August 12, 2014

  • Opps!

    The report of my death may be premature due to my lack of skill with xanga 2.0, but like that report, this note is also an automated report. Ain't technology great!

June 13, 2014

  • If He Could Govern ...

    If Obama could govern as well as he campaigns, he could be a very good President or even a great President. But as it is, he is nothing more than a bag of hot air. Never has been. Still, I don't worry so much about recovering from his incompetence as I do about having to deal for many years to come with the stupid and uninformed people who put him in office -- not once but twice.

May 27, 2014

  • The Veterans Administration Health Care Problems

    I find the problems that the veterans administration is having right now to be very interesting. This is a government run healthcare program. The problems they have right now are indicative of the problems we can expect to see with Obamacare in about 10 years. Oh wonder Oh joy!

March 21, 2014

  • De Plane! De Plane!

    I'm so sick of all the news media speculation about what may have happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Guess work has run the gambit from the ridiculous to the sublime. "A Black hole?" Seriously. If they are going to speculate, why can't they come up with something that sounds more reasonable?

    How about this -- a catastrophic failure of the windscreen at 35,000 feet? This would result in the almost immediate death of the bridge crew as 400 mile-n-hour winds tore up the cockpit, ripping up the control panel and any other instrumentation. Flying debris could have torned the switch turning off the transponder and the ACARS system right from their housing and mounts, and the sudden decompression could have lifted the plane momentarily about 10,000 feet (as one observer reported). As the plane then decended, it would eventually reach an altitude where the engines could have stabilized the flight until the fuel was finally exhausted. By then, the autopilot would not be in control, and the plane's direction would be at the mercy of the prevailing winds. Thus accounting for the apparent erratic flight path.

    What would cause the windscreen to fail like that? The answer is, "Any number of things." A small micro-fracture created by a small bit of gravel hitting the screen on takeoff could have created such a micro-fracture. Fatigue due to age is also a possibility. Less likely (but possible) is a strike by a small bit of space debris re-entering the atmosphere. Such debris rains down upon the earth everyday.

    The scenario I have just laid out is within the realm of possibility (which a black hole and other supernatural causes are not). Indeed, a similar event has already happened. When the Learjet rented by Payne Stewart in 1999 suffered a windscreen failure, everyone aboard was killed by hypoxia and the plane continue to fly halfway across the United States until running out of fuel over Either North or South Dakota. It also doesn't call into question the character of the pilots without good and just reason.

    The only thing not taken into account by my scenario is the apparent course change prior to the copilot's signoff, and supposed manual entry of new waypoints into the ACARS system. But such entries could have been entered for any number of reasons that don't include criminal intent and may not even have been activated.

December 19, 2013

  • A State With No Republicans

    A US State with zero Republicans in office - The State of Illinois.

    Some interesting data on the 'state' of Illinois:

    * There are more people on welfare in Illinois than there are people working.
    * Chicago pays the highest wages to teachers than anywhere else in the U.S. averaging $110,000/year. Their pensions average
    80-90% of their income. Wow, are Illinois and Chicago great or what?
    * Body count: In the last six months, 292 killed (murdered) in Chicago. 221 killed in Iraq; AND Chicago has one
    of the strictest gun laws in the entire US.

    Here's the Chicago chain of command:

    * President: Barack Hussein Obama · Senator:
    * Dick Durbin · House
    * Representative: Jesse Jackson Jr. ·
    * Governor: Pat Quinn ·
    * House leader: Mike Madigan ·
    * Atty. Gen.: Lisa Madigan (daughter of Mike)
    * Mayor: Rohm Emanuel ·

    The leadership in Illinois - all Democrats. Thank you for the combat zone in Chicago. Of course, they're all blaming each other. Can't blame Republicans; there aren't any! Chicago school system rated one of the worst in the country. Can't blame Republicans; there aren't any! State pension fund $78 Billion in debt, worst in country. Can't blame Republicans; there aren't any! Cook County (Chicago) sales tax 10.25% highest in country. Can't blame Republicans; there aren't any!

    This is the political culture that Obama comes from in Illinois. And he is going to 'fix' Washington politics for us?

    George Ryan is no longer Governor, he is in the prison. He was replaced by Rob Blajegovitch who is also in the prison.
    And Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. resigned, because he was fighting to stay out of prison. (Now in prison)

    The Land of Lincoln, where our governors make our license plates. But you know what? As long as they keep providing entitlements to the population of Chicago, nothing is going to change, except the state will go broke before the country does.

