The New York Times

For a national mouthpiece, they certainly have some quirks.  They promote  Jill Abramson to editor, and then fire her a few weeks later.  That makes it a snakepit, where you have to constantly watch your back.  Does not sound like a pleasant place to work. 
   This morning, on NPR, I hear that Jill still loves the Times, and has the Times logo tattooed on her back. Wow!  Except for ugly bikers with "Harley" tattoos, I never heard of anyone with a company tat before. 
Gotta be a weird place that Times.

Indict Chinese hackers or US executives?

The TV news is talking about indictments against Chinese hackers for hacking into US companies and taking trade secrets, classified info, and who knows what.  We won't talk about jurisdiction here, indictments only have force if you can lay your hands on the miscreants.  If they are in China, that doesn't work. 
  I'd like to know what is being done to executives in the US targets.   If they had enforced proper security they would not have gotten hacked.  For that matter, we could have words with Microsoft about gaping security holes in Windows. 

So what is Boko Haram?

Well, since they been kidnapping school girls by the hundred, I'd call them terrorists.  Hillary's State Department is taking flack 'cause they failed to put Boko Haram on the official terrorist list two years ago.  But I heard Fox News call them "rebels" the other day, and NPR called them "militants" just this morning.  Newsies need to wake up and smell the coffee. 

Free Air

They used to offer it at gas stations.  In the old days they would provide a neat little stand with a regulator.  Just dial in the desired tire pressure, jam the air hose onto the tire valve, and kaching, kaching, you were pumped up.  Even worked on my bicycle tires, before I got my driver's license.
  So the other day I noticed trusty Mercury Grand Marquis getting a little soft and squirrelly on I93, going into Littleton.  I eyeballed all the tires, and none of 'em looked soft.  So I rummaged in the glove compartment for the tire pressure gauge that should have been there.  No soap, gauge was gone into that great toolbox in the sky. So, I buy a new gauge at Walmart and go looking for a gas station with air, free or expensive, just air.  I'm at the intersection of I93 and US 302 in Littleton, pretty active place with three gas stations.  Only one of them has air.  Seventy five cents a shot.  Wimpy wimpy.  I put it on the right rear which was 10 pounds low.  The hang-on-the-outside-wall compressor racketed away but it wasn't putting much air in the tire.  The seventy five cents ran out, it stopped racketing, but the tire still hadn't reached 35 psi.  I had to fed it another seventy five cents to get pumped up. 

A lotta things to learn about Benghazi

Democrats on TV have been deriding the new Trey Gowdy Benghazi investigating committee.  They say we know everything there is to know, there have been eight previous investigations, and everything is out on the table. 
  I beg to differ.  Things we don't know.
1. Why were no troops or aircraft dispatched to rescue the people in Benghazi?  We had time to get a drone (200 mph) over the consulate, why were jet fighters (1000 mph) not sent?  Why were troops not dispatched, by helicopter or fixed wing?  Who was responsible?
2.  Why did Obama relieve two general officers in the theater of their commands that night?
3.  Who turned down the requests for extra security that were made BEFORE the attack?
4.  Who sent Susan Rice out on the talk shows peddling the internet video story.  She didn't think that fairy tale up all by her self. 
5. Why did acting CIA director Mike Morrel take the Washington analyst's internet video story over the story from the CIA station chief in Benghazi?
6.  What was that massive CIA operation doing in Benghazi anyhow?
7.  What orders did Obama issue that night?  Were they in writing?  If so let's see them.

I'm sure there's more, but these will do for starters.

The A-10

Aka the Warthog.  A ground attack plane, a jet powered version of the Russian WWII Sturmovic.  It can fly low and slow, just what you need for tank plinking, has a honking big 30 mm Gatling gun, and lots of bombs and missiles.  Nice straight wing, top speed around 400 mph.  Twin engines so you can get home if one takes a hit.  Came into service after Viet Nam, did a fantastic job in the first Gulf War.  Best plane out there for ground attack.  On the other hand, if you are flying an A10 and you get bounced by enemy jet fighters, you are in deep trouble. 
  The Air Force officer corps is pretty much all fighter pilots now that SAC has been disbanded.  And fighter pilots want to fly fighters and do air to air combat.  They like the white silk scarf fluttering in the slip stream and they all want to be the Red Baron.  The idea of getting down into the ground fire and shooting up tanks has no appeal to fighter pilots. 
  This year Congress laid a heavy duty funding cut on all the armed services.  It's actually a real cut, the services get less money than than they did last year.  So, the Air Force looked around for things they could shut down or sell off, to keep the little money left them going into the F35 program.  What to cut?  How about that ugly old A10?  None of us fighter pilots like it, if we get rid of  it we can use the money saved to buy that hot F35 that we do like.
   There has been some squawking from the Army and the Marine Corps, both of which like the A10.  Nobody who saw A10s blowing Saddam Hussein's tanks away in the Gulf Wars is going to feel happy about doing without them.
   The issue probably needs to be resolved in Congress, if Congress still has the ability to resolve anything. 

Politics is getting mean up here.

It's Wednesday night, the North Grafton Republican Committee is meeting, in the downstairs of the Gold House, Littleton's best pizza place.  Gary Lambert, running for the US House of Representatives, has stopped in to speak to us, do a little campaigning.  Gary is an old New Hampshire political hand, served in the NH senate, served in the Marines for 35 years, a nice guy.
   About this time a young brunette, with a heavy camera bag slips into the room.  I've never seen her before.  But Mike Gilman and Gary do know her, address her as Morgan.  She is a democratic party tracker, assigned to follow Gary Lambert and film any gaffe's he might make.  Morgan is working with or for Annie Kuster's campaign.  We ask her to leave, which she does.
   Discussion turns on how Morgan found us.  Apparently Gary had posted something to his facebook page from his smart phone that evening, and Morgan turned up about an hour after the post.
   Wow.  Pretty big time stuff.  Gary Lambert isn't even the Republican candidate yet, he has yet to win the primary.  That the democrats have the money, or the dedicated people with time on their hands, to track a fairly low level guy like Gary Lambert, suggests a lot of outside money is coming into the state.  It's also probably a waste of resources by the Democrats.  Annie Kuster has done little to nothing in office and is probably toast in November.