted that he had left out a factor in his computations, and yes, the algorithm only worked at half the claimed performance. Damn. After wasting a good deal of time, I would have done better using the standard Huffman coding algorithm.
And, just the other day, the Wall St Journal ran an op ed claiming that all the important medical advances have been made by privately funded research at the big drug companies. National Institute of Health funding, although ample, had not produced anything of clinical use.
Somebody ought to do a study of the effectiveness of federally funded research. Go back a lot of years. Tot up the amount of money spent, the number of papers published, and the number of products based on one of the papers that actually made it to market.
Saturday, January 7, 2017
Words of the Weasel Part 50
"Anti-Zionism". Lefties use this word to describe their feelings about Israel. But in the real world, it means the same as antisemitism. Nobody wants to admit to antisemitism in this day and age, so they thunk up a new word that they hope isn't as offensive, while still meaning antisemitism.
Friday, January 6, 2017
Shed a tear for Sears Roebuck
The Wall St Journal reports that Sears is selling its Craftsman brand of tools to Stanley/Black & Decker. And Sears is selling off a bunch of stores, both Kmart and Sears, and borrowing wads of money. Sounds like poor old Sears Roebuck is not long for this world. Too bad. Way back when, (1950's) Sears was the biggest US retailer, with good big stores in every town and every mall. Back in the day, Sears was best known as a hardware store, Craftsman tools and Kenmore kitchen appliances. As a young hot rodder in the the 50's, when I had a 1/2" drive Craftsman socket set and sets of Craftsman wrenches (open end, box end and combination) I was set in the tool department. Craftsman was a good as you could get, with the famous "You break it and we will replace it free" guarantee. In my home shop today, most of my tools, hand and power, are still Craftsman, many of them still running happily and going on 50 years old.
Dunno what happened to Sears to sink it so deep. I suppose a lot of Walmart's and Target's and Lowes' and Home Depot's growth has been at Sears expense. Sears used to sell nothing but house brands, Craftsman,m Diehard, and Kenmore being as well regarded as anything on the market, with J.C. Higgins, Silvertone, Homart, and Dunlap being not so great. Sears used to give a lot of floor space to clothing, but I never remember Sears clothing being all that cool.
Somewhere I suppose there is a business book describing how Sears went down the drain, but I haven't seen it.
Dunno what happened to Sears to sink it so deep. I suppose a lot of Walmart's and Target's and Lowes' and Home Depot's growth has been at Sears expense. Sears used to sell nothing but house brands, Craftsman,m Diehard, and Kenmore being as well regarded as anything on the market, with J.C. Higgins, Silvertone, Homart, and Dunlap being not so great. Sears used to give a lot of floor space to clothing, but I never remember Sears clothing being all that cool.
Somewhere I suppose there is a business book describing how Sears went down the drain, but I haven't seen it.
Thursday, January 5, 2017
Cyber Hacking Congressional Hearing.
It was carried live on Fox News. We had Sen John McCain, Whatshisface Director of National Intelligence and a cast of 1000's. After three hours, nobody had said anything important, or even in real English. They all agreed that we need more cyber security without ever mentioning Windows, the OS with a big "Hack Me" sign taped on its back. Thanks Micro$oft.
And we have Obamacare forcing doctors to computerize patient's medical records so that they can be hacked more easily.
And we have Obamacare forcing doctors to computerize patient's medical records so that they can be hacked more easily.
Wednesday, January 4, 2017
Right to Work will bring jobs to NH
Now that NH has a Republican governor to sign a right-to-work law, maybe we could pass one. Why do we care? Simple. No Right to Work, no corporate investment. No factories, warehouses, ternimals, help centers, nothing. If the state isn't right to work, companies go elsewhere. NH needs investment to create jobs. Every June, we see all our new high school and college graduates leave the state to find decent paying work. I'll grant that NH has a low unemployment rate, but that's largely because the unemployed, being hard working New Hampsters, leave the state to find work, rather that drawing welfare.
To create jobs, we need someone, corporations mostly, to build factories and other facilities. And we need to attract corporations to expand in NH. If we passed right to work, we would be the ONLY right to work state for 500 miles in every direction. There has got to be companies that need a facility in the Northeast. If NH was right to work, all those facilities would be built in NH.
To create jobs, we need someone, corporations mostly, to build factories and other facilities. And we need to attract corporations to expand in NH. If we passed right to work, we would be the ONLY right to work state for 500 miles in every direction. There has got to be companies that need a facility in the Northeast. If NH was right to work, all those facilities would be built in NH.
Disappointment: Museum of the American Indian
The Smithsonian opened this one a while ago, but it's still pretty new in my book. The building architecture is strange, no style known to me, does not suggest any sort of Indian architecture, an odd colored yellow stone facing, a fine location right on the Mall.
Collections were mediocre to poor. The Inca floor had only a few nondescript earth colored pots. A lot of stuff from the twentieth century. Dating was vague. The older things were all dated 1432-1547. The modern stuff was mostly dated 1960-2000. You would think they could date things more closely than +/- fifty years. And the curators flunk spelling. They spell Inca with a K. Consistently.
And it's pretty political for a museum. As everyone knows, there are a lot of Indian groups with grievances against the white man. A lot of such groups had posters or even whole displays supporting their points of view. Your tax dollars at work.
Collections were mediocre to poor. The Inca floor had only a few nondescript earth colored pots. A lot of stuff from the twentieth century. Dating was vague. The older things were all dated 1432-1547. The modern stuff was mostly dated 1960-2000. You would think they could date things more closely than +/- fifty years. And the curators flunk spelling. They spell Inca with a K. Consistently.
And it's pretty political for a museum. As everyone knows, there are a lot of Indian groups with grievances against the white man. A lot of such groups had posters or even whole displays supporting their points of view. Your tax dollars at work.
Tuesday, January 3, 2017
Shoot down the NORK missile launch?
Pudgy NORK dictator Kim Jung whats-his-face is threatening an ICBM test launch of a missile that could reach the US with a nuclear warhead in a few days.
Today's Wall St Journal suggests that we ought to shoot it down. The Journal would have a Navy Aegius cruiser standing off shore put a SAM thru the NORK missile as it boosts up.
Not a bad idea.
If I was doing it, I would have an Air Force AC-130 gunship orbit the launch pad and ventilate the NORK missile with 20mm Vulcan cannon fire. This would need some fighter escort against NORK fighters, and some Wild Weasel support against NORK SAMs, but it's doable. The strike force could assemble out to sea, over international waters, and fly into NORK airspace only after intelligence positively located the missile standing on the pad. North Korea isn't all that big and a strike force flying at 400 knots can be anywhere inside North Korea in no time at all.
Today's Wall St Journal suggests that we ought to shoot it down. The Journal would have a Navy Aegius cruiser standing off shore put a SAM thru the NORK missile as it boosts up.
Not a bad idea.
If I was doing it, I would have an Air Force AC-130 gunship orbit the launch pad and ventilate the NORK missile with 20mm Vulcan cannon fire. This would need some fighter escort against NORK fighters, and some Wild Weasel support against NORK SAMs, but it's doable. The strike force could assemble out to sea, over international waters, and fly into NORK airspace only after intelligence positively located the missile standing on the pad. North Korea isn't all that big and a strike force flying at 400 knots can be anywhere inside North Korea in no time at all.
What to do about Obamacare?
Obamacare is a disaster. The costs it lays on business has stalled hiring, stalled expansion, and generally slowed the economy. Obamacare is one of the reasons for the miserable 1% growth of GNP in the Obama years. GNP growth used to be 3.5% back before Obama. Obamacare along with some other misguided Obama policies knocked it down to 1%. That's not enough growth to offer employment to match our population growth let along reduce unemployment and raise wages.
And, the US spends too darn much on healthcare. We spend 19% of GNP on healthcare, where as all the other countries in the world only spend half that. And US health is no better than many other countries who spend much much less. This means that US exports have to be priced 19% higher than direct manufacturing cost, just to pay for the workers healthcare. Whereas our international competitors, places like Japan, the EU, South Korea, even Canada, only have to mark their products up 9.5% That's a crippling price disadvantage in the marketplace. And it drives US companies to move operations overseas to avoid US healthcare costs.
