If you could see President Obama and ask him one question, what would it be?

(published 8-Jun-2009, Appleton Post-Crescent)

Mr. President, I'm just a regular guy who was down-sized from a job I enjoyed.  I don't blame you nor do I blame the previous administration.  However, the enormous effort that you and Congress have expended on economic issues will be ultimately wasted. We'll be left with an incredibly huge national debt coupled with rampant deficit spending far into the future -- perhaps as long as the United States survives as an independent nation.  That's what I'm concerned about: our survival.  I'm afraid that the suffering of future generations of Americans will be great because of what we've done today to try to save our bacon.  The economy will recover; it always has, even after the Great Depression.  But my question is, haven't you learned that ... Read More »

You've probably seen at least one of the "De-motivation" posters published by Despair, Inc. You can see a load of them here.

I'm not a fan of their stuff, but entering a contest for the best caption for a new poster seemed like a fun idea.  So I went to http://site.despair.com/captions/ and tried my hand at sloganeering. Here's the contest photo:

A fellow from one of the email groups to which I belong posted this story yesterday late afternoon.  I've known Dickford Cohn for 15 years, one of the original curmudgeons:

Hawker dragged from trailer fire

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

On Friday night while enjoying the chance to ask any question of WolframAlpha that popped into my head, I was reminded of Robert Heinlein's "Friday".

I had asked WolframAlpha the question, "What is the circumference of the Milky Way galaxy in centimeters?"  A completely absurd question, I know; but I asked the same question of Google and had gotten, as usual, a list of web sites where I might find the diameter of the Milky Way galaxy in light-years ... Read More »

Wolfram|Alpha is like having a roomful of reference librarians helping you do research. One of them is devoted to displaying beautiful geometric shapes:

Nothing earth-shaking; just a beautiful diagram.

The kind of astronomical photo you don't see every day: the space shuttle, Atlantis, against the sun, apparently the first of its kind.  From the story in the UK Sun.

The aging members of "the world's loudest band" have gotten together for a tour to perform the "hits" from the movie.  Here's the full story .

Stuff that doesn't make headline news: the deaths of 10 young people in College Park, GA, prevented because one sensible young man carried a handgun and knew how to use it.

The story [at the WBSTV.com web site] describes the scene:

Two men wearing masks and brandishing firearms came through the patio door into Charles Bailey's apartment where a birthday party was in progress.  The armed men separated the men from the women into different rooms and demanded their cell phones and wallets.

Jerry Bader of WTAQ-AM, Green Bay, this morning continued the story like this: The gunmen raped the women and then methodically killed each of the 10 college students.

He then asked if anyone ha ... Read More »

How worried are you about the swine flu?

(published 11-May-2009, Appleton Post-Crescent)

I can't seem to shake a Chicken Little feeling. All the media appearances by politicians and government officials making somber pronouncements give people the false idea that the government is actually able to do something. What have we heard over and over and over? "Wash your hands often" and "Stay home if you're sick". That's it! Are those things that the government can enforce? No. Is there a vaccine? No. Do they know how serious it is compared to your garden variety influenza? No. Then what good are they except at stirring up panic about a pandemic? Yes, the disease has caused deaths. So do the other flus -- tens of thousands a year in the United States alone. Hong Kong flu, Avian flu, SARS, Ebola, and now Swine flu. Excuse me, H1N1. Sorry, all you pork producers! I just eviscerated your sales of ham ... Read More »

Reason magazine published a piece written by Canadian Ezra Levant about his struggle against his government after his magazine re-published those anti-Muslim cartoons.  Very interesting and chilling reading.  Here's the first part:

The Internet Saved My Tongue

How I beat Canada's 'human rights' censors

Ezra Levant | June 2009 Print Edition

No, not in UFOs, but in the human-caused scourge of global warming.

I read a fair number of stories about global warming every month. I have my own views based on what I've read. Personally, I think that really selling the idea to the voters that cutting back on human carbon emissions would be worth the cost will cause pretty much nothing of substance to be done by our shadowy puppet masters (SPMs) in the government. This is a gridlock I'm wholeheartedly in favor of.

What caught my attention today was a National Geographic story by Anne Minard about the lull in solar activity (sunspots) on the sun.

