The TV newsies have been keeping score. They show how many executive orders Obama, Bush, Clinton, and Reagan issued. This is cute, but it doesn't mean much.
Routine executive orders, divvying up the turf between bureaucrats, aren't the same as executive orders granting immunity to illegal immigrants under the age of 18. One is a routine ordering of the bureaucracy, the other is implementing the Dream Act after Congress refused to pass it.
I have no problem with settling bureaucratic turf battles by executive order. I do have a problem with over riding Congressional votes by executive order.
Thursday, June 26, 2014
How do you fire an IRS Commissioner?
John Koskinen, appeared at a Congressional investigation. Well scrubbed, freshly shaved, pink, well fed, well tailored. He then got into a pissing match with Congressman Paul Ryan, thereby showing a total lack of brains. Common sense should tell him what to say to an 800 pound gorilla (Ans: SIR). Koskinen clearly lacks common sense, and probably six of seven other kinds of sense as well. And this turkey is checking my tax return?
We need to get rid of this guy, like right now.
We need to get rid of this guy, like right now.
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
Corey's Gun Shop
Is out of .22 Long Rifle ammunition. He told me shipments come in now and then and sell out within hours. He had the larger caliber stuff, but .22 was all gone.
Wonder how that could be. Surely Homeland Security doesn't buy .22?
Wonder how that could be. Surely Homeland Security doesn't buy .22?
The Lore of Whiskey
Whiskey in the US is a brown colored hard liquor sold at 80 to 100 proof (40 to 50 percent ethyl alcohol). It is sold as Scotch, Bourbon, and Canadian. They differ in flavor, but the difference is an acquired taste, the new whiskey drinker will not be able tell one from the other. After some experience, and some practice getting the taste buds to recover from the fierce bite of the ethanol, you will find that Scotch has a somewhat sharper flavor, Bourbon is mellower and a little sweeter, and Canadian is somewhere in between Scotch and Bourbon. All three make an excellent drink.Whiskey has a definite but hard to describe flavor. It isn't sweet, or sour, or salty, or bitter.
Whiskey and soda water over ice (whiskey and soda) makes a very tasty drink and is recommended as a fine way to come to appreciate the flavor of whiskey. Soda can be Club Soda, or Seltzer, which is carbonated water. Club Soda has a touch of salt added to it, Seltzer does not. Either make a good whiskey mixer. The fizz and the delicate acid flavor of the carbon dioxide dissolved in water do good things for the whiskey. Soda bottles, once opened loose most of their fizz in a day and go as flat as tap water in two days. The ideal way to buy soda is a six pack of 12 ounce bottles. A 12 ounce can be used up before it goes flat. Unfortunately six packs are expensive, about $4 a six, which is as expensive as a six pack of beer. Better economy is had in the 28 ounce bottle, which can be had for $.60 a bottle, which is about the same as a single 12 ounce from a $4 six pack. The house brand soda (Adirondack or Polar) make as good a whiskey and soda as the pricey national brands (Canada Dry or Schweppes). After all it's the whiskey that contributes the flavor, not the soda.
Then many drinkers prefer to mix their whiskey with just plain tap water rather than with soda. My sainted mother took her Canadian with just a splash of tap water. She spent quite some time training her sons to mix her whiskey just a right, a single rapid pass under the flowing tap. This way you get more of the whiskey taste and less fizz.
The continuation of this path leads to the whiskey on the rocks, just some cubes in a short glass with a jigger or two or whiskey. Scotch on the rocks has the name recognition but Bourbon or Canadian on the rocks is a fine warming drink on a cold winter's night.
Then the REAL whiskey drinkers take it neat (room temperature, no ice) The Brits used to make a big thing out of this, saying that only neat could you distinguish the finer flavors. The Americans used to say this custom came from the lack of electric refrigeration in Britain.
Whiskey sells for anything where between $10 and $40 a bottle (1.75 liter, what was called a half gallon before metrification of liquor bottles) Low end whiskey is quite drinkable. Old Crow and Canadian Hunter are two good $12 a bottle brands. The pricey bottles (Wild Turkey, Jack Daniels, Jameson, Ballentine) make excellent gifts.
Whiskey and soda water over ice (whiskey and soda) makes a very tasty drink and is recommended as a fine way to come to appreciate the flavor of whiskey. Soda can be Club Soda, or Seltzer, which is carbonated water. Club Soda has a touch of salt added to it, Seltzer does not. Either make a good whiskey mixer. The fizz and the delicate acid flavor of the carbon dioxide dissolved in water do good things for the whiskey. Soda bottles, once opened loose most of their fizz in a day and go as flat as tap water in two days. The ideal way to buy soda is a six pack of 12 ounce bottles. A 12 ounce can be used up before it goes flat. Unfortunately six packs are expensive, about $4 a six, which is as expensive as a six pack of beer. Better economy is had in the 28 ounce bottle, which can be had for $.60 a bottle, which is about the same as a single 12 ounce from a $4 six pack. The house brand soda (Adirondack or Polar) make as good a whiskey and soda as the pricey national brands (Canada Dry or Schweppes). After all it's the whiskey that contributes the flavor, not the soda.
