Blue Crab Boulevard

Summum nec metuas diem, nec optes - Martial

Name:
Location: Midwest, United States

My new Blog is at: http://bluecrabboulevard.com/ Please stop by and take a look.

31 January, 2006

Will this finally mean no more press?

Well, Cindy Sheehan got herself invited to the State of the Union address. She promised to behave since she was a guest of a member of Congress.

She promptly got herself arrested for trying to unfurl a banner.

Sorry, this is out-of-control behavior.

I understand she lost a son. I am sorry about that. But to use that excuse to turn into a self-promoting, anti-American darling is just sick. Worse, she cannot even act with proper decorum when she is a guest.

Could the media please, please stop encouraging her? She has to get even more outrageous to get attention these days - what's next? (I will not type what I am thinking right now - out of respect for her son.)

Manhole covers stolen!

Manhole covers and sewer grates are disappearing all over Indianapolis.

"This is a severe public safety hazard we have here," said Margie Smith-Simmons,
a spokeswoman for the city's Department of Public Works. "These manholes range
in depth from 4 feet to 30 feet deep."

Yeah, I see how this could be a major problem. How are the public works crews supposed to tell the potholes from the open manholes?

That's some mighty fine detecting, pardner...

So, a couple runs a brothel for a year.


Across the street from a police station.


It took them a YEAR to figure this out? It gets better. They needed an informant.


The mind boggles....

Wallet recovered after 40 years

A man's wallet, lost in 1967, has been returned to him.



The unpaid traffic ticket in his wallet will, of course, be a major source of revenue for the issuing jurisdiction. We'll watch for the arrest.....

Today's criminal mastermind

Like, wow, man. They, like, stole it.


Oh. My. God.


Anyone got some Chlorine for the gene pool?

Porn while driving

Generally not a real good idea....

Most evil Briton?

24% said the most evil Briton in the past 1000 years is Jack the Ripper......



My money was on Paul McCartney. But only because Carrot Top isn't British....

Humble isn't he?

Ah, Bill Gates.....


Thanks, Time Magazine for making his head swell.....

More on Denmark....

...over at Dean's world.



Buy more Danish goods!

I think this guy goes straight to hell

After all, you don't just sell God's house without paying a price, right?


Seriously, this guy sounds like he went totally off the edge.

Well, talk about the obvious

The IAEA has finally deduced the obvious. The casting of enriched Uranium into a spherical shape has no other use than in a weapon.

Having worked in the field for years, I have one word for this conclusion.

Duh.

Like any rational person actually believed the Mullahs wanted enriched Uranium for peaceful purposes.

Well, this is taking off

Have you no decency at all?

Betsy Newmark has an entry pointing to the latest bit of shameful political behavior out there.

Look, it is never appropriate to compare a political opponent (in this country at least) to a Nazi. The politician's excuse that she only thought of the bumbling Colonel Klink rather than the fact that she was showing a 25 year US Marine veteran in a Nazi uniform is disingenuous.

This demonization of opponents HAS to stop. The Democrats are making a very serious error in embracing this hard-left tactic, and it will backfire on them. It is no longer possible to hide this stuff, it will come back to haunt them. Christ, what's next? Calling opponents "running dog imperialist lackeys"? (Oh, never mind, the Kos Kidz are already using that, aren't they?)

The Kos philosophy of being all about winning and not about ideology, is not going to play well with the majority in this country. It would be a good idea to remember that Americans by and large believe in fairness and good sportsmanship.

Alito confirmed

And already sworn in. Good for him, he did not deserve the horrible treatment some of the worst partisan hacks inflicted on him.

Another article on immigration

As always, there are charges and countercharges. One side claims that this is just like past waves of anti-immigrant feeling in US history. Some far over on the other extreme say it's all a plan to require lost territory for Mexico.

What's the answer? Likely somewhere in the middle, as usual.

Advocating strictly for the illegals is wrong. They are, after all, breaking the law. Period. Dress it up any way you want, it's still advocating for the breaking of the law.

Advocating against based on race or culture is also wrong. Dress that up any way you want, it's still ignorance-based hatred.

I think the vast majority of Americans are somewhere in the middle. Sick of illegals being tolerated while still welcoming legal immigrants. Illegals are certainly depressing wages and living standards for the lowest economic groups. Saying they take jobs no American wants is a false premise. They may take jobs no American wants at the sort of wages employers offer to illegals, if there were no illegals, the wages would have to rise until those jobs were attractive.

A good start

Well, since the Federal authorities are doing such a poor job of immigration enforcement, some local government agencies are stepping up.

This is a good way to get the worst of the worst off the streets and out of the US. It's interesting to note the comments of legal immigrants in the story. They want the crackdown for the most part.

The opposition comments ring all the catch-phrases (Racial profiling! Eek!), but I seriously believe LEGAL immigrants are by and large going to support this kind of initiative. After all, most of these criminals are seeking prey in their neighborhoods.

I still want the Feds to clean this mess up, though.

Oh - as to the "racial profiling" bit, simply check ALL criminals apprehended for major crimes. That removes any possible taint.

This is some great police work

Let's see; no body, no blood, no DNA, supposed confession that was not taped and the cops "lost" all their notes...

Impressive.

30 January, 2006

Ever think the Doctor was screwing you?

Well, apparently, this one really will!

Or he'll at least get someone to.....

This man needs to buy a lottery ticket

Of course, the idea of hanging someone off a helicopter to make repairs by using a rope knotted around his waist is kind of stupid....

But a 130 foot fall you can walk away from - priceless....

Stand fast

Kudos to the Dutch for refusing to knuckle under to unreasonable demands. Since the Muslims are calling for a boycott of Dutch goods, I am personally planning to buy more Danish products. Some folks in the blogosphere are calling for the same thing.

Here are the cartoons in question. As opposed to the thoughtful and lucid commentary from the Muslim world here.

Sadly, here is the usual attempt at appeasement by the guy who helped fuel the rise of the extremists.

H/T LGF for some of the links

Oops

Well, whether he intended it this way or not, he just confirmed that the US did target the right place. Those missiles in Pakistan did kill some of his buddies.

"In seeking to kill my humble self and four of my brothers, the whole world has
discovered the extent of America's lies and failures and the extent of its
savagery in fighting Islam and Muslims."


Doesn't sound like a failure on our part......

Another development battle..