    Anybody who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the Government take care of him; better take a closer look at the American Indian. And don’t forget Detroit, another good example.

    Some of you might also find these data interesting. A recent "Investor's Business Daily" article provided very interesting statistics from a survey by the United Nations International Health Organization.

    Percentage of men and women who survived a cancer five years after diagnosis:

    U.S. 65% England 46% Canada 42%

    Percentage of patients diagnosed with diabetes who received treatment within six months:

    U.S. 93% England 15% Canada 43%

    Percentage of seniors needing hip replacement who received it within six months:

    U.S. 90% England 15% Canada 43%

    Percentage referred to a medical specialist who could see one within one month:

    U.S. 77% England 40% Canada 43%

    Number of MRI scanners (a prime diagnostic tool) per million people:

    U.S. 71 England 14 Canada 18

    Percentage of seniors (65+), with low income, who say they are in "excellent health":

    U.S. 12% England 2% Canada 6%

    And now for the last statistic: National Health Insurance?

    U.S. NO England YES Canada YES

    And check this last set of statistics!! The percentage of each past president's cabinet who had worked in the private business sector prior to their appointment to the cabinet. You know what the private business sector is. A real-life business, not a Government job. Here are the percentages:

    T. Roosevelt.................... 38%
    Taft............................ 40%
    Wilson.......................... 52%
    Harding......................... 49%
    Coolidge....................... 48%
    Hoover...........................42%
    F. Roosevelt.................... 50%
    Truman...........................50%
    Eisenhower..................... 57%
    Kennedy......................... 30%
    Johnson......................... 47%
    Nixon............................53%
    Ford.............................42%
    Carter...........................32%
    Reagan.......................... 56%
    GH Bush......................... 51%
    Clinton......................... 39%
    GW Bush......................... 55%
    Obama............................ 8%

    This helps to explain the incompetence of this administration: only 8% of them have ever worked in private business! That's right! Only eight percent -- the least, by far, of the last 19 presidents! And these people are trying to tell our big Corporations how to run their business? How can the president of a major nation and society, the one with the most successful economic system in world history, stand and talk about business when he's never worked for one? Or about jobs when he has never really had one? And when it's the same for 92% of his senior staff and closest advisers? They've spent most of their time in academia, Government and/or non-profit jobs or as "community organizers." They should have been in an employment line.

    You'll NEVER see these facts in the mainstream media.

    * "One of the penalties of not participating in politics is that you will be governed by your inferiors." - Plato

    * “Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy; its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery” - Winston Churchill

    Merry Christmas!

December 16, 2013

  • A Year After Sandy Hook

    We just marked the one year anniversary of the Sandy Hook school mass shooting. This, of course, provides yet another opportunity for the press to excite the public about the evils of gun ownership and the ability of people to buy and keep large quantities of ammunition around their homes.

    I have to say that these press articles and newscasts almost always annoy me because the individuals putting them together usually don't know what they are talking about. I'm sure I could write quite a few posts on this, but today I will focus only on one aspect: the quantity of ammunition that has reporters writing headlines like these:

  • * Man arrested for drunk and disorderly. He was found to have more than 100 rounds of ammunition in his home.
  • * Mr. Jones, charged in a domestic dispute, was found to have 1000 rounds of ammunitions in his possession.
  • * 4000 bullets were found in the basement of Mr. Smith, who was arrested on a DUI charge.

    • And on it goes. You would think that all these people were stockpiling ammunition for a new revolution, or when the zombies attack their neighborhoods, or they were getting ready to attack the local shopping mall. I can assure you that, while some of the radical nuts may indeed be doing that, they are few in number, and the average citizen is not doing that. Yet these nameless citizens, by implication, are lumped in with the entire group being roundly condemned for having ammunition in their homes.

    Now in the interest of full disclosure, I must admit that I am one of those condemned. I've never been in any kind of trouble; I'm not waiting for a new civil war; and I'm not mentally off the tracks. But I do have several guns and -- dare I say it -- as I write this, I have 2000 rounds of ammunition at home. That's somewhat less that the 5000 rounds I used to keep. Why do I have all those bullets you ask?