The Obamacare law is some 10,000 pages long. Nobody can read 10,000 pages of legal gobble-de-gook and understand it, even if it doesn't drive them mad. Trump needs to repeal all 10,000 pages just to eliminate surprise clauses springing to life and doing badness. Modifications or amendments are a slippery slope that open the door to all sorts of crookedness. Trump needs to kill the whole thing, root and branch. If there are parts of Obamacare that people want to keep, pass them as new laws and Trump will sign them.
Most Americans (say 80%)get their healthcare insurance thru their employers, or from Medicare after they retire. Obamacare only helped the self-employed, and the medium poor, the extremely poor get Medicaid. First thing to do is to increase competition by allowing interstate sale of health insurance. Any insurance company, based in any state, should have the right to sell insurance in all 50 states, WITHOUT doing any paperwork anywhere except in their home state. Right now, to sell insurance in any state, the insurance company is required to do a couple of tons of paperwork for the state "regulators". For small rural states (like NH) most insurers just don't bother, the market ain't that worthwhile. Which is why we only have two companies offering insurance up here. Allow interstate sales and we would get more choices and better prices.
Then to curb drug price ripoffs, $800 Epipens and $100 pills, we need to allow duty free import of drugs from any first world country, Canada, the EU, Japan and places like that. Any drug the authorities of a first world country have approved can be imported, even if the US FDA hasn't approved them yet. FDA will scream and cry, and so will big Pharma, but too bad.
And, the US spends too darn much on healthcare. We spend 19% of GNP on healthcare, where as all the other countries in the world only spend half that. And US health is no better than many other countries who spend much much less. This means that US exports have to be priced 19% higher than direct manufacturing cost, just to pay for the workers healthcare. Whereas our international competitors, places like Japan, the EU, South Korea, even Canada, only have to mark their products up 9.5% That's a crippling price disadvantage in the marketplace. And it drives US companies to move operations overseas to avoid US healthcare costs.
The Obamacare law is some 10,000 pages long. Nobody can read 10,000 pages of legal gobble-de-gook and understand it, even if it doesn't drive them mad. Trump needs to repeal all 10,000 pages just to eliminate surprise clauses springing to life and doing badness. Modifications or amendments are a slippery slope that open the door to all sorts of crookedness. Trump needs to kill the whole thing, root and branch. If there are parts of Obamacare that people want to keep, pass them as new laws and Trump will sign them.
Most Americans (say 80%)get their healthcare insurance thru their employers, or from Medicare after they retire. Obamacare only helped the self-employed, and the medium poor, the extremely poor get Medicaid. First thing to do is to increase competition by allowing interstate sale of health insurance. Any insurance company, based in any state, should have the right to sell insurance in all 50 states, WITHOUT doing any paperwork anywhere except in their home state. Right now, to sell insurance in any state, the insurance company is required to do a couple of tons of paperwork for the state "regulators". For small rural states (like NH) most insurers just don't bother, the market ain't that worthwhile. Which is why we only have two companies offering insurance up here. Allow interstate sales and we would get more choices and better prices.
Then to curb drug price ripoffs, $800 Epipens and $100 pills, we need to allow duty free import of drugs from any first world country, Canada, the EU, Japan and places like that. Any drug the authorities of a first world country have approved can be imported, even if the US FDA hasn't approved them yet. FDA will scream and cry, and so will big Pharma, but too bad.
Monday, January 2, 2017
Did Snowden have a "Need to Know"?
You gotta blame NSA for first of all, not checking Snowden's background before issuing him a security clearance. You would think a simple background check would have turned up evidence of flakiness. Back when I got a Top Secret clearance, the FBI followed up and interviewed my references. I do remember going back to my high school reunion and running into old Fred Swan, teacher of physics, swim team coach, and all around decent man. Fred says to me, "Did you know the FBI has been around asking about you?" I wonder if they did the same for Snowden.
Second of all, for granting him access to so much stuff. We used to have a doctrine of "Need-to-Know". You didn't get to see classified material unless you had a clearance, AND, a need to know the information.
Seems like NSA gave Snowden free run over all their classified. And I never did hear just what Snowden was supposed to be doing on the job. Other than passing every thing to the Russians.
Second of all, for granting him access to so much stuff. We used to have a doctrine of "Need-to-Know". You didn't get to see classified material unless you had a clearance, AND, a need to know the information.
Seems like NSA gave Snowden free run over all their classified. And I never did hear just what Snowden was supposed to be doing on the job. Other than passing every thing to the Russians.
Sunday, January 1, 2017
Obama tries to delegitimize Trump with Russians
Obama is making this big Russian hacking fuss to make Trump's election win seem illegitimate. He is saying that Trump would not have won with out help from Russian scumbags. Obama came out on TV and blamed the Russians for the Democratic National Committee hacks and claimed they tipped the election to Trump. Trump went on TV and pooh-poohed the Russians-did-the-hack theory. And surprise, surprise, the voters believed Trump's story rather than Obama's. Even when Obama claimed the CIA and 17 other intelligence agencies support the Russians-did-it story, the public has real doubts about the intelligence and honesty of CIA and 17 other faceless intelligence agencies.
So Obama declared 35 Russian "diplomats" to be persons non grata and must leave the country ASAP. I'm thinking Obama did that to support the Russians-did-it story rather than to make the Russians smart.
And for a side effect, it might make President Trump's dealing with the Russians harder in the future. That makes it a twofer.
I will grant that the DNC hacks and the Podesta email hack didn't help Hillary, but I won't think they were decisive. The Hillary private server, which was outed by the New York Times, hurt Hillary more.
So Obama declared 35 Russian "diplomats" to be persons non grata and must leave the country ASAP. I'm thinking Obama did that to support the Russians-did-it story rather than to make the Russians smart.
And for a side effect, it might make President Trump's dealing with the Russians harder in the future. That makes it a twofer.
I will grant that the DNC hacks and the Podesta email hack didn't help Hillary, but I won't think they were decisive. The Hillary private server, which was outed by the New York Times, hurt Hillary more.
Happy New Year
Things to be thankful for. The endless election is finally OVER. Maybe in a few more weeks the MSM will figure that out too. And the Republicans won. Hallelujah. And old 2016 may be the year the MSM finally blew it and people no longer believe what they say. And I'm gonna miss Carrie Fisher. She put a lot of life into the Star Wars movies.
Things to hope for. Economic recovery in the US. 1% GNP growth is miserable and just this side of Great Depression. Let's do better in 2017.
Things to hope for. Economic recovery in the US. 1% GNP growth is miserable and just this side of Great Depression. Let's do better in 2017.
Saturday, December 31, 2016
Traveling for Christmas
This year, a breakthru in family Christmas tradition. Instead of all the children coming home to my place, I went down to spend the holidays with daughter Karen in DC. Due to the load of Christmas presents, including a cradle for the coming child, dislike for air travel, and desire to have the car with us in DC, we drove down from NH.
Looks to me like the infrastructure between here and DC is a pretty good shape. Even clapped out New York has down some work on the Cross Bronx expressway (I95) and the potholes are filled. Looks like they resurfaced it. Still a lot of medium bad chuckholes between the Connecticut border and the Bronx. New York is still the infrastructure fail in the North East. I'm thinking all the happy infrastructure talk on TV is coming from New Yorkers like Trump, who only see New York roads. And maybe DC roads, DC has a fine herd of chuckholes and waterbars so bad I feared for my suspension. Fortunately the Buick is pretty tough and nothing broke. NJ has finished widening out the NH Turnpike. The twelve lane wide part now is usable all the way to Philadelphia.
And the NJ tolls are fierce. The GW bridge toll is now $15. The NJ Turnpike toll from the bridge to Philadelphia was $11.80. Then with the Del Mem bridge ($4), the Del TP toll ($4), the Maryland TP toll ($4) and the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel Toll ($8) toll money is getting up closer to gas money.
Noticed a whole bunch of new pricey electric signs flashing harmless platitudes. More infrastructure money at work. And the shiny new mile markers, every 0.2 miles are spreading, like kudzu. Wanna bet each one of those mile markers costs us taxpayers $100 to buy and plant?
