We can't even do a foot race without terrorist attacks

The Boston Marathon, a simple foot race, been held for better than 100 years, attracted terrorists with bombs.  What used to be a happy day, is now a horror, with two dead and more injured.
   We need to find the perps and then get medieval on them.  Draw and quarter, boiling oil, nothing is too good for those cowardly scum. 

Jump Starting the 787

Can you hear the holding of breath?  Boeing finished up the modifications to the battery and battery box on 5 April and sent the paperwork to the FAA.  FAA has said nothing, and has a hearing scheduled for 23-24 April on the adequacy of the Boeing fixes.  With $200 million airliners piling up at the factory, billions of dollars of sales, American leadership in the jet airliner business at stake, FAA is under a lot of pressure to OK the fixes and get on with it.  Even an Obama FAA  doesn't want to torpedo American airliner sales, at least I don't think they do.
   Boeing's fixes are not confidence inspiring.  They never did figure out what caused the batteries to catch fire.  They made a number of improvements to the battery, but since they don't know what caused the fires, they don't know if the fixes will do any good.  They are putting their real faith in a fireproof stainless steel battery box to contain any fires and vent the smoke over board.
   If the FAA approves Boeing's fixes, and more trouble occurs, they will look really bad.  And they know it.  FAA could decide that nothing less than ditching lithium batteries and going back to something tried and true, like NiCad, or even lead acid will do.  If they feel this way, they should have let Boeing know back in January.  To let Boeing waste three months, hold up the program for three months, is inexcusable.  If FAA want's to be hard ass, they ought to have had the guts to make their feelings clear, back in January.  If FAA announces "no good" next week, it will take Boeing another couple of months to do a battery change.
   Anyhow, the breath holding at Boeing will continue.

Checking out the Infrastructure

The democrats are hiking the NH gas tax fifteen cents a gallon.  They claim that NH infrastructure (roads and bridges) is falling apart. Only a stiff tax hike will save NH from falling back into the stone age.
   I drove to a train show out in the sticks today.  Sutton NH, a tiny place way out in the boondocks.  I picked up NH route 11, an obscure two lane road at Tilton and followed it west for 30 miles.  The Mercury hummed along at 60 mph, smooth, no serious bumps, decent road.  It's mud season, when the town and country road agents post a 6 ton load limit on every road except I93.  Roads are better for the rest of the year. 
   If NH infrastructure is in need of another 15 cents a gallon you couldn't prove it by me.   Little old two lane rural NH 11 is in much better shape than I95 going thru Manhattan. 

Tummy side up

Stupid Beast spends a lot of her time lying around the house.  Sometimes she sprawls out flat on one side, other times she does the make-a-cat-shaped-ball routine with all four paws on the floor. 
  Lately she has been cat napping on her back, all four paws in the air.  She doesn't really feel secure in this position, she flips right side up instantly when I get up from my chair to fix me a drink.  The sudden surge from flat on the back to ready to run must wear down something in the mature cat.  It's like leaping to your feet from a light snooze in a recliner.  That would wear me down pretty quick. 
   Question:  Why does not Stupid Beast nap in a less tension inducing way?

What is the US trying to say about North Korea?

The TV news is carrying the story that the North Koreans may indeed have nuclear warheads for their missiles.  The story comes out of the US defense department. 
   Truth or falsity of this report is unknown.  I doubt that CIA has any agents in the north.  NSA has probably cracked North Korean codes,  so we know what the North Koreans have put out over the air.  But how much would a top secret project in a paranoid state like North Korea put out over the air?  Korean CIA ought to have some agents in the North.  The North Koreans could have their own Rosenburgs passing information to the South, but who knows?  South Korean intelligence is probably smart enough to keep such an agent secret if they actually have one. 
   But, when the US defense department puts out the story, we give the story credence that it wouldn't otherwise have.  Why do we do that?  Are we trying to make the North Koreans look even more dangerous?   Practical minded Americans wouldn't mind a pre emptive strike against a truly dangerous enemy.  Up until now, practical minded Americans have discounted the North Koreans, we beat them once, we could do it again, and they know it.  We don't  want to react to North Korean name calling.  We don't think they are dangerous enough to justify a pre emptive strike, at least not right now. 
    If we think they have nuclear tipped missiles, that actually work, that attitude might change. 
    The Obama administration surely doesn't want a military confrontation with anyone,  certainly not the North Korean's and their sizable army.  Why would they release such a provocative report?
    May be a leak?  We have Secretary of Sate on Fox TV denying that report at this very moment. 

Annette Funicello

News of Annette's death hit me harder than I would have thought.  Firstly, it makes me feel older than a stone.  I remember Annette on the Mouse Club.  In those days that was the only TV show in the late afternoon that any self respecting kid would watch.  Annette was so pretty, so vivacious, she made the show.  Like most of my peers I had a crush on Annette.  And she was real.  Plenty of girls  had the hair color, the complexion, and the figure to look like Annette, she represented a real girl that one might, with luck, date and even marry.  The great movie actresses of the day were beautiful and all, but no girl in my high school had the peaches and cream complexion, the blonde hair, the figure, that Marilyn Monroe or Jayne Mansfield had.  And from a high school boy's perspective, they were old, old enough to be your mother, whereas Annette was just our age. 
   There were no scandals associated with Annette to shame her fans.  She didn't pose for nude photographs, she didn't get sent to drug rehab, she didn't have eating disorders, she didn't speed around her neighborhood in a Ferrari and get into altercations with the neighbors, she didn't show off her tattoos. 
   I'm sorry that the MS made her latter days miserable, and I'm sorry that she is no longer with us. 

Can't Stand AARP? Try AMAC instead

After AARP lobbied in favor of Obamacare, many of us decided we would never deal with AARP ever again.  To take advantage of this wide spread sentiment, this morning I received a bit of junk mail from "The Conservative Alternative to AARP,  the Association of Mature American Citizens". 
   Never heard of them before, but the pitch is cute.   Only $6 bucks, send us your contact information, and we will do wonderful things.
   It's crumpled up under the fireplace grate, to light my next fire.