Israelis think an air strike will work

As in Israeli Air Force strikes Iranian nuclear sites. Blomberg News reporter Jeffrey Goldberg has a piece here. He spent some time in Israel, talking to Israeli officials. They talked about a favorable reaction inside Iran, a strengthening of the Iranian internal opposition, and the Iranians not immediately declaring war on Israel. And setting back the Iranian A-bomb project by 5 years. Goldberg writes mostly about the political angles to such a strike.
A weakness of the Goldberg piece is lack of objective data, such as how many nuclear sites do the Iranian's have? And how deeply are they buried? Are they buried under loose desert sand or under hard granite? Can Israeli deep penetration bombs go that deep? Do the Israeli's have enough planes to strike ALL the sites on the same night? Or would they have to fly multiple strikes on successive nights? Do Israel's aircraft have the range to fly the mission round trip, or will they need aerial tanker support? How many tankers do the Israeli's have? In short, would an Israeli air strike actually hurt the Iranian A-bomb project, or would it merely give the Iranians an expensive fireworks display?
And then there is disinformation. Was I running Israel, I'd tell my people to keep the Iranians worried about an air strike, just to make life harder for them. And to encourage Israelis who are under terrible pressure of events and could use a little hope.

Romney wins Puerto Rico

To bad Puerto Rico doesn't have any electoral votes, yet. According to CNN, Romney won by 83%, the best landslide ever.
I hear Puerto Rico has a referencedum on statehood coming up. I wonder how that is going to come out? Used to be, the Puerto Ricans liked the deal they have, no Congressional representation but no US income tax. Has that changed? I haven't seen anything about it in our hard working news media.

Spring It's Grill Day

It's up to 76 degrees. Sun is out, no wind. I rolled the Weber out of the garage and onto the deck. A steak is about to marinate on the kitchen table. Summer cannot be far away.

The Sea Wolves 1980

Great flick (Netflix) It has Gregory Peck, David Niven and Roger Moore. It's WWII in British India. They are all British, and very proper, at least in polite company, the gentleman's club in Calcutta. They all are recruited for a cutting out expedition against a German ship anchored in neutral Goa. There is some really funny work with Roger Moore attempting to seduce a beautiful enemy agent while she is attempting to seduce him. And, proper or not, the British can be ruthless in action. German captives who make just one wrong move get tommy gunned immediately. No "Put your hands up" No "Stop or I'll shoot", just Brrap and blood all over the walls. Both Peck and Niven have great roles, and play them well.
No redeeming social values here, but a good action movie.

How to rein in Rogue Prosecutors

According to Nancy Gertner (former judge and present Harvard Law professor) and Barry Scheck (co-director of the Innocense Project), all that is necessary is for the judge to hold a pretrial meeting with the prosecutors and order them to be good. And, absent this meeting, rogue prosecutors cannot themselves be prosecuted.
Apparently "rogue" prosecution is not actually against the law. It only becomes a crime if and when a judge says it is. If the judge fails to call it, anything goes.
Wow. If only life were so simple. Just hold a meeting and the problem goes away. Yeah, Right.
So what is "rogue" prosecution? Two things, failure to give the defense attorney evidence that might let the defendant off. And giving false evidence at trial. Such as the gun or the grass planted on the defendant by cops, or intimidating the defense witnesses.
The way to deal with either kind is simple, hang the prosecutor out to dry. Not meetings or ruling, let's have a little punishment. Say ten years in slam. Repeat as needed, say once a year. Name some names. I notice the furor over the Ted Stevens prosecution, which doubtless prompted this WSJ op-ed, doesn't name any names. That might actually hurt some one's career.
And, no more of this "It's legal til the judge says it ain't" stuff. The law is written down in statute books, and applies all the time. If it isn't written down, it ain't law.

Signs of Spring (2012)

The radio is warning us to take in the bird feeders, 'cause the bears are coming out of hibernation.
And it's raining, not snowing.

Corned Beef

There it was on the meat counter for $1.48 a pound. Such a deal in an age of $3.99 for hamburger. So I bought one. About 3 pounds. I/ve never cooked corn beef before. I have memories of Mom doing New England Boiled Dinner in a pressure cooker, but they are not fond ones. So I googled for a recipe. As expected, there were a lot of 'em. They fell into two groups, the braise and the oven roast. Most of the oven roast recipes attracted a blizzard of negative comments.
So, we will braise. I opened the package and dunked the corned beef in fresh water for about a half an hour to rinse off excess salt. Corned beef is a tough cut of meat that is soaked in brine to tenderize it. If you proceed immediately to cooking, it will come out VERY salty. Then I put Mr. Corned Beef into a Dutch oven with enough water to cover his bottom half, and the spice packet that comes packed with him. Bring to a boil on the stovetop and then simmer an hour a pound to tenderize it more. If you don't cook it enough, it comes out chewy as an old tire tube. Added carrots and potatoes an hour before it was done. They were nice red skin potatoes so I didn't bother to peel them.
Delicious. And cheap.
Left over corned beef slices and makes tasty sandwiches.