NORKs are gaining on missiles to nuke LA

They tested a missile yesterday that has the range to reach Anchorage Alaska.  Won't take 'em long to stretch the range enough to hit LA.  They have nukes.  If we let them proceed, get the nuke mounted on the missile and the range stretched just a bit, they will be a helova a lot harder to deal with.  You cannot threaten to do regime change on a regime with nukes.  They will nuke you.  We ought to deal with the NORKs before they get their nuclear tipped ICBM into action.  Like right now. 
   We have tried diplomacy, lets make a deal, for twenty years.  The NORKs never lived up to any of the deals they signed.  They aren't going change.
   We could start up the Korean War again.  This is so awful that nobody wants to go there.  The NORKs have more guns and stuff than they did back in the 1950's.  South Korea's capital is within artillery range of North Korea.  Needless to say, the South Korean are not in favor of having Seoul shelled into ruins. 
   We could do a surprise air strike to take out their nuclear and missile facilities.  Most people think the NORKs are so dispersed and so dug in that we couldn't destroy enough facilities to do any good. 
    We could attempt to destabilize the NORK regime.  Looks chancy, the Kims (Grandfather, Father, and Son) have been arresting and executing their political opponents for 60 years.  I don't think there are enough left alive to do us any good.
   We could pressure the Chinese to cut off the NORKs supplies of food and fuel.  The Chinese like having the NORKs around.  It gives them a buffer between the pushy South Koreans, who are hand in glove with the Americans.  And they enjoy having the NORKs sticking it to the Americans while their own hands remain clean.  Trump has tried, and all he has gotten is lip service. 
  We could tell the NORKs that the next missile we see standing on a launch pad gets attacked, right then and there. 
   We could off Kim Jong whats-his-face.  That would destabilize the heck out of the NORK regime.
   Anyone have any other ideas?

NPR said drug rehab doesn't work, just this morning

On the FM this morning, they had a piece about drug rehab.  It was not encouraging.  They said the success rate was down around 5%, i.e. 95% of the druggies who go thru rehab go back to using drugs shortly after they leave rehab.  They did say that more psychotherapy was needed in drug rehab programs.  They did not bother to describe the treatment plan in existing drug rehab programs. 

The Grunge Look rides again

Wall St Journal, Saturday's "Style and Fashion" page.  They are selling guys clothes this time.  Whole page of color photos of four to five guy groups of models, wearing the in things.  Despite the clothes being new and clean, the models manage to look scruffy.  The clothes are a jarring patchwork of colors that don't go together, and never were very good.  Gray, brown, lemon yellow, pink, black.  Real guy colors those. These guys never learned how to tie a tie, brush their hair or put on a happy face.  They all wear surly expressions. And a spread of man bags.    Call the whole page a no sale for me.
  Next page features blue jeans.  According to the Journal, lycra is out, the in jean is straight cotton denim.  They have a picture of a blonde model, standing in a parking lot, wearing denim jeans, a baggy white top, a silk scarf, and high black boots.  The show a spread of jean, all blue, all stone washed, starting at $850 from Dior, and working down to $80 from the Gap.  Last pair of jeans I bought was $35 from Sears.
  The Journal needs to work on their fashion writers.  Show me some stuff I might like to wear, rather than stuff that makes me laugh.

Night Line Legal. They run TV ads.

Great name.  Nearly as good as Midnight Auto. 

F35 Turns the Corner

Cover story in Aviation Week.  The F-35 A (the Air Force model, no V/STOL)  made it to the Paris Air Show this week.  Le Bourget outside of Paris.  It flew, showed off some really impressive low and slow manuvering close to the ground.  With 40,000 pounds of thrust, it's hard to stall this baby, just pull the stick way back, shove the throttle all the way forward, and the engine will make the plane go up, even if the wing isn't doing much in the lift dept.  Apparently they have done some work in the engine, the plane is now certified for 7 G.  Used to be limited to 5 G (not much) because any more G caused the engine rotor to rub on the engine casing, which caused a fire, resulting in the total loss of one F35.  They have done something about the problem, and 9G is promised in the future. 
  Up beat article.  No talk about lack of software, horrible costs, ridiculously long development cycle. 

You cannot pay for healthcare by taxing healthcare

Every dollar sucked out of health care by Obamacare taxes, causes the health industry to raise prices to get even.  Obamacare had a bunch of taxes on healthcare, there was a medical device tax, a cadillac plan tax, personal tax for being uninsured, and some others that I have forgotten.  The healthcare reform bills before Congress would zap all the Obamacare taxes.
  The democrats are crying and calling this "a tax cut for the wealthy".  Yeah right.  Democrats always say that any tax cut is "for the wealthy". 
   They ought to pass a one page bill that says "Obamacare is completely revoked, repealed, null and void.  All Obamacare offices are closed, their personnel must be laid off, their files burned, and the buildings are to be sold.  All Obama care regulations are hereby rendered null and void. 

Pass that.  Then if you have the votes, pass separate  laws on pre-existing conditions, children remaining on the parent's policies,  make health insurance premiums deductible on income tax, fund opioid treatment, and any other little Obamacare goodie you like.  If you have the votes. 

Ivanhoe (1952) Great Costume Drama

The story is set in Merrie Old England, right after the Third Crusade.  It's in Technicolor which means the color is bright and solid, none of this modern arty "fade-the-color-out-to-black&white" stuff.  I first saw this flick at age nine in the old Cinema at Shoppers World out on Rt 9 in Framingham Mass.  Loved it back then. I'm much older now.  I popped a DVD of Ivanhoe into the DVD player last night.  It's still a fine movie.  It has a very young Elizabeth Taylor as Rebecca of York, ultra cute, forceful, with a serious crush on the leading man.  That's Ivanhoe, played by Robert Taylor (no relation) who was a solid, competent, decent looking leading man in a bunch of movies back then.  Ivanhoe is one of the best roles Robert Taylor ever had.  And we have Rowena of Rotherwood, blonde, beautiful, played by Joan Fontaine, an old childhood sweetheart of Ivanhoe's and bound and determined to wed him, and not let that ultra cute Rebecca make off with him.
   Costumes are great, they look extremely medieval.  Workers and peasants are dressed in drab browns and grays.  Nobility dresses in brighter colors, each actor wears a distinctive costume that makes it easy to tell who is who.  Rowena and Rebecca have very nicely tailored medieval gowns which show off their figures to great advantage.  The cast all speak clearly and distinctly, every line of dialogue is sharp and understandable.   Dialogue has a proper medieval sound to it, a bit of Shakespearean flavor, no jarring twentieth century turns of phrase.  For instance Locksley  (Robin Hood) cries out to his merry men "Away Arrows",  no anachronistic cries of "Fire".  You never "fire" arrows, that only works on firearms.  You shoot or loose arrows. 
   The camera man does it right, every scene is properly lit, none of this modern turn off the lights and let the audience struggle to figure out what is happening stuff.  And no annoying "shake-the-camera" shots.  The sound man places the mikes properly so we can hear everything, and avoids mixing the score or the sound effects over the dialogue.  
   The movie has a great love interest, lots of medieval politicking, and lots of action.  Great scenes of jousting on horseback, with lists, and spectators, lances and shields, solid lance hits hurling the bad guys off their horses and into the dirt.  We see Locksley and his archers take Front-de-Beouf's castle by escalade and flights of arrows.  Single combat on horseback between Ivanhoe and Brian Bois Gilbert.
   All in all, a great flick.  You can get it from Netflix.