According to Fox, parents are using a diet suppliment called melitonin, available at health food stores with out a prescription as a sleeping pill for small children. Kid doesn't want to go to bed at 8 on a school night? Slip it a pill.
I'd never heard of the stuff before the Fox news piece on it. It never occurred to me, (or to my mother) that the way to get kids to go to bed was to drug 'em. Our family method was simple, "Bedtime, now. Lights out, No talking". Worked every time for two generations.
Saturday, August 24, 2013
Friday, August 23, 2013
News for the Gun Controllers
The Christopher Lane killing in Oklahoma has provoked wide spread outrage. As well it should. The gun controllers are now using it as justification for taking guns away from the rest of the population.
News Flash. Oklahoma law a;ready bans minors from possessing hand guns. So the 22 pistol used in the Lane killing was already illegal. Not that being illegal means much.
Some newsies have expressed surprise that the killers had 50 rounds with them. News Flash #2. Fifty rounds is a single regular box of 22 ammunition. The box is pretty small, it will fit in your shirt pocket.
And 50 rounds ain't much. I have shot off 50 rounds in no time at all at the range.
Other newsies have expressed surprise that "kids" could be so bad. Those newsies must have led a sheltered life. I grew up in a respectable Boston suburb. There were kids that would get into plenty of trouble all by themselves anytime they weren't under a grownup's eye. Hanging around with those kids was a quick ticket to juvenile court. Part of surviving childhood was learning to identify and avoid those kids.
Thursday, August 22, 2013
The Egyptians let Mubarak out of jail
I wonder why. If you are gonna be a military junta, and you want to keep your job, you don't do controversial things unless it benefits you. At least that's what the intelligent junta does.
So what is the benefit of letting Mubarak out? Does he still command a faction in Egypt, who will do something nice for the junta if the junta does something nice for them? Is there some personal connection between the junta and Mubarak? Like a blood relationship, a marriage between families, some mighty favor done by Mubarak back when he was running the place? The guy is 85 and in poor health, odds are he will be dead in a couple of years.
Or maybe this isn't so controversial in Egypt? After a year of the Muslim Brotherhood in charge perhaps old Mubarak is looking better to the average Egyptian in the street?
Who knows? Surely not the US media.
So what is the benefit of letting Mubarak out? Does he still command a faction in Egypt, who will do something nice for the junta if the junta does something nice for them? Is there some personal connection between the junta and Mubarak? Like a blood relationship, a marriage between families, some mighty favor done by Mubarak back when he was running the place? The guy is 85 and in poor health, odds are he will be dead in a couple of years.
Or maybe this isn't so controversial in Egypt? After a year of the Muslim Brotherhood in charge perhaps old Mubarak is looking better to the average Egyptian in the street?
Who knows? Surely not the US media.
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Goldfinger
The breakout James Bond movie. It was the third one out, Dr No and From Russia with Love preceeded it, but Goldfinger was the movie that made Bond into the bigtime. Last night I popped my DVD of Goldfinger into the player and enjoyed it.
For a movie nearly 50 years old, it has worn well. Except for the vintage cars, everything else looked reasonable. The aircraft, the costumes, the sets, the firearms, even the industrial laser, all look right up to date even when they are actually a half century old. Bond's one liners are still funny, and so are Goldfinger's. Bond's snappy wardrobe still looks snappy. The CIA guys both wear hats, (fedoras ) which nobody wears anymore, but their black suits would look right in style for Men In Black. Nobody said anything objectionable by the standards of 2013. Everybody smoked in the movie, but then everybody smoked in real life in those days.
I remember seeing Goldfinger back in 1964 at the Keesler Air Force Base outdoor theatre. The place was packed with GI's, who hugely enjoyed the movie. There is one technical slip, a supposed Army NCO was wearing Air Force sergeant's stripes. That brought the house down fifty years ago.
There was one other slip up. After crushing the Lincoln with the mobster inside it, Oddjob has the bundle of metal dropped into the bed of a Ford Falcon pickup truck. That wouldn't have worked in real life. The Lincoln weighs two tons (crushed or uncrushed) and the Falcon pickup truck was super light duty that bottomed out the springs around half a ton. Should have used something bigger like a Dodge Powerwagon.
Then there was the neat little tracker built into the Aston Martin. The one that displayed a map with a bright blinking light indicating the target location (usually Goldfinger was the target). At the time I saw the flick, I thought it was cool but a little advanced for current (1964) technology. A few months later, after reporting in to my duty unit, I saw the Tactical Situation Display (TSD) in the F106 fighter. Damn, the TSD worked exactly like Bond's tracker.
For a movie nearly 50 years old, it has worn well. Except for the vintage cars, everything else looked reasonable. The aircraft, the costumes, the sets, the firearms, even the industrial laser, all look right up to date even when they are actually a half century old. Bond's one liners are still funny, and so are Goldfinger's. Bond's snappy wardrobe still looks snappy. The CIA guys both wear hats, (fedoras ) which nobody wears anymore, but their black suits would look right in style for Men In Black. Nobody said anything objectionable by the standards of 2013. Everybody smoked in the movie, but then everybody smoked in real life in those days.
