U.N. Arms Trade Treaty. To Be Signed 3 June

This is interesting.  The defense industry, speaking in Aviation Week, wants to pass it.  They say US companies already have to do all kinds of paperwork and put up with interminable delays from US bureaucrats, think the treaty will impose the same burdens on their international competitors.  In short, level the playing field by tying everyone's hands in red tape.  The international peace groups like Oxfam and the Arms Control Association like it 'cause they think it will make it harder for militants and militaries to get more guns. 
  The NRA is against it.  Writing in the pages of American Rifleman, the NRA magazine, Chris Cox, director of the NRA efforts to expand concealed carry rights, says that the treaty calls upon member states to keep track of each imported firearm, which sounds a lot like gun registration to the NRA. The treaty does not support the second amendment rights, in fact it encourages banning civilian ownership of firearms. 
   Thomas Countryman, assistant secretary of state, the cookie pusher in charge of getting the treaty thru the UN and signed, says he expects the US to sign the treaty on 3 June.  He admits that the Senate probably won't ratify it but he is hoping it will take effect anyhow.  He cites the old nuclear teat ban treaty that the Senate refused to ratify but three different US administrations have maintained its restrictions.  There are 34 senators, including a couple of democrats who oppose the treaty. 
   Interesting part is the Aviation Week supporting the idea and the American Rifeman opposing it arrived in my mailbox on the same day.

Black Bear seen in Lincoln and Weston (Massachusetts)

Front page story in the Boston papers.  They did get one photo that is better than my bear photos.  Officials said the bear is probably foraging for food.  No kidding.  What else do bears do in the woods?   Incidentally Lincoln and Weston are about the toniest of the Boston suburbs, located just outside Rt 128.  Kinda place where houses go for $500,000 and up.    

Why the IRS targeted the Tea Party

Perhaps this letter from eight sitting US senators had something to do with it.  Dated February of last year and signed by the likes of Charlie Schumer (D-NY) Al Franken (D-MidwestSomeplace) and our very own Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)  and four others, it complains that organizations applying for tax exempt status under 501(c)4 are actually sinister political organizations trying to dodge taxes.  It goes on to urge an IRS crackdown on them.   Although addressed to the then IRS commissioner, Douglas Shulman, want to bet the content of the letter was shared around the IRS internal grapevine?   And a bunch of the usual leftie greenie democratic bureaucrats decided to do something about it?  I mean when you have seven US senators egging you on, it cannot be illegal can it?
  Be careful what you ask for.
  And we really need to get out republican votes against our senator Jeanne Shaheen.  Any one who would join forces with the likes of Charlie Schumer and Al Franken cannot be good for New Hampshire.  She is up for re election in 2014.   

Actually, I'm looking for scalps

Talking head on Meet the Press this morning speaking of the IRS investigation said "It depends upon whether you are looking for facts or looking for scandals."  Well guy.  I'm not looking for either, I'm looking for scalps.  I want the people who did it fired and prosecuted.  The two resignations so far, old turkeys within weeks of retirement, don't impress me.  There is a chain of command, an organization chart, that  shows who those clerks in Cinncinnati reported to,  and show who their first level supervisor reported to, and who their second level supervisor reported to, going right on up to to top.  Every one in that chain of command ought to be fired.  Either they knew about it and should be fired for ordering it or ignoring it.  The ones that claim they don't know anything about it should be fired for incompetence, they should have known what was going on in their own organization. 
    About 20 to 30 firings will throw a scare into the rest of the IRS bureaucrats that might keep 'em straight, for just a little while. 

Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool

It's right up to date.  It even looks for Stuxnet, that nobody-but-the-Americans-will-own-up
-to virus that  did such a good job slowing down the Iranian nuclear weapons program.

My color is still mud

Got warm enough to wash the car.  Big sponge, a bucket, some washing machine detergent, the garden hose, and there we are.  Trouble is, the car looked OK after a NH winter BEFORE I washed it, and son of a gun, it looks about the same AFTER I washed it. Real cars, painted black, always looked 100 % better after a wash.  A mud colored car looks about the same clean or muddy.
  Give Mercury a couple of points.  Wear points in the interior, like the  door arm rests, are a nice slippery plastic, from which the grime comes right off with just a little Fantastick and a rag.  Then do the floor and floor mats with the shop vac, and it's practically a new car.  At 82K miles no less.

Creativity for students, not faculty

Bethlehem Elementary School  students finished up a fun school wide creativity fair.  Students wrote essays, drew pictures, made models and wrote computer programs describing the plants, animals, and  landscapes of a new world, a new satellite of Earth.  Students were told that the year was 2154  and ecological disaster on Earth forced evacuation of the planet to the satellite.  Student projects described what the settlers from Earth might meet on their new world.  Students had a great time and came up with lots of original and cute ideas.
   Just one let down on the creativity front.  The faculty named the new world "Pandora".  Which as all of us science fiction buffs remember, was the name of the world in "Avatar".    You would think the faculty could have been more creative in naming their imaginary world.  Especially for a creativity fair. 
   There are plenty of legendary Greek gods and heroes who haven't been used to name a planet, even a fictional planet, yet.  Prometheus comes immediately to mind.