Repulican VeepStakes

Lots of talk about a vice president for McCain. My views. McCain wants to wait until he is formally nominated at the Republican convention before he talks about or nominates a VP, lest he offend Republicans by appearing to claim the nomination early. Given McCain's age, a lot of voters will be reassured if the vice presidential candidate is in excellent health (unlike Dick Cheney), is ready to assume the duties of president should McCain die unexpectedly(unlike Dan Quale), and shares McCain's political views. Voters like McCain, but they would like an insurance policy just in case the grim reaper comes early. I think these considerations out weigh selection of a vice president just because he can bring in a couple of states worth of electoral college votes. Thoughtful voters want some continuity should bad things happen.

The Ann Colbert show comes to town

Just been watching C-Span's rerun of Ann Coulter's talk to Young Americans for Freedom (a conservative outfit). Why do we think Ann has any intellectual weight at all? She is amusing, with an endless store of zingers, but other than that, the Colbert Report has more substance. She started off trashing Obama, commenting upon his family background with a nasty edge to it. Nothing quite over the line, but managing to call him a black candidate for blacks which is mean spirited at best. Then she started in on McCain, raking up all the votes he made that upset conservatives. She called McCain less electable than Romney which no experienced adult believes. At no time did she say anything of real value or show real insight into political character, US politics, international relations or economics. She is an empty skirt.

Regulation piled upon regulation

For the third year in a row, the NH legislature will discuss allowing Public Service of New Hampshire (PSNH) to build a wood fired electric plant. Under a green initiative from our new Democratic governor, electric companies are required to get 25% of their electricity from renewable sources. PSNH is attempting to meet this requirement (wood IS renewable) but the state government won't approve building the plant. Talk about catch 22. With one hand the State government giveth green power and with the other hand taketh it away.

You can't make everyone happy

Now that Mitt Romney has withdrawn, John McCain will be the Republican nominee, barring an act of God. Scrounging around for more copy to put on TV, the newsies have found the inevitable soreheads who don't like McCain and are giving them air time. After allowing aforesaid soreheads to ventilate on national TV, the newsies then declare the Republican party "deeply split" and offer advice. Do a little groveling and then kiss and make up is the tenure of the advice. And, to his credit, McCain did some of this yesterday in front of the Conservative Political Action Comittee (CPAC) yesterday. He was gracious to the withdrawing Mitt Romney, polite to Huckabee, and told the assembled CPACers that he would do his best as president. He got a good hand for that. McCain has been in politics a long time and he knows you don't kick people, even liberals, in the shins just for the fun of it. They remember and will get even if they can.
Actually, McCain is the strongest candidate the Republicans can field. He has a compelling personal story and respect bordering upon awe among the electorate. I won't soon forget the deference, politeness, and respect offered the senator at a campaign stop in northern New Hampshire some months ago. There was snow on the ground, the modest meeting room was jammed with voters, all wearing heavy boots and winter coats. John McCain walks into the room and everyone rises and gives the senator a standing ovation. None of the other candidates got that kind of respect up here.
Of the detractors actually named by the TV, few of them deserve much credence. Ann Coulter writes a lot of rabble rousing stuff, James Dobson said he wouldn't vote for anyone, and Rush Limbaugh, well, Rush is Rush.
The endorsements from prominent politicians indicate that professional Republicans think McCain is a good candidate with a chance of winning. They don't indorse losers, it makes them look foolish.

Windows 7?

According to Lee Gomez at the Wall St Journal, the Microsofties are planning the next step after Vista, currently called Windows 7 internally. Wow, Vista sputtering, everyone likes XP, and they are working on yet another Windows.
They must be thinking up yet more features to burden Windows with. For me, I don't want more features. Windows XP has about 20 zillion "features" that I know nothing about, don't trust, and wish would go away. Can I think of a feature that I want in Windows, that isn't already there? No.
Windows is one of those facts of life that you have to live with. All the computers come with it, all the programs you care about run under it. If you are doing a software project, it has got to run under Windows. Programs that don't, are dead on arrival.
Windows XP does all the things an OS ought to do (and a few that it ought not to do). Vista is XP with copy protection. Vista has all kindza code to prevent duplication of music CD's. MP3s, DVDs and what ever. Why should I want Vista, which is slower than XP and gives me a hard time about copying anything? Even my own stuff?
This is the time for someone to introduce the mini OS. Smaller, faster, leaner and meaner than Windows. Runs Office and Firefox. Virus proof. Prevents web sites from running code on your computer. Limits email programs to viewing email, prevents email from loading malware into Office.

Reflections on a Revaged Century by Robert Conquest

Conquest attributes the disasters of the 20th century to the related ideologies of Communism and Naziism. He explains how both movements recruited and created true believers who would commit any crime to gain the ends of the party. And crimes they did commit, the Soviets killed tens of millions of Russians during the terror of the 1930's, the Nazi's killed 6 million Jews, a million or so other Germans, and then started World War II which resulted in more tens of millions of dead. Conquest defines a dangerous ideologue as a person willing to commit crimes against people to further their ends. Clearly some of the blogosphere qualify here.
Conquest declares that George Orwell (1984 & Animal Farm) and Arthur Koestler (Darkness at Noon) did as much, or more, to bring down communism than anything else.
Moving on, Conquest mentions modern fads of environmentalism, global warming, and multi culturalism as insipient ideologies gathering strenght. His book is copyright just be for 9/11 and as a consequence does not mention Islam.
It is a good read.

MRAPS is put out to pasture

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?