I remember seeing Goldfinger back in 1964 at the Keesler Air Force Base outdoor theatre. The place was packed with GI's, who hugely enjoyed the movie. There is one technical slip, a supposed Army NCO was wearing Air Force sergeant's stripes. That brought the house down fifty years ago.
There was one other slip up. After crushing the Lincoln with the mobster inside it, Oddjob has the bundle of metal dropped into the bed of a Ford Falcon pickup truck. That wouldn't have worked in real life. The Lincoln weighs two tons (crushed or uncrushed) and the Falcon pickup truck was super light duty that bottomed out the springs around half a ton. Should have used something bigger like a Dodge Powerwagon.
Then there was the neat little tracker built into the Aston Martin. The one that displayed a map with a bright blinking light indicating the target location (usually Goldfinger was the target). At the time I saw the flick, I thought it was cool but a little advanced for current (1964) technology. A few months later, after reporting in to my duty unit, I saw the Tactical Situation Display (TSD) in the F106 fighter. Damn, the TSD worked exactly like Bond's tracker.
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
What do we do about NSA?
They have been around for a long time. NSA is descended from the World War II codebreakers who contributed so mightily to victory in that war. Back in the 1940's they merely tuned in enemy radio messages and then decrypted them. Back then we civilians were happy if the government didn't read our mail and got a warrent to tap our telephone.
Times move on. NSA is now obtaining and storing all the telephone bills in the land. "metadata" they call it, but it is just the information on your telephone bill, each number you called and how long you stayed on the line. NSA has direct taps into the phone company computers to suck off the "metadata" and store it, forever.
Question. Should we allow this? On the security side, when they finger one terrorist, they go into the "metadata" and find everyone he ever telephoned. Very handy, no doubt about it. Tidier than interrogation or waterboarding the suspect, and they can do it even if they haven't caught 'em yet.
On the defense lawyer side, all they have to do is find just once, that my client telephoned some unsavory character, and he is convicted. If they want to hang my client for income tax (like happened to Al Capone), insider trading (Martha Stewart), campaign finance offenses, or walking on the grass, talk to every one on his phone list and you are bound to find some dirt to bring to court. Scary.
NSA claims that they only look at their store of "metadata" to solve terrorist cases. Even if this is true, today, pretty soon cops will want to use it on other "worthy" causes. Like kidnapping cases, or school shooter cases, or drug cases. Pretty soon they will be using it in child support cases. Or divorce cases.
After thinking about it for some time, I think the dangers of innocent citizens getting railroaded out weigh the chances of catching terrorists.
We ought to pass a law forbidding NSA to access, read, copy or store "metadata" of any kind. Companies should be forbidden to allow snoopers to see customer data without a court order. Court orders to be limited to ONE suspect at a time, no court orders for "all single black men 18 to 24 years old" stuff.
NSA is also snooping email. Scanning it by computer, and reading it if it is from someone on the watch list or the scanner picks up on some suspicious keywords. We ought to forbid that too. And pass a law requiring Gmail and the internet service providers to keep customer email secret.
Monday, August 19, 2013
Juan Williams finally makes some sense
Juan Williams, a liberal commentator who was driven from NPR to Fox News a few years ago, was on the 6 PM Fox news roundtable. They were discussing Egypt and what should be done. Juan said that of the two sides in the Egyptian "disturbances" we ought to be backing the Egyptian Army against the Muslim Brotherhood. Juan got that 100 % right.
The Army may be a little heavy handed, but the Muslim Brotherhood are Islamist crazies. The Army has majority support of the Egyptian people in turning out Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood government.
All we can do in Egypt is pick a side. The Army, which we have been training and paying for 20 years, is much more sympathetic to our point of view than the Brotherhood, who assassinated Anwat Sadat.
The Army may be a little heavy handed, but the Muslim Brotherhood are Islamist crazies. The Army has majority support of the Egyptian people in turning out Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood government.
All we can do in Egypt is pick a side. The Army, which we have been training and paying for 20 years, is much more sympathetic to our point of view than the Brotherhood, who assassinated Anwat Sadat.
Sunday, August 18, 2013
Practice or Process?
Attorney General Eric Holder announced that US attorneys had be instructed to sidestep the mandatory minimum sentencing rules in regard to "low level drug offenders". Not a bad idea, Users and guys who deal just enough to support their own habits aren't that dangerous. But I don't like the process Holder used.
Those mandatory minimum laws were passed by Congress. The right way to change 'em is to go to Congress and get Congress to change the law. Doing it on just Eric's say-so ain't democratic, that's what dictators do.
Those mandatory minimum laws were passed by Congress. The right way to change 'em is to go to Congress and get Congress to change the law. Doing it on just Eric's say-so ain't democratic, that's what dictators do.
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