Lincoln Reagan dinner, Grafton County

This is a fund raiser that we hold every year.  For a lotta years we have been holding it at the Indian Head resort (fairly tony for northern NH) at Franconia Notch.  I've been going to this event for quite a few years now, to the point where I know by name a lot of the guests. 
  Weather was miserable, it snowed all day, putting down 5-6 inches by 3 PM when it let up.  Trusty Mercury charged out of the garage, up my steep driveway, and crashed thru the foot high snowdrift at the street.  Getting thru the notch was tedious, lot of out of state cars creeping along at walking pace. The road was OK, but a tad slippery.  Being New Hampshire, just about everyone showed up, dispite the weather,  except the guest of honor, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who was coming up from Manchester by car.  Fortunately he had a native driver who got him upcountry all in one piece. 
   Cruz is sufficiently famous to attract TV troops with a satellite truck, which they parked out behind the Indian Head with the dish pointed up at a satellite and filling up with snow.  Cruz is a good speaker.  His English is plain American, no hint of a Texas accent, or a Spanish accent.  Speaking to a Republican audience, he connected.  He spoke of supporting freedom of religion, freedom from federal snoopers, local control of education as opposed to Common Core, the Constitution, love of country, his background.  He did not propose any new federal benefit programs.  He connected with the audience, and gained standing ovations.  This guy is a good speaker.  He would make mince meat of Hillary in a debate.  He took questions from the audience.  The questions were friendly, mostly asking him to expand upon themes he had previously touched upon.  The questioners were all bone fide New Hampshire folk, known to me.  He did not say anything about immigration, but given his background as the son of a Cuban refugee, I would expect him to be fairly sympathetic to immigrants.  Anyhow, this guy is worth watching.  He speaks well, he talks about concrete issues that matter to Republicans,  he would be a very competitive Republican presidential candidate.  He talked about conservative issues, but they are important issues, which many voters cherish.  He avoided wedge issues like abortion and gay marriage.

Cannon Mountain Ski Weather. Snowing again.

Four to eight inches forecast for today.   We have four inches down now and it's still falling.  No rain.  It's warm, 30F, but we are still getting snow, no rain. 

Keeping Production Up. Sherman Tanks

Tanks, key weapon in WWII.  The Americans rushed the M4 Sherman tank into production.  Drawings were complete  by March 1941 (well before Pearl Harbor).  Pilot model was tested at Aberdeen proving ground in September 1941 , quick work.  First production models were coming off the line by February 1942.  again quick work.  Two hundred Shermans were sent into action with the British 8th Army for the Battle of El Alamein in October 1942.  That's a total of 18 months to go from drawings to action. 
   Upon introduction, October 1942, the Sherman, with a short barrel 75 mm gun was competitive with German tanks. However, the Germans shortly introduced new bigger tanks (Tiger and Panther) which were better than the Sherman.  The Germans had thicker armor and bigger guns. 
   Back in Washington, the Army Ordinance board wanted to introduce a heavier American tank, but Army Ground Forces (the generals in action in the field) feared a loss of production and held the Ordinance folks at bay.  It wasn't until the Battle of the Bulge in 1945, where German tanks clearly outclassed the Sherman, that Ordinance got the go ahead to ship the heavy M26 Pershing tank.  A few Pershings saw action before the end of the war and it was generally agreed that they were a match for the German Tiger tanks. 
   During the war US industry churned out 50,000 Sherman tanks, four times the number of tanks built in Germany.  During this massive production run, a number of really heavy duty design changes were made.  Engines for the first Shermans were 9 cylinder air cooled radial engines.  When this went into short supply  later production Shermans received twin GMC 6-71 diesels, or the Chrysler multibank 30 cylinder engine, or a Ford V8 of 500 horsepower, or the Caterpillar radial diesel engine of 450 horsepower.  Those of us who have done an engine swap in hot rods, are impressed with a production line that can do an engine swap and still churn out 50,000 units on time.
  The first Shermans had a bolted together cast nose on a welded hull.  Later models had a one piece steel cast hull, and even later models had an all welded hull. Again, impressive redesigns pushed into production with hardly a hiccup in output.  The early model short barrel 75 mm gun was replaced by a much longer barrel higher velocity 76 mm gun in American service, and the British had their even fiercer 17 pounder anti gun (75 mm but much higher velocity) installed in their Shermans.  
   In short, production was able to swallow five different engines, three different hulls and three different guns with hardly a hiccup.  They probably could have switched over to the M26 Pershing with little more effort and no drop in output. 

Selling off Power Plants to cut rates???

Heard about this on NHPR fm this morning.  The public utility commission is going to force Eversource (nee Public Service of New Hampshire, my electric co.) to sell off it's power plants.  Some coal and some hydro.  The buyer is only going of offer about $20 million for the plants.  The state allows that they are worth about $400 million and promises to make up the difference to Eversource.  This is supposed to raise my electric rate ONLY 0.4 cents a kilowatt hour.  I'm already paying 25 cents a kilowatt hour, which is the highest in the US.  Then there was some more fast talk about how all this would come out OK for ratepayers in the distant future.  No mention about costs to tax payers either this year or in the "out years".. 
   Which would force Eversource to become a poles and wire and electric bills company who buys the power on the spot market and passes the cost on to us ratepayers.  When the price spikes Eversource just waves its hands and says the spot market is rigged.  Last state to fall for this scam was California.  And when the CA electric bills spiked they impeached the governor, Gray Davis.  The special election CA held to fill the governor's office was won by Arnold.
  Sounds like some Concord sharpies are out to skin us ratepayers.    