National Geographic is without a doubt invested in the idea that human-caused global warming is a massive threat. to the existence of life on our planet. The story by Ms. Minard contains ... Read More »

...that England actually bars non-criminals from coming to its shores. Besides "murderer and Hezbollah terrorist Samir Al Quntar and Kashmiri terror group leader Nasr Javed," the UK -- personified by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith -- has barred American radio talk show host, Michael Savage. From The Independent story:

"This is someone who has fallen into the category of fomenting hatred, of such extreme views and expressing them in such a way that it is actually likely to cause inter-community tension or even violence if that person were allowed into the country," Ms Smith told BBC Breakfast.

Whether you agree with her or not, it actually astonishes me that it would be official government policy to refuse entry to someone wh ... Read More »

What do you think of Obama's first 100 days?

(published 4-May-2009, Appleton Post-Crescent on-line)

Have you ever watched the "Planet Earth" series of nature programs?  In several sequences, sailfish and dolphins herd huge schools of fish into smaller clusters, much easier to gobble up.  Then there's that incredible slow-motion shot of a great white shark leaping out of the water to devour a seal.  With respect to President Obama's first 100 days, I feel like one of those doomed seals.  We voters are those schools of fish.

We see so much nonsense in the media regarding the hateful employment policies of big corporations. Walmart is the one most people love to hate.  What is amazing to me is that anyone could ever thi ... Read More »

I subscribe to a few political newsletters.  One of them is from DownsizeDC, an organization devoted to reducing the size of the federal government.  Its newsletter is written by one of the best politico-motivational writers I've seen, James Babka.

Babka was involved with the Harry Browne for President campaign in 2000 and was a founding director of DownsizeDC.  I read his newsletters with pleasure and have often responded to his calls for action, usually in the form of emails to my Congresscritters.

One of the organization's primary goals is to get legislation passed, like the Read the Bills Act, that reduces the lurching juggernaut of government spending and lawmaking.  You can see a banner for the Read the Bills Act to the right.

Anyway, I just received another newsletter from DownsizeDC and I ... Read More »

My brother, Dan, sent this from where he's staying in Afghanistan.  It's a lengthy commentary by someone in the Navy apparently in a position to know what went down when the American captain of that hijacked vessel in the Indian Ocean was rescued by Navy SEALs on April 9th.

From: Jack Kaltenhauser <arizseabee@gmail.com>
Subject: Navy 3 Pirates 0
To: "Jack Kaltenhauser" <arizseabee@cox.net>
Date: Monday, April 27, 2009, 7:29 PM

I'll just tell you what I found out from my contacts at NSWC Norfolk and at SOCOM Tampa. 

First though, let me orient you to familiarize you with the "terrain."   

In Africa from ... Read More »

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Last night I took the family to see Riverdance at the PAC in Appleton, WI, just up the road from us about 10-12 miles.  Everything, absolutely everything about the show was splendid.  I loved the numbers geared towards an American audience that were added to the "basic" stuff we all know from the Riverdance video.  In particular the "duel" between three Irish dancers accompanied by the violinist and two jazz tap dancers accompanied by a soprano sax player.  It was like a non-agressive "West Side Story", with the two sides trading dancing licks...and even imitating each other at one point.

Michael Flatley may have a bit more "presence" on-stage, but his replacement was more approachable, I think, besides being just as good a dancer. I know, I'm not qualified to judge; but man! When he was "dueling" with the jazz tapsters, he did a jump and clicked hi ... Read More »

To really fight global warming, just change how cows are made!  I kid you not.  From the Gannett papers today:

Dairy cow of future may pass less gas

The Associated Press • April 14, 2009

The U.S. dairy industry wants to engineer the “cow of the future” to pass less gas, a project aimed at cutting the industry’s greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020, industry leaders said Monday.

The cow project aims to reduce intestinal methane, the single largest component of the dairy industry’s carbon footprint, said Thomas P. Gallagher, chief executive officer of the U.S. Dairy and Dairy Management Inc.’s Innovation Center in Rosemont, Ill.

The project involves adopting innovative practices and technologies One area to be explored is modifying the dairy cows’ feed so they produce less metha ... Read More »