...is taking place in little Hammondsport, New York. Glenn Curtiss actually probably did more for aviation than the Wright Brothers. It's a pity more people don't really know much about him. I've been to Hammondsport many times, and it never changed. It would actually be a shame to see high-rise condominiums going up there.

Birds of a feather

Well, it's kind of hard to deny this particular anti-war person isn't anti-American, isn't it?

Lie down with dogs......

It was the cat. That's the ticket.

Fire investigators are blaming the cat for starting a house fire.

Best line:

"We eliminated everything except for the cat," Christy said.

Which is highly ironic. Apparently the fire eliminated the cat! Or the cat eliminated himself....


Meanwhile, a church secretary in Arkansas should have gotten herself a cat.

This clown is lucky

I really don't like some of the stories I have heard about bounty hunters in general. They routinely break in to buildings and do a lot of things that police officers are not allowed to do. I'd personally like to see some constraints on them.

So anyway, this bounty hunter breaks into the wrong house. Really wrong. The house belongs to a police officer.

He's lucky to be alive. If the cop had been home, I doubt he would be.

So who was the life of the party?

It seems some hospital employees in Norway threw a little Christmas party.

In an autopsy room.

Sounds a bit on the weird side.....

Why Republicans are winning

Because they have God on their side. No, seriously, they actually do.

29 January, 2006

THIS is progress!

Absolutely proof positive that life is getting better all the time!


Beer-bots!

Today's Lemming Watch

Well, I'm afraid this won't help the Democrats.

First Cindy Sheehan threatens to run against Senator Dianne Feinstein unless the Senator backs a filibuster against Alito. Feinstein rolls over and announces she'll back a filibuster.

This, however is not enough for the self-promoting Sheehan. Now she is contemplating running because She says Feinstein doesn't oppose the war strongly enough.

The Democrats really have a problem here. They are being forced further and further to the extreme left. As they move away from the majority in the center, they become less and less likely to win seats in the Senate or the House. This is a disaster for them.

Yesterday, the WaPo had a piece describing this problem. A Democratic lobbyist was quoted in the piece as saying:


"The bloggers and online donors represent an important resource for the
party, but they are not representative of the majority you need to win
elections," said Steve Elmendorf, a Democratic lobbyist who advised Kerry's 2004
presidential campaign. "The trick will be to harness their energy and their
money without looking like you are a captive of the activist left."

Shortly after the article appeared, Kos issued a threat against any Democrat associated with the named lobbyist. (Read the comments on that thread to see how far to the left they are veering. Be ready to take a shower afterwards).

This pattern is really ugly. Issuing threats and demands, then seeing the politicians roll over. The pols can't use their old methods of pandering to the extremists, taking their money, then veering back to the center to get elected. It is no longer possible to pretend the extremist rhetoric never happened. It comes back to haunt them. I predict this filibuster attempt will badly damage a number of Democratic Senators in November.

Notice the pattern, though? The left is openly using threats and intimidation as political tools. I have not seen this technique used by the center or center/right. It might be happening on the extreme right, but I don't frequent those places and have not witnessed it.

If the activists succeed in doing this, the Democrats will cease to be a viable party.


H/T Betsy Newmark for the links

Best wishes

To Bob Woodruff. He and his cameraman were injured by an explosion in Iraq. They were traveling with an American convoy at the time.

Sadly, I think this will make it even less likely that journalists will actually get out of their hotels and actually report what is happening.

28 January, 2006

Rest in Peace

It has been 20 years since the Challenger tragedy.

Rest in Peace.

Dick Scobee
Mike Smith
Ellison Onizuka
Judy Resnik
Ron McNair
Greg Jarvis
Christa McAuliffe

This is great guidance

How to debate on the internet. Lileks is one heck of a writer.

H/T Instapundit

People are asking....


Why is this guy posing with pictures of Gollum and Saruman?







Must be a big LOTR fan...

You have got to be kidding

Getting soap dispensers at Yale is a big victory worthy of news coverage?

The college I went to didn't supply soap in the bathrooms, either. You BROUGHT YOUR OWN. You also brought toothpaste, shampoo, shaving cream, razors - in other words, a toilet kit.

Is this so difficult a concept?

But, hey, you got a real impressive victory and a write-up by AP.

While giving your school yet another excuse to raise tuition! Great move!

This is just wrong

What about this man's right to keep and bear crocodiles?

Border incidents

Fast on the heels of reports that Mexican Army troops had crossed into the US to guard drug shipments, the Mexican Government issued denials. They accused the drug runners of dressing up like soldiers.

Now comes this from the County Sheriff involved in the issue.

With the Mexican Government trying to issue maps to would-be border crossers (which may or may not have been stopped for now after US protests), increased, sophisticated cross-border tunnels and the apparent border violations, it appears that it is time to do something about this problem.

It sounds as if the US Government is starting to send some pretty clear signals to the Mexicans that they better get the situation under control. This kind of clear message from a diplomat is always vetted and approved before it is published.

The conventional wisdom on this issue is that the Democrats want illegals to acquire/keep a voting bloc while the Republicans want cheap labor. I don't think it's that clear at all. The issue has been muddied up in recent years by all sorts of activist agendas. There have been attempts to give illegals voting rights, residency rights (including in-state tuition rates at colleges) help crossing the borders, etc. The argument that the illegals do work nobody else wants is used over and over. Anyone who speaks out against this flood is accused of racism. In other words, it is a mess.

I don't think either political party has a good policy on this, or good reasons for what they are doing. I think both parties want to court the Hispanic vote and want cheap labor, too. Remember Clinton's nominee who had to withdraw after it was learned she had hired an illegal as a nanny?

The flood of illegals is a slap in the face of those people who wait their turn and come into the country legally. The wages for the "jobs nobody wants" are kept low by unscrupulous employers who hire the illegals. If they were prosecuted for their criminal behavior, labor rates would naturally rise to a level where legal citizens would be more than willing to take the jobs. Opposing illegal immigration does not equal racism, either. In fact the opposite argument can be made. Allowing the continued flood keeps wages and living standards depressed for a large segment of the legal minority residents of this country.

We need to stop this before it spirals out of control. Or further out of control....

27 January, 2006

They actually study Super Bowl parties?

Who pays for this stuff?

Although it does have some interesting uses, like fooling your kids!

This is highly misleading

This piece is so skewed, it is almost unbelievable.

