The Marksman, Liam Neeson 2021

 Not bad.  I Netflixed it and watched it today.  We meet Liam Neeson as a kinda washed up rancher on the Mexican border, so washed up that the bank is going to reclaim his ranch.  He is also very tough.  A mother and her 12 year old son make it on to his property, pursued by the cartel.  Liam opens the flick by shooting a coyote, he moves on to shooting a cartel member.  What thru one plot twist after another, he winds up headed for Chicago with the boy, Miguel.  They make it,  They kill the pursuing cartel members.  Sound man does the right thing and I can hear and understand all the dialog.  Camera man keeps the camera on a tripod and keeps the lights on.  

Not a bad flick, but not so good as to duplicate and keep.

A lotta talk about "over-the-horizon" operations

 This talk is mostly BS.  It is just photo recon flights, with camera's, talking pictures from 10,000 feet.  This works for large targets like cities and towns that cannot move.  The WWII 8th Air Force was able to find and bomb German cities from just overhead photos.  But you cannot find and strike smaller and mobile targets like enemy infantry, or enemy leadership.  Despite a lot of technological progress since WWII,  our " over-the=horizon" capabilities are no better than they were back in 1944.

  So when you hear Democrats talking about "over-the-horizon" operations on TV, know that you are hearing mostly happy talk, trying to make our pullout from Afghanistan sound less dreadful and less shameful than it really is. 

Congress is grilling the generals responsible for the Afghan disaster

 They been yakking for nearly an hour.  NOBODY has asked the key question, namely why did we not evacuate the civilians, Americans and our Afghan friends, BEFORE we pulled our troops out? 

Federal Government Shutdown? How bad? How likely?

 Last time, some years ago, don't remember just how many years, it wasn't all that bad for us just plain citizens.  Post office kept on delivering the mail.  The armed forces got paid. Air traffic control stayed on duty.  A fair number of bureaucrats got laid off for a couple of weeks.  I think that eventually got paid for the time they were out.  IRS workers got laid off, but that was no loss from my point of view, I wasn't expecting a tax refund, and I paid my income tax, by mail, on time.  The whole thing made you wonder just how many useless bureaucrats we are paying.  

  This time, I cannot tell if the CongressCritters will be able to pass a raise to debt ceiling.  In the Senate, just one Democrat deciding to vote against the debt ceiling raise would do the trick.  There might be some Democrats appalled by the deficit spending, on the other hand there might not be.  I cannot tell.  Things are a little looser in the house, the Democrats have a 5 vote majority.  I think Pelosi will be able to deliver the house for the Democrats.  

TV sounds

 My TV makes the sound of telephones ringing, electronic gadgets beeping, cats crying, sirens screaming, cars crashing and many more.  Each time I hear one of these sounds I stop, listen, and ask my self "Is that sound mine? Is it real? Should I answer my phone?"  PITA.  

   The TV people could help, by relocating their studios to a quieter part of of town so they don't have emergency vehicle sirens drowning out the newsie who is pontificating in front of the camera. 

Men make only 40% of college students.

 This is being deplored,  but I am not sure it is all that bad.  There are a lot of good paying jobs for men that don't require a college degree.  Truck driver, heavy equipment operator, logger, construction worker, auto mechanic, miner, carpenter, cop, fireman, lineman, soldier, machinist, and many more.  Few women want to take those kind of jobs.  Women are looking for office jobs with no heavy lifting, where they might snag a good husband.  Plus more girls are deeply into academic work.  There are a lot of guys who find academic work boring. 

Iron Dome replacement missiles

 Last Arab Israeli go around, the Arabs fired a helova lot of rockets out of Gaza into Israel.  Israel's Iron Dome missile system was amazingly effective at shooting down the Arab rockets.  Most of the Iron Dome missiles launched, hit their targets in mid air.  The Israeli's launched a LOT of Iron Dome missiles.  They must be running low.  

   We were going to give the Israeli's $1 billion to buy or build more Iron Dome missiles.  Israel needs those missiles for the next time the Arabs start launching rockets at them.  Yesterday the Democrats in Congress killed the Iron Dome replacement missile funding.  Good work Pelosi, refusing to fund defensive weapons for our best (only?) ally in the Middle East.  A liberal democracy, the only one in the entire area.