Fifty men, allegedly all Special Forces, ain't much in any scheme of things. It ain't enough to make a difference in Syria. To hear to lefties and the isolationists wailing on TV, you would think Obama had done something serious like declaring WWIII.
I wish our men well. I don't think 50 guys can accomplish anything much. To do Syria right would take a full armored division, say 10,000 men, a lotta tanks and APC's, and air supremacy. With that, we could depose Assad, push the Russians out, establish a decent government of our choosing. and destroy ISIS or drive them out of the country.
To win WWII we mobilized a hundred divisions. Seventy years later, we ought to be able to mobilize just one.
Saturday, October 31, 2015
College Paperpushers should not be trying cases of rape.
First of all, let's talk rape, a serious crime, a felony. It's not "sexual assault" which can be anything the girl doesn't like. Rape used to be a capital offense, subject to the death penalty. Crime doesn't get more serious than that
Now let's look at college administrators. No legal training, no practical experience outside the ivory tower, and most of them true believers in various weird ideologies. Do you want your son's future, his career, at the mercy of this kind of loser?
No way. The police and the courts are the proper place to try cases of rape. The courts have safeguards for defendants, some of them going back in time to Richard the Lion Heart. They have been in business longer than any college. They are fairer than any kangaroo court run by college administrators.
A girl who has been raped should go to the police. If she goes to college administrators, they should be required to send her to the police. They ought to offer transportation to the police station as well
Now let's look at college administrators. No legal training, no practical experience outside the ivory tower, and most of them true believers in various weird ideologies. Do you want your son's future, his career, at the mercy of this kind of loser?
No way. The police and the courts are the proper place to try cases of rape. The courts have safeguards for defendants, some of them going back in time to Richard the Lion Heart. They have been in business longer than any college. They are fairer than any kangaroo court run by college administrators.
A girl who has been raped should go to the police. If she goes to college administrators, they should be required to send her to the police. They ought to offer transportation to the police station as well
Friday, October 30, 2015
Where can I see the next Republican TV Debate?
Word is that Fox Business News gets the next debate in November, like maybe 10 November. Time Warner Cable doesn't carry Fox Business News up here in the wildlands. Hell, they don't even carry CSpan up here. Anyone know how I can watch the next debate? I have cable, and broadband. Any ideas?
Cyber Security Law, just passed Senate
After the horrible hacks lately the Congresscritters have decided to DO SOMETHING. It is unclear just what they are doing, the newsies haven't talked much about it, but it sounds like a deal to allow companies and the government to cooperate, share information about hacks and attacks with out fear of prosecution for collaboration and price fixing. We now have a House version, and a Senate version in need of "reconciliation" (quick rewrite to make them both the same) and Obama says he will sign it.
I suppose it's worthy, although I'd like to know what it really says, how many pages, and what damaging little clauses got tucked into the darker corners.
It isn't what we need.
We need to close the gaping holes in Windows that allow any hacker, even grade school hackers, to take over Windows computers, remotely from the Internet, and suck every thing off them. Microsoft deliberately created these vulnerabilities with the idea of increasing sales. We need somebody or some organization to publicize these gaping holes and create public pressure on Microsoft to close them.
Number one gaping hole is a Windows feature (bug?) called autorun. Autorun has been causing trouble since Windows 95. Autorun makes music CD's inserted in the drive start to play, automatically, hands off, no keystrokes or mouse clicks needed. That part isn't too dangerous, but the dark side of Autorun loads and starts any code found on the CD. When USB and flashdrives came along, autorun was extended to load and run any code found on a flash drive. Just insert a flashdrive into a USB port, and zap, the machine is infected. Autorun spread the Stuxnet virus in Iran. Agents merely tossed a few flashdrives into the parking lots at Iranian nuclear facilities. Iranian workers saw them, picked them up, took them into work, plugged them into their computers, and Zap Bang, the Stuxnet virus started blowing up Iranian centrifuges. Set the Iranian nuclear program back a year or more.
Number 2 gaping hole is the Basic interpreters built into all the Micosoft Office products. Basic is a full powered computer language. Malicious Basic programs can be inserted into Office documents (Word .doc and Excel .xls files) and Word or Excel will execute them. Worse, if you click on such an Office document attached to an email, Windows starts up Word or Excel and passes the attachment in. Bam you are infected.
Until we force Microsoft to close these two gaping security holes, we will continue to get hacked. These aren't the only holes in Windows, but they are the worst ones that I know of. And Microsoft can close them, in an afternoon. All Microsoft needs is some incentive to pull up its socks.