The headline: Documents Show Army Seized Wives As Tactic

It goes on to detail two incidents gathered by the ACLU with a Freedom of Information request.

The tone is critical and accusatory. Loaded terms are used like "secretive task force" and "documents tell a different story".

Here's the problem, the first incident is from an official complaint lodged by someone who was present. In other words, the person writing the memo was objecting to the behavior and going through channels. It was the exact opposite of a cover-up. The woman was released after the complaint was lodged.

The second incident is an exchange of emails in which it is pretty clear that the people detaining the women in question believed they possessed information and were being held for a reason.

Two incidents in the hundreds of documents the ACLU gathered. One of which was addressed through channels, the other appears to have been justified to the people involved...

Another badly written hit piece.

Wow - who knew?

An Italian court is deciding whether or not Jesus existed.

But the US already had a case involving Satan!

This is too funny. Best line:


We note that the plaintiff has failed to include with
his complaint the
required form of instructions for the
United States Marshal for directions
[**3] as to service
of process.


It's probably best not to tell a US Marshall to go to Hell........

H/T Chequer-board

Skewed reporting

This piece is fascinating.

The interview someone who is a former guardsman, apparently. He served in Germany, never saw combat, doesn't like Bush, voted for Kerry and uses the "Vietnam" meme.

Apparently, we're supposed to think this is a balanced piece because:

a) He's a vet (who served as base security in Germany)

b) He voted for Kerry (but isn't a registered Democrat)

c) None of his friends or co-workers have defended the war in a long time (but would he likely be friends with people who would defend the war, given his outlook? And he's a Supervisor, so his employees are unlikely to disagree with him to his face)

d) He used the Vietnam war in a sentence

But the poll data referenced in the piece shows about the same results it has for quite some time now.

So, the question is, why didn't this reporter actually talk to someone else who polled differently? This is a one-sided puff piece produced to feed the echo chamber.

The poll data indicates a split almost down the middle, why not cover both aspects? Silly question, that wouldn't fit the agenda....

This is sleazy

Note how Mr. Schorr cleverly implies that the President is lying, without any proof whatsoever.

Citing actions of past Presidents does not prove anything regarding this President, Mr. Schorr.

Global warming update

Berlin, Germany, 19 degrees F

Berlin, Ohio, 40 degrees F

Paris, France, 25 degrees F

Paris, Illinois, 43 degrees F

London, England, 37 degrees F

London, Kentucky, 50 degrees F

Advantage, non-Kyoto signers!

Oh, by the way, Kabul, Afghanistan, 34 degrees F, only 3 degrees colder than London (and it's already night there as well!). Perhaps we should start seeing Reuters articles about the "brutal European winter" as opposed to the "brutal Afghan Winter"?

Used car warning

Actually, this goes on all the time, but it's good to bring it up. When cars are recovered from floods, they often end up being sold somewhere else after being cleaned up. Buyer beware, there are unscrupulous used car dealers. Yeah, like that's news......

One dead giveaway is a catfish in the air cleaner.....

Choose....Wisely

This judge should be very careful how he decides this case....

After all, look what happened to this woman.

Coincidence?

Ok, so there are two stories appearing today. One has to wonder if they are somehow related...

First, a member of the Virginia State Legislature has a wee accident with a handgun. He discharges it while attempting to unload it. Weird thing about it was that the bullet did no damage because it was stopped by a bullet-proof vest hanging on the office door. How dangerous is it to be a lawmaker in Virginia?

Then workers in a recycling plant find a loaded handgun.

You have to wonder if the first guy's wife told him enough is enough, get rid of that thing.....

The mind boggles.....

26 January, 2006

Possible explanation of some internet behavior

Well, the author might be on to something here. Or at least it may be partly true. The problem, of course, is that he is making the statements, but I do not see any studies backing up his claims. Although the theory is plausible, it is not proven rigorously.


Logically, however, it is likely that it has some truth to it. I have long noticed that some people on the internet routinely engage in invective that would almost certainly result in emphatic feedback if they did it in person. In other words, they'd be on the floor sans a few teeth......

On the other hand, some people appear to be able to control themselves and remain civil even when being hounded by trolls.....

H/T - Instapundit

Lakefront Property Opportunity!

I never knew this: There are a bunch of lakes under the Antarctic ice cap. I see development potential!

As soon as the two mile thick ice melts, of course.....

Conservative win in Canada

This floored me when I read it.

Apparently, the previous Liberal Government in Canada refused to arm their Border Guards....

The result? Border Guards fled rather than confront two murder suspects. US officials had to capture the bad guys.

The Conservatives have promised to arm the guards.

Appalling. Sending people into a potentially dangerous situation without proper means of self defense.

What's in a name?

Must be a good day for criminal masterminds!

Church Bandit vs. Church Burglar. How about we just use Convict!

Apparently, this guy should have had a card from the guy from the previous post.....

Criminal Mastermind Department

Wow, we have another winner.

And it makes the police happy, too!

"It makes our job considerably easier when they advertise and let us know
where to get ahold of them," Kitchens said.


Note to potential crime lords, advertising only works for certain kinds of criminals. Like lawyers.

25 January, 2006

Har, matey!


Picture of the pirate vessel captured a few days ago.

The idiots tried to run for it? Hah!

Hmmm - Be careful what you wish for

I said a few days back that I wished kids today to experience some of the excitement of the old "race to the moon" days.

Apparently, our old rivals are willing to heat the race back up.

We'd better start gearing up.

I'm not sure how much of this is pure wishful thinking on the part of the Russians. But they are getting a lot of cash out of Europe by selling gas.....

This guy is becoming a problem

Hugo Chavez, Harry Belafonte's and Cindy Sheehan's best pal, is planning an ecological disaster. Will the lefties denounce his plan?

*Crickets*

Heck, look at the muted tone of the headline itself. Imagine what it would read if Bush proposed the same plan.

This is a few years too late....

If only this study had come out while Clinton was in the White House. Somehow I just bet he would have used it as a justification.

"Just getting ready for the Press Conference is all"......

Well, I'm not happy with these guys

I linked earlier to an article detailing how Google was refusing a to honor subpoena from the US Justice Department.

I thought it a good thing.

Now I find they have decided to submit to Government censorship. Chinese Government.

Now I think the first event was simply an attempt to garner some approving press before this shoe dropped.