Hillary takes More Flak, a Lot More

Fox News runs Hillary stories pretty much all day now.  They are not complimentary.  Even I am beginning to think this is over kill. 

And it Snowed, Again, Last night

Only an inch, but winter ain't over yet.  Damn. 

New England Town Meeting

Ayup, we still hold 'em.  Beloved of de Tocqueville, older than the Constitution.   Franconia Town Meeting started at 7PM.  Turnout was light, maybe a hundred out of a town of a thousand.  But the old Franconia people, Peabody, Foss, Lovett, Dinsmore, Walker, me, and others were there.  The town warrent (agenda) was mostly about money, the operating budget, the library budget, new snow plows and police cruisers, the dump funding, routine stuff of no ideological importance.
  Surprise, a floor motion to reduce the $1.6 million town operating budget by $54,000 passed.  That's a new one for Franconia, a well to do small town, full of democrats, and with a stiff tax rate.  Normally everyone grumbles about spending, but then they vote it thru.  This time, they actually cut the selectman's budget and it stuck.  Took a voice vote, two shows of hands, and a paper balloting, and it only passed by one vote, a lotta spendies voted against it, but it passed.  More of a symbolic gesture than real tax relief, but better than nothing.   
   It was 10 PM before the last town vehicle purchase was approved and meeting adjourned. 

Heat Wave.

It made up above 40F, first time this year.  Perhaps there is a spring hiding out there under all the snow?

Islamic ideology or Teen Age Angst ?

TV news has been upset over stories of young westeners, both boys and girls, going off the join ISIS.  The TV newsies take the position that the ISIS ideology must be so attractive as to pull young people into it, even just thru internet contact. 
  Perhaps.  but could it be these young people are fleeing terrible home situations?  Unloving parents, unsympathetic and boring schools, no jobs, no friends.  Could the idea of carrying an AK on the front lines, or finding a tall dark and handsome sheik with Rudolf Valentino looks to marry beat out being  on the bottom of a high school pecking order? 

Congress cuts the feet from under Iran deal

Dunno what counts for conventional wisdom in Iran, but in the rest of the world, a letter from the national legislature dissing a nuclear deal would kill that deal.  I mean why give them anything at the bargaining table when they have announced they won't keep the deal even if you get them to sign it. 
  Off hand, I'd say that Obama's relations with Congress are about as bad as they can get.  I wonder how that happened :-)
  I don't think anything like this has happened since the War of 1812.  And that was a long time ago. 

Words of the Weasel Part 39

"Unusual Dreams"  quoted as a side effect to some TV advertised pill.  That may be what the pill maker calls them, but ordinary people call them "nightmares". 

Why cut a deal when you don't trust 'em?

Dunno.  We don't trust the Iranians.  We know they want the bomb, badly.  They have spent a lot of money and time getting as far as they have.  The bomb would make the Iranian regime safe against regime change.  Even the boldest American future leadership would shrink from invading Iran if the Iranians threatened to nuke Jerusalem.  Real people (the kind with brains) have to figure that the Iranians will keep driving for a bomb no matter what kind of deal they sign with Obama.
   So why is Obama so set on a deal?  Especially a bad deal.  Even if the deal holds together for the next two years, it will ruin Obama's historical reputation for ever, if the Iranians produce a nuke right after Obama leaves the presidency.  Obama ought to know this, although sometimes you have to wonder about him. 
   The only way to keep the Iranians from the bomb is to remove all those centrifuges, along with all the uranium in the country.  Anything less is foolishness.  We ought to keep the sanctions on, ratchet them up tighter, until the Iranians turn over the centrifuges.  And we ought to destabilize their regime thru propaganda, aiding internal dissidents, assassination, and other dirty tricks. 

Beware the malware spreading flashdrive

Flashdrives, very convenient, very big, and deadly.  It was flashdrives that spread the Stuxnet virus into Iranian secure nuclear enrichment network.  Flashdrives with the virus were scattered in the parking lot.  Sharp eyed employees spotted them, picked them up, and took them into work.   Once the flashdrive was inserted into a computer, Stuxnet was sucked off the drive and started up. 
   Why does this work?  Blame Micro$oft.  Way back, about Win 95 time, the microsofties put "Autorun" into Windows.  It's still there.  Back in Win 95 days, before flashdrives, Autorun would scan every CD inserted in the CD drive and attempt to run program disks (say a new copy of Office) or to play music disks.  Automatically, hands off.  It was possible to turn off Autorun, but the turn off wasn't reliable, Autorun would come back to life at unexpected times. 
   Now that we have flashdrives, Autorun attempts to run any program it finds on the flash drive.  For that matter it still tries to run CD's, and floppy disks. 
   So, inserting a flashdrive in your computer can open it up to hackers, to use in bot nets, to launch Distributed Denial of Service attacks, to read all your email and suck up all your passwords.  And post any embarrassing photos they may find on your hard drive.  If I was running a secure network, I would use a pair of diagonal cutters to snip off all the USB ports on all the secured machines. 

Does anyone vote in Ferguson?

