So what happened in Congress today?

The real issue is passage of the Trans Pacific Trade Agreement, an agreement with 12 Asian Pacific countries, but NOT China.  Exact contents of this deal are secret, but presumably there will be tariff reduction on all sides.  I've heard there might be a lot of other stuff too, like immigration policy, standards for inspection of this that and the other (food, drugs, who knows what), gun control, and anything else that strikes Obama's fancy. 
   However the "world's greatest deliberative body" cannot just do an up or down vote on the trade deal.  First they have to vote to have an up or down vote, "fast track authority" it's called.  Without "fast track" the bill is doomed, every one hoss congress critter will amend it, and the other 12 participants won't accept US amendments.  Usually the Congress votes to extend "fast track authority" to the President as a matter of course.  Except Obama has ruffled so many feathers on capitol hill that they won't vote him hardly anything anymore. 
   Then, today a new boondoggle surfaced, "Trade Adjustment Agreement" (TAA) or some such.  This is a presidential slush fund to "compensate" (pay off) US workers who loose their jobs because of foreign competition, which a tariff cut will strengthen. 
   They had a vote today, but it is unclear what passed and what did not.  I think the TAA was voted down and "fast track" was voted in, but the TV newsies haven't been very clear about what really happened.  Bret Baier was on Fox calling it a big defeat for Obama.  The president's mouthpiece was saying everything is hunky dory.  On this one I think I believe Bret Baier over the mouthpiece. 
Would be nice to get a straight story out of the newsies. 

Cooking for one, Corn on the Cob

Good easy way to cook corn on the cob.  Buy your corn in the husk.  Soak corn in water for 10-15 minutes, long enough to get the husk good and moist.  Then pop the corn in the oven or on the grill for 35-45 minutes.  The kernels steam in the husk and come out exceptionally sweet. With butter and salt  it's delicious.
   This works for a single ear, or a dozen ears. 

Electronic Health Records hacked

This morning's NPR had a story concerning analysis of thousands of electronic health records to come to a conclusion that some widely used drug wasn't good for patients.  Can't remember what the drug's name was, nor how serious the problem was.
  The disturbing part about this, is giving outside snoopers access to my medical records.  My medical records are supposed to be private.  Medical records often contain derogatory information, like mental health problems, AIDS, chronic illnesses that make a person unemployable.  To have "researchers" going thru personal health records is bad.  To be fair, the NPR piece claimed that names had be redacted.  Yeah, Right. 
   Obamacare demands the all doctor's put all patient's medical records into computers (electronic health records) where they can be hacked and snooped. 

Let's fix ISIS for good

The Obama administration admitted that they are sending another 450 US troops to Iraq, to do some training.   They were going to set up a new training base near Ramadi.  
   If we wanted, they could recruit and train a good Sunni Iraqi army, under US control in a couple of months.  Just offer enlistment, with steady pay in US dollars, decent US rations, and a good uniform, possibly even a flak jacket.  Give 'em a couple of months of basic training, have the Americans run the promotion boards to fill out the squad and platoon NCO positions with good men, and I think we could have a 10,000 man army in Iraq that would fight, and we could keep 'em fighting against ISIS rather than joining political coups in Baghdad. 
   We did something like this in Laos, 50 years ago, and it worked. 
    Of course Obama would never approve. 

John W. Campbell, Creator of modern science fiction

John Campbell started as a science fiction writer himself in the 1930's.  I've read some of his stuff, not bad, but except for "Who Goes There", not truly memorable stuff.  He took the position of editor at Astounding Science Fiction magazine sometime before WWII.  He quickly moved Astounding up from just another pulp fiction rag to the leading science fiction magazine.  He asked his writers for good stories, with plot, with decent characters, and a thought provoking idea.  And the writers delivered.  Campbell found new writers and encouraged them to write for Astounding.  Isaac Asimov, Robert A Heinlein, H. Beam Piper, Hal Clement, James H. Schmitz, Poul Andersen and many others were discovered and brought into science fiction writing by Campbell.  On the way, Campbell had plenty of time to explain his ideas  about the proper science fiction story.  Pretty much everyone came around to Campbell's way of thinking, and science fiction is better for it. 
   Campbell stayed on at Astounding into the 1970's.  He managed to change the name of the magazine to the more respectable sounding Analog Science Fiction.  

Save Money, disband the TSA

The TSA hassling and groping of passengers does nothing for air line security, it just drives away paying passengers.  Doesn't matter if the would be hijackers get weapons on board, the passengers will not allow them to take over the aircraft.  Flight 93 proved that.   Since that dreadful day there have been a number of incidents where unruly passengers were subdued, in one case by use of a fire axe, in flight by ordinary passengers.  Passengers know that should hijackers take over the aircraft, they will die in the resulting crash, which is plenty of motivation to heroic action.  In actual fact we would be safer in the air  if all the passengers carried concealed handguns. 
   Recent press stories of the total failure of TSA gropers to find 95% of concealed weapons carried onto aircraft by inspectors, failure to detect 73 airport workers who obtained airport jobs and security badges despite being on the terrorist watch list, and plundering passenger's luggage,  show that we would be better off if we disbanded the TSA completely. It would save money, and put a lot of democratic voters out of a job.  Those are good things.
.
   Save money, increase security, make air travel less distasteful, disband the TSA. What's not to like?

Not all books are created equal

The Abby Greenleaf library in Franconia holds a used book sale over the 4th of July.  And my bookshelves are filled to overflowing.  So, I filled an empty liquor carton with some books I figured I will never want to read again and took 'em down to the book sale. 
   Well it seems that all books are not created equal.  The librarian had a written list of book they won't accept for the book sale. The black list includes:
Books in poor condition
Computer manuals
Encycopedias
Harlequin type romance novels
large collections of religeous or spiritual books
Magazines
Reader's Digest condensed books
Textbooks and reference books
Travel books older than 5 years.

Well, I mostly agree with this black list.  This is stuff that nobody will ever buy, leaving the librarians with the chore of hauling them down to the dump (excuse me transfer station).  Although the romance novels ought to sell to girls of the right age, not that I would ever read such.  Well, maybe librarians are down on romance novels on general principles.