|
Back to the Weekly Notes
Archives
July 18, 2005:
Homeland Security:
Michael Chertoff is now the head of homeland security. I know
nothing about him except what I see. He was on the Stephanopolous
show answering some questions. He is a study in contrast to Ridge.
This guy is at least articulate. He did not have all the answers,
but he made no pretenses and gave no double talk. So far, I like
him.
Sooner or Later:
We are going to have to face the music. We cannot have our hedonistic
lifestyle as usual and fight an international war on terrorism
at the same time. We are stretched very thin and we are putting
our troops at great risk just to avoid looking at the truth.
I don't like it. Let's, bite the bullet, tighten our belts, give
up the luxuries, and field enough people to do the job. Democracy
is not going to sprout overnight in a region that has known only
primitive repressive governments for centuries. This job is going
to take decades, if we do it at all. We need to settle down for
the long haul or give it up and get out. I speak of Iraq and
Afghanistan.
China is Our Ally:
So far as North Korea is concerned, we ought to realize that.
They cannot afford to have a rogue nation client. If we work
with them they will control North Korea. We need not do it directly.
America has never been very good at differentiating between allies
and friends. That has got us into trouble time after time when
we armed our allies thinking they were our friends. It's about
time we got clear on that.
An ally is someone with whom we can work to achieve a common
goal. In this case, China fits that description. Neither of us
wants North Korea to be a nuclear threat. On the other hand,
it would be a grave mistake to start believing we could trust
the government in Peking to look after our best interests in
other areas of the world. Though we have some common goals, we
have no common cultural background or value systems.
America really does not have many friends. A friend is someone
we can trust to be with us in most areas of interest because
of common cultural backgrounds and value systems. England and
Canada are such. China is not and never will be unless they have
a change in governmental philosophy. France has often been a
good ally, but she is an iffy friend. Too often, the French value
systems and cultural backgrounds diverge from ours. It matters
not. We do not need many friends so long as we can tell the difference.
Karl Rove:
Many weeks ago I told you he was an administration inside man
for the fundamentalist Christian movement in America. I said
you will hear more of him as they gain power. Whoops! It seems
he may also the guy who sold out Wilson's wife, our secret CIA
agent. Now what? The media has not made this very clear. Did
he or didn't he? No one seems to know for sure. If he did, George
may have to dump this guy.
Evangelical Buffoons:
They seem to want George to put a Christian fundamentalist on
the bench. These nuts seem to believe that George owes them something
because they voted for him. Ridiculous! If they had not voted
for George, who would they have voted for? The Grand Wizard did
not run this time. George owes them nothing. Given their bizarre
ideology, they voted the only way they could have.
George Bush:
I believe he is a very poor choice for president. Worse, I think
it is possible that a George Bush clone will be our next president.
The Democrats seem to be threshing around and headed down that
same old road. They will again offer us a mush mouthed Casper
Limpman or a me too, I'm one of the guys, war hero. I don't like
the republicans, but the people I really despise are the democrats
for not offering us an alternative. Once you add blowhards like
Kennedy and clowns like Michael Moore into the mix you have a
guaranteed failure to inspire the voters.
Infrared:
Recently a kid, Rick Holland, ran away from his home and after
several days, the local authorities have given up looking for
him. I don't understand. That kid should have been located the
very next day. Our military has special equipment that can see
people on the ground no matter how well concealed they are. The
technology is called infrared detection. Why wasn't that being
used in this case?
I have another question about this case. Right now, everyone
is sympathizing with the parents. I want to know why that kid
ran away. Why did he see a life all alone as a better option
than staying at home? I'm always suspicious of parents.
London Bombings:
They seem to be closing in on the leaders of the criminals who
set up the subway bomb attack. I wish we had Scotland Yard instead
of the FBI. They seem to understand police work.
They are now looking for the scumbag who se this bombing up.
The stupid media are calling him the mastermind. Why do they
use words that make him look smart? They should call him what
he is, a madman. He is not smart. He is insane.
Guantanamo:
Our big shots in the military insist that the torture of prisoners
is legal. No one ever explained to these fools the concept of
ethical. We can make laws to declare anything we do legal. Hitler
did that. So what?
NASA:
I think the guys running that show are incompetent. All that
money and a fifty cent sensor shuts it all down. Where is the
redundancy? Where is the backup? They are overloaded with safety
devices on top of safety devices, but the don't seem to understand
simple redundancy. It is used in computer science as a matter
of routine. A bank could not shut down the whole system if a
single had drive failed. They solve that by having a raid array
with several hard drives doing exactly the same thing. If one
fails they take it off line and continue. It's old technology
called built in redundancy. At NASA there should have been at
least three sensors in each fuel tank showing exactly the same
data. If one fails you simply take it off line, so long as the
other two agree. I repeat, it's old technology.
Back to the Weekly Notes
Archives
|