Daughter's DC neighbor hood is coming up. New condo's for yuppies under construction. They finally got the trendy H Street trolley car to run. Took 'em five profitable years. Everybody loves it, it's quaint, and it's free since they haven't figured out how to collect fares in cars with front and back doors. At least so says Daughter. The new cars have TWO, not one but TWO hinges in them to allow the car to handle tight curves. That's two hinged sections to leak rainwater. When the Boston T, with the sharpest curves in the nation, bought new cars from Boeing Vertol, they only needed one hinged section. And the hinge has leaked rainwater onto passengers for 20-30 years now. By the Way, the H Street trolley line runs straight as an arrow, no curves at all.
Looks to me like the infrastructure between here and DC is a pretty good shape. Even clapped out New York has down some work on the Cross Bronx expressway (I95) and the potholes are filled. Looks like they resurfaced it. Still a lot of medium bad chuckholes between the Connecticut border and the Bronx. New York is still the infrastructure fail in the North East. I'm thinking all the happy infrastructure talk on TV is coming from New Yorkers like Trump, who only see New York roads. And maybe DC roads, DC has a fine herd of chuckholes and waterbars so bad I feared for my suspension. Fortunately the Buick is pretty tough and nothing broke. NJ has finished widening out the NH Turnpike. The twelve lane wide part now is usable all the way to Philadelphia.
And the NJ tolls are fierce. The GW bridge toll is now $15. The NJ Turnpike toll from the bridge to Philadelphia was $11.80. Then with the Del Mem bridge ($4), the Del TP toll ($4), the Maryland TP toll ($4) and the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel Toll ($8) toll money is getting up closer to gas money.
Noticed a whole bunch of new pricey electric signs flashing harmless platitudes. More infrastructure money at work. And the shiny new mile markers, every 0.2 miles are spreading, like kudzu. Wanna bet each one of those mile markers costs us taxpayers $100 to buy and plant?
Daughter's DC neighbor hood is coming up. New condo's for yuppies under construction. They finally got the trendy H Street trolley car to run. Took 'em five profitable years. Everybody loves it, it's quaint, and it's free since they haven't figured out how to collect fares in cars with front and back doors. At least so says Daughter. The new cars have TWO, not one but TWO hinges in them to allow the car to handle tight curves. That's two hinged sections to leak rainwater. When the Boston T, with the sharpest curves in the nation, bought new cars from Boeing Vertol, they only needed one hinged section. And the hinge has leaked rainwater onto passengers for 20-30 years now. By the Way, the H Street trolley line runs straight as an arrow, no curves at all.
Monday, December 26, 2016
Rogue One, The New Star Wars movie
Saw it today in the Smithsonian Air & Space museum Imax theater. Nice big screen , good sound system, good seats. It was in an annoying three D, glasses required. This three D system had a terrible depth of field problem. Everything in the foreground or background was really blurry, only the middle ground was sharp. PITA. Camera work was only fair, too many superquick shots, cut too fast. Too many scenes poorly lit.
Other than that, it was a decent flick, Better than the last one, far better than the three followon movies. The story is set before the time of the first Star Wars (A New Hope) and has a whole new set of characters, no reviving of the old traditional cast,except Darth Vader. The story line is the Rebel Alliance obtaining the Death Star plans that Luke and Leia will deliver in A New Hope. We have a dynamic and pretty heroine, Jinn sonething-or-other who has a good role and plays it well. We have a handsome hero, whose name escapes me, (whole flick was weak on names) who has a good role but Jinn has a better one. We have a blind and somewhat crazy Jedi master who is into whacking down Storm Troopers with a staff. We have a big ugly mercenary, with a heart of gold and a taste for heavy weapons. And a big long armed long legged Droid with a sense of humor. Lots of booms amd blasts and space combat and special effects, all nicely done. The flick keeps things moving and isn't too long.
A good Christmas flick.
Other than that, it was a decent flick, Better than the last one, far better than the three followon movies. The story is set before the time of the first Star Wars (A New Hope) and has a whole new set of characters, no reviving of the old traditional cast,except Darth Vader. The story line is the Rebel Alliance obtaining the Death Star plans that Luke and Leia will deliver in A New Hope. We have a dynamic and pretty heroine, Jinn sonething-or-other who has a good role and plays it well. We have a handsome hero, whose name escapes me, (whole flick was weak on names) who has a good role but Jinn has a better one. We have a blind and somewhat crazy Jedi master who is into whacking down Storm Troopers with a staff. We have a big ugly mercenary, with a heart of gold and a taste for heavy weapons. And a big long armed long legged Droid with a sense of humor. Lots of booms amd blasts and space combat and special effects, all nicely done. The flick keeps things moving and isn't too long.
A good Christmas flick.
Friday, December 23, 2016
On the road for Christmas
Posting may be a little thin, perhaps nonexistent for Christmas week. I am going to spend the holidays with my children, and may not get around to posting til I get back.
Rehashing Ancient History on NHPR
Way back in 1953, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were tried, convicted and executed for passing the secret of the atomic bomb to the Russians. As far as the judge and the jury were concerned, the Rosenbergs had given the secret of the ultimate weapon to our mortal enemies. The Left (we called them communists back then) in those days called the Rosenbergs innocent victims of a judicial murder. In later years declassification of the "Venoma Papers", intercepted communications between the Soviet embassy and Moscow, showed the Rosenbergs guilt.
And so, better than 60 years later, NHPR ran a lengthy piece, rehashing the whole affair. Apparently there are two Rosenburg children, still alive, who are petitioning Obama to posthumously pardon Ethel Rosenberg, their mother. They feel she is innocent, and apparently, since they are only asking in her name, they finally think Julius, their father, was guilty as charged.
I'm so glad NHPR brought this bit of ancient history back to life, and as befits NHPR's rather lefty stance, they give the Rosenbergs a very sympathetic treatment.
And so, better than 60 years later, NHPR ran a lengthy piece, rehashing the whole affair. Apparently there are two Rosenburg children, still alive, who are petitioning Obama to posthumously pardon Ethel Rosenberg, their mother. They feel she is innocent, and apparently, since they are only asking in her name, they finally think Julius, their father, was guilty as charged.
I'm so glad NHPR brought this bit of ancient history back to life, and as befits NHPR's rather lefty stance, they give the Rosenbergs a very sympathetic treatment.
Wednesday, December 21, 2016
Executive Action by Tom Clancy
I wonder if Donald Trump has read it? In this novel, Tom Clancy's hero, Jack Ryan, becomes President of the US. Ryan receives plenty of sage advice on how the Presidency works, and the good guys win in the end. Plenty of US political ideas get tossed around, and in some cases nailed to the carpet. It's a fun read.
Should you warm up your car engine in winter?
Popular Mechanics and Road & Track are saying "NO!" I say yes. In proper cold weather, say below zero, your engine oil gets stiff and sticky. The oil pump may be be able to force enough thick and sticky cold oil thru the engine bearings to prevent damage to the engine. And, the defroster won't throw any heat til the engine warms up.
What you ought to do, is give the engine 20-30 seconds at idle to get the deep chill off it. Then drive away gently, no foot to the floor acceleration, until the temp gauge gets up somewhere near normal, or the defroster starts throwing a little heat. Takes a few minutes and then all is well.
There is no need to leave the car idling for 10-20-30 minutes before driving it, but you do want to keep your foot out of it until the engine is warm.
What you ought to do, is give the engine 20-30 seconds at idle to get the deep chill off it. Then drive away gently, no foot to the floor acceleration, until the temp gauge gets up somewhere near normal, or the defroster starts throwing a little heat. Takes a few minutes and then all is well.
There is no need to leave the car idling for 10-20-30 minutes before driving it, but you do want to keep your foot out of it until the engine is warm.
Tuesday, December 20, 2016
The NRA counts coup
The new American Rifleman magazine, the NRA house organ, got to me today. In it, the NRA leadership spent several pages patting themselves on the back for Donald Trump's win. NRA backed Trump from the very beginning and are overjoyed at his win.
Aside from a few Democrats bad mouthing the NRA, the MSM hasn't let out a peep about how effective they were. Actually, the NRA has several million dues paying members, mostly single issue, support of second amendment voters. The NRA magazine goes to all of them. Every election American Rifleman will have a two page center spread, listing every office in each state, from US senator down to dogcatcher, and naming all the candidates, and giving each candidate a grade, A thru F, on where they stand on the second amendment. The membership reads the magazine and finds it highly credible, much more so than any of the MSM.