Damned shame they are so spineless. (Happily joining Yahoo and MSN, BTW, who already have submitted to both the US and Chinese government demands).

Remember: vote yes on global warming

See what happens when you sign on to the Kyoto agreement?

Meanwhile in the Midwestern United States we are enjoying 59 degrees and sunny. Thanks, George!

He really is a wacko

Jacko, of course...

Dressing as a woman to go shopping. Is it just me, or is actually getting worse since his acquittal?

About questioning reports

Last night, this article was released with the headline "Army Stretched to Breaking Point". Today it has been changed to "Deployments Stretching Army, Study Finds". (Damn, I wish I could take screen shots of this stuff.....)

So, which is it? (The text has changed very little if at all, I didn't think the text supported the former headline when I first read the article).

Another thing to question: The article states the study was produced "under a Pentagon contract". The author has apparently given an interview to the AP reporter. So, why is the author giving interviews in public for a Pentagon study? Has this study even been turned in to the Pentagon yet?

Yet another question is: Most Pentagon studies I am aware of produce three scenarios, best case, worst case and middle case. Is the study in question a part of that three-tiered approach? If so, which case is it? If not, why was the three-tiered approach not used in this instance?

Now obviously, I am not arguing that any large deployment will not stretch the Army's resources. That's virtually guaranteed with the way the military was restructured under Clinton. But stretching in time of war is expected. I know full well that the logistics resources of the Reserve and National Guard are really stretched at the moment. But was that unexpected? I think not. This article just states that "the Army" is stretched. But what parts of the Army? All of it or just certain groups?

Sorry, I think this is just more sloppy reporting meant to address a political agenda. It could have been a pretty good article with better reporting.

This may not be a good thing

It seems there are some $100 US bills circulating in Kazakhstan that are contaminated with some type of radioactive substance.

It is not known how the bills came to be contaminated.

This is not reassuring......

Yet another criminal mastermind

This guy is a pure genius.

A gud speler, two.

Ah, what a victory

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the ACLU! Fearless defenders of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of that perfect little pleated miniskirt to go with that new pair of patent leather pumps!


(Actually, the young man in question is showing a lot of courage in creatively protesting what is actually a fairly ridiculous rule).

I predict a book deal

This guy will be offered a book deal. Just say the magic words......

Or you could just move.....

They build a village in a valley. The valley is so deep that the surrounding mountains block off direct sunlight during the winter. The mayor now wants to build a large mirror to direct sunlight to the village plaza in winter months.

Why does this project bring this to mind?

24 January, 2006

Guns don't kill people

People kill people.....

The first thing I was taught was never point a gun at someone unless you intended to shoot that person. The second thing was that all guns are ALWAYS loaded, even if you just checked it. I was also taught that guns and alcohol don't mix. So this guy had three strikes right out of the gate. What a senseless tragedy for him and his family.

That's what I have taught my own children. Hell, I don't even let them point toy weapons at one another.

And you thought your commute was bad

People are actually having to wear adult diapers because the trains are so crowded that they cannot get to the toilets.

Wow.

Yet another lemming moment

So we end up with a straight party line vote to send the Alito nomination to the full Senate. The Democrats are setting up a straight party line vote in the upper chamber. At least one Republican has tried to warn them what is coming in the future if they persist in this strategy.


Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., warned that Republicans would remember a party-line Alito
vote in future Supreme Court nominations, considering several Republicans voted
for Justices
Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who were nominated by
President Clinton.
"It is simply unrealistic to think that one party
would put itself at a disadvantage by eschewing political considerations while
the other party almost unanimously applies such considerations," Kyl said. "So I
say to my Democratic friends: Think carefully about what is being done today.
Its impact will be felt well beyond this particular nominee."

This is a crisis for the Democrats. I honestly don't think they can see what they are about to do to themselves here. If they succeed in getting a Democrat into the White House but fail to take a majority in the Senate, there will be a complete inability to get ANY judge confirmed. Do they understand?

Nope, they continue with the lemming strategy.

Ok, at least he's honest

A self-admitted limousine liberal and willfully wrongheaded, but honest.

I (obviously) think he is full of it, but he at least doesn't parrot that particularly galling statement about "I support the troops but don't support the war". Too many of the hard left use that rhetorical construct as a smokescreen for their real agenda.

There are some people who hold fast to anti-war beliefs and deserve respect. The Quakers for example think all war is wrong and never waver from that belief.

There are others who's antiwar stance is rooted in anti-Americanism

Ok, this is getting serious

There were several reports in the Blogosphere about the Mexican Army actually crossing the border recently. Many of those seemed to trace back to a rightwing news service, so I did not repeat them.

This is different, though. It appears that there have been an ongoing series of incursions with the Mexican Army providing armed escort for drug shipments.

Last I heard, that constitutes an act of war.

The ongoing corruption in the UN

This report is very disturbing. It shows that the US ambassador to the UN is on the right track by demanding changes in that organization.

One thing that is telling and disturbing:

"We're doing all the right things to ensure that the global taxpayer's money
will be protected going forward, and that we are ferreting out corruption and
fraud where it existed and exists," he said.

Global taxpayer? These folks think they have a right to tax. That is a deep rooted cultural problem with them. They believe themselves to be the world government. Yeesh.

Um, this raises a few questions

So these folks find something washed up on a beach. They don't know what it is, but take it home anyway. Which turns out to have been a really smart move since it was a chunk of ambergris worth more than a quarter-million dollars.

But, one has to ask: WHY would you take an unidentified substance off a beach? Especially since it's actually whale vomit.

More importantly, Who the hell figured out that this stuff could be used in perfumes? The mind boggles......

Inspector Clouseau is on the case

Ok, so it took exactly HOW long to figure out this skeleton they found was over 500 years old? More than two years. Stunning police work, there guys.

Ah, the French.

And there are people in this country who want us to be more like them......

23 January, 2006

Interesting - New Nuke Plants?

Looks like there may be some new nuclear plants in the US in the fairly near future.

North Korea update

Well, maybe not making progress today. Or maybe there is some and this is a smokescreen. The tone is completely different than previous articles I have linked.

Life's little coincidences

I was reading this article when I suddenly realized that Roseanne Cash was doing a live session on XM radio. Weird timing. She's doing "Black Cadillac" right now as I type this.

The Goliath factor

This is a very interesting take on the United State's role in the world. Instead of the evil empire so many on the left assume us to be, maybe we are the de facto world government. A very well written opinion piece.

