Back in October last year, the army was getting ready to buy better than 2000 heavy armored trucks (MRAPS). I posted about it here. These babies were heavy and tough enough to survive running over a land mine (IED in today's jargon). $28 billion dollars (one hellova lotta dough) was appropriated for these behemoths.
Well, now it seems that MRAPS isn't quite so cool, the Marines are scaling back their buy from 3700 to 1300 trucks. The Army is considering a similar cut.
MRAPS is a mine proof version of the hummer. To achieve mine-proofness, MRAPS weighs 16 tons vs the hummer's 3 tons, and requires 330 horsepower vs the hummer's 160 horse. Could it be that MRAPS is just too heavy to be useful?
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Conservatives Thirst for Death
Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, and some right wing bloggers are trashing McCain for "not being conservative enough", what ever that means. Too bad. McCain is the most electable Republican out there. Better McCain and campaign financing than either democrat and US tax payer funded health care.
McCain will win the Iraq war, the democrats will turn Iraq over to Al Quada. Sensible Republicans will go with a winner rather then turn the presidency over to the democrats.
Politics is not about "ideological purity". Politics is "Let's make a deal". A deal means each side gets some of what they want. A well crafted deal will stick 'cause each side gets enough to keep 'em happy. The skillful politician can expect "his" side to trash him for "compromising our principles" and "back room deals" after cutting the deal.
McCain has cut a few deals in the past that I don't really like, but he is still the most electable Republican, and I'll put up with the deals I didn't like rather than give the White House to the democrats.
The "conservatives" who don't want McCain to win the nomination have a death wish.
McCain will win the Iraq war, the democrats will turn Iraq over to Al Quada. Sensible Republicans will go with a winner rather then turn the presidency over to the democrats.
Politics is not about "ideological purity". Politics is "Let's make a deal". A deal means each side gets some of what they want. A well crafted deal will stick 'cause each side gets enough to keep 'em happy. The skillful politician can expect "his" side to trash him for "compromising our principles" and "back room deals" after cutting the deal.
McCain has cut a few deals in the past that I don't really like, but he is still the most electable Republican, and I'll put up with the deals I didn't like rather than give the White House to the democrats.
The "conservatives" who don't want McCain to win the nomination have a death wish.
Miserable election coverage
Both Fox and MSNBC don't know how to cover an election with more than two candidates. Watched both channels last night, 'cause I wanted to see how Super Tuesday came out. Hopeless. Never did they display a chart with ALL the candidates on it, ranked by vote totals or delegate totals. In stead they had a miserable tote board display that only had room for TWO candidates to show at a time. The turkeys then scrolled the display. By the time it had scrolled to the bottom you forget what the top results were.
Fox had a great big map of the USA with some states colored silver against a beige background. No state names, no capitals, no vote tallies, no color coding, nada. Even funnier, Bill Hemming finally tries to chalk up a vote total on the state of NY. Does he use a white board marker? No, Bill makes scribbling motions and two seconds later you see the numbers wipe onto the map from the electronic back room. We had better visual aids back in third grade.
Couldn't stay awake long enough for California to come in. So, next morning, I listen to NPR on the clock radio. The NPR guys are innumerate. In a half an hour of bloviating, they never told me the delegate count, or the vote totals. They used a lot of adjectives like big, heavy, large and so on, but never a number.
Fox had a great big map of the USA with some states colored silver against a beige background. No state names, no capitals, no vote tallies, no color coding, nada. Even funnier, Bill Hemming finally tries to chalk up a vote total on the state of NY. Does he use a white board marker? No, Bill makes scribbling motions and two seconds later you see the numbers wipe onto the map from the electronic back room. We had better visual aids back in third grade.
Couldn't stay awake long enough for California to come in. So, next morning, I listen to NPR on the clock radio. The NPR guys are innumerate. In a half an hour of bloviating, they never told me the delegate count, or the vote totals. They used a lot of adjectives like big, heavy, large and so on, but never a number.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Senate Intelligence hearings
The morning Wall St Journal has an op ed piece by John Bolton condemning the NIE that let Iran off the hook, and the leaking thereof to the press. Far as Bolton is concerned, that NIE totally stopped all efforts to apply diplomatic pressure or sanctions to Iran over the Iranian nuclear weapons program. He feels the intelligence/state dept bureaucracy pulled off a publicity coup that forced US foreign into their dovish path. I tend to agree with John Bolton, the bureaucrats are seizing power that rightfully belongs the the elected administration and the elected Congress.
Bolton pointed me toward the Senate intelligence committee hearing on C-Span as I write this. We got thru the senator's opening remarks and now Mike McConnell, the Intel Czar is on. He just told us that large numbers of Al Queda operatives have been "neutralized". Mike obviously needs a dictionary. The word should be "killed".
Then we had McConnell, Hayden, Fort, Mueller, and Maples (Intel Czar,CIA, State Dept,FBI, and DIA) give a five minute pep talk. Randall Fort, the State Dept guy, came across as the complete bureaucrat, saying absolutely nothing but taking five minutes of fancy words to do it. The military officers (Hayden McConnell and Maples) were better public speakers.
Questioning finally came around to John Bolton's Wall St Journal piece. They never mentioned either Bolton's name or the Wall St Journal, but it was clear what they were talking about. McConnell stepped up to the plate and accepted responsibility for it. He beat around the bush, never really closed on why it was released/leaked, and why it let Iran off t he hook. He did admit that if he had the chance to do it over he might have phrased it a little differently.
Bolton pointed me toward the Senate intelligence committee hearing on C-Span as I write this. We got thru the senator's opening remarks and now Mike McConnell, the Intel Czar is on. He just told us that large numbers of Al Queda operatives have been "neutralized". Mike obviously needs a dictionary. The word should be "killed".