Eric Holder's justice dept just released an ugly report on Ferguson.  It says that the mostly white police force and criminal justice system spent their time shaking down black residents via parking tickets, speeding tickets, and pot busts.  It sounded really bad.
Question:  where are the black voters in Ferguson?  Surely, with a bit of leadership, they could get out the vote, and  elect a black mayor, city council, or selectmen, depending upon what kind of city government Ferguson has. 
   I haven't heard a word on the msm, not even Fox, about who runs Ferguson, and why the substantial black population (for all I know a majority) has not been able to shape up Ferguson city government via the ballot box. 

Bashing Barbie

The TV was hard at it this morning, claiming that Barbie's really thin waistline, generous bust, and super long legs was setting a bad example to girls, leading to eating disorders and worse.  Perhaps.  Was I gonna bitch about Barbie, I'd bitch about the feet.  Barbie's won't stand up.  Which reduces their play value a lot.  Girls cannot stand Barbie up and pose her, and act out  adventures with them.  At our house, some 30 odd Barbies, all without a stitch of clothing on, spent their lives packed in a basket.  Occasionally they got pulled out and played with, but not much. 

Rock Cornish Game Hens

It's a mini chicken.  Very tasty, gives that roasted stuffed chicken taste in a smaller package.  A hungry teenager will be able to scarf down a whole game hen.  Older adults will be satisfied with a half a game hen.  I stuff them with supermarket stuffing mix jazzed up with a bit of sliced apple, some grapes (in season) or raisins (out of season), the game hen liver, and some chopped onion.  Rinse them with water, and rub them down, inside and out, with lemon, or orange, and oil.  Olive is good, plain old veggie oil is fine.  Then stuff them.  Roast at 350 for an hour, maybe an hour and ten.  Baste with pan juice or oil every so often.  Game hens are too small to get a cooking thermometer into so I rely on the old fashioned fork  test.  The breast should feel cooked to the fork and juices should run out.  Skin should have browned.  When in doubt, give 'em a little more time in the oven. 
   I make gravy from scratch.  When the bird goes in, I put the neck and gizzard and heart in water and bring it to a boil.  Add a bit of Bell's Poultry Seasoning, and simmer until the game hens are done.  Then pick the meat from the neckbones with a couple of forks, and chop the gizzard and heart up fine.  When the game hen[s] are done,  take them out of the roasting pan, put them on plate and let them rest a few minutes before carving them.  To the roasting pan, add some flour to the pan juices, as much as the juices will soak up.  Then add the broth from cooking the neck and gizzard.  And the neck meat and gizzard.  Put the roasting pan on the stove, medium heat and stir until the gravy thickens.  Taste and season as necessary.  Go easy on the salt.  Thyme is good, Bell's Poultry Seasoning is good, some pepper.  
   To do it right, you ought to have a veggie, peas, broccoli, squash, green beans.  With the stuffing you don't really need a starch. 
    Next day you can do a chicken soup.  Put all the chicken (game hen) bones and left overs in a pot with a lot of water.  Add a bay leaf, and some chopped onion.  Boil and then reduce to a simmer.  Give it four hours or so.  Then turn off the heat, let it cool enough to touch, and separate the bones from the broth.  Fingers work for this, it's a little messy, but you can do it.  Pitch the bones, put the meat back in the pot.  Add some veggies, peas, carrots, corn, anything you like.  Add some rice.  Reheat and cook long enough to get the rice soft and the veggies cooked. 
   I got three nice meals out of a single game hen this way. 

Hillary takes flak

Hillary, while secretary of state, did all her email on her own email server, located in her house. She didn't use a work email (@StateDept.gov?) at all.  She probably figured doing it that way was more secure, State has been repeatedly hacked, and State  IT people can snoop all emails and leak any that they pleased.  She wanted a secure email, and it looks like she got it.
  Thinking about it, I had, and used, my work email for work stuff, and my home email for personal stuff, chatting with friends and the like.  I always figured the work email was insecure, and took pains to never put anything in email that I wouldn't post on a downtown bulletin board. Like if we ever got sued, the lawyers would subpoena every email in the company, and use anything in them in court. So, never bad mouth anyone, you might need to do business with them sometime.  Never discuss future plans, technological secrets, sales, pay, political infighting at the company, stick to selling the company product. 
   The TV is admitting that Hillary had left State before the more draconian laws about doing government business on government email were passed. 
   I'm not a Hillary fan, but on this email business, I understand her. 

With weapons grade fissionables anyone can build a bomb.

