$75 million worth of cruise missiles.

That's just the replacement cost of the ordinance expended.  About 100 cruise missiles at $750,000 apiece.  Does not count fuel costs, dollars per flying hour, pay for the troops, operating costs of all the warships used, etc. etc.
Let's hope the Syrians get the message better than they did the last time we did this.
We cannot make idle threats.  Once we make a threat (draw a redline) we have to mean it, and carry out the threat.  If we are not prepared to back up our threats, we should not make them.  The Syrians used poison gas, and so we had to follow thru on the threats we made the last time the Syrians used poison gas. 
  

Isolationism caused WWII

In between the two world wars, America went isolationist.  We came to believe that the first world war was a big mistake, we should never have entered it, and we should never again get sucked into a European war.  America withdrew from Europe. 

    And then Hitler came on the scene.  He gained control of Germany in 1932, and by 1936 he felt strong enough to start causing trouble in the international scene.  All of Europe, even including Germany, was still in shell shock from World War I.  Both the British and the French feared to oppose Hitler in the early days when he could have been deposed fairly easily.  Without Hitler, Germany might have thrown her weight around for a few years, but she would not have started WWII.  Nobody in Europe wanted to go thru another world war, they had had enough of that in the First World War. 

   If France and Britain had at the very first, the Rhineland takeover in 1932, mobilized their armies, and marched into Germany, they could have easily defeated the 100,000 man army which was all the Versailles Treaty allowed Germany, occupied the country, deposed Hitler and put him on trial for crimes against humanity.  But, neither the French nor the Britons did anything, partly thru fear of kicking off another world war, partly from fear that they would loose, and partly from domestic political problems.  If, America,  by this time a Great Power, had told the British and the French that the US was 1000% behind them, and had dispatched troops to Europe, a division or two would have made the point,  and had stood forth in the League of Nations and  condemned German violation of the Versailles Treaty, then something might have been possible. 

   Well, that didn't happen.  American isolationists forced the US to put on the turtle act, don't move, retract head and feet into shell, and do nothing.  With no US backing, the British and the French lacked the stones to take on Hitler when they could have beaten him with ease. 

     We can see and hear isolationists coming back to life today.  Last time they caused a world wide catastrophe.  What can they do this time?

We are gonna miss Paul Ryan

He is one of the very very few Congresscritters who was well educated, well informed, and had a good store of commonsense. He studied the issues and worked to get his issues passed into law, as opposed to the ordinary chucklehead Congresscritter who is only good at bad mouthing his opponents in he press. In short Paul Ryan had his head screwed on, nose to the front. 
  We are gonna miss him. 

Zuckerberg does OK on TV yesterday

He managed to avoid a pissing match with anyone.  Getting into a pissing match always makes you look petty.  He was glib, never at a loss for words.  He sounded reasonable.
   He mostly managed to avoid saying anything of substance.  Lot of those "use-up-airtime-and-say-nothing" phrases.  He said he would be OK with regulation but never said just what sort in regulation he would favor.  He did put on coat and tie for the TV hearings.  He got full time live coverage on Fox, he was on for hours, without any of those network voice overs calling him a crumb bum.  He avoided making any yes or no answers.
   My assessment.  Zuckerberg is slick.  Made a few mea culpea's.   Avoided getting pinned down on anything.  Probably plans on keeping Facebook on the same path it has been on.  And his stock is up 4%.
   I plan to continues to limit my Facebook posts to pictures of my cat, pictures of my children and grandchildren, pictures of snow storms, comments about the weather.  When I get the urge to make a political rant, I'll do it on this blog.  

Regulating Facebook???

Supposing that our noble Congresscritters could agree on a bill, and that Trump would sign it, how would that work?  Facebook's data resides on Facebook's computers, under the control of Facebook IT people.  Even if they gave the regulators the run of their server farm, how would the regulators be able to find anything, change anything, or even figure out was was happening?   Inquiring minds want to know.
   Me, I don't think it can happen.  Who gets to see how much of Facebook's data trove is solely under Facebook's control, and Facebook can keep all transactions secret.   Pass all the laws you like, hire as many well paid regulators as you like, and Facebook is still running the show, the way it wants to run it. 
   If I knew of a competing website that offered the chit chat and picture posting opportunities that Facebook does, I'd switch, and talk all my facebook friends into following me.  Instagram perhaps? However, at this time, building up a competitor against Facebook' s market dominance would be tough.  

