We don't want a democracy in Eygpt

In stead we want a stable, decent, humane government that will restore order so that the tourists will come back, protect minorities like Christians, Jews, Shia, and who ever else there might be, from prosecution by the Sunni majority, and have enough support to stay in power.  If such a government is less than democratic, so be it.
   And we don't really get our choice in the matter.   Egypt will be governed by who ever can gain the backing of the Egyptian people, the Egyptian establishment, the Army, and what ever other important power blocks there might be. Or if not backing, at least acquiescence.  The best we can do is pick sides and give the side we like what support we can.  If we pick the losing side, the penalty is lasting enmity from the winners.   
   There are two sides in Egypt.  One is the Muslim Brotherhood.  The other is the Army.  Both sides are powerful.  The Army side was able to stage massive street demonstrations that brought down the Muslim Brotherhood president, Morsi.  The Muslim Brotherhood is staging massive demonstrations today to reinstate Morsi.  Both sides are two big to ignore.  Nobody knows which side is stronger. 
   One thing we do know.  We don't want the Muslim Brotherhood to win.
  The Muslim Brotherhood was formed in the 1920's as an anti British underground.  The were outlawed by every Egyptian government from that day to last year.  The British, Nasser, Sadat, and Mubarak each outlawed the Brotherhood and jailed it's members.  The Brotherhood assassinated Anwar Sadat.  They stand for imposing Sharia law, forcing women into burkas,  cutting women's genitals, and killing all non Muslims.  They want to drive the Israelis into the sea. Al Quada, Abu Nudal, Hezballah, Osama Bin Laden, and a bunch of other nasties learned the terrorist business in the Brotherhood. 
   Obama seems to like the Brotherhood. 

First Amendment for Rodeo Clowns

Just so long as they don't mock Obama that is.  I'm of mixed minds on this one.  First amendment was put in to allow political opposition, which from that day to this includes mockery. 
  On the other hand, the president represents MY country (even a president I didn't vote for) and mocking the President is about the same thing as mocking my country, which makes me uncomfortable.  But not so uncomfortable as to forbid it.   

Bradley Manning vs the Rosenburgs

Discussion in Pajamas Media about differences between the case of Julius and Ethel Rosenburg, who got the chair, and Bradley Manning.  I hadn't heard that Manning had actually been sentenced, but it's a good bet he gets off with a jail sentence. 
   The article begs the question of why the difference in sentence for essentially the same crime.  Well, I can answer that.  The Rosenburgs passed the secret of making atomic bombs to Stalin.  They gave a ruthless dictator the ultimate weapon.  No country can risk its cities to atomic destruction, no terrain feature can be held against nuclear bombardment.  Two atomic bombs ended Japanese resistance and brought an end to WWII, the most destructive war in history.   In 1945 the United States alone possessed atomic weapons.  Things might have stayed that way for decades, but for the Rosenburgs.  Thanks to their information the Soviets detonated their first bomb in 1949.  This made the Cold War, which lasted forty years, possible.  Forty years of tyranny, bloodshed, and misery for  all trapped behind the Iron Curtain.
   In short, the Rosenburgs caused incredible damage to world peace, US security, and caused  untold human suffering. 
   Bradly Manning, not so much.  The material Manning released was embarrassing, but compared to the Rosenburgs, fairly small potatoes.  In fact, the Manning case is more embarrassing because it revealed US document security was non existant.  No way should an Army private be able to access State Dept classified.  The way you keep secrets secret is you don't reveal them to anyone you don't absolutely have to. The rest of the world, both our friends and our enemies, now knows that you don't tell the Americans anything that you don't want to appear on Wiki Leaks and the front page of the New York Times.  And that isn't Manning's fault, it's the fault of who ever set up the system that allowed a private such wide ranging access to US secret information.  That guilty bureaucrat hasn't even been named in the press. He, who ever it is, gets off free, when he ought to get the chair.    

Hacking the nanny cams

A couple reported that someone had hacked into their nanny cam, taken control of it, scanned around the room, and picked up the audio. 
  Technically possible for sure.  You can tap into the radio link from the camera to the modem, or you can come in thru the internet and defeat the password protection. 
   Best defense?  Turn off the nanny cam.  Children have been successfully raised without nanny cams for thousands of years.

Missing the point of voter ID

They were talking about  Voter ID this morning.  The black guys damned voter ID as just more red tape to keep blacks from voting.  The  Voter ID guys keep saying that if you need to show ID to buy cold medicine, you ought to show ID to vote.  It all sounds so thoughtful and democratic, but that is not why we put in voter ID. 
   We put in voter ID to keep the out of state college students from voting in New Hampshire.  College students are young and stupid and vote Democratic.  They also vote for more free stuff,  which we residents then have to pay for with our taxes.  Our own college student votes mess things up enough, we should not have to suffer out of state college students.
  The talking heads on TV don't talk about this.

No Racial Overtones

Three black kids punch out a white kid on a school bus.  You have seen the surveillance camera video on Fox TV.   Talking heads are discussing it this morning.  One talking head says "No racial overtones".   Yeah Right.

Tales of the Toaster

It was a GE toaster that came into my family in the early 1950's.  It was a two slice toaster, replacing a one slice Toastmaster.  There were three of us children (me and two siblings) and a two slice toaster meant that two kids got a hot crisp slice of toast and only one kid had to wait for the second batch.  Breakfast became more eating and less waiting on the toaster.  Progress.
  In time, trusty GE went to my Grandmother in Montreal, replacing an antique toast incinerator, the real old fashioned kind that did not pop up.  It kept Grandmother from incinerating her toast until her death in 1962.  Then it came back to us, and from that day to this it toasted bread and English muffins at the Mittersill chalet.  All three of my children grew up doing ski morning breakfast with toast from the now elderly GE. 
   Last week, trusty antique toaster stopped working.  I should have just pitched it, after 60 years it didn't owe me anything, but it had been around long enough for me, and my children to become sentimental about it.  An appliance of love. 
   So, can it be fixed? The failure was straight forward, one of the heating elements had gone dark, resulting in three sided toast, three sides browned and one side white.  And it stopped popping up.  They built toasters right back then, it disassembled with nothing more than a Phillips screw driver and a couple of nut drivers.  Shop vac dealt with pounds and pounds of ancient toast crumbs. The failure was obvious to the eye,  the nichrome heater wire had burned in two on the dark heating element.
    Repair.  I used a piece of tiny brass tubing to make a butt splice.  Buffed the nichrome wire bright with a Dremel tool, slipped the brass butt splice on,  and crimped it with a pair of Vicegrip pliers.  Reassembled toaster, and lo and behold, it heated up.  Popped up too.  I  inserted a couple of pieces of test Italian bread and it toasted them nice and golden brown and popped them up automatically.
  We will see how long the butt splice continues to conduct electricity.