Does John McCain know anything?

John McCain was on NHPR this morning calling for cancellation of US aid to Egypt.  I don't  agree.  Egypt's population decided they had had enough of the Muslim Brotherhood and Morsi, they staged protest demonstrations bigger than the ones that deposed Mubarak, the Egyptian Army took the hint and showed Morsi the door.  Morsi and the Brotherhood had managed to throw most Egyptians out of work, ruin the tourist trade, and were getting ready to provoke a war with the Israelis.  
   And, you gotta understand who the Muslim Brotherhood is.  They are an underground Islamist revolutionary movement that got started in the 1920's, with the objective of throwing the British out of Egypt.  They were so violent that the British, Nasser, Sadat, and Mubarak had all outlawed the party and threw every brother they caught into jail.  They are the best organized political party in Egypt, having had the last hundred years to get organized .  The Brotherhood founded Al Quada, Abu Nadal, and the Palestinian Liberation Organization.  The Brotherhood killed Anwat Sadat.  Osama bin Laden started his political career with the Brotherhood. They are dangerous and they want us dead.  There is no way we are gonna change their minds, we cannot kiss and make up, we have to oppose them.
    After the "Arab Spring" demos last year, Obama helped throw Mubarak out of power.  The Brotherhood moved right into the vacuum thus created and managed to  gain a majority in the legislature and elect one of their own to the presidency.  They have spend the last year driving the county underwater. Good work Obama.
   Last week we had a stroke of pure unadulerated luck,  the second Arab Spring, and the Egyptian Army has removed Morsi and the Brotherhood from power.  The army was able to do this because it have been receiving sizable American money ever since the Camp David Accords back in the Carter Administration.  This enabled the Army to pay the troops, buy rations, ammunition, spare parts and fuel, without having to pay off the Egyptian politicians.  We made training spaces available in all the US military schools so most of the Egyptian officer corps has done schooling in the US.  Some of our ideals have rubbed off on them.  In short we have built the Egyptian Army up into the most powerful institution in the country, an institution that has the respect of their citizens and is sympathetic to the American point of view.  It wasn't cheap, but right now, it looks like money well spent.
  And the ever clueful John McCain wants to screw all this up by cutting of the money.   Good work McCain.
    
 

Too young for fireworks

Did the Fourth of July thing.  Barbeque burgers and hot dogs on the deck (Brother John's deck this time)  Chewed the fat, reminisced about old times, drank some beer, put on some weight.  The rain held off, just barely.  Children are small, less than 1, 2,and 4.  Grownups decided not to do fireworks, at least not this year.  Maybe next year. 

Egypt is more important than it looks

Egypt is one center of the Arab world.  (Iraq is the other).  Egypt became Moslem back in Mohammed's time.  To Moslems it is a holy land, not the holiest perhaps, but still holy.  The University of Cairo has been granting degrees since medieval times.  Arab fashion, art, literature, music, newspapers, all the cultural things are centered in Cairo.  The rest of the Arab world looks to Egypt for leadership, for ideology, for news.  Young Arabs are sent to Cairo for their education (at least those that are not sent to the United States).  Egypt is a trend setter, an example setter. 
   Yesterday's overthrow of the Islamist Morsi regime is very important.   It says, loud and clear, in an Arab voice, that Islamism is rejected by the mass of the Arab population.  This is the best thing we could have hoped for.  It may provide an example for the rest of the Middle East.  Turkey in particular.  
   Egypt now needs a decent regime, run by decent men, to bring some order out of chaos, get their economy working again, well enough to avert famine, and get the security situation in hand sufficiently to bring the tourists back. 
   I have no idea which Egyptians are presidential timber.  I don't read or speak Arabic, I have never been in the country.  But State Dept or CIA ought to have some idea.  At a minimum they should have a list of each Egyptian's standing, where he comes from, who supports him, where he was educated, what his political views are.  The US ought to quietly contact these people, at least the ones that we think would do Egypt some good, and assure them of our friendship, offer them help.  Lotta things we can help with, money, an internet presence, radio and TV broadcasting facilities, visas, air tickets, intelligence, arms and ammunition, economic development.  All we have to do is guarantee secrecy.
   Should it come out that El So-and-so is in the pay of the Americans, it's a death sentence for El So-and-so.  CIA has a terrible record in this regard, and State isn't much better.  Right now US military officers would be more convincing go betweens than anyone from the intelligence community.
 

Trip to Boston

The urge to shop rose up, and so I fired up the Mercury and drove down to Boston today.  Left at 7 AM, got to my first shopping stop by 9.  Talk about infrastructure.  I93 down thru NH was in good shape.  Not so in Mass. The  contractor who laid the last coat of asphalt on the Mass end of I93 and Rt 128 took some cheapcut and the whole asphalt layer was peeling up, creating suspension wrecking potholes.  Glad I'm retired and don't have to commute on that stuff anymore.  I hit the big Salvation Army thrift store on US 1 and scored four decent shirts, a drinking glass, a muffin pan and a pyrex measuring cup.  Then I got to Charles Ro, the Malden train store and scored a bunch of train stuff.  Hit the Lincoln paperback book store on the way back and scored six paperbacks.  All in all a reasonable day. 

Stand your ground.

The newsies have been talking up the Florida stand your ground law.  Zimmerman, who wanted to get into law enforcement, had taken a course in criminal law.  The prosecution dragged in George Zimmerman's old professor, who testified that Zimmerman had done well in class, gotten an A in the course, and was well versed in the Florida stand your ground law. 
   The prosecution went on to accuse Zimmerman of shooting Trayvon Martin 'cause he knew the stand you ground law would make it OK somehow.
   And they expect a jury to believe this? Zimmerman is flat on his back, with Martin beating his head against a cement sidewalk.  Zimmerman, in fear of his life shoots Martin.  Would anyone in Zimmerman's position be thinking about stand your ground, as opposed to save my life?  Would not even the most gullible juror understand that?
   What is the prosecution trying to do?

Airlines used to be cool

Being an airline was once so cool that a Florida railroad renamed itself "Seaboard Air Line".  It's stock shot up.  This was back in the 1920's or 30's when the railroad was still steam powered.
  Aviation Week did a piece on "Top Performing Airlines".   In the short list of winners, we have such flight suggestive names as Copa Holdings, Ryanair Holdings, AMR Corp, Allegiant Travel Co. and Regional Express Holdings.
   I guess Wall St thinks better of a company name suggestive of stock and bond trading, rather than a name that forthrightly announces the company's real business, supplying air transportation. 

Children are dying

The Washingtonian has a long piece on the problem.  US manufacturers of trace elements essential to intervenous feeding are failing to keep up with demand.  Premature babies in neo natal intensive care are getting sick and dying for lack of proper IV nutrition.  Fingers are pointed in a number of directions, the drug makers, the FDA, the hospitals. 
One thing the FDA could do, right now, on it's own authority, is let hospitals purchase the needed nutrients over seas, where they are plentiful.  But this would upset US drug companies who fully support the FDA's ban on importing any kind of drugs or pharmaceuticals.
   Another thing that would help is to allow the price of the stuff to rise.  FDA and the insurance companies hammer down the price of drugs, to the point where there isn't any profit in making the stuff, so the drug companies stop making it.