A History of the English Speaking Peoples

Written by Winston Churchill.  The first volume, The Birth of Britain, was started in 1939, seventy five years ago. Finally published in 1956.  As most of you know, Winston Churchill had some other things to attend to between 1940 and 1945.  I started to read it again yesterday. 
   The first volume starts with Caesar's invasion in 55 BC and goes up thru the Norman Conquest and the Plantagenet kings.  Reading a history book this old, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Churchill's writing is pretty much up to date.  I have read more modern histories of the period, specifically, Leslie Alcock's Arthur's Britain, and despite another thirty years of archaeology,  the story stands pretty much the way Churchill wrote of it in 1939. 
   Partly of course, the few written records of the period, Caesar, Gildas, Bede, and Nennius, were well known to Churchill. The contributions of archaeology, although interesting, don't change the story much.
  And Churchill writes well.  This, probably the last book Churchill published, has his best writing.  All writers of history  always feel compelled to comment upon the history and the historical figures.  Churchill's comments are the informed thought of an highly experienced man of affairs.  He understands the need for economic growth, even during the Roman Empire.  He knows of the need for effective military force to repel invasions and maintain civil order.  He knows the importance of Christianity in history.  He lovingly describes the growth of political institutions, especially Parliament, of which he was a member for better than fifty years.  His viewpoint is balanced and insightful. 
   It's a good read.  Check it out. 

Money for Milfoil prevention

Op ed in the Onion Leader today.  Milfoil is a lake weed, grows rapidly and can choke a lake to the point where you cannot swim in it, canoe in it, or fish in it.  They described it as "invasive species" which is evil.  The writer was pleading for more state money for Milfoil control.  
   Trouble is, the control measures amount to hiring divers to go down and pull up the weed by hand.  Ow.  My aching back.  That sounds worse than pulling up dandelions by hand, only under water.  And divers don't come cheap.  I can see why the anti Milfoil crusaders are begging for more funding.  There ain't enough money in the entire state of New Hampshire to pull up lakeweed by hand from underwater.  
   Somebody has to find an animal that eats Milfoil, or a herbicide, or a disease that attacks it, or something practical.  Until then, forget it.

Bills and Blegs

I still pay my bills by check, largely 'cause I don't really trust electronic payment.  Witness the Target data breach disaster.  So the mail comes in, and the bills and the blegs (letters begging money) pile up on my desk.  Once a month I haul out the check book and pay them. 
  This month, I paid 9 bills and still had a huge stack of envelopes to open.  So I counted.
Twenty one blegs total.  Most aggressive blegger, the Republican party.  with seven.  Followed by the Tea Party and the NRA with 3 each.  My old colleges, my old high school, Scott Brown, John McCain, and four local charities came in with one each. 
   To a certain extent I ask for this, I have in fact contributed to each of them in the past, so it's natural for them to come back to the well. Not that I give all that much, $35 is about my utmost.  But I was surprised to find more blegs than bills. 

$20 Billion for new presidential helicopters?

Marine One is getting a little old.  There was a program to replace it about 10 years ago, but terrible cost overruns led to program cancellation.  The replacement was going to have electronic systems good enough to conduct a nuclear war from on board the chopper.  And they kept on gold plating it until the project sank.
   Well, they are at it again.  The new program will get a new design from Sikorsky in Connecticut.  For $20 billion overall, we get 23 gold plated presidential helicopters,  That's nearly $1 billion per aircraft.  That's totally rediculous.
   All we need for a presidential chopper is one of what ever the service is flying.  Give it a nice new paint job and maybe a couple of cushy seats in back.  Take the aircraft from an operational squadron, something that has been flown long enough to get a good feeling about it.  No fancy electronics.  If the president just has to communicate in flight let him use his cell phone.  And we don't need 23 of them,  two, a primary and a backup is plenty. 
   $20 billion for special design, special build gold plated choppers, when the country is as broke as it is, just doesn't make sense. 

Gumshoes and REMF's won't help.

The TV news is playing up the dispatch of a dozen American "experts" to Nigeria to "help" recover the kidnapped Nigerian girls.  Sorry O, that won't help.  Makes you look wimpy on TV.
  What's needed is about a hundred good soldiers, and the helicopters to lift them.  And a location.  The location the girls are held at.  The choppers land the troops just out of gun shot of the location, the troops move in and shoot anyone who fails to put their hands up in the air.  Choppers provide fire support as needed.  Then fly the girls out to safety.   Repeat as necessary until all the girls are freed.
   So why don't we do this? Do we secretly support Boko Haram?  Lack of guts?  Too many REMF's and not enough soldiers?  Multiculturalism? 
   You don't know what REMF means?  Old service acronym for Rear Echelon M_____ F_____.

Lick 'em or join 'em?

The Democrats are choosing between two options.  The House of Representatives is forming a committee to investigate Benghazi, with Rep Trey Gowdy as chairman.  Option 1 for Democrats.  Refuse to participate, make it an all Republican deal, and then trash it as political witchhunting.  Option 2.  Put some Democrats on the committee who can slow things down, waste time, give the witnesses softball questions that make them look good, raise procedural objections, and in general water down the proceedings. 
  Which option to take?  Option 1, abstention, only works if the public can be persuaded that there is nothing in the Benghazi story.  Polls suggest that this won't work, they show a majority thinks Benghazi is a shameful scandal, being hushed up by the administration.  Certainly the failure to send troops to the rescue, the firing of general officers who refused to call back rescue missions, the mysterious CIA operation set up in this sinkhole, the attempt to call it a political demonstration sparked by an obscure internet video, and the denial of security assets requested before hand by officials on the scene, go together to make an ugly and shameful story. 
Option 2  only looks good for Democrats only if they decide Option 1 won't work. 
Good Luck Democrats. 
 

Reform the Congress

As the November election approaches everyone is looking to see the Republicans take "control" of the Senate.  Should that happen, Obama will have to warm up that famous pen, and veto stuff.  And sign his own name to it.  Right now, one man, Harry Reid, does the veto for Obama, in secrecy.
  That should not be allowed in a democracy.  Every Congressman ought to be able to submit a bill and have it voted upon.  This business of the Congressional leadership's ability to silently trashcan bills they don't like ought to stop.  For that matter, each house ought to be required to vote on every bill the other house passes. 
  And this business in the Senate where it takes two votes to do anything ought to stop.  Right now they hold one vote one whether they will vote on it and a second one to actually pass it.  This is ridiculous, wastes time, and obscures each senator's real actions.  Plenty of slimy senators vote one way of the first vote and the other way on the second vote.  You gotta be a real political junkie to figure out just what senator so-and-so is really doing up there in DC, out of sight of his district. Most voters don't pay that close attention, they have lives to life after all.
   Then we ought to demand that each bill be read aloud on the floor before the vote on it.  That will cut down on those 1000 page bills that no one understands.  Any bill too long to read aloud is a bad bill. And any bill must be printed (letterpress on paper) and distributed to the press, the public and all Congressmen BEFORE it comes up for a vote. 
   Then we ought to adopt the Confederate States of America practice of demanding each bill laid before Congress must address a single topic, that topic to be announced in the title of the bill.  No more riders.  The Supreme Court ought to hold bills violating that rule are un Constitutional. 
   And English is the language of the United States, plain English.  Fancy Latin words will invalidate any bill. Sentences must be active voice, subject-verb-object.  No compound sentences. No outside references, clauses that read "in accordance with such-an-such" , where such and such is some other document.  A bill ought to stand on its own, no external references, which nobody has the time to find and read.