If the Republicans are this stupid they deserve to die

I swiped the title from this article by Ann Coulter.  Ann can get a bit hard core, but here she makes a certain amount of sense.  Ann is saying that the Hispanic vote isn't all that large, and Republican efforts to pass an immigration bill to woo the Hispanic vote are counterproductive.  At least she has her numbers right.  The Hispanic vote is perhaps 5%.  The women's vote is 50%, and the Republicans lost women voters to Obama by a margin of 10%.   If Romney had carried the women's vote he would be president right now. 
   If Republicans are looking for an ethic group to woo, women outnumber Hispanics by 10:1.  And half of the Hispanics are women.  We need some intelligent polling to figure out why women went for Obama and what would bring them back to voting Republican.  I've heard a lot of talk about abortion and contraception and gun control and other wedge issues, but I'm not convinced that this talk means anything. Much of it comes from advocates who will say anything to advance their pet cause. 
   As for immigration, there are some things that ought to be done.  Right now Congresscritters are trying to sell us a pig in a poke.  I have no idea what is hidden inside that immigration bill.  They plan to vote it thru and then we are stuck with it. 
   Things that ought to be done.
1.  Honorable service in the US armed forces should grant citizenship.
2.  We should favor immigrants who will contribute to the economy and pay their way over elderly parents of  citizens. 
3.  The United States has plenty of room for more citizens, and a declining birthrate.  We need immigration to keep our population up.  Population decline, like much of the rest of the first world is undergoing, makes everyone poorer. 
4.  We don't want to fingerprint foreigners on the way in and the way out.  It's degrading.  That is hidden inside the pig-in-a-poke immigration bill.  Checking their passports is enough.
5.  Illegals currently inside the country are outlaws.  They don't dare call fire or police at need lest they get deported.  Employers pay them like dirt, when they hire them, which a lot of them don't.  This situation is dreadful and we should be ashamed of it.  I have nothing against legalizing the bulk of them who are just raising their families, holding down jobs, obeying the law and staying out of trouble.  

Somebody loves Patent Trolls

Over at the Hoover Institute we have some lawyers  defending patent trolls.  They make the argument that patent trolling is merely specialization of labor.  Some companies specialize in making steel, others specialize in flying passengers, patent trolls specialize in maximizing patent income for patent holders.  Yeah Right.
   In actual fact we have scary amounts of money sucked out of productive companies and poured down the maws of lawyers. 

Nice Immigration bill they got there. Wonder what's in it

Immigration bill is on the TV news.  There was one shot of a Congressman picking up a state of paper 6 inches high.  If they pass it, what will it do to us?  Anyone know? 
  I'd feel better about it if it was limited to about 20 pages, double spaced and doubled sided, so I could read it and know what we were getting into.  No way am I (or anyone else) is gonna read thru a 6 inch high pile of paper.  
  

Airbus ready for first flight of A350

The brand new Airbus A350 is ready to fly.  Should take off on it's first flight within the week.  This is the Airbus answer to the long delayed Boeing 787.  Although the 787 is entering service now, they only have about a year before Airbus finishes up flight testing, gets the plane certified, and sends their salesmen out on the road. 

Lets Not Go There Dept.

Out at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland the Army and DHS have a collection of airliner fuselages.  For bomb testing.   Where can a terrorist's bomb explode with the best chance of the aircraft surviving the event?  Plans are to issue airline crews instructions, if a bomb is found, move it here, the Least Risk  Bomb Location (LRBL for short) and maybe you won't crash when it goes off.  So they are going to explode test bombs inside old junked airliners to see what happens. 
    Your guv'mint is concerned about the bad PR such testing might be for airlines.  Seeing a Southwest or American fuselage go poof has got to bad for the airline image.  The requests for proposals to aircraft junkyards the Army requested that "Distinctive paint schemes or logos on the fuselages must be removed before testing to eliminate any public recognition that aircraft was previously owned or operated".  How very thoughtful. 
   The whole project is chilling to think about. 

"Obama goes Troll Hunting " says the Economist

Medium length article in the Economist saying that Obama is cracking down on patent trolls.  But is he really?  They mention the "America Invents Act" passed  back in 2011.  Now the Economist says new anti troll policies will allow courts to zap the filers of "frivolous" patent suits, demand that the name of the real owner of the patent be revealed in court, and to demand more documentation from plaintiffs upon filing suit.
    Obama can do some of this by executive order, but he will need some acts of Congress (which he doesn't have) to impliment most of it.
  Plus, this isn't going to work.  The patent problem is caused by a patent office that allows incredible numbers of  things that should never be eligible for a patent to obtain one.  They allow patents upon "business methods" which has created a massive lawsuit over "one-click or two-click".  They allowed someone to patent the idea of putting a web purchase into a web shopping cart with a single mouse click.  Which is ridiculous.  It is an obvious idea that will come immediately to the mind of anyone "skilled in the art".  They allow patents on software, which they didn't use to do.  They allow patents on arbitrary arrangements of information, such as the QWERTY  keyboard layout, and the ASCII code.  Yesterday's patent fight between Apple and Samsung revolved around patents upon arbitrary codes and protocols used in wireless networking.  In order for devices to talk to each other, there has to be some agreement about codes, languages and protocols,  Without such agreement, the devices won't understand each other . Right now we allow trolls to rip off companies for using the agreed upon codes, languages and protocols.
   Right now the patent troll situation is so bad that companies assume they will be sued by a troll as soon as they make enough money to be worth suing.  They estimate the legal costs in right along with research and development costs and marketing costs.  This tax upon the creative by the lawyers slows the pace of innovation and only makes the lawyers rich. It doesn't help inventors.  It punishes startups and favors the big companies.
  We need to make it harder to get patents.  Before granting a patent there should be a comment period where anyone can submit objections to granting it.  There ought to be a review board that can toss out BS patents.  We should no longer allow business methods patents or software patents, and we should invalidate all such patents currently standing.  Patents should only be granted to individuals, never companies.
  

The big Seven Oh

Did a bang up 70th birthday party up here.  All three children flew in from all over the country.  Weather was acceptable (no rain) for doing some grilling on the deck.  A dozen birthday cards were received, lots of friends came, a good time was had by all.  What with house guests all weekend, blogging has been a little light.  Stupid Beast is still in shock from having all those strangers is the house, to say nothing of That Beagle and all Those Toddlers. 
   With luck I can do this again in ten years.