I'm thinking that several million motivated single issue voters swung more weight in the election than anything the Russians could even think of doing. Funny that the MSM never writes about it. Probably the MSM writers are all city boys who don't like guns.
Aside from a few Democrats bad mouthing the NRA, the MSM hasn't let out a peep about how effective they were. Actually, the NRA has several million dues paying members, mostly single issue, support of second amendment voters. The NRA magazine goes to all of them. Every election American Rifleman will have a two page center spread, listing every office in each state, from US senator down to dogcatcher, and naming all the candidates, and giving each candidate a grade, A thru F, on where they stand on the second amendment. The membership reads the magazine and finds it highly credible, much more so than any of the MSM.
I'm thinking that several million motivated single issue voters swung more weight in the election than anything the Russians could even think of doing. Funny that the MSM never writes about it. Probably the MSM writers are all city boys who don't like guns.
How "Identity Politics" failed Clinton
"Identity Politics" as played by Hillary, amounted to identifying some group[s], blacks, women, Hispanics, LGBT, and others, naming them, and asking them to vote for Hillary. Some did, just being named is powerful, but many did not, because Hillary never addressed their wants and grievances. She just asked for the votes. No quid pro quo. No campaign promises.
In some cases, the "identity group" wants something repellent to the rest of the country. Hispanics want easier immigration and a path to citizenship for the illegals allready in the country. This is anathema to large number of regular voters. Women want free contraceptives and abortion on demand which is anathema to large numbers of voters.
To do "indentity politics" well, you need some genuine members of the group, leaders, come out and campaign for you. Hillary didn't have any prominent blacks, hispanics or LGBTs on TV, calling for Hillary's election. Actually The Donald did better in this respect. He had Ben Carson, a highly respected black man, come out and publicly support him.
My advice to the Democrats in the aftermath of this year's election, is to go back to political basics, come up with a party platform, that states issues, that actually mean something real to voters. This requires some head banging within the party to accept some controversial issues. What to do about pipelines and transmission lines, oil exploration, charter schools, taxes, law enforcement, and more are all controversial inside the Democratic party. One reason Hillary never campaigned on any of them is that doing so would have brought a storm of criticism down on her from the numerous opponents of each and every issue.
In some cases, the "identity group" wants something repellent to the rest of the country. Hispanics want easier immigration and a path to citizenship for the illegals allready in the country. This is anathema to large number of regular voters. Women want free contraceptives and abortion on demand which is anathema to large numbers of voters.
To do "indentity politics" well, you need some genuine members of the group, leaders, come out and campaign for you. Hillary didn't have any prominent blacks, hispanics or LGBTs on TV, calling for Hillary's election. Actually The Donald did better in this respect. He had Ben Carson, a highly respected black man, come out and publicly support him.
My advice to the Democrats in the aftermath of this year's election, is to go back to political basics, come up with a party platform, that states issues, that actually mean something real to voters. This requires some head banging within the party to accept some controversial issues. What to do about pipelines and transmission lines, oil exploration, charter schools, taxes, law enforcement, and more are all controversial inside the Democratic party. One reason Hillary never campaigned on any of them is that doing so would have brought a storm of criticism down on her from the numerous opponents of each and every issue.
Sunday, December 18, 2016
Companies need to train their employees
Companies are wailing that they cannot find workers with the right skills to fill some 5 million job openings. Stop wailing. Hire some likely young guys (and girls). Run 'em thru a training course, on company time and on payroll. Flunk out a few losers, and in a few months you have all the new skilled workers you might need.
But, after we spend money on training them, they quit and go to work for our competitors. That mean you aren't treating them right, not enough pay and benefits, or an unpleasant work environment (dirty dingy shop, nasty foremen, crummy hours, and other things)
The public schools need to teach the three Rs, reading riting, and 'rithmetic. It's unreasonable to expect them to teach CNC machining, vapor reflow soldering, digital signal processing, use of logic analyzers, operation of bulldozers and backhoes. This sort of specialized state of the art technology must be taught by industry, not public high school. Let the schools teach fundamental things of use anywhere and let companies teach their special technologies.
Judging by the corporate whining about lack of suitably trained workers, I don't think many American companies understand this.
But, after we spend money on training them, they quit and go to work for our competitors. That mean you aren't treating them right, not enough pay and benefits, or an unpleasant work environment (dirty dingy shop, nasty foremen, crummy hours, and other things)
The public schools need to teach the three Rs, reading riting, and 'rithmetic. It's unreasonable to expect them to teach CNC machining, vapor reflow soldering, digital signal processing, use of logic analyzers, operation of bulldozers and backhoes. This sort of specialized state of the art technology must be taught by industry, not public high school. Let the schools teach fundamental things of use anywhere and let companies teach their special technologies.
Judging by the corporate whining about lack of suitably trained workers, I don't think many American companies understand this.
Saturday, December 17, 2016
What does CIA know about hacks and hacking?
Probably very little. CIA's history is not encouraging. They failed to predict the breakup of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s. They spent eight years attempting to destabilize the Bush administration with embarrassing leaks and the Valery Plame affair. They claimed the Iranians had closed down their nuclear weapons program. They failed to warn of 9/11. They still have their agents working out of US embassies. Not an impressive record.
Today CIA is claiming the hacks against the Democrats were done by the Russians. Maybe. Maybe not. Granted the Russians have the capacity, but so do a bunch of others, ranging from individuals, small groups, large groups and plenty of nation-states. China and the NORKs have the capability and they don't like us much. ISIS has the capability and they really don't like us. Plus the democrats were a pretty soft target. Word has it that Podesta was so clueless as to fall for a phish email, you know the ones that claim there is a problem with your account and you need to give us your password to make it right. According to the Wall St Journal, the Republicans had tighter security and the hacker[s] failed to penetrate them.
I'd give more crediblity to the Russian theory if I heard it from some truly competent people, like Microsoft, Kaspersky, Malwarebytes or even NSA. I used to do contract work for NSA, and NSA did have people who knew what they were doing. I cannot say that about CIA.
Today CIA is claiming the hacks against the Democrats were done by the Russians. Maybe. Maybe not. Granted the Russians have the capacity, but so do a bunch of others, ranging from individuals, small groups, large groups and plenty of nation-states. China and the NORKs have the capability and they don't like us much. ISIS has the capability and they really don't like us. Plus the democrats were a pretty soft target. Word has it that Podesta was so clueless as to fall for a phish email, you know the ones that claim there is a problem with your account and you need to give us your password to make it right. According to the Wall St Journal, the Republicans had tighter security and the hacker[s] failed to penetrate them.
I'd give more crediblity to the Russian theory if I heard it from some truly competent people, like Microsoft, Kaspersky, Malwarebytes or even NSA. I used to do contract work for NSA, and NSA did have people who knew what they were doing. I cannot say that about CIA.
Friday, December 16, 2016
That Russian Hacking
The MSM are still talking it up. Spreading the narrative that Hillary would have won, except for the Russians. Sounds better than Hillary lost because of her nasty background going back 30-40 years, and she didn't promise to get the country back on the right track. Polls from before the election showed everyone thought the country was on the wrong track. Hillary never addressed this issue (and a lot of other issues) whereas The Donald promised to get the country back on the right track. The voters found both candidates to be equally personally distasteful, but they all knew the country was on the wrong track, so they voted for the candidate who promised to fix things, rather than the candidate who kept saying that everything was just peachy.
Hillary's secret server, FBI directory Comey's statements, and the leaked Podesta emails all hurt Hillary, but I don't think any of those things were decisive. It was Hillary's frequently stated belief that the country was on the right track that convinced voters that she wasn't living in the real world.
But no Democrat, from Hillary on down wants to admit that, so they are puffing up the Russians were hacking story.
Hillary's secret server, FBI directory Comey's statements, and the leaked Podesta emails all hurt Hillary, but I don't think any of those things were decisive. It was Hillary's frequently stated belief that the country was on the right track that convinced voters that she wasn't living in the real world.
But no Democrat, from Hillary on down wants to admit that, so they are puffing up the Russians were hacking story.
