EPA gets airborne

The EPA just claimed jurisdiction over the world's airlines.  They are gonna publish regulations on aircraft emissions.  Not that this will reduce emissions, it will just serve as a tax on air travel. 
   The best engineers in the world have been working flat out for 100 years to make aircraft more efficient.  They have had some success, new airliners with the latest engines are a tad more fuel efficient than ones built 10 years ago.  Boeing and Airbus salesmen claim as much as 20%, most people will allow them 5%.  That's enough for the airlines to order new planes and mothball what they are flying now.  Boeing has a backlog of 900 orders for its latest 787 model.  And nearly as many for its re engined 737 MAX.  Airbus is doing likewise.  In short, the most fuel efficient possible airliners are in full production and going into service as fast as they roll off the production line. 
   With jet fuel at $2.50 a gallon the airlines have all the incentive necessary to conserve fuel as much as possible.  The air frame builders have every incentive to improve fuel burn, namely,  planes that burn less fuel have better range and can haul bigger loads. 
   In a nutshell, market forces have made air travel as fuel efficient as possible.  EPA regulation won't improve anything, it will serve in place of a tax.  In the depths of Great Depression 2.0, we don't need more taxes. 

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.
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   Save money, increase security, make air travel less distasteful, disband the TSA. What's not to like?