Then we had McConnell, Hayden, Fort, Mueller, and Maples (Intel Czar,CIA, State Dept,FBI, and DIA) give a five minute pep talk. Randall Fort, the State Dept guy, came across as the complete bureaucrat, saying absolutely nothing but taking five minutes of fancy words to do it. The military officers (Hayden McConnell and Maples) were better public speakers.
Questioning finally came around to John Bolton's Wall St Journal piece. They never mentioned either Bolton's name or the Wall St Journal, but it was clear what they were talking about. McConnell stepped up to the plate and accepted responsibility for it. He beat around the bush, never really closed on why it was released/leaked, and why it let Iran off t he hook. He did admit that if he had the chance to do it over he might have phrased it a little differently.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Hillary promises to make everything better
The Wall St Journal offered Hillary a nice big space on the Op Ed page today. She filled the space with text, but it isn't an effective piece of writing. She says the country is going to pot, it's all Bush's fault, but elect me and I'll make a long laundry list of things get better. No details, no explanations of sacrifices that might be required, just a list of things that she will make better, somehow. All the things on the list are good things, we would all like to have them, but with out a discussion of costs or specific tax breaks, federal spending, new laws, ways to make it happen, it's just mindless happy talk.
Given the importance of the platform, the op ed page of the largest circulation newspaper in the country, on the day before Super Tuesday, I expected something better from Hillary.
Given the importance of the platform, the op ed page of the largest circulation newspaper in the country, on the day before Super Tuesday, I expected something better from Hillary.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
GM to kill Cadillac
According to this, GM plans to drop the Cadillac DeVille, the real Caddy, within a couple of model years. GM officials admit that DeVille is the largest seller in the Caddy lineup with 58K units sold this last year, but that ain't enough.
Real problem is the DeVille is getting old, it's still front wheel drive when rear wheel drive is hot. The car has been on the road for better than ten years, with just a bit of rear end restyling in 2000. GM probably doesn't have the money to develop a new version. Plus it's nearly the last of the big six passenger cars in the GM lineup, a body style that is out of fashion.
Of course GM lacks anything else in their lineup that is in fashion. So drop a good seller 'cause it's too much trouble to redesign it after 10 years of good sales. Thinking like this has gotta have something to do with GM losing money and market share.
Too bad. My '99 Deville is a wonderful car, and it looks like you won't be able to buy anything like that again.
Real problem is the DeVille is getting old, it's still front wheel drive when rear wheel drive is hot. The car has been on the road for better than ten years, with just a bit of rear end restyling in 2000. GM probably doesn't have the money to develop a new version. Plus it's nearly the last of the big six passenger cars in the GM lineup, a body style that is out of fashion.
Of course GM lacks anything else in their lineup that is in fashion. So drop a good seller 'cause it's too much trouble to redesign it after 10 years of good sales. Thinking like this has gotta have something to do with GM losing money and market share.
Too bad. My '99 Deville is a wonderful car, and it looks like you won't be able to buy anything like that again.
Friday, February 1, 2008
Radial Arm Saw Revival
It all started with ripping a 2*10 down to size on my ancient Craftsman radial arm saw. The newly cut edge didn't look square. I slapped a try square on the board and yup, the cut wasn't truly square.
This is not the end of the world. Radial arm saws have a number of adjustments to make them cut right. I started making them, and the real problem became apparent fairly quickly. The plywood saw table had warped over the years. Laying a 4 foot straight edge along the saw table showed nearly 3/4" of warpage.
Damn, should a done something about that long time ago. I vaguely remember making that table sometime back in the '70s. So ho, off to the lumberyard for a piece of plywood. Back of the mind worry, how do I get a 4*8 sheet of plywood home on the roof of the DeVille?
Arriving at the lumber yard, I ask for "MDF" (medium density fiberboard) and the lady behind the counter says "Oh, that's special order". "Do you have anything else?" I ask. They did, they had four or five different glue-and-woodshavings synthetic sheetgoods, including plain old plywood. The plywood price was outta sight, so I bought a 2*8 sheet of "Industrial Flakewood" for $15.66. Makes me feel kind of out-of-it when a plain old lumberyard is full of high tech new products that I have never heard of, and have no idea of what their properties might be.
The yard kindly cut it in half so it would fit in the back seat of the DeVille. That solved the "how-do-you-get-it-home" problem. Times like this I miss my old minivan.
A few cuts and some hole drilling, and trusty old Craftsman has a slick new table and looks a lot newer. So much for a one day puttering in the shop project.
This is not the end of the world. Radial arm saws have a number of adjustments to make them cut right. I started making them, and the real problem became apparent fairly quickly. The plywood saw table had warped over the years. Laying a 4 foot straight edge along the saw table showed nearly 3/4" of warpage.
Damn, should a done something about that long time ago. I vaguely remember making that table sometime back in the '70s. So ho, off to the lumberyard for a piece of plywood. Back of the mind worry, how do I get a 4*8 sheet of plywood home on the roof of the DeVille?
Arriving at the lumber yard, I ask for "MDF" (medium density fiberboard) and the lady behind the counter says "Oh, that's special order". "Do you have anything else?" I ask. They did, they had four or five different glue-and-woodshavings synthetic sheetgoods, including plain old plywood. The plywood price was outta sight, so I bought a 2*8 sheet of "Industrial Flakewood" for $15.66. Makes me feel kind of out-of-it when a plain old lumberyard is full of high tech new products that I have never heard of, and have no idea of what their properties might be.
The yard kindly cut it in half so it would fit in the back seat of the DeVille. That solved the "how-do-you-get-it-home" problem. Times like this I miss my old minivan.
A few cuts and some hole drilling, and trusty old Craftsman has a slick new table and looks a lot newer. So much for a one day puttering in the shop project.
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