Thursday, December 15, 2016
The Fall of Aleppo
The fall of Aleppo to the forces of Bashar Assad and Vladimir Putin is the culmination of Obama's Syria policy. It is a horrible human catastrophe. But it's what Obama brought us. It's a good thing it happened on Obama's watch, since he is fully responsible for it.
So what happens to Dylan Roof?
Roof is the homicidal maniac who killed nine people in cold blood at a church bible reading session. MSM is reporting that the jury has found him guilty. But guilty of what? This is federal court with charges of hate crimes and other mopery and dopery. The feds don't do murder. Question for you MSM, just what did they find Roof guilty of, and does it carry the death penalty?
Far as I am concerned, they should have put Roof up in state court on just nine charges of first degree murder. Which carries the death penalty.
Far as I am concerned, they should have put Roof up in state court on just nine charges of first degree murder. Which carries the death penalty.
Wednesday, December 14, 2016
New York Times. 80 years of disinformation
All the news that fits we print. The Times got started in the 1930's with their man Walter Duranty, who sent back years of glowing stories from Stalin's Soviet Union. According to Duranty everything was sweetness and light in Russia. He never wrote a word about the great famines, the purges, and the secret police. Duranty was so bad that even the NY Times finally admitted that his Pulitizer prizes were undeserved. Of course they didn't come clean until the 1990's, but the Times did admit (then) that Duranty's reporting was not on the up and up.
Then the Times had a love affair with Fidel Castro in the late 1950's when Fidel was just a revolutionary hiding out in the Cuban woods. They ran a long series of stories, flattering to Fidel, condemning Batista. They helped Fidel immensely, the Times had all of America convinced that Fidel was a good guy. Which helped Fidel a lot. He was running guns and stuff into Cuba from Florida. Since everyone knew, 'cause the Times had told them, that Fidel was a good guy, we never cracked down on his smuggling into Cuba. This wasn't the only reason Fidel won, but it was a big help. It wasn't until Fidel had been in power for six months and made a bunch of rabidly anti American speeches that the Times finally admitted that well, yes, Fidel was a communist.
Then in the late 1960's the Times sent their man Harrison Salisbury to North Viet Nam, where he sent back a flock of stories sympathizing with the Viet Cong. Harrison wrote about this remote village, where the village chief kept a big written log of all the American air raids going back for years. Horrors, four innocent villagers had been wantonly killed by Yankee Air Pirate bombs. Well, I was in South East Asia that year, and my unit, the 388 Tactical Fighter Wing, had flown missions to that little ville in North Viet Nam. The biggest railroad yard you ever did see was smack dab in the middle of that little ville. And we had raided it, heavily, several times. If "collateral damage" was limited to only four civilian casualties, I call that damn good bombing on our part.
After that, I never paid much attention to the NY Times, since they had proven themselves unreliable. They were back in fine form for this year's election, plugging for Hillary and trashing The Donald at every turn.
An example of American journalism at it's finest.
Then the Times had a love affair with Fidel Castro in the late 1950's when Fidel was just a revolutionary hiding out in the Cuban woods. They ran a long series of stories, flattering to Fidel, condemning Batista. They helped Fidel immensely, the Times had all of America convinced that Fidel was a good guy. Which helped Fidel a lot. He was running guns and stuff into Cuba from Florida. Since everyone knew, 'cause the Times had told them, that Fidel was a good guy, we never cracked down on his smuggling into Cuba. This wasn't the only reason Fidel won, but it was a big help. It wasn't until Fidel had been in power for six months and made a bunch of rabidly anti American speeches that the Times finally admitted that well, yes, Fidel was a communist.
Then in the late 1960's the Times sent their man Harrison Salisbury to North Viet Nam, where he sent back a flock of stories sympathizing with the Viet Cong. Harrison wrote about this remote village, where the village chief kept a big written log of all the American air raids going back for years. Horrors, four innocent villagers had been wantonly killed by Yankee Air Pirate bombs. Well, I was in South East Asia that year, and my unit, the 388 Tactical Fighter Wing, had flown missions to that little ville in North Viet Nam. The biggest railroad yard you ever did see was smack dab in the middle of that little ville. And we had raided it, heavily, several times. If "collateral damage" was limited to only four civilian casualties, I call that damn good bombing on our part.
After that, I never paid much attention to the NY Times, since they had proven themselves unreliable. They were back in fine form for this year's election, plugging for Hillary and trashing The Donald at every turn.
An example of American journalism at it's finest.
Tuesday, December 13, 2016
What's good for General Motors is good for the country
So said "Engine Charlie" Wilson, secretary of defense back in the Eisenhower administration. The statement caused a furor at the time. Democrats went into a tizzy. But in real life, things that helped GM, the largest corporation in the world in those days, were good for the country. When things were good for GM, they hired workers and spent money on supplies, parts, and new construction. All of which is good.
Trump's many enterprises are reasonably important to the country, not quite as big a deal as GM was back in the good old days, but big enough. It could be said that what's good for the Trump operations is good for the country. Democrats would howl, again, but it's true. President Trump's actions that help the Trump business empire will help plenty of other businesses. The newsies are yelping for Trump to do something, anything, to separate himself from the business empire he built. I don't see this as a real necessity. He has tweeted that he will turn the business[s] over to sons Eric and Donald. Both of whom have expressed love, loyalty, and respect for their old man during the campaign. I think both sons see the world about the same way The Donald does, and will run the Trump empire about the way The Donald would. And would listen to anything The Donald might suggest to them. After all they are immediate family and any President is entitled to talk to his immediate family, in confidence for that matter. I'm OK with that.
Trump's many enterprises are reasonably important to the country, not quite as big a deal as GM was back in the good old days, but big enough. It could be said that what's good for the Trump operations is good for the country. Democrats would howl, again, but it's true. President Trump's actions that help the Trump business empire will help plenty of other businesses. The newsies are yelping for Trump to do something, anything, to separate himself from the business empire he built. I don't see this as a real necessity. He has tweeted that he will turn the business[s] over to sons Eric and Donald. Both of whom have expressed love, loyalty, and respect for their old man during the campaign. I think both sons see the world about the same way The Donald does, and will run the Trump empire about the way The Donald would. And would listen to anything The Donald might suggest to them. After all they are immediate family and any President is entitled to talk to his immediate family, in confidence for that matter. I'm OK with that.
Monday, December 12, 2016
SpyHunter 4
A virus got onto my desktop. It started putting a bunch of files with the extension .osiris on the harddrive. Googling on osiris informed me that Malwarebytes (which I have and use and trust) and something called Spyhunter (which I had never heard of before) would settle osiris's hash. So, I gave malwarebytes a run, and sure enough, it reported some viruses, and zapped them. So just to make sure, and to see what would happen, I ran Spyhunter. Not so good. It crashed once. Then it ran and found a list of stuff it didn't like. So when Spyhunter finished scanning, I clicked to make it zap the stuff it found. Instead of doing what it was told, Spyhunter demanded I pay $40 for the fancier version of the program.
No way would I do that. I used Windows Explorer and Regedit to search for the objects Spyhunter was objecting to. No soap, I could find neither disk files nor registry keys to match anything Spyhunter reported. So, I uninstalled Spyhunter. I cannot recommend that program to anyone.
I still have a bunch of .osiris files on disk. And a file demanding ransom to decrypt them. I'll do some more research tomorrow.
No way would I do that. I used Windows Explorer and Regedit to search for the objects Spyhunter was objecting to. No soap, I could find neither disk files nor registry keys to match anything Spyhunter reported. So, I uninstalled Spyhunter. I cannot recommend that program to anyone.
I still have a bunch of .osiris files on disk. And a file demanding ransom to decrypt them. I'll do some more research tomorrow.
The Russians are hacking, the Russians are hacking!!
Yeah right. We know someone hacked the democrats, 'cause their stuff turned up on Wikileaks. That's about all we know. We have no way of knowing who dunnit. The hacker causes disk files to be copied out to somewhere on the internet. For looking at the disk files afterward, you cannot tell if they were copied or not. The only way we know the hack occurred is that stuff turned up on Wikileaks. Even if we can find the Internet address (URL) to which stuff was sent, that could be anyone. Any hacker will sent hot stuff thru an internet anonymizer site that keeps no records and forwards stuff tracelessly.
