Olympic Review

First let me say that I am relieved that there was no terrorism during the event. This supports my belief that the "War on Terror" has driven the terrorists deep underground.

I rooted for the underpriveledged Croation skiers competing against well funded egos. I was thrilled to see two local girls medal. The coverage of the biathalon was disapointing but then how can I expect the media to portray anything with guns as healty, enjoyable, or safe (and I had to laugh at the 'sportscaster' who marvelled at shooting at a target 50m away).

There were lessons to be learned when we sat there and saw how reality stripped away the hype and egos and left the winners.

I never liked Anton Ohno, that is till he ruled the 500m. I don't know if I like him now, but I'm happy for him. He's proven himself as a winner. Everyone likes a winner, but beyond that, he never gave up. That I respect.

The thing that struck me as weird was the logo. The one that looked like this.

Everytime I saw it, I was reminded of the twisted remains of the World Trade Center.



The similarities unnerved me.

Nekkid Pictures of George Bush

The only explanation of this is that there is some Saudi Prince threatening to post some embarassing pics on the Al Jazeera website. If it's not blackmail, what could it be? It's not everyday a politician is bought, is it?

The only thing positive I see in this whole developing fiasco, throught the shadowy curtain of big government, is that everyone, even the Liberal Democrats, are acting as if they realize that we are fighting Muslim extremists and not a method, that is everyone but the current administration.

Slow Posting Monday

The most heavily armed Engineering Offices in the U.S. will be closed Monday. No, not for Presidents day. It's for Fur Rondy, a weeklong carnival dating back to when the fur traders would come to town and trade their goods.

I'm most looking forward to the Martial Arts Exposition. The first time I saw it, I went for the martial arts. I go back for the asian drum demonstrations. If I wasn't living in Alaska, I'd fly up just to see hear the asian drums. They have a bass power that will draw you back just to hear more them.

Good Guys, Bad Guys, and Explosions

What else do you need?

Time Dilation?

It took the U.S. 3 years and one month to build and explode it's first atomic bomb. The Manhattan project was kicked off in June 1942 and on July 16th, the first bomb was exploded at Alamagordo, New Mexico.

Yesterday on the news, it was announced that the IAEA says that Iran is 5-10 years away on making an atomic bomb.

I don't get it. In 1942, everything had to be build from scratch. Deadends were identified and many new technologies were developed (many of the Manhattan Project physicists went on to start companies based on their technologies after the war. Things as mundane as new filter technologies made some of them very very wealthy). It only took them 3 years.

Nowdays you can buy high speed gas centerfuges from China. Sure they are dissasembled so you can pretend that they are the most expensive rocket artillery casings ever produced and their is some assembly required. But everything you need can be bought, if not on the open market, there's a Ukranian physicist out of work with some stuff he's salvaged.

I've seen physicists build working spectrometers in their garage over one weekend with stuff they bought at the local pawn shop. Well, everything but the birefringent optical component. It's amazing what a guy who knows what he's doing can build.

High end stereo components can be used to synchronize the shaped charges in an implosion device. My understand is limited, but the rifle type fission device is even simpler.

There is the issue of productivity. The U.S. spent millions (billions?) on the Manhattan Project. The U.S. believed it was in a race with the Nazi's to build the bomb first and probably worked at a feverish pace.

Iran knows their enemies have the bomb. They may not fear losing a world war, but I'm sure the Imams have their motivation techniques down.

Maybe it takes Iran 3 years to achieve what it took the U.S. a year to acomplish in the early 40's. Who knows? But four or five decades of nuclear knowledge is widely dissemenated and the hardware to refine the fissionable materials is easier to buy then make.

How long did it take South Africa, Tiawan, and Isreal to build nukes in their little joint venture? Was it 5-10 years after they had been working on the project for years? Probably not. Did they have help? Probably. Is anyone helping Iran? Can you say North Korea? Probably. China? Maybe.

