The Federal Debt Limit

 It’s a law (buried somewhere in DC) that sets a limit to how much the US Treasury can borrow.  Lately US taxes have been high enough to pay 60% of federal spending.  The Treasury borrows the other 40% to pay the rest of the bills.  Now that we have hit the debt limit, and there is a good chance the Republicans will refuse to raise it, the Treasury is limited to selling off various assets.  Treasury secretary Janet Yellen has said this will keep paying the federal government’s bills until June of this year.

   Last time this happened, maybe ten years ago, the government shut all the national parks and laid off all the “non essential” government workers.   This went on for some months.  It didn’t bother me.  My mail still got delivered, Air Traffic Control kept the airlines flying, I wasn’t expecting an income tax refund so putting the IRS on furlough was OK by me, and Cannon Mountain is a state run park, not federal. 

   This time maybe we could do some belt tightening to keep the federal deficit down. Like laying off those “non essential” bureaucrats for good.  Cut appropriations for the FBI, CPSC, FAA, CIA, FEC and others in half.  Look at military spending.  See what we can do to end “gold plating” of weapons systems, and improve the ratio of “tooth to tail” of all branches.  And Congress critters and their staffs don’t get paid until the budget is balanced somehow, more layoffs or more borrowing or something.   

    

Fireball Cinnimon Whisky

 I had read somewhere that Fireball was the best selling whisky all over New Hampshire.  So, to see what it was I bought a tiny bottle at the State liquor store.  I mixed it with ice and club soda.  The result was not happy.  It had a sweet taste, like sherry.  Quite strong actually.  Not like the whiskey I usually drink which has a hard to describe flavor.  It's good that I bought a really small bottle of Fireball. 

What happened to the Neanderthals?

   It used to be that carbon 14 dating of Neanderthal sites and modern human sites showed a 20,000 to 30,000 year overlap.  The Neanderthals were believed to had co existed with modern humans in Europe for 20 or 30 thousand years. 

    Then there was a recalibration of the Carbon 14 data that showed the Neanderthal sites disappeared about the same time that sites of modern men appeared.  Which leads to the obvious conclusion that Neanderthals lost the competition with modern man and were wiped out.  Unpleasant idea, but likely.

Carbon 14 data is tricky.  Energetic particles from the Sun and cosmic rays strike ordinary Carbon 12, and turn it into radioactive Carbon 14.  This has a half life of 14 thousand years, a good long time.  Living organisms take in both sorts of carbon.  When the organism dies it stops taking in carbon.  By measuring the radioactivity from the carbon 14 in the organic material we can tell how many years has passed since the organism died.  It’s a delicate measurement; the radioactivity of the Carbon 14 is not very strong, compared to say Uranium.   It gets even weaker as time goes by, 14 thousand years, Carbon 14 half life, reduces the radiation by half. 

  I am not hep to just how the Carbon 14 dating was adjusted, but the result moved the oldest Neanderthal sites back 20 to 30 thousand years, putting then up again modern men moving into Europe. 

 

 

 

How many more pieces of classified will turn up?

 So far we have four separate stashes of classified on Biden owned houses or rented offices.  Wanna bet some more classified will surface shortly?

1917 (Movie title) 2019 (date movie released)

In the height to World War I (1917 was the last full year of the war, armistice was declared in November 1918). Two British infantry men are sent on an important mission to deliver orders calling off an attack planned for the next morning.  The movie starts with long long shots of our two heroes striding thru trenches, walking across no man’s land, walking across a green pasture with a couple of cows grazing is it.  Scenery is not all that pretty and nothing happens. 

   While hiding our in a ruined barn watching a dog fight, one of the planes crashes right into the barn.  They pull the pilot out of the burning wreck.  Dunno what the Kaiser told his pilots, but this one, after they save his life, pulls out a gun and shoots one of them.  His buddy puts some rifle bullets into the German pilot and then comforts his buddy as the buddy dies in his arms. 

   The survivor does eventually make it to the unit he set out for and delivers the written orders canceling the attack.  End of movie.

    I was not impressed.  The protagonists never do anything memorable, they just act as targets.  They do a lot of walking, and hitch a ride on and army truck, but this isn’t all the interesting.    

Notices to Airmen.

 That’s what they were called back in the 1960’s when I was serving in the Air Force.  They listed things pilots needed to know before a mission, things like closed runways, Military flying exercises, new high tension power lines.  I hear our transportation secretary had the time to rename the Notice to Air Missions.  Airmen was too sexist for Mr. Buttigieg.  While having time to fiddle with the name, he did not have time to make sure the system was in good enough shape to continue producing NOTAMs to pilots.  I am so glad Mr. Buttigieg is so woke as to change names but not make sure the system works. 

In the Air Force we never took classified home.

 My Air Force service was in the 1960’s.  Each office in the unit had a safe for classified.  If I needed to read a piece of classified, I went to the unit office.  The NCOIC (NCO in Charge) would open the safe.  I would sit and read the classified in the office.  When finished I would hand the classified back to the NCOIC and he would lock it in the safe.  We never took classified out of the office, let alone home. 

  The TV news is chewing over Biden's (and Trump’s) numerous stashes of classified at the former President’s and serving president’s homes.  We would not have allowed that in the Air Force when I was serving.