There are two fissionable isotopes practical for nuclear weapons, Uranium 235 and Plutonium 239.  U235 is found in nature, but it's scarce and very difficult to concentrate.  Only seven tenths of one percent of natural uranium is the readily fissionable isotope U235, the rest is relatively inert U238.  Plutonium, with a half life of  only 24 thousand years, is not found in nature.  Any plutonium present when earth was created, 4.5 billion years ago has decayed to lead by now.  Plutonium can be made from Uranium in a nuclear reactor. 
  To make a uranium fission bomb, you have to concentrate the fissionable U235 up from the 0.7% found in nature to 90% or so.  That is hard to do.  Chemistry won't help, because U238 and U235 are both Uranium and any chemical process will effect both isotopes alike.  Chemistry won't separate them. 
   Concentration of U235 relies upon physical processes that work on the slight difference in mass.  The Iranians are using centrifuges.  They react the Uranium with fluorine creating uranium hexafluoride gas.  The gaseous Uranium is fed into the centrifuge and the very high G forces of the centrifuge cause the heavier U238 to sink to outside and the lighter U235 to rise to the center, where it is skimmed off.  A single pass thru a centrifuge will raise the concentration of U235 a small amount.  To achieve weapons grade, 90%, you make many passes thru the same apparatus.   It takes a lot of centrifuges to get enough 90% U235 for a bomb.  The Iranians have 6800 on line and 19000 a building. 
   A bomb is merely a "critical mass" of U235.  The exact value of critical mass used to be a top secret, but nowadays it is probably 25 kilograms or so, call it 55 pounds or more.  Create a chunk of U235 of critical mass and you have a nuclear explosion, right then and there. 
   To produce a nuclear explosion at the target, rather than in the factory,  make two sub critical masses, keep them separate until the bomb is on target, then slam them together, hard, creating a critical mass and a nuclear explosion.  Standard design puts one sub critical mass in a gun, and fires it at the other sub critical mass.  This was the design of "Little Boy", the bomb used on Hiroshima.  They worked out the design of "Little Boy" in the 1940's with nothing but slide rules and Munroematic adding machines.  They were sufficiently confident of the design that they didn't waste any U235 on a test shot in Nevada.  "Little Boy" was shipped to the Marianas and dropped on Hiroshima. 
   In short, once you have enough weapons grade fissionables, say 55 pounds of 90% U235,  you have a bomb.  Just takes a little ordinary work with machine tools and it's ready to go. 
   Which means, as long as the Iranians have 6800 or maybe 19000 centrifuges, they can produce a working fission bomb in a matter of weeks. 
   The Obama team, negotiating with the Iranians, is willing to let the Iranian keep all their centrifuges.

Loving the USA

Story on NHPR this morning.  Apparently pregnant foreign women (well to do Chinese are mentioned but there has gotta be others) are traveling to the US to give birth here, so that the child will be a US citizen.  There is enough traffic to support  organizations of runners, who make the arrangements (for a stiff fee).  Border patrol is trying to bust them.
   I kept thinking, there has to be something really attractive about the US of A, to prompt pregnant women to travel half way around the world, away from friends and family, to give birth in an alien land, just to obtain US citizenship for the child. We should take advantage of that really attractive something in our dealings with adversaries like Putin and Iran. 

Bebi brings down the house

He spoke for 40 minutes.  The place was packed.  Bebi got 30-40 standing ovations.  Clearly a lot of Congressmen liked what they heard.  He spoke well, mentioned concrete examples, supported his points with facts, dates, places. None of the vague motherhood-and-applepie stuff that Obama hands out.  If nothing else, Bebi convinced all the enemies of Israel that he has a lot of good friends in America. 
   Bebi's objections to the deal Obama is working on with Iran are two fold.  First Iran gets to keep all its centrifuges, which means they can crank out a lot of weapons grade uranium in short order.  His other objection is to the 10-15 year time limit on the deal.  Iran only has to wait 10-15 years and it can then build all nukes as it likes, legally. 
   We will see what Bebi's speech does to US policy.  It certainly is going to make life uncomfortable for Obama.
   BTW, we need a Republican candidate for 2016 who can speak as well as Bebi. 

Bebi vs Bama

It oughta be good.  Bebi represents Israel, which gives him a good start.  Something like 10 million Americans are Jewish.  I know a fair number of them, and everyone of them is behind Israel 100%.  Many more Americans are Christian, and know their Old Testament.  The Children of Israel are the good guys thru out, and this rubs off on modern Israel.  And modern Israel is an inspiring story of bravery, hard work, entrepreneurship, and democracy.  So Bebi has some stuff going for him. 
   And Bebi is a pretty good speaker.  I watched him on TV a while ago.  It was a travelog kinda show on public TV, about historical sites in Israel.  Bebi was the tour guide.  He knew all the stories, in Israel there is a story connected with every rock and stone, he told them well.  I usually skip right over travelogs, but this one held my interest and I watched it to the end.
   Presumably Bebi is going talk about Iranian nukes, and the need to stop them.  Obama is trying to cut a deal with the Iranians.  The terms of the deal are still secret, but enough has leaked out to show that the deal isn't much of a deal.  The Iranians get to keep all their centrifuges,  international supervision is weak to non existent, and the whole deal sunsets in 10-15 years, which means the Iranians can legally build a nuke in 10 or 15 years.
   There is substantial support in the US Congress for laying more sanctions on Iran.  Bebi may be able to energize that support into something real.  Obama fears that this would queer the deal with Iran, which he seems all in favor of.  Obama's relations with Congress are bad, and his speaking style now bores people. Babi might well get what he wants over Obama's objections.
  Show starts in about an hour.  

Keep it Simple Stupid (KISS)

Back in the 1930's and even thru WWII, engineers designing tanks were burdened with complicated theories as to what the tank was supposed to do.  They spoke of "breaking thru enemy positions" and "infantry support" and "exploitation" and "offensive combat" and so on.  Which resulted in some strange, very strange, tanks.  Like a model with five machine gun turrets,  or numerous models with dinky main guns.
   By the end of WWII it had become clear that the purpose of a tank was to destroy ALL battlefield targets within visual range.  Of which, the most difficult are hostile tanks.  This simple concept led to the conclusion that a tank needs a gun big enough to blow a hole thru enemy tanks.  Compared to the popguns that armed all too many tanks in WWII, the postwar tanks were equipped with truly massive guns. 
   In short, the simpler statement of the mission of a tank, led to much more effective designs. 
   KISS