H/T Chequer-board

The New York Times and it's double standards

Well, it's not just the blogosphere noticing the NYT's skewed reporting. Nationally syndicated columnists - real live "professionals" are also noticing. It's about time. It's even on *gasp* CNN...


When the Times is in favor, the leak is by a "courageous whistle-blower" When the Times is against it the leaker is a "partisan hack".

Money, politics and corruption

All politics are local, right?

What about when the Locals engage in politics? This is pretty blatant.

All lobbying and campaign contribution laws need to be cleaned up, at all levels.

22 January, 2006

Wow, this really sucks

No, I mean literally.

New York City, bloodsucker capital. And here I thought it was Washington, D.C.

Another WTF? Moment

Um, so someone writes a "news" story claiming that 1/3 of the French don't speak English.

They would be French. Oddly enough, they have a language of their very own. To paraphrase Steve Martin, they have a different word for almost everything.....

This is news? I'm guess that a much higher percentage of English speakers don't speak French...... Frankly, I would have turned this around and reported that almost 2/3 of the French speak at least some English. That's actually a remarkable statistic.

This is amusing

The Kelo decision was a travesty, in my humble opinion. It is a gross misuse of the power of eminent domain to take private property and give it to other private individuals. It seems fitting that one of the authors of that decision is now the target of an eminent domain land grab.

I rather doubt it will succeed, but maybe it will gather enough attention to this judicial abuse to get it overturned.

Groucho would be proud

The inmate who escaped by using the "Jailbreak Diet" has been recaptured.

The funniest part:

He was recaptured in a Sydney shopping mall Saturday disguised with a beard
drawn on his face with a pen, The Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported.


Grouch Marx made an entire career out of a drawn on mustache. But that was in the movies, not real life!

There be pirates, matey

For those who thought piracy was found only in history, here's an item that shows it is alive and well today.

I knew it was still going on, but the press seldom reports on it these days. It's interesting that there have been no stories up until now.

Equal opportunity scandal

I've posted on this before. I really think it would be wise for the Democrats to back off on the Abramoff scandal before they get caught in their own nets.

A lot of semantic gymnastics on the left will not change the fact that Democrats took tainted money directed to them by Abramoff.

Yes, they did not take direct contributions from him, which is not surprising as he was a Republican backer. But he directed his client tribes as to who to contribute to and how much. Those contributions went to Democrats (including Reid) as well as Republicans.

Worse than the scandal, though, is the left's response as evidenced in the attacks on Deborah Howell for daring to print the truth. Their derangement will lead to damage to their own party and they cannot even see it. Willful blindness will lead to even more erosion of support for the Democrats by moderate voters.

Both parties need to clean up the lobbying mess. But the Dems are, yet again, falling into their self-made trap of grossly over-playing their hand. Led by the extreme left-wing, they are rushing, lemming-like toward another cliff. This issue will burn them again and lead to even more disillusionment among moderates.

More abuse from the NYT

Cathy Seipp has a post that explains a lot of what is wrong with the NYT and reporting in general these days. The behavior of the reporters in question shows how completely out of control the NYT is.

21 January, 2006

Wow, the housing bubble hits Ireland

Now this is just plain silly. 200 square feet? That's not a cottage, that's not even a large room....

I'm not sure these people did the right thing

They meant well, but maybe they should have let nature take it's course. The whale in the Thames river has died.

A great escape

Actually, this camel is lucky to be alive. Jumping out of a trailer moving at 55 mph.

A harsh winter

Wow. Sucks to be this guy.

Korea developments

As I have said before, something is going on over there.

20 January, 2006

Another criminal mastermind

Stand back, folks. Genius at work.

Pluto mission update

Wow I did not know this. The Pluto mission has a passenger.

New Horizons also contained some of the ashes of Clyde Tombaugh, the astronomer
who discovered Pluto in 1930. His widow, Patricia Tombaugh, was in tears as she
watched the launch from four mile away.


That is very fitting.

NSA ruckus

I have had several run-ins in comment sections about the whole NSA flap. For some reason, just because I won't take the word of a discredited source like the NYT, they assume I am a right-winger.

Frankly, the media is absurd lately, as I have pointed out in several entries on this still new blog. They are more and more obvious cheerleaders and shills for the Democrats. This is not to say I am enamored of the Republican party, either. That should be clear by now.

That said, here is the rather large Department of Justice legal justification given to congress. So far I have only skimmed it, but one thing jumps out at me. They continually mention foreign intelligence intercepts. They seem to be drawing a very strict line by saying ones originating from known or suspected terrorists to the US or contacts from the US to those same people.

IF this is a true statement, there would appear to be absolutely no harm whatsoever to the average American and I would not object. This is not unreasonable in time of war. Actually, it's never unreasonable. If you are plotting attacks or even if you know people who are plotting attacks you do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy (my opinion).

At this point, for all the screaming, pimping, posturing and foolishness out there, there appears to be no evidence this program was in any way directed strictly in an internal manner targeting US citizens. None at all. Unless and until there is, then, can we all take a deep breath? The matter is in the courts now. Let's see what comes out.

Good

It looks like some people will be going to jail over this fiasco.

Good.

Having worked in this field, I deplore any falsification of records. I have even fired someone for doing so on a much less critical thing.

I don't think most people realize that personnel in the nuclear industry are specifically criminally liable for negligence. There's a special section in 10CFR50 covering it.

This explains quite a bit

I have noticed a marked decline in the number of people able to read critically and comprehend complex thinking. You can see it every day in comment sections of various blogs. There are a lot of people who appear to be unable to tell when media stories are obviously slanted by using loaded terminology or when opinion pieces are presented as news.

This study goes a long way toward explaining why this is happening.

We really need to do something about the school systems. This is unforgivable.

Hmmm

Ok, So there was a whale story yesterday, another one today. Seems to be a big week for whales.

I'm just guessing here

But it seems this woman just doesn't grasp the concept of restitution...


One does not steal to repay stolen money. Unless you're a politician, of course.

19 January, 2006

Rest in Peace

Wilson Pickett has died. Another great voice silenced. He was only 64.

The origins of Cajun cooking

People who know history know that the Cajuns are descendants Of the Acadians, refugees from the area now known as Nova Scotia. They went to Louisiana, some by choice, some by being forced out by the British. There, they were shunned by the original inhabitants who already had taken the best land and they ended up forming a distinctive culture of their own in the unwanted bayous.