Then many drinkers prefer to mix their whiskey with just plain tap water rather than with soda. My sainted mother took her Canadian with just a splash of tap water. She spent quite some time training her sons to mix her whiskey just a right, a single rapid pass under the flowing tap. This way you get more of the whiskey taste and less fizz.
The continuation of this path leads to the whiskey on the rocks, just some cubes in a short glass with a jigger or two or whiskey. Scotch on the rocks has the name recognition but Bourbon or Canadian on the rocks is a fine warming drink on a cold winter's night.
Then the REAL whiskey drinkers take it neat (room temperature, no ice) The Brits used to make a big thing out of this, saying that only neat could you distinguish the finer flavors. The Americans used to say this custom came from the lack of electric refrigeration in Britain.
Whiskey sells for anything where between $10 and $40 a bottle (1.75 liter, what was called a half gallon before metrification of liquor bottles) Low end whiskey is quite drinkable. Old Crow and Canadian Hunter are two good $12 a bottle brands. The pricey bottles (Wild Turkey, Jack Daniels, Jameson, Ballentine) make excellent gifts.
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Can a secured border keep the kids out?
I have trouble with this. Imagine the Border Patrol pushing a boat load of kids back out into the Rio Grande. Or marching them/busing them over a bridge back to Mexico.
Iraq disaster is with us
And discussion about the wisdom of going to Iraq in 2003 is worthless now. We did go to Iraq. No one can change that now. We cannot reverse decisions made in 2003 now in 2014. That's water over the dam. Talking about it won't change it.
Responsibility is discussing what we do now that it's hit the fan. Not carping about the rightness or wrongness of going there in 2003.
I don't see any good options. The Malaki government isn't much good. ISIS are terrorists. The Kurds are the most reasonable party in the theater, but dealing with them will seriously disrupt our relations with Turkey. We could send Petraious and Crocker back to pull the Anbar Awakening forces back together, but we would have to offer them Malaki's head on a platter to do much good..
Responsibility is discussing what we do now that it's hit the fan. Not carping about the rightness or wrongness of going there in 2003.
I don't see any good options. The Malaki government isn't much good. ISIS are terrorists. The Kurds are the most reasonable party in the theater, but dealing with them will seriously disrupt our relations with Turkey. We could send Petraious and Crocker back to pull the Anbar Awakening forces back together, but we would have to offer them Malaki's head on a platter to do much good..
Monday, June 23, 2014
RAF loses the Battle of Bureaucrats.
The US was going to bring the Brits on board the Rivet Joint signals intelligence business. Rivet Joint intel has been collected by RC-135 electronic intelligence aircraft. The Americans donated an RC-135 to the RAF for signals intelligence. These are the trusty old KC-135 Stratotankers which have been flying in USAF service since the Eisenhower administration. Some of them were converted into ELINT aircraft in the 1960's by removing the fuel tanks and installing electronics. They have been flying for 50 years. You would think that anything with that kind of record would be safe to fly.
Not for Brit bureaucrats. They have a six step process for certification, after which they issue a clearance to fly the aircraft. One step is "Type Certification Basis" (TCB) requiring paperwork going back to the 1950's. Which was unavailable. Especially as no one in America every heard of a TCB, let along knows what goes into one. Second step was to show the RC-135 complied with its TCB. Needless to say, the lack of a TCB stopped that step in its tracks.
So, the RC-135 sits on the ramp at Waddington UK for seven months while the bureaucrats shuffle papers. This is an aircraft the Americans have been flying for fifty years. If it doesn't have the right paperwork it must be a death trap.
Did I read that our NASA was demanding a mountain of paperwork from SpaceX to "certify" their Falcon booster?
Anyhow, after a seven month hold, the RAF is finally allowed to fly the aircraft.
Not for Brit bureaucrats. They have a six step process for certification, after which they issue a clearance to fly the aircraft. One step is "Type Certification Basis" (TCB) requiring paperwork going back to the 1950's. Which was unavailable. Especially as no one in America every heard of a TCB, let along knows what goes into one. Second step was to show the RC-135 complied with its TCB. Needless to say, the lack of a TCB stopped that step in its tracks.
So, the RC-135 sits on the ramp at Waddington UK for seven months while the bureaucrats shuffle papers. This is an aircraft the Americans have been flying for fifty years. If it doesn't have the right paperwork it must be a death trap.
Did I read that our NASA was demanding a mountain of paperwork from SpaceX to "certify" their Falcon booster?
Anyhow, after a seven month hold, the RAF is finally allowed to fly the aircraft.
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