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

We have John Kerry, secretary of state, saying that times have never been better, casualties from terrorism are down, everything is hunky dory.  We have James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, saying the terrorism problem is the worst it has been since they started keeping records.  On the same day we have these two summaries.  Both given in front of Congress. 
   So who is right?  Well Kerry is an airhead, been one for a long time.  Dunno much about Clapper.  But neither of them look back very far. 
   For a real existential threat to our country, look back to the 1930's.  The Nazi's , with the Japanese for side kicks, were a real threat.  It took the longest, bloodiest, deadliest war in all of history to stop them.  We might have lost WWII if the enemy hadn't made so many mistakes.  The Nazi's could have beaten us to the bomb, and that would have been that.  Hitler would have nuked London and then New York, and kept on doing it till we had nothing left. 
   And, then there was the cold war.  The Soviets had plenty of nukes, enough to turn our country into a coast-to-coast slagheap.  One misstep,  say in Berlin, or Cuba, and boom, no more US of A.
   Compared to those two, now extinct threats,  the IS/ISIS/ISIL thing, while a pain in the tush, is just not that deadly, yet. 
   Of course we aren't doing anything about the IS/ISIS/ISIL threat.  We can't even figure out what to call them, let along how to squash them. 

Will the courts save the Internet?

Three appointed democrats on the FCC decided to apply 323 pages of secret regulation to the Internet today.  They claim it's just "net neutrality"  which sounds benign even though nobody really knows what it is.  They are keeping the new regulations secret because they are so benign. But 323 pages of regulations have enough fine print to allow the FCC to do anything it wants.  Want to bet they define all conservative web sites as "hate speech" and close them? 
   The ISP's are planning to sue.  They won the last two times the FCC attempted this power grab.  If the courts have the stones, they ought to throw this one out too. 
   Too bad the Congress isn't doing squat.  Real democracy that is. 

Fairpoint Communications Strike settles

Fairpoint Communications, our telephone company, was struck by its union back in October.  According to NHPR and the Union Leader, they settled the strike today. 
   Funny thing, neither NHPR or the Union Leader would disclose any terms of the settlement.  Fairpoint has been losing money over the years, actually since it bought the business off of Verizon, quite a few years ago.  And surely the rise of cell phones is eating into Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS for short) sales.  For instance none of my three children have POTS, they all use cell phones.   I under stand the Fairpoint workers all have "defined benefit" pensions, which require the company to stay in business in order to pay off.  If the union presses Fairpoint too hard, it could go under. 

Nation Building is not optional.

The "nations" that the US has imposed regime change upon, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and others, aren't much in the way of nations.  Once the US deposed the dictator, there was nothing to hold the place together.  No law enforcement,. no courts, no legislature, no accepted code of law, no telephone system, little to no civil government.  Without doing some, in fact quite a bit, of "nation building" the place goes to pieces.  Warlords and terrorists take over, and the land becomes a breeding ground for crazies. 
   Afghanistan is a classic example.  In the 1980's the Soviets invaded.  A native resistance, the Mujahadin, took up arms against the Soviets and with substantial American assistance (plenty of Stinger back pack anti aircraft missiles) drove the Soviets out of the country.  At which point, we Americans washed our hands of the place and went home.  The Afghans were unable to create a national government and in an uncontrolled patch of Afghan ground, Osama bin Ladin set up shop and launched 9/11 on us. 
   Lesson that should be learned.  Never allow wild lands without a responsible national government to emerge.  Bad things like 9/11 come out of wild lands.  We must do enough nation building to create a national government that can exert control over the national territory.  
   For instance, the US claims to be fighting against IS/ISIS/ISIL.  Good idea.  But, should we defeat IS/ISIS/ISIL what are we gonna do to set up and keep alive, a national government to maintain order in the land?  Last time we pulled out and the place, which we had sort of stuck together, fell apart in a year after the Americans left. 
   If we are going to intervene in third world armpits, we need to be willing to do enough nation building to establish a regime that can control to place after we blow the current dictator away.  If we ain't ready to shape the place up, we do better leaving the native dictator in charge. 

Whither Keystone XL?

Obama did have the stones to veto the pipeline project, despite solid popular support, solid union support, solid financial support.   They ought to attempt a veto override in Congress, but the smoke signals I see don't give much hope.  But might as well try it, just 'cause it will cause Obama some more pain. 
   As I understand it, pipe is going into the ground on the US side of the border.  They ought to keep laying it.  Run it right up to the Canadian border.  Then shuttle the oil over the border by rail and into the pipeline. 
   In the meantime, be sure to emphasize Obama's role in raising fuel prices, increasing US entanglement in the Middle East, and destroying jobs and economic opportunity. 
    Obama thinks that we can operate off sunlight and wind, instead of fossil fuel.  He's wrong on this, I cannot put sunlight or wind into my car, my oil burner, an airliner, or even a railroad locomotive.   I cannot use solar electricity after sundown, which is when I need to run my lights and my oil burner. And with the temperature forecast to go down to ten below tonight,  I NEED that oil burner.  And, all the greenie wailing about CO2 in the atmosphere is moonshine.  CO2 is 400 parts per million, plain old water vapor is like 100,000 parts per million or more, and water vapor is as strong a green house gas as CO2.  The whole CO2 thing is a tempest in a teapot.  The controlling green house gas is water vapor, 'cause water vapor is ten, a hundred or a thousand times more plentiful than CO2.  Which might account for the halt in global warming since the 1990's.  And with the two thirds of the world covered with open water oceans, nothing is gonna reduce the water vapor levels. 