They are rightly famous for their cuisine. This includes things like creative use of odd things. For example they have held a Nutria cook-off.

Now we can understand their odd culinary traditions. They get it from the French.

Roadkill, it's what's for dinner.

I've complained about crappy driving conditions before

But this is really crappy.....

I have had cars I wanted to bury

But not for the insurance money......

Channeling Dave Barry

Obscene Yogurt Conviction...


Wouldn't that be a fabulous name for a band?

Whale of a joke

So, some protesters put a whale in front of the Japanese Embassy in Germany.

Nice to see Ted Kennedy could get another gig after his Alito hearing performance.

Oh, sorry. My mistake. The Whale in question was apparently dead. Only Ted's liver is.....

Watched The Silence of the Lambs too much

Ok, we have another cannibal in Europe. Sweden this time. Yeesh.

Just like old times

I belong to the generation that witnessed the space race live, up close and personal. The Astronauts were everyone's hero's. We followed every development in vehicle design and capsule development. I remember sitting in school and stopping whatever lesson we were learning to watch the launching and recovery of many space missions, starting with the Mercury missions. We cheered whenever a rocket roared off the pad. So very slowly at first then picking up speed, going faster and faster, disappearing on a column of white smoke. When we watched the mighty Saturn V vehicles rolling so very slowly out of the assembly building we were in awe (Yeah- they even televised the creeping movement of the rockets out to the pads).

After the moon landing, watching every mission dwindled away. We did watch the drama of Apollo 13 and had a TV on in every classroom (volume turned down) watching for the "Special Report" flash on the screen. When that happened everything stopped and the volume was turned up until the report ended. Gradually, we only watched a few things now and then and eventually, we stopped altogether.

Nowadays, no networks cover any launches unless there's a chance they can get film footage of an accident.

Today, I watched the launch of the Atlas V carrying the Pluto mission as it roared off the pad in Florida. Isn't the internet wonderful? They held several times (just like old times!) until they finally had enough blue sky. Then they picked up the count at T minus 4 minutes. Then they gave a "Go Atlas" and started the count. When they started the old, familiar "10, 9, 8, ...." it was almost like being a kid in school again.

The Atlas gather speed faster than the old Saturn V - at least it seemed so to me. But it still climbed, faster and faster, getting smaller and smaller, dwindling finally away into nothing. An absolutely flawless launch.

I wish today's children had the excitement of those old days....

Pluto mission

Now scheduled to light off in about 12 minutes from now. Waiting on cloud cover to break up.

Who the hell does he think he is?

That dirty, unilateralist cowboy. Rattling his nuclear saber and threatening sovereign nations in flagrant violation of the UN Charter and International Law. His ten-gallon diplomacy must be resisted by thinking people everywhere.

Oh. My mistake, make that a 10-gallon BERET!

Who does he think he is?

Oh. My. God.

The pure horror of this is astounding.

To put it in perspective, we have troops fighting in Iraq and Afganistan. A war on terror. Worries about the legality of some of the Government's actions.

But they pale in comparison to this atrocity: Reese wore a recycled gown!

Oh. My. God.

Google Subpoena

Ok, I am NOT happy with the government's actions here. They should not have broad powers to grab data. That is overreaching in my mind. I think they should lose this case. Absent probable cause, they should not be able to broadly grab on-line data.

One important side note here. The headlines keep painting this as the "Bush Justice Department" and implicitly infer that it is all Bush's fault.

This law was signed and placed on the books by Clinton in 1998. It was struck down by the Supremes in 2004. These details are buried 'waaaay down in the story. Clinton is, of course, never blamed.

Do you really want the state involved?

I mentioned the Massachusetts authorities and their successful petition to the court to withdraw life support from a little girl the other day.

Well, it turns out the little girl is breathing on her own and responding to stimuli.

This confirms that slippery slope for me. These people, with what I presume are the very best intentions, decided that this little girl should not be continued on life support. (This is NOT at all the same thing as sentencing a convicted criminal to death. This is allowing an innocent to die. Not at all similar.)

And they may very well have been appallingly wrong.

Do you want the state involved in these decisions for you? For your family?

Where's Kim update

Yet another indication that something is actually happening.

Now that's what I call polling

This is the best poll ever. I simply have to vote! Repeatedly!

What Shakespeare said....

It's time. Before they come after something important to you, folks.

It astounds me that lawsuits like this can even be advanced. Those evil corporations actually control the plaintiffs so they can't learn to say no to their children? They are captive to the television and cannot actually turn it off?

Wow. Just wow.

I vote we take these people's kids away, since they apparently cannot parent them effectively.

18 January, 2006

Serves them right

The judge dropped the hammer on those people who planted part of a human finger in a bowl of chili.

Sadest thing about the story:


Investigators determined Plascencia obtained the piece of finger from a
co-worker who had lost the top of a digit in an industrial accident at a Las
Vegas paving company. The man had turned over the finger fragment to settle a
$50 debt.


Would you sell a chunk of yourself to pay off a debt?

There are civilians and there are....

Terrorists. That much talked about airstrike got a very high level bad guy.

H/T Instapundit

He's so skinny, if he turns sideways, he disappears

The newest fad - the jailbreak diet.

Tales of the Naked City

Or naked at the car show. Or something.

A whole new dimension to the word deadbeat

This guy faked his own death to avoid paying child support. Yeesh.

Bwahahahaha

Ladies and gents, Mr. Scott Ott.




Brokerecord Mountain.......

Ben Franklin's house in London

Yesterday was the 300th anniversary of Benjamin Franklin's birth. A truely unique individual and a great man.

It seems they used the occasion to open his renovated house in London to the public.

Very cool website.

Where's Kim?

This is yet another interesting development.

Something IS happening here. There are too many coincidences.

You know it's a slow news day when

An article on it being cold in Russia in the winter appears.

This is news?

17 January, 2006

Another "don't believe what you read in the papers" moment

Presented without further comment.

To boldly go where no kidney stone has gone before

You have got to be kidding me.....

This is troubling

Assisted suicide is a troubling concept. While the Oregon law seems to be suitable narrow in focus, the problem is when does it stop? Will there be amendments making it easier and easier. Will it eventually reach a point where the State begins to decide these things? Like it appears to have already?

