John Wick Movie 2014

 

Played by Keanu Reeves, John Wick is the toughest movie hit man ever.  Tougher than James Bond, tougher than Paul Kersey, tougher than any role Chuck Norris ever played, tougher than Arnold.   He is retired from the nameless agency he used to work for, happily married.  Suddenly his wife dies of mysterious causes and a bunch of thugs take a fancy to his 69 Mustang and beat him up, kill his dog and steal his car.  The rest of the movie is straight revanchism that leaves nobody alive.  John Wick shoots straight for the heart and kills them with every shot.  He uses a lot of ammunition before the end of the movie.  It’s a pretty stripped down movie, no love interest, no good one liners.  John Wick does get to drive a couple of cool 60’s Detroit hot rods, the Mustang and an Olds 442.  The bad guys drive SUV’s.  The formula must work since they made two sequels.  I watched it to the end, even stayed awake.  But it wasn’t as good as say Terminator 2.

Watched Biden on TV. Sounded much better.

Last couple of times Biden was on TV, speaking from his basement, he did not sound good at all.  Lost his train of thought, mumbled, and generally looked and sounded like the Alzheimers was getting to him.

Just now on TV, he sounded much better.  Spoke up properly, looked straight ahead at the audience (and the TelePrompter).  Gave a position speech that was coherent, stayed on topic.  Looked and sounded like he was in control and not the Alzheimers.  I wonder how he managed that?  New doctor?  Some new drug or treatment?  Practice and coaching?  Good strong coffee?

Roger Stone got his sentence commuted

They convicted Roger Stone on some mickey mouse charges, lying to Congress and some other lawyer stuff.  This was not perjury, lying under oath.  Interrogate anyone long enough and sooner or later he will forget what he said weeks ago and tell it differently this time.  Gotcha, lying to Congress, or the FBI.  Far as I am concerned, "lying to" should not be a crime in the first place.  It's a law that prosecutors lobbied Congress to pass to make life easier for themselves.  You cops want to convict someone, get off your duffs, hit the bricks, and find some real evidence, or some witnesses that will testify. 

   Anyhow, I think the president did right by commuting the sentence.  The guy is in his sixties, he isn't going to assault anyone, keeping him in jail is cruel and unusual punishment. 

Lies, Damn Lies and statistics. Corona virus statistics

We hear a lot of ‘em on the TV.  For a scare tactic the newsies tell us that Corona virus cases are going up.  Not a good sign.  They finish off by calling to quarantine every body and shut everything down.  Then a few newsies tell us that Corona virus deaths are going down.  They finish off by calling for re opening stores and restaurants, getting back to work and ending stay at   home orders.  “There are lies, damn lies, and statistics” to quote Mark Twain.  

   The increase in the number of cases is probably because we are testing more.  And the test is pretty trigger happy.  A lot of people don’t have the disease, feel fine, and the test calls them sick.  The medics call these cases (and there are a lot of them) “asymptomatic” a nice buzz word that means “no symptoms”.  And they count them as Corona virus cases.  We could just as easily say the test has shown a false positive and not a Corona virus case.  And we don’t know if the asymptomatic cases are infectious or not.  Nor do we know if the asymptomatic cases will actually come down with a real case of Corona virus after a few weeks.  Anyhow, the number of Corona virus cases reported by the TV newies might be off by who knows how much.

   The number of deaths is perhaps a little more solid.  You need a death certificate and a body in order the say a death has occurred.  I have heard from a number of places that the medics are under great pressure to call every death a Corona virus death because the hospitals get a larger reimbursement for Corona virus deaths than for other causes of death. At any rate the number of deaths is going down.  It might be that Corona virus has already killed the most vulnerable among us and those of us that are left alive are more resistant to it.  In that case we could expect the death rate to fall some more. 

  Corona virus is going to be around for ever.  Unless we want to live hunkered down at home for the rest of our lives, we have to get out of the house, go to work, go out to eat, travel,  go to the beach, all that stuff.  Sooner or later we will encounter Corona virus.  Mostly we will survive.  I hear that once you have Corona virus you are immune to it from then on in.  I have not heard any real studies of this, but it is likely and it is the general belief right now. 

Lay off the statue bashing

The current craze for busting statues is bad.  Even if the statue is of someone who did bad stuff, it is better to leave the statue unmolested and teach about the person so commemorated.  History is past, we cannot change it now.  Knocking down the statues of historical figures erases the history that those people figured in.  For example, the Civil War is an important part of American history; you cannot understand America today unless you know about the Civil War.  And you need to know about the leaders on both sides of the Civil War.  Robert E. Lee was an honorable man, who fought a clean war.  In 1860 Lee was offered command of the Union army.  When Lee thought about leading Union troops against his beloved home state of Virginia, he simply could not do it.  Instead he resigned his Union army commission and joined the Confederacy.  To understand the Civil War, you have to know who Lee was, and what he did. Likewise you have to know who Stonewall Jackson was and what he did.  You don’t have to approve of them, but you do have to know who they were.  If we knock down statues of both men because they fought for the Confederacy, a lot of citizens, who don’t read history books, will be deprived of key bits of history that they would profit from knowing. 

   So if you really think that so-and-so was a no-good-nick, write a paper, write a letter to the editor, write a textbook, write a post on your blog, make a U-tube video, anything. But leave so-and-so’s statue up.  People see the statue and they are more likely to read your pieces explaining why he was bad.  They will at least know the name.   

Presidential Debates for 2020

We will probably have them.  We have done presidential debates on TV ever since Nixon debated Kennedy back in 1960.  The Trump people need to insist on decent moderators.  We have had some really terrible moderators in the past.  Right now, the only moderators that I know of, that are fair, and well educated and smart enough to think up good questions would be Brit Hume, Bret Baier, Victor Davis Hanson, and Glenn Harlan Reynolds (otherwise known as Instapundit).  I personally would be OK with Rush Limbaugh but I can understand the Biden side being reluctant to go with Rush.  I would be OK with Paul Gigot or Daniel Henninger of the Wall St Journal, but again I can understand the Biden side having serious reservations.  And right now I cannot think of anyone else. 

USAF mulls cargo planes for bombers

With money getting short and costs of the, just on paper, long way from flying, new  B21 bomber rising, a study group has suggested loading up cargo planes like the C17 with cruise missiles  They carry the missiles in the cargo bay and they launch them in flight out the cargo bay doors.  Nifty.  The cargo planes are all ready bought and paid for and flying now.  If we need more, they are a LOT cheaper than the B21 will be.  They have the range to get to most places we might care about.  The cruise missiles can reach out maybe 1000 miles.  If we give the cargo planes a bit of ECM and have them fly low they can penetrate all but the toughest air defenses. 

   Only real drawback is that cruise missiles are a lot more expensive than iron bombs.  For example Tomahawks go for $1 mil a shot.  For a short war, the cruise missile carrying cargo planes are effective.  For a long war, the stealthy B21 can get in close enough to drop cheap iron bombs, offsetting the higher cost of the B21 airframe.