    Simple! I am a former competition shooter. And while I no longer shoot competitively, I still enjoy getting out on the range and sending some lead downrange from time to time, just to maintain my skill. A painter must paint, a violinist must play, a chess player must play, and a shooter must shoot. All of these activities require hand and eye coordination, and the ability to concentrate and focus. If practitioners of these activities do not practice, all will lose their skill.

    In the case of a shooter, practice requires bullets -- lots of them. If I can buy them 1000 at a time, instead of 20 or 50 at a time, I may save anywhere from $20 to $100 with each purchase, depending on type of ammunition I'm using. When I was competing, I was shooting 30,000 rounds a year just for practice. Today's competition shooters may shoot 100,000 rounds a year in practice. So bulk buys add up to a significant dollar savings over a 12 month period. Even more over a five year period.

    Today I shoot about 5000 rounds a year just going to the range once a week. So having 2000 rounds at home isn't a big deal. But I expect that when I die, some pseudo-reporter will find some way to get my neighbors all excited with a tale of how a whole cache of ammunition was found in my home, thereby making me out to be the monster next door. How lucky my neighbors are that I passed away before I ran amuck and killed them all.

November 13, 2013

  • Jimmy Carter Looking Better Every Day

    What follows is a partial excerpt from an article by Michael Goodwin in today's (Nov 13, 2013) New York Post.

    "When I first saw the headline saying Bill Clinton was advising President Obama to “honor his commitment,” I had to laugh.

    ". . . Then I got to wondering. Which commitment was Clinton talking about?

    "Is it the one Obama made to the Israeli people, that he had their backs and would never let Iran get a nuclear weapon? Or was it his promise to enforce a “red line” in Syria?

    "Or maybe it was Obama’s promise to “never rest” until we caught the terrorists who killed our ambassador and three other Americans in Libya?

    "Or was Clinton talking about the many times the president said he would “never rest” until every American who wanted a job had one?

    "Or maybe he was talking about the pledge to change the tone in Washington? Or to go through the budget “line by line” and cross out the waste driving up the deficit?

    "You get the picture — any of those whoppers would qualify. But, of course, Clinton was talking about the broken promise of the moment, the one where Obama vowed that “if you like your health insurance, you can keep it.”

    "It ranks as one of the biggest presidential lies of modern times, all the more so because Obama repeated it 30 times.

    ". . . the Big Lie is shredding Obama’s ace in the hole — his personal credibility.

    ". . . ObamaCare is breaking that bond [with the American People] — and creating a domino effect. The public is turning ever harder against his policies, with only 31 percent now supporting him on the economy and 32 percent on immigration in the latest Pew poll.

    "Most important, they are also giving a thumbs-down on his overall performance. Pew finds that only 41 percent approve of his handling of the presidency, down 14 points since December, while 53 percent disapprove. And Quinnipiac late Tuesday found he’s hit a new low with 39 percent approval, while a majority said he’s not honest."

    Jimmy Carter is looking better every day.

November 5, 2013

  • Liar Liar Pants on Fire

    First Obama lies to us, and now he lies to us about his lies. The man has no shame. I remember a time when the President was a man to be looked up to, even if you didn't agree with his policies. Now that is becoming less and less the case.

    ObamaCare is clearly his responsibility, yet while the smoking guns are surfacing all around him, he still hasn't got the character to stand up and take that responsibility without making excuses and trying to shift responsibility. Even his staunchest supporters can't really fully stand behind him now.

    We lose our healthcare; we lose our doctors; we lose our identity; and the plan is anything but affordable. The man is either a boldfaced liar, or he is the most incompetant president we have seen in many generations.

October 25, 2013

  • Has Senator Reid Gone Around The Bend?

    I saw an article yesterday in which Harry Reid was reported to have given a speech in Nevada saying in all apparent sincerity that "Everyone wants to pay more taxes." And "the only people who don't want to give more money to the Government are those Republicans who are actively fighting against the health care bill and those who don't like Barack Obama" or words to that affect.

    That sounds seriously nuts to me! It sounds like he's gone around the bend big time. Maybe the citizens of Nevada will finally put him out to pasture where he belongs. He certainly doesn't belong in the U.S. Senate.

October 21, 2013

  • Oh Wonder, Oh Joy

    It seems that I have access to xanga 2. I believe it must be due to the primium membership I purchased a few years ago to rid myself of those peaky ads.

thereluctantsinger

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