I know the two things are not identical, but it is still very troubling when States begin deciding who is healthy enough to live. Too slippery a slope to be trusted to politicians.

Could we get a little quiet, please?

Ok, the NSA issue is headed for court. I think some of the plaintiffs are kind of shaky, but whatever. Now until the court actually rules, could people stop pronouncing that the President is guilty? If it turns out to have been illegal, fine. But making flat statements of his guilt are improper under our legal system. He must be presumed innocent.

This is almost too funny

So what if he's been discredited? He's always got a job with these folks!

Clonaid? I think I have the CD.......

This is a must read

Stephen Green

There actually are some people on the left who are starting to get it

I don't know that the "heartland embraces" this movie is correct or not. I lost interest in this a while back. But these comments tend to show that there is some actual sanity on the left. The Democratic party would do well to listen before they run like lemmings off a cliff chasing the left wing.

I sometimes get called a "Reich winger" in comments on other sites by lefties who cannot get it through their heads that not everyone who disagrees with them is a puppet of the VRWC. And I sure don't see any convincing facts being used to argue their positions. Hate, name-calling and distortions and lies don't win arguments.

I get so sick of extremist nonsense. I don't repeat anyone's talking points or spin, I actually think about things I post. I tend to, as a friend of mine puts it, "throw the bullshit flag" on anyone I think is spinning or memeing. Left or right. But lately, it seems the worst offenders are lefties. I don't comment on one of the more right wing sites anymore since they started attracting some right wing folks with extreme positions. But I have to wear full protective gear when I look at some of the big left-wing sites. There are some totally deranged hatemongers over there. Downright toxic.

As I have said before, get a clue.

Open wide

This is rather disturbing. There has to be a wierd back story to this article....

And it went on for seven months after the authorities were made aware it was happening.

Socialized medicine. Yeesh.

Best wishes

For a speedy recovery for Gerald Ford.

I rather thought President Ford got a lot of bad press for no particularly good reason. I think he did a pretty decent job given the mess he was handed to deal with.

Interesting development

This is interesting. Seems there is some political horse trading going on.

16 January, 2006

Happy birthday

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

Abraham Lincoln
Saturday, March 4, 1865

This deserves to be invention of the year

A really great invention. Trust me, if you've never been downwind of a pig farm, you won't appreciate the importance of this thing. The folks who do understand will make sure this man NEVER pays for another drink in his entire life!

Cheers!

Power essay has dropped into January

Sorry, this free blogger site has a limited display area. The essay on wind power can be found in the January archive.

It's a bird - redux

All hail Sunshine the crime fighting Macaw.

Hide the children.....

The angry chatter

Yesterday, it was about 70 degrees and sunny with little or no wind. An altogether wonderful day, especially for mid-January. We stood outside the auditorium in our shirt sleeves in the warm sun.

Today it's around 40, cloudy and the wind is howling like a banshee out of the North. It feels much colder than the thermometer indicates. The wind is like a living presence, making the building shake as it swirls trash across the yards. No shirt sleeves today. Today is button the top button on the winter coat and pull the collar up to shield the ears.

Along the edge of the property is a row of trees, stark and leafless at this time of year. More trees march in a line up the hill behind us. With the leaves gone, I can see the messy squirrel nests perched high in the branches. I can count five from where I stand. I'm sure there are more up the hill further, but the branches merge together to form a grey-brown mat that my eyes cannot pierce.

But the whipping of the trees in the wind has apparently thrown at least one squirrel from the messy ball of leaves and trash he (she?) calls home. That is one ticked off rodent. It chatters loudly and scampers from branch to branch attempting to get back home. Just as it gets close, another violent gust of wind dislodges it and sends it back to the lower branches. Another crescendo of angry chatter erupts before the squirrel again attempts it's journey toward the nest. The chatter seems to get louder with each failed attempt to reach the goal high in the swaying branches. Angry chatter railing against the unfairness of the universe that has unleashed this howling wind upon the poor, put upon creature. "Knock it off, I just want to get home!", it seems to be saying.

How very like the squirrels we are.

15 January, 2006

Send off ceremony

So, today the family went to see my son's Army Reserve unit "Coin and Flag" ceremony. The men and women will be heading to Fort Riley soon to begin training for their deployment to Iraq. They give the soldiers a coin to exchange with the family members as a way to remember and think about one another. My son is giving his coin to his fiance - I think that's right.

It was great to see the families and friends stand and applaud from the time the first soldier entered the auditorium until the last one sat down. There was a lot of clapping and cheering throughout the ceremony.

It was great that the Governor and the district Congressman were there to speak. They also stayed all the way through the ceremony - they didn't duck out. They shook the hand of every, single soldier and spoke a few private words to each one.

A bit less than great was the absence of both Senators although they did send representatives which at least helped. Hell, maybe they really couldn't be there.

After the ceremony, they did a briefing for the families and the troops. It took a bit too long, but it was thorough and did cover a lot of things that dependents need to understand. Not being a dependent, it didn't really matter to us, but we sat through it anyway. I got to meet several of his fellow NCO's - people he has spoken highly of. They seemed sharp and on the ball. He will have good company again.

After it was all done, we took our soldier out to dinner. Old Chicago, his favorite place. Then we left him and his fiance alone and went home. The kids need some time to themselves.

I have a bunch of financial things to take care of for him in the next few days. He needs to concentrate on his squad, so I'll happily do that for him. Since this is his second deployment, he's actually more experienced than some of the nominally more senior NCO's in the company and he gets looked to for answers a lot. It's so odd to see the boy you changed diapers for being addressed respectfully as "sergeant".

Then I blogged this entry.

Might want to change the tactics, there....

Speaking of changing tactics. This is probably not a really smart thing to do. Not that I advocate whaling, just that I think "Human Shield" activities are , well, stupid. I think there are better ways to address things like this than the publicity stunts Greenpeace routinely endulges in.

Executing the "old sick men"....

Yeesh. The spin on this is getting a little sickening. The "sick old man" thing avoids the fact that he is a sick old man because of the legal delays. This guy order three people killed from prison where he was already in for a life sentence. I have no sympathy for him. He should have been executed 25 years ago or so. Before he was a sick old man......


This is the quote that kind of defines it for me:


"The big crime is that he wasn't executed many years ago. Nobody ever thinks
about what the victims go through waiting. Until the sentence is carried out,
the victims -- the families of the people whose lives he took -- live this
nightmare continuously because they never know what is going to happen or when
the laws will change."