No matter what the MSM or CIA or FBI or other pundits say, we cannot know who did the hack. We can have suspicions, but we cannot know. The world has plenty of individuals, small groups, large groups, and countries capable of doing the DNC and Podesta hacks. Especially as it didn't take much to do the hack. From what I hear Podesta was clueless enough to fall for a phishing email. Which is incredibly clueless of him.
The folks we hear saying the Russians did it don't know that. They are saying so because they think it will help their political position. Which is hard to understand actually. Getting hacked shows the victims (hackees) as sloppy, ignorant, and clueless.
No matter what the MSM or CIA or FBI or other pundits say, we cannot know who did the hack. We can have suspicions, but we cannot know. The world has plenty of individuals, small groups, large groups, and countries capable of doing the DNC and Podesta hacks. Especially as it didn't take much to do the hack. From what I hear Podesta was clueless enough to fall for a phishing email. Which is incredibly clueless of him.
The folks we hear saying the Russians did it don't know that. They are saying so because they think it will help their political position. Which is hard to understand actually. Getting hacked shows the victims (hackees) as sloppy, ignorant, and clueless.
Sunday, December 11, 2016
Black Viper seems to be off the air
Black Viper, most useful and knowledgble computer geek, the goto web source for taming Windows, seems to be off the air. I get that "Sorry cannot find" message when I try his URL.
Anyone know anything?
Anyone know anything?
Tchaikovsky's Nut Cracker Suite
They put it on in Littleton NH last night. It was the local dance school doing it. The venue was the old Littleton Opera House, a groovy old building from the 1880's, newly restored to it's original glory, period woodwork, nice paint, and at the insistence of the state building department, structurally beefed up to prevent it from sliding into the Ammonusuc River. The real reason I, and youngest son, got out on a cold dark night was that my grand niece Amelie, age 7, had a part in it. It was a big hit. At least 300 people in the audience, a lot of small children, undoubtedly younger siblings of cast kids. The audience completely parked up the Opera House lot and the town lot behind the Jax Jr movie theater. A bid deal for a smallish up country town.
And it was a nice show for an amateur cast. Fair number of grown up cast members, who had the bigger parts. There were tutus and point shoes, and most of 'em could dance en pointe. Costumes were colorful. All the kids got parts. Music was recorded but they had a pair of very decent speakers that nicely filled the house. Minor drawback, the portable dance floor wasn't very solid, and the grownup dancers made really loud thumping noises dancing upon it. Kinda spoiled the lightness and bounciness of the dance when you could hear the floor complaining of the weight.
Classical music isn't dead yet.
And it was a nice show for an amateur cast. Fair number of grown up cast members, who had the bigger parts. There were tutus and point shoes, and most of 'em could dance en pointe. Costumes were colorful. All the kids got parts. Music was recorded but they had a pair of very decent speakers that nicely filled the house. Minor drawback, the portable dance floor wasn't very solid, and the grownup dancers made really loud thumping noises dancing upon it. Kinda spoiled the lightness and bounciness of the dance when you could hear the floor complaining of the weight.
Classical music isn't dead yet.
Thursday, December 8, 2016
Trump picks military officers for cabinet
Because only the best go into the military. I did a six year tour in the Air Force. The airmen I served with were absolutely top notch people, intelligent, motivated, loyal, hard working, dependable. After my Air Force tour, I worked in civilian industry for forty years. Working in the high tech companies out on Rte 128, I never had a workforce as good as I had enjoyed in the Air Force. I had a lot of good people in industry, but the Air Force had better.
I see Trump picking the best people he can find. Of course many of them are military people, because only the best go into the military.
I see Trump picking the best people he can find. Of course many of them are military people, because only the best go into the military.
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Remember Pearl Harbor
It changed the course of history. Up until Pearl Harbor, isolationists in America had succeeded in keeping the US out of WWII, despite the unanimous opinion of the American establishment. In December 1941 the Nazis were well on their way to conquering the world. They had invaded and occupied Norway Denmark, Holland, Poland, Belgium, and France. Britain was on the ropes, they had fended off the Nazi air attack in the summer of 1940 by the skin of their teeth, but were in no shape to do much more. The vast Red army, locked in combat with the Wehrmacht, had suffered defeat after defeat, loosing hundreds of thousands of men in German encirclements. By Pearl Harbor time the Germans had reached the suburbs of Moscow. Had Moscow fallen, Russian resistance would have collapsed and Adolf Hitler would rule all of Europe from the Channel to the Urals. Had the isolationists kept America out of the war for another year or two, Hitler might have won. It was a close run thing.
Isolationism disappeared in the smoke of Pearl Harbor. Americans were outraged and to a man demanded their government do something about it. Which the Roosevelt administration pr0ceeded to do.
The Japanese, with the exception of Admiral Yamamoto, totally misread the situation and
American intentions. The Japanese war aim was to conquer China, plus a few other things, but China mostly. The Japanese economy was dependent upon American exports of gasoline and crude oil and scrap metal. The Americans disapproved of the China invasion and embargoed those crucial exports. The Japanese were faced with collapse of their economy (production of warships, war material, aircraft and all the rest needed to maintain a war), or backing off, with the intolerable loss of face that would entail. They never thought about going elsewhere for raw materials. Sumatra, not far away, had enough high quality crude oil production to run Japan thruout WWII. They could have just muscled their way into Sumatra, acquired the needed oil. The Americans would send diplomatic nastygrams to Tokyo, but the US isolationists would not have permitted anything more.
Instead, Japan thought that a devastating attack, one that knocked out the US fleet, would cow the Americans into making terms. Partly this mistake came from a Japanese leadership had no conception of the resources at America's disposal. In Japan, things were so tight that building a single new battleship required contributions from school children (lunch money) and years of scrimping and struggle. In America Roosevelt could pick up the phone and say " We need ten new battleships as soon as possible. The contract will be cost plus. Start work now". And ten new battleships, plus carriers, destroyers, liberty ships, submarines, and everything else would slide down the launching ways and join the US fleet. Japanese leadership simply did not understand this. They thought that sinking all the Pacific Fleet battleships would cripple the Americans forever.
It didn't.
Isolationism disappeared in the smoke of Pearl Harbor. Americans were outraged and to a man demanded their government do something about it. Which the Roosevelt administration pr0ceeded to do.
The Japanese, with the exception of Admiral Yamamoto, totally misread the situation and
American intentions. The Japanese war aim was to conquer China, plus a few other things, but China mostly. The Japanese economy was dependent upon American exports of gasoline and crude oil and scrap metal. The Americans disapproved of the China invasion and embargoed those crucial exports. The Japanese were faced with collapse of their economy (production of warships, war material, aircraft and all the rest needed to maintain a war), or backing off, with the intolerable loss of face that would entail. They never thought about going elsewhere for raw materials. Sumatra, not far away, had enough high quality crude oil production to run Japan thruout WWII. They could have just muscled their way into Sumatra, acquired the needed oil. The Americans would send diplomatic nastygrams to Tokyo, but the US isolationists would not have permitted anything more.
Instead, Japan thought that a devastating attack, one that knocked out the US fleet, would cow the Americans into making terms. Partly this mistake came from a Japanese leadership had no conception of the resources at America's disposal. In Japan, things were so tight that building a single new battleship required contributions from school children (lunch money) and years of scrimping and struggle. In America Roosevelt could pick up the phone and say " We need ten new battleships as soon as possible. The contract will be cost plus. Start work now". And ten new battleships, plus carriers, destroyers, liberty ships, submarines, and everything else would slide down the launching ways and join the US fleet. Japanese leadership simply did not understand this. They thought that sinking all the Pacific Fleet battleships would cripple the Americans forever.
It didn't.
Tuesday, December 6, 2016
Replacement for Air Force 1. The Donald weighs in
The United States owns two (just two) operational Air Force 1s. They are Boeing 747's with a fancy paint job, and every imaginable electronic device and defensive system. Cost was no object back then. The primary reason for Air Force 1 is to impress everybody in the world. We are the only country rich enough to furnish a custom widebody jet liner to fly the president around. All the other heads of state fly commercial. The current two aircraft have been flying since the 1970's if memory serves, and you can make a case that it's time to replace them.