Anyway, the only way it'll take Iran 5-10 years to build a nuke is if time begins to dilate and we all start moving in slowmotion. But then the clocks will also be slowed and we won't notice, will we.

I bet it'll happen sooner than that.

Russian Deathray

Don't believe it? Go look here.

Don't worry, our scientists seem to be working on the same technology also.

Go read the other links. You'll like them if you like weapons, links to videos of building blowing up and such.

14 Hour Delay

So what? So it took 14 hours for the news media to be notified.

If you are involved in a shooting, you are legally responsible to notify the law. I would think that any law enforcement agency would meet the legal requirements.

The Secret Service was notified. Responsibility met.

I'm enjoying hearing the news media cry like a spoiled child denied.

Imagine if Dan Quayle had been the one shot? Oh, the jokes that would have come out of that.

The Greatest Martial Arts Display I Never Saw

I was in highschool, probably about 11 grade. We had a top engineering university in town that brought in professors from around the world. Some of them had kids. Indian, Turkish (I'm still good friends with a Muslim Turk), all sorts of Asian varieties.

One year there was a little vietnamese kid there. He was 1-2 years younger than me and had a younger sister. I don't recall the story why they were there, I don't think his dad was a prof.

Some of the local 'toughs' smelled meekness on him and they mistook it for softness or weakness. Bullying ensued. Being brave their numbers, threats, and menacing acts grew daily.

After days of escalating cruelity, they found themselves looking at the sky. In an instant, all of them were on their backs. They were bullies no more.

It was the Spring and Track season had kicked off. The Vietnamese kid was running track and suddenly everyone was very curious as to what he could do. It took a lot of pressure to get him to give a demonstration.

Being the biggest guy around, I was nominated to participate. I closed my eyes, felt something barely touch my nose, and I opened my eyes to a circle (about 120 kids) of my schoolmates, bug eyed and jaws slack. Before I found out what happened, practice started and no one would tell me. Sometimes I wonder what he did, still.

Empowering the Shreiking Harpy

One of the arguments against making the 'foreign wiretapping' by the NSA legal is that the mechanism for a police state is being built. Powers are being established that a shreiking harpy, should she get into the Oval Office, would abuse.

The guy who lead the worship band at the last Michigan church my wife and I attended had taken an ax to his neighbor many years ago. Sounds like a terrible man, doesn’t he? Moments before the attack his sister came home, broken and battered, half dressed. She had just been brutally raped by this neighbor.

Was taking an ax to him legal? Hardly. Was it ethical? Was it moral? Lets debate these two questions over beers in your sauna. Was he protecting his loved ones and do not brothers have a responsibility to protect their sisters? Surely he was and yes they do. Was he a threat to you or me? Not at all.

I think it is the same with the President, he is responding to a threat and honoring his responsibilities. Tapping foreign calls are not a threat to you, me, or our loved ones. I think the enemy should be fought with great vigor on all fronts.

The moot point is does he need to make it legal? If it were still illegal, would it stop the shrieking harpy from tapping the phones of her enemies, both foreign and domestic? I think not. Look what she did with the IRS and the FBI files when she was only the First Lady (really more like the fourteenth).

If I were President, I'd fight the enemy with every means that I believed to be moral, ethical, and within my powers and responsibilities to utilize*. I know that I would step over the law, but only in areas that I felt justified (now I feel like I'm heading out to thin ice >>---> Go see my posting(s) on sin and how it traps you by leading you to believe that you can live with the consequenses of a transgression).

I read what I'm writing and don't know that I fully believe it. I'm just thinking outloud in cyberspace, hoping to find some order and logic in my thoughts. A solid foundation to build an understanding on. Right now, I'm still digging in some shifting sands, but I do believe that the Shreiking Harpy (or any Liberal Democrat, for that manner) will do what they want with all the powers that they can imagine, should they ever be elected.

*This does not mean that I would use nukes (yet).

