Rocket Man

Townhall has a full page color picture of Iranian president Amadinejad standing in front of a brand new rocket. The photo is sharp and clear, and the English language labels on the rocket can be read. "SUPPORT HERE", "SUPPORT BAND" and the access hatches neatly numbered "16" and "13". How come an Iranian rocket is labeled in English? Did they buy the whole thing from an English speaking supplier? and who might that be? Pakistan? Surely Russians, North Koreans, French, Germans etc, would have stenciled the labels in their own language? Or could the rocket be home built by a bunch of Iranians who learned their technology and their English at American universities? I have no answers, just interesting questions.
Amadinejad, wearing a light suit and turtleneck, is posed in front of 16 other guys, likely the development team for the rocket project. They all have beards, and half of them are wearing dark glasses. There are three military officers, in uniform, one in a white naval officer's cap, an Army man in olive drab but dressy fatigues, and a pilot in a green flight suit. Got a couple of guys in tribal dress and turbans, and the rest are wearing suits or sports coats, shirts open at the neck.
Photo, courtesy of AP/ISNA/Mehdi Ghasemi is well composed, well lit, nice camera angle (low, looking up to emphasis the height of the rocket. Diameter of the rocket appears to be only 3 foot, no bigger than the ancient German V2, but it looms tall and imposing in the picture. Does ISNA stand for Iran State News Agency? AP has been burned in the recent past by fauxtographs from Al Queda photographers. Makes you wonder just how this picture got from Iran into AP's hands.

Jeremiah is not a bullfrog, he is a toad, Part 2

I watched Barack Obama, live on Fox news, attempt to head off the Jeremiah Wright disaster.
Obama delivered his usual masterful oratory. He deplored Wright's incendiary sermons, talked about his upbringing and family, talked about the ugly history of recism in America, talked about a lot of good sounding things. But he did not repudiate Wright. In fact he compared Wright to an old family member, and said Wright had done good things for his parishioners. According to Obama, the good in Wright outweighs the bad.
Well, that's loyal of Obama, but it surely casts doubt upon Obama's judgment of people. If he hangs around, and hangs onto, superstitious, lefty, hate mongers like Wright, what sort of appointments would a President Obama make, to the cabinet, the courts, and the bureaucracy?
Video clips of Wright calling upon God to damn America, blaming 9/11 upon us the victims, and spreading the superstitious rumor that AIDS was created by the CIA to kill off blacks, put Wright beyond forgiveness. In mouthing these outrageous smears and slanders, Wright is hurting his own parishioners. The "blame everything on Whitey" idea sucks life and ambition out of many American blacks. If it's all Whitey's fault, then what good does it do to strive to make a better life for yourself? Thomas Jefferson had it right, "All men are created equal". Those who believe in Jefferson are motivated to work hard and pull themselves up the social and economic ladder, because they figure to make themselves the equal to anyone in the country.
Wright is undoubtedly a charismatic and charming man, but his ideology is destructive. Obama seems to value Wright's charm and charisma and put up with his ideology. Do I want a president making appointments on the same basis?

The bandsaw

A small step on the road to the completely equipped wood shop. Already I have a radial arm saw and a drill press. I've been watching Craigs list and Ebay for a good used bandsaw that would let me cut curves and resaw thick wood down to thinner wood. This calls for a machine of some size, not one of the little bench top units. And, as usual, price was an object.
The best price on a new bandsaw was $399 for a 14 inch Delta at Lowes. So, when a used 12 inch Craftsman turned up I had to check it out. So, with snow still falling, I ease the Deville out of the garage and drive down to Alton NH, a very small town way out in the Lakes region. I93 is clear and drivable, but the back road to Alton has been frost heaved badly, bumps deep enough to bottom out the springs and bang your head on the head liner at only 35 mph. Plus they haven't plowed the snow yet.
Found the place (google maps worked yet again) and the owner is expecting me. The saw is medium old, and dirty, but it runs, blade stays on the wheels, and wood is cut. So I write a check, we take the machine apart. The base goes in the back seat, the works go in the trunk. The back seat leather cringes at the shower of dirt and rust flakes.
Back home in my warm dry shop I start the cleanup. WD-40 loosens the rusted bolts. Rubbed around with a rag it makes the sheet metal look better. Shop vac sucks 20 years of crud and sawdust out of the nooks and crannies. I find the the dataplate with the Sears model number, and lo and behold, the Sears web site still lists the model and some parts are still available. A posting on Old Woodworking Machines (owwm.com) draws a reply stating that this model was on sale new back in 1987. So, it's twenty years old for real.
A belt pulley is loose because a locking key is missing, and the built in worklight has a strange looking burned out light bulb. A visit to Franconia Hardware yields the missing key and , after the owner rummages around, the light bulb. It's the last one in stock, and apparently it has been on the store shelf for a long time, waiting for a buyer. Franconia Hardware stocks everything.
Today I'll put it back together and see if it still runs.