What Walker should have said.

The msm tossed a gotcha question at Scott Walker, "Is president Obama a Christian", or words to that effect.  Walker should have said, "Why ask me?  How the Hell should I know?  Ask Obama."

Scumbagi's threaten Mall of America

It's been on the TV news.  Jeh Johnson, secretary of homeland security, was on TV saying that we ought to take the threat seriously.  I'm sure Mall of America loved that one, although it doesn't seem to have scared off their customers over the weekend.  Johnson went on to say that all citizens ought to take care and do something to prevent terrorist action.
   Well, I think that means anyone who has a concealed carry permit, ought to carry when they go to the mall.  And the mall owners ought to post signs welcoming the carry of firearms.  And if you don't have a concealed carry permit you ought to apply for one. Even just having a piece in the glove compartment can make a difference, has made a difference in the past. 

It's easier for the guys, Follow on

They did a roundup of democratic party presidential possibles.   One of those "whose on first" stories. For Hillary, they had some lady guru discuss her hair style.  They showed every do Hillary has ever worn, going back to when she was working on Watergate in the '70s.  She critized  Hillary's color choices, her pants suits, and I forget what else. 
   None of the guy candidates had their wardrobe and hair styles trashed.  It's easier for guys, we have a uniform we are expected to wear, and it takes no fashion sense to figure that out. 

The Greeks blinked

After a lot of big talk from the new Syriza government of Greece,  the Greeks agreed to keep  the cost cutting measures ("austerity") that previous Greek governments had agreed to (agreed to under pressure, but agreed to) in return for four months more of EU bailout payments.  Apparently the EU had the stones to tell the Greeks, "Do it our way if you want any more of our money."  Since the Greek government is totally stoney broke, it listened to reason.  Now all it has to do is sell the deal back home in Greece. 

Homeland Security Funding

We have Jeh Johnson, secretary on Homeland Security on Meet the Press and Face the Nation,  bewailing the lack of funding, and all the horrible things that will cause.
   Congress could, make itself look better, by funding those parts of Homeland Security that do a good job and make sense, like the Coast Guard, and perhaps the Secret Service.  Defund  the TSA and the federal flood insurance program.  Leave the restrictions on amnesty on Customs and Immigration. 

Crop dusting in four engine Lockheed Constellation?

The story on Fox, is that an old Air Force Constellation, which had carried president Eisenhower, making it the first Air Force 1, is sitting in the boneyard at Davis Montham, hoping for someone to fix it up and make it a museum piece.  According to the news, the Air Force retired the Connie from service in the 1970's and it got sold to some enterpreneur who planned to use it for crop dusting.
  That I want to see.  The Constellation is a big four engine airliner.  The thought of swooping across a cornfield at 50 feet spraying insecticide is daunting. 

Real jobs and Government Jobs

Real jobs produce salable goods, valuable intellectual property, entertainment that people will pay to enjoy, transportation, or communication.  The more people we have working real jobs, the more wealth our society has. 
   Government jobs consume wealth, they don't create it.  Government workers pay comes from funds taken away from people who earned it at real jobs. 
   Moral of the story.  You cannot solve unemployment by giving people government jobs.  You have to stimulate the real economy to create more real jobs. 

Rudi Guiliani

I don't believe I would have trashed Obama quite so hard myself, but now that Rudi has, I cannot disagree with him all that much.

Add Grated Cheese

Those frozen french bread pizza's.  The best of the frozen pizza breed, which ain't saying much.  I added a good hand full of grated cheese before sticking it in the oven for 30 minutes at 350F.  Improved it a good deal.  Still not anywhere close to real pizzeria pizza, but better.  Especially when it's 5 below zero and a half an hour drive to Gold House Pizza in Littleton, NH.

John Bolton for Secretary of State

If we can elect a Republican president in 2016, I recommend he appoint John Bolton as Secretary of State. 

Let's call 'em scumbagi's

Obama has gone to great lengths to avoid tagging the enemy as "Islamic".  He gave two wordy speeches on the subject, today and yesterday, stressing the notion that we don't want to offend the one billion Islamics in the world.
   OK, Obama, but we gotta call 'em something.  You cannot run a war against nothing, you have to give it a name.  This thing that needs a name, is the ideology of terrorists who burn captives alive and behead Christians.  We might call it Wahabism, although that would frighten the bejesus out of the Saudis.  We might call it Jehadism although that doesn't sound bad enough.  Calling them ISIS/ISIL/IS is naming the political organization that gives the greatest offensive today.  It isn't their ideology.  Tomorrow these same religious crazies will form another organization with another name.  We need to focus on the thing that makes the crazies crazy, their beliefs and ideology.  We could call them scumbagi's but it's a new word that needs to be given some meaning.
    We are at war with the scumbagis because they kill people, burn people alive, kidnap school girls, blow up our skyscrapers, shoot newsmen, kill aid workers, bomb trains and subways, enslave women, and they think all these atrocities perfectly are all right to do.   Well we don't think this violence is all right to do. 

Cannon Mountain Ski Weather

Good news.  We got 6 inches of nice fresh powder over night.  More is forecast.  It's warmed up to 20, which is balmy for Cannon.  No wind, so the snow is still on the trails rather than blown into the woods.  Barometer has been falling steadily for two days now, and is still falling.  Which is the traditional warning of a storm, another storm.  The mountain was in beautiful shape yesterday, and six inches will make it even better.