Light machine guns of the world

Modern infantry tactics are based on the squad, a dozen men with one light machine gun.  In action the squad moves forward until resistance is encountered.  At which time the machine gun is set up, and under  cover of its fire, the riflemen advanced to the next likely piece of cover.  Then the riflemen provided covering fire while the machine gun is moved up to the new position.  By WWII, the old close order tactics, which go back as far as the Greeks at Marathon,  had given way in all armies to the modern tactic.
   The light machine guns in question varied from army to army.  But they all fired the standard rifle round of the period, which was 30 caliber (7.62 mm) and a lot more powerful than modern military rounds such used by weapons like the US M16. The weapons all fired from the open bolt, a machine gun design feature that leaves the breech open after firing stops, allowing air to circulate thru the hot gun barrel for cooling.  It also avoids leaving a live round in a red hot chamber where it might cook off from the heat.  The down side to the open bolt design is the slight jar when the bolt goes forward and chambers a  round which can throw the gun slightly off target, a minor concern, only of importance when firing single rounds, sniper fashion. 
  Since the LMG was back packed into action, light weight was very important.  The American Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) was the lightest at 15.5 pounds (unloaded).  Figure another pound and a half for a loaded 20 round magazine.  The heaviest was the Russian DPM at 26.9 pounds., with the German MG42 right behind at 25 pounds. 
    Most of them (BAR, BREN, and DPM)  fired at 500-600 rounds per minute, which was considered the optimum rate of fire by authorities of the period.  Those authorities felt higher rates of fire merely wasted ammunition.  The exception was the German MG42 which fired at double that, 1200 rounds per minute, which gave the German gun a unique and scary sound. 
   The BAR with a 20 round magazine, held the least ammunition.  The BAR magazine was located on the bottom of the weapon which made swapping magazines somewhat awkward.  The British BREN gun had a 30 round magazine on top of the gun, making magazine swaps easier.  The Russian DPM had a 47 round drum magazine on top.  The German MG42 was belt fed,  allowing long sustained bursts of automatic fire. 

Ivanhoe, 1982 version

The old 1952 version, with Robert Taylor and Elizabeth Taylor has been a favorite movie ever since I saw it as a child in the old Cinema at Shopper's World in Framingham MA better than 60 years ago.  So, when I saw the 1982 remake on Netflix I ordered it, thinking it wouldn't measure up to the old classic.
Well, surprise.  It was pretty good.  It has James Mason as Isaac of York, John Rhys-Davies as Front de Boeuf, and Anthony Andrews as Ivanhoe himself.  Andrews is a good looking hunk.  "Production values" are first rate, costumes, sets, locations.  Sound is good, I could hear all the dialog.  The cameraman used a tripod, no annoying shake the camera shots, and he turned on the lights for filming. They used a real medieval castle for Torquilstone.  In this version, Rowena comes off a very cute, just as cute as Rebecca of York.  The story gets changed around some from the 1952 version, but it doesn't seem to hurt anything.  I read the book once, but that was a long time ago and I don't remember anymore just  how the book went.  Plus, movies are a different medium than books, and some changes are often required to make a good movie from a book.
   It's far better than a BBC remake of some years ago.  The BBC got on a medieval realism kick.  Everyone's costume was homespun brown or butternut, making it extremely difficult to tell who was who.  Except for Isaac of York's silly looking straw hat, costumes for this one were convincing enough for me.  I'm not an expert on medieval fashions, so I'm not the last word, but I say they were plenty good enough for the purposes of a movie.  
    They changed Ivanhoe's final duel with Bois Gilbert.  In the 1952 flick, Bois Gilbert used mace and chain, Ivanhoe used an axe (from horseback no less)  When the duel was over, my younger brother said, very seriously, "The guy with the axe always wins."  In this version, both fighters use swords, and we see that Ivanhoe is not fully recovered from wounds received from tournament.  Bois Gilbert nearly kills him, but Ivanhoe gets lucky and pulls out a win at the last minute.
   Anyhow, if you are into medieval romantic movies, with lots of action, Ivanhoe is good, either the original 1952 flick or the 1982 remake for TV flick.