Jeremiah is not a bullfrog, he is a toad

Watched the tapes of Jeremiah Wright ranting over the weekend. He said 9/11 was the fault of the United States, not Al Quada, he claimed AIDs was developed by the CIA in order the kill off American blacks, and he finished up by calling upon God to damn the United States. This makes Wright a disloyal, hate mongering, superstitious lefty in my book.
Obama has been attending this fruitcake's church for twenty years, Wright officiated at his wedding and baptized his children. How much of Wright's hate, treason, and superstition does Obama buy into? If he doesn't buy any of it why does he attend? Obama has been calling for an end to American black/white conflict, and a coming together of all Americans. Wright is a plain old fashioned hate monger. Where is the real Obama? Does he really believe what he has been preaching on the stump, or does he secretly share Wright's views?
It's too bad. I liked Obama a lot up until the Wright thing broke. Now I have doubts about where Obama's heart is truly located.

What the car you drive say about personality?

Dr. Helen Reynolds derides the idea here. She is correct that automobile marketers will at the drop of a hat, explain how buyers of their car share a long list of wonderful character traits. The Toyota Prius hybrid is used as an object lesson. Prius owners are said to be creative, expressive, noble, thoughtful inventive and a lot of other feelgood things. Obviously Prius marketing is working over time here.
On another level, there is a difference between guys and girls tastes in cars. Certainly this reflects some real personality differences between the genders. Unmarried guys like to drive big flashy hot rods. Big engine, extra chrome, mag wheels, painted in bright primary colors, sharp styling, stick shift. Once married, the wife will tone done hubby's automotive tastes. Women like small[er] cars, could care less about the engine, extra chrome and mag wheels. They like muted pastel colors, styling doesn't matter much, and they demand automatic transmissions.

Guys are willing to spend money on cars rather than on clothes, whereas with girls it's the other way round. Guys fancy clothes are quite restrained, dark suits, white suit and tie. No jewelry except wedding and college rings. Girls fancy outfits are much more flamboyant.
All this must reveal some deep inner gender based personality difference. To bad nobody has ever figured out just what it is.

Congress Shall make no law...

Highly illegal prayer was occurring in public schools as late as 1962. The founding fathers routinely violated separation of church and state. Religious content of George Washington's speeches did irreparable harm to the early republic.
Stephan Waldman issued all these remarkable untruths on Vermont Public Radio this morning. He is yet another radio pundit displaying his ignorance of US history. The Constitution actually says "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise there of." Nowhere does the Constitution call for "separation of church and state".
At Constitution signing time, those words were directed at the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which actually had an established church, the Puritan church (later called Congregational, and now the United Church of Christ) . Established means the Puritan church at rights at law denied other churches and received Commonwealth funding which the other churches did not. Massachusetts had prevented the free exercise of religion by executing Quakers on Boston Common in the not too distant past. Those practices were to be outlawed for the new Federal government.
In recent times, left wingers, aided by unwise judges, have expanded the original meaning to include banning Christmas decorations on town squares, banning the Lord's Prayer during opening exercises in public schools, and banning the display of the ten commandments in courthouses. Stephan the well educated Waldman, speaks as if the First Amendment supported the modern interpretation (distortion) ever since the beginning of the republic.
George Washington was noted for never using the the names God, Jesus, or Christ in his speeches. He always used the phrase Divine Providence, which is as non sectarian as you can get, even today.
How did Vermont Public Radio put such a dunderhead on the air, on Sunday morning no less.

How Boeing lost the USAF tanker contract (AvWeek)

Monday morning quarterbacking from Boeing. "There was a difference between what the Air Force talked about publicly and the way we read the Request for Proposal ," said Boeing's President Jim Albaugh. Sounds like the Boeing guys didn't get out of the office and schmooze with the customer. Airbus offered the A330 which is a bigger airplane than the 767 that Boeing offered. The Air Force has said they selected the A300 for the bigger payload and longer range. Boeing could have offered the 777 which is a big as the A330, maybe bigger but didn't. They also could have offered both airplanes but didn't want to fund two bid teams, and feared that two teams would compete with each other. That last doesn't make sense, competition is how you get a superior product.
Then Boeing didn't bid the well proven in production version of the 767. Instead they proposed an "improved" aircraft composed of a 767-200 fuselage, overwing exits from the 767-300, structural beefup from the 767-300F freighter model, and cockpit, tail section and flaps from the 767-400 ER extended range model. Speaking as an old USAF flightline maintenance officer, I'd rather have the straight commercial version so I can get parts from regular civilian sources and maybe even get depot level maintenance done at civilian facilities, and use civilian owned flight simulators for crew training.
Boeing's Albaugh claimed their pricing was as good as Airbus ($35 billion) for the first 179 aircraft. Industry sources say Boeing "was unresponsive" to Air Force requests for parts prices for fear that their airline customers could drive harder bargains once they knew what Boeing paid for things like engines.
Boeing lost the enormous F35 Joint Strike Fighter job to Lockheed, and now the tanker contract to Airbus. They had better get the 787 into production real soon now