On the other hand, aircraft last forever. Every thing that wears out gets replaced. Maintenance (I used to be a maintenance officer) has to fix everything, soon as it breaks. If it ain't fixed, the crew won't accept the aircraft, causing all sorts of bad things, late departures, late arrivals, nasty phone calls, the works. Engines and other machinery have to to replaced every so many hours. So after 25 years of service, the current two Air Force 1s are as sound as when they left the factory, maybe better.
Somehow during the Obama administration, the Air Force got funding to buy two replacements. The new birds will be the same Boeing 747s with a sticker price of $352 million, each. That would accomplish the primary mission of Air Force 1, namely to impress everybody. Throw in some bucks for the fancy paint job. Let the passengers communicate with their smart phones.
That's not gonna fly in the Air Force I remember. I'm sure the Air Force contract calls for installing all the fancy electronics that the current models have, plus a bunch of new stuff that's been invented in the last 25 years. And thousands of hours of flight testing, of a highly reliable airliner that has been flying for nearly 60 years. Maybe the Air Force will pull the KC-46 tanker cost enhancement trick, demanding all the aircraft wiring be redesigned and rerouted "to meet Air Force standards". Boeing knows as much or more than the Air Force about the right way to wire an aircraft. What with one frill or another, the price tag is up to $4 billion for two aircraft. Which is too damn much.
With a bit more pressure from The Donald, they might be able to reduce the fancy electronics load and cost. I'm sure there is a bunch of stuff that the plane could jolly well do without. Or, just cancel the whole project and keep on flying the current, very safe, very impressive aircraft.
On the other hand, aircraft last forever. Every thing that wears out gets replaced. Maintenance (I used to be a maintenance officer) has to fix everything, soon as it breaks. If it ain't fixed, the crew won't accept the aircraft, causing all sorts of bad things, late departures, late arrivals, nasty phone calls, the works. Engines and other machinery have to to replaced every so many hours. So after 25 years of service, the current two Air Force 1s are as sound as when they left the factory, maybe better.
Somehow during the Obama administration, the Air Force got funding to buy two replacements. The new birds will be the same Boeing 747s with a sticker price of $352 million, each. That would accomplish the primary mission of Air Force 1, namely to impress everybody. Throw in some bucks for the fancy paint job. Let the passengers communicate with their smart phones.
That's not gonna fly in the Air Force I remember. I'm sure the Air Force contract calls for installing all the fancy electronics that the current models have, plus a bunch of new stuff that's been invented in the last 25 years. And thousands of hours of flight testing, of a highly reliable airliner that has been flying for nearly 60 years. Maybe the Air Force will pull the KC-46 tanker cost enhancement trick, demanding all the aircraft wiring be redesigned and rerouted "to meet Air Force standards". Boeing knows as much or more than the Air Force about the right way to wire an aircraft. What with one frill or another, the price tag is up to $4 billion for two aircraft. Which is too damn much.
With a bit more pressure from The Donald, they might be able to reduce the fancy electronics load and cost. I'm sure there is a bunch of stuff that the plane could jolly well do without. Or, just cancel the whole project and keep on flying the current, very safe, very impressive aircraft.
Monday, December 5, 2016
Taiwan is a real country, no matter what Mainland China says
The NY Times, echoing the lace panty leftie peaceniks from the State Dept, is bashing Trump for accepting a phone call from the President of Taiwan. Let's be real about it, Taiwan is a real country that we, the United States, have promised to defend from invasion by the mainland. That is a serious commitment, to go to war with a whacking big industrialized country like China. And Taiwan is a significant economy, well worth our time. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is one of the largest silicon foundries in the world. If it disappeared, there would be a serious worldwide shortage of semiconductors. Analog Devices, with its own foundry in Wilmington MA, sent their digital designs to TSMC, half a world away. The Wilmington foundry was at capacity, and it could make higher value analog parts, where as TSMC was a strictly digital house. And they did good work.
Anyhow, despite what the mainland Chinese say, Taiwan is a real country, with industry, armed forces, a sizable population, friendly to the United States. For the NY Times to get its panties in a twist because Trump took a friendly phone call from the president of a friendly country, is outrageous.
Anyhow, despite what the mainland Chinese say, Taiwan is a real country, with industry, armed forces, a sizable population, friendly to the United States. For the NY Times to get its panties in a twist because Trump took a friendly phone call from the president of a friendly country, is outrageous.
Sunday, December 4, 2016
Is the "Alt Right" just 50 internet trolls?
Been hearing a lotta talk about the evils of the "Alt Right". I never heard of 'em before the last election when all of a sudden they were evil incarnate, snatching victory from the lips of Hillary Clinton. I don't know the names of any alt-rightists, I don't know of any books they have published, any blogs, any websites, any magazine articles. For a group that is credited with so much, they are pretty near invisible.
Is the USA really divided??
Watched the Sunday pundits this morning. One of 'em, Meet the Press, showed a post election Donald Trump speech. Over laid upon The Donald's blonde hairdo were three lines, red for Republicans, yellow for independents, and blue for Democrats. For most of the speech, the Republican line was at, or over, the top of the chart. The independents weren't quite so enthusiastic but still a solid 80-90 percent. The democrats stayed down at 20 percent.
I call that a serious split. Let's call the two groups Republicans or Democrats. There are other names we could use (conservative or liberal, progressive or stick-in-the-mud, etc) but Republican and Democrat are the names we use in politics and elections.
So what is the difference between these two groups? Some of it is just partisan ship, the same kind of thing that motivates fans of the Yankees and the Red Sox. Some of it is distaste for this year's candidates. But let's focus on things that the incoming Trump administration could do something about. That's issues. Like the economy, tariffs, immigration, taxes, "the social issues", and other stuff that can be expressed in concrete terms, rather than the feelgood means nothing talk so beloved of politicians, especially when they are on TV. The media didn't talk issues, probably because they are too ignorant to recognize an issue if they should trip over one. It's so much easier to just read the polls over the air.
Going from stuff I read in the Economist, the Wall St Journal, and the TV I see things this way.
Republicans like tax cuts, keeping immigrants out, keeping foreign made goods from competing with American goods (tariffs), repealing Obamacare. Republicans see American corporations as job providers and want to encourage them.
Democrats want tax hikes. They say they are OK with immigration, although I wonder if the rank and file Democrats agree with the leadership on this. They seem to be OK on tariffs, they want to keep Obamacare. Democrats see American corporations as robber barons in need of more good harsh regulation.
I call that a serious split. Let's call the two groups Republicans or Democrats. There are other names we could use (conservative or liberal, progressive or stick-in-the-mud, etc) but Republican and Democrat are the names we use in politics and elections.
So what is the difference between these two groups? Some of it is just partisan ship, the same kind of thing that motivates fans of the Yankees and the Red Sox. Some of it is distaste for this year's candidates. But let's focus on things that the incoming Trump administration could do something about. That's issues. Like the economy, tariffs, immigration, taxes, "the social issues", and other stuff that can be expressed in concrete terms, rather than the feelgood means nothing talk so beloved of politicians, especially when they are on TV. The media didn't talk issues, probably because they are too ignorant to recognize an issue if they should trip over one. It's so much easier to just read the polls over the air.
Going from stuff I read in the Economist, the Wall St Journal, and the TV I see things this way.
Republicans like tax cuts, keeping immigrants out, keeping foreign made goods from competing with American goods (tariffs), repealing Obamacare. Republicans see American corporations as job providers and want to encourage them.
Democrats want tax hikes. They say they are OK with immigration, although I wonder if the rank and file Democrats agree with the leadership on this. They seem to be OK on tariffs, they want to keep Obamacare. Democrats see American corporations as robber barons in need of more good harsh regulation.
I93 widening finish in 2020???
I93, the stretch from Manchester down to the MA line, was built, back in the 70s as a four lane divided highway. Over the years it has become the Number 1 commuter road to Boston. With horrible traffic from Manchester to the MA line. MA built their section of I93 six lanes and eight lanes. Everyone noticed that the traffic jam broke up after crossing the MA border.
