Saga of SS Contessa, from Rick Atkinson's "Army at Dawn"

Operation Torch in WWII was somewhat incredible.  An invasion army boarded ship in Norfolk Virginia, steamed across the submarine invested Atlantic, and landed in North Africa.  To provide air support after landing, an airfield was located, near the sea and on a river bank.  Shallow river.  The call went out for a freighter of less than 17 foot draft to get up the river.  The only ship meeting this requirement was a aging banana boat, SS Contessa.  She was duly ordered to Norfolk.  When the crew discovered that their new cargo was to be avgas and 1000 pound bombs, they all promptly jumped ship.  The skipper took some Navy guards with riot guns and paid a visit to the Norfolk city jail.  After some explanations to the warden, including the fact that anyone volunteering would not be back in Norfolk anytime soon, the skipper recruited 37 experienced seamen who decided that risking torpedoes was a better deal than an extended stay in the Norfolk jail. 
   Meanwhile the Navy drydocked Contessa, repaired the worst of her leaks, and slapped a fresh coat of paint on her bottom.  Then they started loading bombs and avgas.  This took longer than it should have, and Contessa sailed two days after the main Torch fleet sailed.  She managed to cross the Atlantic by her self, all in one piece,  without encountering an enemy sub.  She turned up in North Africa on time, and with a local pilot, made it up the river and was unloading at the airfield before any aircraft arrived. 
  Just one of the cool stories Rick Atkinson tells. 

Take 'em alive, don't waste 'em with missiles

Obama's plan for dealing with ISIS and company is drone strikes.  Send a Predator and pop the target with a Hellfire anti tank missile.
   If we have the intel to launch a drone strike, we have the intel to take 'em alive and grill 'em.  Load a company of infantry into choppers and fly out and grab 'em.  With a little interrogation we will know every thing that they know.  Things like where is their base, who are their members, where do they plan to strike next, where does their money come from, who is tipping them off.
   Obama doesn't do this, 'cause he wants to empty out Guantanamo so he can close it.  Newly captured prisoners would fill the place up, making it harder to close it.  Congress has forbidden transferring Guantanamo  prisoners to US soil, largely out of fear that bat brained US judges would turn them loose. 

Two below zero

That's what I had this morning.  Coldest it's been this winter.  But it's been a lot colder in past winters.

Keep a piece in your desk drawer

Yesterday's horrible attack on Charles Hobdo in Paris is scary.   They could do that anywhere.  Just two guys at the front door and 12 people die.  They could deliver two guys any where they like. 
    I'm thinking a large caliber handgun, close at hand, gives the best chance of surviving the event. 

Chuckie trashs Keystone XL

Senator from New York, Charles Schumer was on TV the other  day badmouthing the Keystone XL project.  He called the jobs the project would furnish "temporary" implying jobs on the McDonalds level.  Chuckie, you got it wrong.  Those will be construction jobs.  Good jobs, good pay, lotta overtime, outdoor work where you get to see the sun and breathe the fresh air.  Lotta guys like working construction.  And, everyone knows a construction project hires on and the beginning, and when the job is finished, the workers move on to something else. 
   Then Chuckie claimed after the pipeline was finished only 34 jobs would be left.  That's pure BS.  You need a helova lot more than 34 guys to keep a 2000 mile pipeline running.  More like 3000 guys I'd guess.  And all the workers at the Gulf refineries that Keystone will feed, would be out of work without the oil to feed the refineries.  Plus all the workers in other industries that will be powered by Keystone oil or use it as feedstock. 
   And Chuckie wants to require that all the pipe be American made.  A real free market man is our Chuckie.  I suppose we can accept that if it brings in some Democratic votes.  It would be fairer to say Canadian or American made.  But fairness isn't high on Chuckie's priority list. 
   And finally Chuckie wants to prohibit sale of Keystone oil overseas.  Another grand free market idea.  The reason the US dollar has always been strong, is the fact that the Americans will sell you anything you want.  The reason the Russian ruble is fairly worthless, is the fact that the Russians don't have anything to sell. If we start saying "Yes, your dollars are good for everything except oil, and a few other things." customers will go elsewhere, and dump the dollars they were going to spend.  Fortunately oil is just  liquid, no serial numbers, and pretty much untraceable, so I expect they oil companies will merely say that oil they sell abroad doesn't come from Keystone, and get away with it.

How soon we forget

From the Economist:  "Data General introduced the first minicomputers in the late 1960s"   Not true.  I was in the industry way back when, and everyone knew the first commercially successful minicomputer was the PDP-8 from Digital Equipment Corp (DEC everyone called them).  The PDP-8 wasn't much of a computer, it was only 12 bits and could only address 4 K of  "core" memory. (RAM had not been invented yet).  It sold for $10k, 1960 dollars no less.  But it was enough computer to automate a lot of test and assembly tasks, and $10K looked cheap when compared to a mainframe. 
   DEC and competitor Data General thrived on making minicomputers up thru the 1980s but neither of them were able to transition to the microprocessor age.  The remains of DEC were bought up be Compaq in the 90s and Data General faded away somewhere and nothing was heard from them. 

What the Republicans oughta do

We start the new year with Republican control of house (solid) and Senate (decent but not veto proof or even filibuster proof).  The voters are unhappy, they are still out of work, just scraping by.   They still have Obama who will veto anything they pass.
   Republicans need to show the voters they care, they keep the public debate both public and sensible. 
they need to propose laws that the voters approve of.   Laws that fail to attract a single Democratic vote lack broadbased support.  And to win political support, the laws have to be understandable.  Which means short.  Which means to the point.  A law doing something good packed with a trainload of unrelated pork is easy for the voters to classify as a swindle.  Obama is looking for opportunities to veto anything and everything.  Bills with wads of pork tucked into them will get vetoed and Obama will claim he is vetoing because of the pork.  So keep the bills clean and simple, so that everyone understands what it is about. 
   So much for generalities.  Mitch McConnell has already cued up the Keystone XL pipeline.  Good chose, it is simple, most voters like it, Obama might even sign it, and will face some heat if he doesn't.  Next start appropriation bills. one for each federal department thru the committee process.  Then we can cue up some tax reform, some immigration reform,  some patent and copyright reform, and some regulatory rollback.  For instant, an act of Congress declaring that CO2 is not a pollutant and cannot be regulated by the EPA under the clean air act.  An act of Congress declaring that "navigable waters" means waters deep enough to float a canoe in dry season.  Tighten up the endangered species act to forbid invention of new species, followed by declaring the new species endangered. 
   We voters want to see some democratic lawmaking done in a serious fashion by serious people.