I suppose it's worthy, although I'd like to know what it really says, how many pages, and what damaging little clauses got tucked into the darker corners.
It isn't what we need.
We need to close the gaping holes in Windows that allow any hacker, even grade school hackers, to take over Windows computers, remotely from the Internet, and suck every thing off them. Microsoft deliberately created these vulnerabilities with the idea of increasing sales. We need somebody or some organization to publicize these gaping holes and create public pressure on Microsoft to close them.
Number one gaping hole is a Windows feature (bug?) called autorun. Autorun has been causing trouble since Windows 95. Autorun makes music CD's inserted in the drive start to play, automatically, hands off, no keystrokes or mouse clicks needed. That part isn't too dangerous, but the dark side of Autorun loads and starts any code found on the CD. When USB and flashdrives came along, autorun was extended to load and run any code found on a flash drive. Just insert a flashdrive into a USB port, and zap, the machine is infected. Autorun spread the Stuxnet virus in Iran. Agents merely tossed a few flashdrives into the parking lots at Iranian nuclear facilities. Iranian workers saw them, picked them up, took them into work, plugged them into their computers, and Zap Bang, the Stuxnet virus started blowing up Iranian centrifuges. Set the Iranian nuclear program back a year or more.
Number 2 gaping hole is the Basic interpreters built into all the Micosoft Office products. Basic is a full powered computer language. Malicious Basic programs can be inserted into Office documents (Word .doc and Excel .xls files) and Word or Excel will execute them. Worse, if you click on such an Office document attached to an email, Windows starts up Word or Excel and passes the attachment in. Bam you are infected.
Until we force Microsoft to close these two gaping security holes, we will continue to get hacked. These aren't the only holes in Windows, but they are the worst ones that I know of. And Microsoft can close them, in an afternoon. All Microsoft needs is some incentive to pull up its socks.
Thursday, October 29, 2015
Had a debate watch party last night.
Well, nobody self destructed. Everybody did well except the CNBC moderators who were terrible, half way thru the candidates started chewing out the CNBC people. The opening question "What is your biggest weakness" is an old goofy job interview question intended to shake up a less than quick thinking applicant. These guys are all pretty quick thinking and smoothly sequed into what ever they wanted to say. Everyone made a clear distinction between them and the Dems.
Having people over makes the thing more watchable, keeps you awake, Need to do that more often.
Having people over makes the thing more watchable, keeps you awake, Need to do that more often.
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Bambi overload
Some town in Oregon is over run with deer. The deer are bullying pedestrians, intimidating dogs, and eating everything green, hedges, ornamental shrubs, gardens, lawn, you name it. The residents were on TV whining about how terrible things are.
Obvious solution, have deer hunt. Low cost, hunters bring their own guns, and will even pay for the privilege.
Nooo, can't do that. It's killing Bambi, and that's evil. It's murder.
So suffer until you wise up, Oregon town. We don't have that problem in NH, we have a deer season.
Obvious solution, have deer hunt. Low cost, hunters bring their own guns, and will even pay for the privilege.
Nooo, can't do that. It's killing Bambi, and that's evil. It's murder.
So suffer until you wise up, Oregon town. We don't have that problem in NH, we have a deer season.
Northrup Grumman awarded the Long Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B) contract
100 aircraft at $550 million each, $80 billion overall contract. It's broken down somewhat. Phase 1 pays $21.4 billion and Northrup will deliver 21 aircraft. Then subsequent phases will buy another 79 aircraft. Looking at the over all contract for 100 aircraft they estimate the cost at $511 million each, and there is a cap of $550 million. Assume cost enhancements push the cost right up to the cap. That looks like $55 billion for deliverable aircraft and $25 billion for non-recurring engineering. That's best case. Aircraft to become operational in 2025. Let's see if USAF has pulled up its socks enough to award a contract and not have it disputed in court. Lockheed Martin was the other bidder, they have plenty of lawyers to challenge a contract award.
This comes from the Wall St Journal, and it also made NPR. No discussion of LRS-B performance, range, speed, payload, radar cross section. The Journal suggested that the LRS-B mission would be strategic nuclear strike against Russia or China.
This comes from the Wall St Journal, and it also made NPR. No discussion of LRS-B performance, range, speed, payload, radar cross section. The Journal suggested that the LRS-B mission would be strategic nuclear strike against Russia or China.
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