Words of the Weasel Part 38

"Why can't they get anything done?"   Common whine from the Internet.  "they" being Congress. 
Translation: "Why can't they pass my pet program?"  Answer: "Because you don't have the votes to pass it."

Obama talks about the NSA

And talks and talks and talks.  And doesn't say anything of substance.  He will appoint some new bureaucrats, he will set up more paperwork.  There will be study committees.  He will coordinate with Congress over changes to be made. The US will only spy for virtuous purposes, like counter terrorism, and never for evil purposes like commercial advantage.  We will stop eavesdropping on foreign leader's personal phone calls, but we will continue to intercept their non personal calls. I'm sure that makes foreign leaders feel exceptionally secure. But they will continue the "meta data" program, the scarfing up of everyone's telephone/cellphone billing information and keeping it forever. 
   If it were up to me, I'd terminate the "meta data" program, right now.  Having Uncle Sam keep a record of every phone call I ever made is scary.  Was I ever brought into court, the government could win a conviction merely by showing that I had telephoned some scumbag, any time in the past, and poof, my credibility is shot with the jury. Bang, convicted.  Over the span of a life time you accept telephone calls from lots of scumbags, for instance telemarketers,   politicians, scam artists like Bernie Maddof, whatever.  Plus even Uncle Sam admits that this massive "meta data" program hasn't caught any terrorists.  
   Shut down means removing the electronic taps the NSA has into telephone company computers.  Companies (especially telephone companies) are forbidden to give any customer data to anyone without a specific court order, said order limited to a single individual over a specific length of time.  Such court orders are matters of public record and may be disclosed to anyone, including the targets.  And, erasing the zillions of phone records already in NSA hands.
   And get rid of this "FISA" court to which the NSA and Obama keeps pointing.  "It's OK, the FISA court said so."   The FISA court is a mere rubber stamp, it always approves everything brought before it.  Its proceedings and rulings are secret so nobody knows what's legal and what's not.  Secret courts, star chambers, have no place in a democracy.  Make government officials liable to civil and criminal prosecution for illegal spying.  Unless the accused can show a recent Congressional law saying it's legal, bang, guilty, five years in slam.    

Sea of Monsters, Percy Jackson, Olympians

A fun flick.  It never came to Littleton, so I watched it when it came to Netflix.  It's a movie adaption of a well selling young adult fantasy series of books by Rick Riordan.  If you like the books, you want to see this movie.  If you haven't read the book, you may find the plot/action difficult to follow.  Alexandra Daddario has a good role as Annabeth Chase,  Percy's girlfriend.  She goes questing with Percy, stands shoulder to shoulder with him in battle,  and has as many good lines as Percy does.  The film makes it clear early on that she and Percy have a thing going, and although both roles are melodramatic, they play them convincingly.  Logan Lerman as Percy Jackson doesn't look as cute as he did in the preceding movie (Lightning Thief), his hair is cut shorter, and he looks tougher and  more dangerous. 
   As a fantasy movie, there is a lot of CGI.  Some of it was less than satisfying.  The Civil War confederate ironclad, CSS Birmingham lacks the distinctive silhouette of  the Merrimac, or even CSS Tennessee, and is equipped with such modern conveniences as electric searchlights,  radar,  and 40 mm Bofors auto cannon.  The crew, Confederate ghosts/zombies, don't look very Confederate, or even very southern. They skip the scene in the book were Tyson, the cyclops, goes below to keep the steam engines running as CSS Birmingham attempts to pull out of the Charybdis whirlpool.   The Golden Fleece, object of the quest, looked more like a fancy table cloth than a fleece. 
   This is probably the last of the Percy Jackson movies.  It cost $90 million to make, was released in August, and so far has only earned $68 million, according to IMDB.  Too bad, I enjoyed it.  Nice old fashioned good guys and bad guys, good guys win movie. 