Obama on terrorism, 45 MInutes of airtime

Obama is having a conference on terrorism.  The TV gave him 45 minutes of airtime to pontificate.  He managed to avoid all the real issues.  Like who is the enemy, what is it's name?  Like what to do about Islamist terrorists in the Middle East.  He talked a lot about reaching out to Muslim communities in the US, but the real problem is in Iraq and Syria.  Like what do we wish to achieve?  What is victory?  How do we discredit the ISIS/ISIL/AlQuada ideology?  He talked about creating jobs and economic opportunity in the Middle East to give young men over there something to do besides join  ISIS.  Which doesn't work, because you have to establish civil order before you can do economic development.  When ISIS thugs can walk into any business establishment, steal all the stock, conscript all the men into the militia, enslave all the women, and wreck the place just for grins, you ain't gonna get any job growth. 

Constituent service by Anne Kuster

Anne Kuster, our democrat US Rep, just voted for higher furnace oil prices and higher gasoline prices. And voted to import oil from hostile countries in the middle east, as opposed to friendly Canada. She cast a vote against the Keystone XL pipeline.  Why or why did we re elect her instead of Marilinda Garcia?

Oil Tanker train derails and burns in WV.

Dramatic photos on Drudge.  They mention that all the tank cars involved were brand new, built to tougher standards than the cars built up until 2010.  They do not mention the state of the track.  Nor do they mention how fast the train was going.  There is plenty of track in this country so old and rotten as to be unsafe at any speed.  Around here a lot of ties are so rotted out that you can pick the spikes out of the track by hand.  And Amtrak was running passengers over that track.   I wonder what shape the track was in WV. 

I wonder what their constituents think

The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netenyahu, has been invited to address the US House of Representatives.  Recently certain democratic Congressmen have announced that they will not attend the Prime Minister's remarks, probably because Obama detests Mr. Netenyahu, and has asked his democratic supporters to snub him. 
   Many Americans, both Jewish and Gentile,  have great respect, admiration, even love, for  Israel.  They admire the Israeli's courage,  resource, and dedication in the face of implacable Arab hatred. 
   Speaking for myself, a Gentile, I would be offended if my Congressional representatives were to snub the leader of a smaller, friendly, allied, and threatened country.  I wonder  how many voters share my thinking on this. 

Beware Computer Fixer Upper Programs

You must have seen the ads (PCMatic for example)  The ad promises to increase your computer's speed by "cleaning" the Registry, the hard drive, and other less mentionable parts of your computer. 
   Beware.  Most, if not all,  of these programs are malware, especially the free ones.  Before downloading any such program, Google for reviews of then program's name.  See what the rest of the Internet thinks of them.  Usually you will hit some reviews that call the program a virus.  I don't run freebie programs of any kind unless I find solid and unanimous good words on the net about them.
   Plus, you can do it yourself, which is safer.  Running a little known program on your faithful computer is hazardous to its health. 
    Keep things clean.  Your computer came from the store with a bunch of games and craplets that you never use.  Zap them.  Do "settings" then "Control Panel" and then "Add and Remove Programs".  Remove anything you know you don't use.  Be careful about things you don't know about, programs with important sounding names that you don't recognize.  Some of them are vital parts of Windows.  Some of them might be virii.  Google these programs, but interpret the answers with care.  There are a bunch of websites out there that will respond with a means nothing answer to any program name, and then attempt to sell you on their Computer Fixer Upper program.  Ignore those.  Look for answers that come from people, not programs. 
Make a list of the questionable programs, and keep it to hand.
   Run Task Manager.  It comes with Windows, and pops up when you hit control-alt-delete.   Look at "applications".   That's programs that are running and showing a window on your desktop.  You should recognize all of them.  Any application that you don't recognize is very suspicious. 
  Check the "Process" window.  Processes are all running programs, most of which don't show windows on your desktop.  Programs in the Applications window will also show up in the Process window.  Any live virus on your machine will show up in the process window, probably under an assumed name.  Processes claiming unusual amounts of RAM or CPU time are suspicious.  It's usual to have 30 odd processes running, but  much more than that is suspicious. 
   Questionable programs from the Add and Remove programs applet that DO show in the Process window are more likely to be a necessary part of Windows.  Questionable programs that DO NOT show in the process window are more likely to be junk you don't need. 
   Once you are sure you have identified something as virus or just plain junk, get rid of it.  Start house cleaning with Add & Remove programs.  If that works, it usually does a better job than anything else, it can remove the programs Registry entries and it's disc files.  If Add and Remove programs doesn't work, go after the offensive program's disc files with Windows explorer.  And then go after the program's Registry entries with Regedit.  Delete all registry keys containing the offensive program's name. 
   Secret.  The name the program shows in Task Manager may not be the program's disc file name.  In which case, a search of the Registry with Regedit, looking for the offending name in Task Manager, will often turn up a key that gives the program's disc file name.
  Be careful.  It's is quite easy to zap a necessary part of Windows which is a catastrophe.   
  Good luck.

So how hot is the F-35 today?