Better than five years ago NH started to widen I93 out to six lanes. They still haven't finished it. Channel 9 (WMUR) had the NH commissioner of transportation, Victoria Sheehan on TV this morning. She opined that I93 might be finished by 2020. FOUR YEARS from NOW. Arghhh!
Better than five years ago NH started to widen I93 out to six lanes. They still haven't finished it. Channel 9 (WMUR) had the NH commissioner of transportation, Victoria Sheehan on TV this morning. She opined that I93 might be finished by 2020. FOUR YEARS from NOW. Arghhh!
Saturday, December 3, 2016
Tucker Carlson's 7PM news show
It's Fox, natch. Tucker now has the hour after Brett Bair's news hour. Tucker is pretty good. First week or so he had a number of liberal guests on, who he proceeded to disembowel right in front of the cameras. Fun to watch. But the amount of blood spilled has scared off the game. At this point, nobody who is even a little bit left of center, and has two brain cells still functioning, is going to be on Tucker's show. Nobody wants to be red meat, eaten raw, on national TV.
Friday, December 2, 2016
Risk vs Regulation
The objective is (or ought to be) preventing banks (and their ilk like brokerage houses) from losing wads of money and kicking off Great Depression 3.0. The way a bank looses money is to make bad loans that default and don't pay off.
Democrats think you prevent this by setting up federal bureaucrats to watch the banks, check their books, and meddle in their deal making. Hence the Sarbanes Oxley law and the Dodd Frank law. Many think the terrible economy during the Obama adminstration was caused by these two laws.
I think you prevent undue risk taking by banks by insuring that the bankers who lead their banks into disaster should be made to smart for it. First we make very very clear that Uncle Sam will never ever bailout any failing bank. If we have any bank "too big to fail" it's time for anti trust action to break that bank up into smaller parts. Bankers need to know that if they screw up, they are out of business, right then and there. Bank officers loose their pensions, and deferred compensation, and their company health insurance. FDIC can pay off the depositors, but bank investors, officers, employees, and stock holders loose everything. Which ought to produce some pressure on the suits to avoid stupid plays, like Greek loans. Or mortgage backed securities, or credit default swaps. And we encourage every blood sucking lawyer in the land to sue the management of failed banks for gross negligence.
Democrats think you prevent this by setting up federal bureaucrats to watch the banks, check their books, and meddle in their deal making. Hence the Sarbanes Oxley law and the Dodd Frank law. Many think the terrible economy during the Obama adminstration was caused by these two laws.
I think you prevent undue risk taking by banks by insuring that the bankers who lead their banks into disaster should be made to smart for it. First we make very very clear that Uncle Sam will never ever bailout any failing bank. If we have any bank "too big to fail" it's time for anti trust action to break that bank up into smaller parts. Bankers need to know that if they screw up, they are out of business, right then and there. Bank officers loose their pensions, and deferred compensation, and their company health insurance. FDIC can pay off the depositors, but bank investors, officers, employees, and stock holders loose everything. Which ought to produce some pressure on the suits to avoid stupid plays, like Greek loans. Or mortgage backed securities, or credit default swaps. And we encourage every blood sucking lawyer in the land to sue the management of failed banks for gross negligence.
Vintage Cary Grant and Sophia Loren Romantic Comedies
Just finished watching two of them. Houseboat, where Washington lawyer and widower, with three small cute children, meets up with Sophia Loren, who first charms the children, and then wins Cary Grant's heart. With a few amusing mishaps, like when moving a house, they get it stuck in a grade crossing, and then a diesel powered express train roars thru, blowing the house to splinters. Which results in the family moving into a beat up house boat on the Potomac.
Then there is The Pride and the Passion, a movie set in Napoleonic war Spain. Spanish guerrillas come into possession of an absolutely humongous cannon. They set about dragging the mountain of metal clear across Spain to the siege of some-where-or-other. Sophia Loren is the BFF of the guerrilla leader (Frank Sinatra). Cary Grant is the English naval officer who is the only man with the guerrilla army who actually knows how to work the gun.
Heartwarming movies the likes of which they don't make anymore. Houseboat is the better of the two, Sophia Loren gets a better role.
Then there is The Pride and the Passion, a movie set in Napoleonic war Spain. Spanish guerrillas come into possession of an absolutely humongous cannon. They set about dragging the mountain of metal clear across Spain to the siege of some-where-or-other. Sophia Loren is the BFF of the guerrilla leader (Frank Sinatra). Cary Grant is the English naval officer who is the only man with the guerrilla army who actually knows how to work the gun.
Heartwarming movies the likes of which they don't make anymore. Houseboat is the better of the two, Sophia Loren gets a better role.
Thursday, December 1, 2016
New Buzzword, WWC
Stands for "White Working Class" They started using it late in this election. Prior to this election I had not heard it anywhere. Strange. Back when I was growing up, every kid's father worked, at the Dennison plant, at the GM assembly plant, at the Roxbury carpet company, at truck farming, at auto repair. None of them had a college degree. No blacks lived in Framingham MA in those days. I went to public school and I don't remember a single black kid in any of my classes. I didn't meet any blacks until I joined the Air Force. So, back then, everyone in town was white, and worked and so the white working class was everybody.
The other thing I don't like about the buzzword is the "working class" part of it. Has an unpleasant Marxist sound to it. Or is it an attempt to revive the idea of Communist class war?
The other thing I don't like about the buzzword is the "working class" part of it. Has an unpleasant Marxist sound to it. Or is it an attempt to revive the idea of Communist class war?
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Words of the Weasel Part 49
Bipartisan (n) or bipartisanship (adj). Noun or adjective. Generally perceived as a "good thing" or at least the pol using the word hopes that is what the voters perceive. At it's strongest, bipartisan is a code word meaning vote for my bill. A weaker form of the word means I will talk compromise with my political opponents rather that just yelling at them.
If a pol has nothing better to offer than bipartisanship, you ought to vote for the other guy.
If a pol has nothing better to offer than bipartisanship, you ought to vote for the other guy.
Secretary of State
I hope who ever Trump picks can manage the State Dept, a goofy bureaucracy stuffed full of democrats, know-it-alls, and peaceniks. They all have snivel service protection against firing. Many of them are scattered all over the world where it is harder to keep track of, and ride herd on them. Flinty old John Bolton might be able to handle them, but I'm doubtful of Romney, Guiliani, and Corker. Petraeius might be tough enough.
As it is, a lot of 'em are getting ready make leaks embarrassing to the incoming Trump administration, and the MSM are sitting up, wagging heir tails, and begging for some dirt to print.
Although the secretary of state cannot fire them, he could announce a policy of unaccompanied overseas tours in unpleasant places for State Dept leakers.
As it is, a lot of 'em are getting ready make leaks embarrassing to the incoming Trump administration, and the MSM are sitting up, wagging heir tails, and begging for some dirt to print.
Although the secretary of state cannot fire them, he could announce a policy of unaccompanied overseas tours in unpleasant places for State Dept leakers.
Tuesday, November 29, 2016
Do we really need a law against flag burning??
Burn a flag in most places and you WILL get punched out. Which is one reason why flags don't get burned very often. Why make life more complicated by passing laws?
And for the Supremes who have opined that flag burning is free speech. It ain't speech, it's action. Some how we have nine lawyers, men of pure speech, who don't understand the simple things in life, like the difference between talk and action.
And for the Supremes who have opined that flag burning is free speech. It ain't speech, it's action. Some how we have nine lawyers, men of pure speech, who don't understand the simple things in life, like the difference between talk and action.
Publicity for vote recounts
I doubt very much that any number of recounts will change the election results. But one of the minor losing candidates is calling for them, and the MSM are giving her, and the recounts, as much publicity as The Donald ever got on campaign. (And The Donald got a lot of publicity from the MSM)
I wonder why the MSM is pushing this issue. Do they think it will weaken the Donald after inauguration? They are all so locked in to doing election stories that they want to stretch the election out some more? They are all so brainwashed that election stories are the only kind of story they know how to write?
I wonder why the MSM is pushing this issue. Do they think it will weaken the Donald after inauguration? They are all so locked in to doing election stories that they want to stretch the election out some more? They are all so brainwashed that election stories are the only kind of story they know how to write?
Who to send to Fidel Castro's funeral?
How about Al Sharpton and that football player Colin K-something-or-other?
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