   
  

F35 might be operational in 2015

Why do programs cost so much? Because they take so long.  F35 started 15 years ago.  We have built a couple of dozen of 'em.  It's been flying for a couple of years.  But.  All the missiles and stuff are software controlled.  And the software to run them isn't ready.  They think the software will be ready in another year.
   First mistake.  All the missiles and smart weapons should not require software support from the F35.  There is plenty of room to pack a million lines of code into each missile or smart bomb.  The missiles and smart bombs ought to be able to get a hit with no assistance from the launching airplane.   Benefit:  the missile or smart bomb will work on another aircraft, without requiring a five year software writing fandango. 
   The old F105 could fly into North Viet Nam, suppress the SAM's, jam enemy radar, dog fight with MIGs, and bomb every target in Route Pak 6.  And there was not a lick of software anywhere in that plane.  And, the old Thud went from paper spec to flying combat missions in less than 5 years.  And it was rugged.  It could take a direct hit from an air-to-air missile and fly back to base. 

International Space Station gets a reprieve.

The Obama administration had been planning to "deorbit", aka destroy, the ISS as soon as 2020.  They just announced intention to keep it going until 2024.  This is just intention, they don't have funding passed thru Congress yet.   But they probably will be able to get the funding. 
   Seeing as how they only got the ISS fully functional last year, it makes sense to operate it for a while.  It cost $100 billion to put it up there.  Planning was of the "if you build it they will come" type.  Result, nobody is using it much.  But the kind of things you can do in the ISS  takes time to set up and do, time being years.  Lot of things will get  started now that it looks like the ISS will be aloft long enough to do them. 
  Cost to keep it running is $3 billion a year.  It needs a steady launch of supply vehicles bringing up food, water, air, science experiments.  It also needs the occasional push.  It flies so low that there is still some air drag to slow it down.  The shuttle missions used to burn some fuel to push the ISS up to compensate for the drag.  Now that the shuttle is retired, they will have to do it some other way. 

The Economist likes securitisation.

Securitisation, the banking scam that brought us great depression 2.0.  The Economist thinks we should bring it back.   Used to be, when banks or companies needed to borrow money, they issued bonds.  Pieces of paper that promised to pay back with interest, money in the future.  Investors pay cash to receive a paper promise.  If the promiser is creditable (for example Boeing, or US Treasury, or Apple)  investors line up happily to exchange cash for promises of more money in the future.  If the promiser is not credible (for example Greece)  no one will buy them. Banks, are something of a special case.  There are limits to the number of bonds a bank can issue.
   So, in the early 2000's the banks invented a new deal.  They issued "bonds" that were "backed" by something, home mortgages, or accounts receivable, or other intangible paper assets.  The banks said "the asset backing this bond makes it like a car loan or a home mortgage.  If the borrower doesn't pay on time we can repossess the car or the house."   Investors were gullible enough to buy these "backed" band bonds.   Things blew up in 2007 when investors found that the "assets" "backing" these bonds were sub prime home mortgages in default.  And they found that they didn't have the right to repossess the houses.  Losses from "mortgage backed securities" were bad enough to kill GM, Lehman Brothers, AIG, and some Euro banks whose names escape me now.  This kicked off Great Depression 2.0 from which we have still not recovered.
   The mortgage backed securities are way for banks to borrow money from gullible investors.  Actually, banks should not borrow money.  They are supposed to lend it.  Banks should acquire funds to lend by attracting depositors, and selling bank stock.  Depositors are insured so they will park their money anywhere with the  FDIC sign.  Investors who buy bank stock know their investment is only as safe as the bank itself.  So stockholders insist that the bank be careful with their money and not make loans that may not be paid back, no matter how lush the returns are.  In short, bank stock holders are conservative and will keep their bank from doing stupid things.  Like lending money to Greece.  The way we create a stable financial system is to make the big players into careful players.
   If the big players borrow money, they pretty much do what they please.  If they have to raise money by selling stock, they give up a certain amount of control  to the investors, which keeps 'em careful. 
  

David Gregory trashes Robert Gates on Meet the Press

Every one on the panel of newsies said it was dastardly of Gates to publish his memoirs, which said some VERY hard things about the Obama administration, while Obama was still in office.  Hmm. I never heard of this ethics rule before.
   This is America.  We have freedom of speech and of the press.  That means you can publish anything you like.  Anytime you like.  Gates had some harsh things to say about Obama, and he said them, in public.  Good for him.  What's wrong with that?   Other than it hurts Obama, but Obama needs to be trashed now and then.  The newsies never say anything bad about Obama.  We need some balance here.
  Apparently Meet the Press doesn't agree.  At least they didn't call Gates a racist for criticizing their favorite boy.