Not very hot.  It's pricey, but not too hot.  Top speed is a sluggish Mach 1.2.  The poor old F-102 of 50 years ago was that fast.  Max altitude is 40,000 feet, again, not much.  the U-2s of the 1950's could do 70,000 feet.  Peak maneuver load is limited to 5.6 G.  The long obsolete F-106 could pull 8 G back in the 1960's.  Figures come from Aviation Week.  Oh yeah, and the internal gun won't work until the next software upgrade, sometime in the future. And it can only handle two air to air missiles.  The old F-106 carried five. 
   The F-35 people claim these restrictions will go away after the next software upgrade.  They are currently flying software block 2B.  Block 3F, promised sometime in the future, will at least make the gun work.  The G limitation is caused by weakness in the engines.  Pull more than 5.6 G and the engine flexes under the G load enough to let the compressor blades rub on the engine casing, with disastrous results, like engine fires.
   And, to add insult to injury, the Russians have developed a new radar said to pick up F-35's despite the stealth design of the aircraft. 
   From the sounds of it, we might do better going back to the old Viet Nam war F-4 Phantom.

Is this what killed top 40 radio?

According to this, the labels rammed thru a law that prohibits playing anything later than 1972 without paying copyright.  If true, that accounts for hearing nothing but goldie oldies on the radio.
   Which is why the CD business is going to pot.  Used to be, air play drove record sales.  The labels used to bribe DJ's to spin their singles.  Payola it was called.  Now that we have no airplay, we have no CD sales. 
  The entire music business would be better off going back to the old system, radio stations can play any thing over the air copy right free. 
   Sounds like the kinda idea a buncha suits would have. 

Legacy Weapons Systems

The Economist, at the end of a piece commenting upon Ashton Carter as new US defense secretary, said this.  "To fund new weapons and technology Mr. Carter will need to axe legacy weapons systems (such as the A10 tankbusting aircraft). "
The A10 is old enough to be bought and paid for.  It works.  Should we desire to push the Russian tanks out of Ukraine, a couple of squadrons of A10's could do the job handily.  Keeping the A10 flying is a bargain compared to the pricey, new, not-paid-for  F35.  The Air Force, run by a fighter pilot mafia, wants to dump the A10, largely because it is no match for a real jet fighter.  They see themselves at the stick of an A10, and helpless against a MIG.  The answer, is to create US air superiority over the battle field, and make sure the A10 squadrons have fighter escort.   To be a good ground attack aircraft, the A10 has to fly low and slow so the pilot can see his targets and get close enough to hit them.  You cannot fly between the trees and under power lines at Mach 2. 
  Plenty of potential US enemies have lots of tanks.  Few of them have jet fighters that compete with ours.

Cannon Mt Ski Weather. 8 Below this morning

Mountain is is fine shape.  We got a sprinkling of new snow yesterday.  Sun is out this morning, and it's COLD.  Snow is forecast for the weekend. 

How do you combat a Littoral?

Beats me, but the US Navy has been messing around with something they call a "Littoral Combat Ship" for some years now.  It's gotten beyond the paper study phase and we actually have two or three of them at sea right now.  They are smallish surface vessels, with claims to awesome top speed, something in excess of 30 knots.
   According to Aviation Week the Navy is not satisfied with the program so far and wants to redesigate the class as "frigates".  That's an old and honorable name for a warship class, going way back into the days of sail.  The name died out in the sail to steam conversion, the steam warships that picked up the sailing frigate duties were called cruisers.  The name fell out of use in navies until WWII when it was applied to a new class of small anti submarine vessels.  Since then frigate has meant a mini-destroyer.  Looks like a destroyer but is smaller and cheaper. 
   The Littoral Combat Ship idea was born after a number of nasty confrontations with small fast missile boats in the Persian Gulf.  The idea was a very fast ship that could run the pesky missile boats down and blow them out of the water.  This works in the Persian Gulf where the water is calm and smooth enough to get up to speed.  It does not work offshore where you have surf and swell.  Trying to drive thru even moderate waves at 45 knots will smash the ship apart in a few minutes. 
   So, the Navy is talking about dropping the high speed requirement on the new Frigate/ex Littoral Combat Ship class.  It reduces the size and weight of the engines,  leaving more room on board for all the stuff every captain wants to have more of (rations, ammo, fuel, weapons, etc).  Aviation Week speculates that the development of small very effective auto cannon systems has solved the missile boat problem.  I doubt that.  Was I skippering a Navy ship and the missile boats came after me, I'd order up my helicopter.  Chopper is twice as fast as anything on water, and carries 5 inch rockets that will turn anything afloat into kindling wood.
  The other discouraging thing in the Aviation Week article, is the total lack of any discussion of mission.  What is the frigate/ex littoral combat ship supposed to do?  Show the flag?  Chase subs? Provide gunfire support to an amphibious landing? Missile aircraft?  Escort carriers?   Just be cheap enough so we can have a lot of 'em? Not a word about any of this. 

Internet is working fine

So why does Obama want to take it  over?  Lotta reasons come to mind, none of 'em good.  The can squeeze "campaign contributions/bribes" out of internet providers.  They can shut down talk that they don't like.  They can raise rates and reduce service.  They can reward their friends and punish their enemies. They can lay taxes on it.  Crony capitalists love it. 
  The "net neutrality" argument the Administration uses is a smoke screen.  Nobody knows what "net neutrality" actually means.  So they can take over the Internet and  do pretty much anything they like, and it's all for "net neutrality".
I'm positive that government takeover will raise my rates, degrade my service, and threaten me for stuff I post on my blog.