I knew It

I have this book. It's one of the books that I'll never give up. It's that good. My copy is much older and with a different cover.
In my copy the Phoenix progrm is never mentioned anywhere. Not on the cover, not anywhere inside.

If you know your Vietnam history it's obviously the Phoenix program that is being described, but it is told from the perspective of the U.S. Soldiers helping the Vietnamese people. And help them, they did.

The success of the Pheonix program is one of those things that the Left wants to supress, much like the accuracy of Senator McCarthy's charges against the communist agents working in our government.

A hidden nugget of wisdom in "The Advisor" is that the Vietnam War was really a political war and that much greater gains were made by eliminating one or two key enemies (tax collectors or recruiters) than destroying a multitude of enemy troops.

If one assumes a political war is currently going on the US, then Hollywood is full of recruiters for the other side. It's time to send the Green Berets to Rodeo Drive.

UPDATE:

When I say it's a good book, it's not action packed. It's tales of a soldier happy to improve the lives of the Vietnamese people. If you're a decent person, it's easy to share in his joy. It's a little infectious. Some of the projects discussed are military in nature, some are civilian side efforts to improve the infrastructure and empower the hamlets and provinces to make their lives better.

You'll also share in his wonder and surprise at how they locate a number of key enemy personel. You'll be surprised at how they do it, till you stop and think about it.

On the surface it's a book about a guy making the world a better place and taking pride in it. The author writes well. Beyond that, it's an idea book that'll make you look at the world a little different. I like the book, but it's the ideas in it that clinch it for me.

Sums it up Nicely

I know that Bane is covering this article on his blog, but this statement

In order to express their displeasure with the idea that Muslims are violent, thousands of Muslims around the world engaged in rioting, arson, mob savagery, flag-burning, murder and mayhem, among other peaceful acts of nonviolence.

Nails the hypocrasy of the "Religeon of Peace" camoflague that some pretend the Muslims are hiding under.

What Are They Going to do With Her Cats?

I just saw that Betty Friedman died.

She did have the looks of a hard core feminist.

I wonder if she honestly believed that she was doing a service to womankind or if she was as anti-man and anti-family as our current feminist.

I can only guess that she had 49 cats (at the minimum). I wonder what's going to happen to them.

Halftime Profit Margin

The Superbowl is in Detroit this year. Why not have a Detroit entertainer do the half time show?

Bob Seger, Ted Nugent, that English singer with the big gap in her front teeth, MoTown? MoTown anyone.

I can only wonder if the Stones paid to do the halftime show to promote their upcoming tour.

Just Had to do it

For those of you reading this blog, scrying into my deepest thoughts, I now know where you live. See, I have a map there, on the left, showing your house (more likely your employer) with a bid red dot.

Is There a New Standard?

Offically the US dollar left the Gold Standard some time ago. If no one had told me, I'd have never known.

The reasons bandied about range from the Swiss Gnomes and their financial terrorism/manipulation of the world to the fact that the U.S.S.R. had (and still has) the largest gold reserves in the world and were our enemy at the time and removing the gold standard eliminated the opportunity for them to control the value of our currency. There's others too, but I think the private company known as the Federal Reserve (is my tinfoil hat showing) likes controlling the economy. I'll let others argue the evilness of this.
When I read this article the following paragraph jumped out at me:

The United States depends on the dollar foreign-currency reserves in order to sell the Treasury debt that sustains budget deficits. What if foreign-exchange portfolios from oil sales fell to 60 percent being held in dollars – would that cause a crisis in the U.S. economy? Or would it take 55 percent? Most Americans are completely unaware of this threat Iran represents to the U.S. economy.

Is our dollar based on an Oil Standard? Sounds like it to me.

OK, maybe it's not based on an Oil Standard, but it sounds like it is heavily influenced one.

Like I posted earlier, Iran has more child prodigies per capita than the rest of the world and they probably have a plan made by a group of geniuses. This smells like it to me.