Remember the victims. Don't feel sorry for the murderer, regardless of his age.

If the people who want the death penalty stopped really want it changed, use the ballot box, not endless legal appeals and celebrity nonsense (a la Tookie). I honestly think the existing tactics are making for MORE support of the death penalty, not less. Trying to make heroes or generate sympathy for these guys doesn't work real well with average people. Most people I talk to wonder why it takes so damned long to carry out the sentences.

The tactic of trying to exonerate an already executed man a few days back really damaged your cause, too.

People using Norton take note

They are hiding files on your system..... Cute.

After several problems on several different computers, I stopped using Norton and switched to Kaspersky. Which I have found to be trouble free so far.

This is troubling

Yet another case of falsifying scientific data. In the wake of the Korean cloning scandal, this is very troubling.

Just plain sickening

Sudan is whining that it should chair the African Union. With what is happening in Darfur, this is a disgusting thought.

14 January, 2006

Um, maybe the strategy is wrong? Just maybe?

This is the silliest bit of commentary I have seen in a while.

I have said it before, it is not the public that is out of step with the leadership. It's the leadership that is out of touch with the people. You are not reaching people because of your extremist positions. Stop moving away from the center.

Get a clue, guys.

Mission to Pluto

Wow - I would love to watch this launch.

This is the rocket that will be carrying the probe.

It will pass the moon only 9 hours after launch. That puppy will be moving!

This is very sad for everyone involved

My heart goes out to the family and to the police involved. I can tell you, that pellet gun is a dead ringer for a Beretta 92. There is no way a cop could tell it wasn't real from even a few feet away.

Murtha redux

Can anyone get through to this guy and make him stop his nasty defeatism?

You are endangering the troops you purport to love. Please just shut up.

About wind power

An Engineer's opinion.

This discussion addresses the economic and engineering aspects of wind power only. Other considerations require a separate discussion. I have tried to make this as clear as I can without resorting to jargon. Electric power is a complex field and there are actually few colleges teaching power engineering these days.

The idea of wind power has enormous appeal. In theory, the fuel is free, it is a renewable resource and it’s use offsets an amount of fossil fuel. All of these things are, at least on the surface, true. However, the wind power proponents either ignore or gloss over the drawbacks to using wind power. There are many factors that make wind power – in practice – a very unattractive option from an engineering standpoint. I’ll address some of these, but first some basics.

Power 101

First, power must be generated. This can be accomplished by various means. Hydropower, natural gas fired turbine or combined cycle plants, coal fired plants and nuclear facilities. There are a few other ways, but they are usually very small (biomass, geothermal) or seldom used due to high fuel costs (oil) and will be left out of the discussion. Further, generating assets can be classified as base load, load-following or peaking.

Hydro requires a flow of water to turn a turbine. For this to work there must be sufficient head to turn the turbine. Simply put, there has to be a difference in height between the intake and discharge of the water used. Every readily usable source of hydro is currently in use in the US. To build additional plants would require the building of dams and flooding of large amounts of territory. Canada built some enormous hydro projects that flooded vast areas a few years back. This is not an attractive option in the US. Hydro plants are always considered base load units in that they are either full on or off-line. Base load constitutes the lower limit of demand on the power grid. Base loaded plants run at their maximum output and therefore at their maximum efficiency.

Gas turbines are simply jet engines coupled to a generator set. A typical use for this type of generator is as a “peaking” unit. That means that they fire when demand picks up to a point where on-line base load and load-following assets cannot cover demand. A combined cycle plant uses the waste heat from the jet engine exhaust to generate additional power via a heat exchanger. Steam produced by the heat exchanger drives a steam turbine and generates additional power. Combined cycle units can be used as either base load (rarely, due to high fuel costs) or load followers. Load following plants increase or decrease output as demand fluctuates above the base load. Load followers run at somewhat lower efficiency when running below full power.

Coal and nuclear plants use the same general principle. Fuel is used to heat water into steam. The steam is then used to turn a turbine which in turn spins the generator. Coal units burn the fuel in a boiler. Most of these plants use pulverized coal – essentially they grind the coal into a fine powder and blow it into the firebox. Nuclear plants use a chain reaction in the core to produce the necessary heat. Nuclear plants are always used as base load units nowadays (some plants were used as load followers initially, but none are used that way now as far as I am aware). Coal plants can be used either way, but usually bigger plants are used as base load units as much as possible due to efficiency concerns. Load following units can best be thought of as a supercharger on the system. They run at relatively low levels of power output until demand increases. When needed, they increase output to meet increased demand for power up to their maximum output. But the key point is that they have to remain on the grid, running at less than peak efficiency at all times to be available to respond to load changes. The peaker units would be brought in when the load following units near their peak output.

That is a very, very brief overview of generation.

Transmission and distribution

Once the electricity is produced, it has to be sent to where it is needed. This is accomplished through transmission and distribution. Transmission uses extremely high voltages in order to reduce “line losses”. Basically, as voltage increases, the current decreases; the lower the current, the less line heating and line loss. To accomplish transmission, voltages from the generating plant are “stepped up”- increased - to the transmission voltage by use of a transformer. The voltages have to be “stepped down” – reduced - at the other end of the line, requiring another transformer. Transmission voltages vary widely, but are always in the higher kilovolt ranges. Line losses are a big factor in deciding where plants need to be located. The farther away the plant is from the end user, the more the line loss is experienced. At some point, all of the electricity generated at a given plant will have been used up in line losses. (Transmission transformers are enormously large and expensive, by the way).

Distribution is accomplished by further stepping down the voltages, often several times, each step requiring another transformer. If you trace your power line back, you’ll see a transformer either on a pole or on the ground not far from where you live. Distribution system voltages vary widely until they reach the consumer. In the US, household use is always 120/240 volts. Industrial use is somewhat different and will be ignored for purposes of this discussion. The transmission/distribution network together with the connected generating assets is known as the grid. The grid is controlled by means of sophisticated load dispatch systems which increase or decrease generator outputs in response to demand.

That wraps up Power 101. Frankly, this is over-simplified, but if I really went into the more esoteric aspects, I would lose everyone but the engineers very quickly. These days, I’d likely lose a lot of them as well, since colleges have been teaching less and less about 3-phase power. Electric power is a rather complicated field.

Boiling everything down, then:

Power is generated, sent through wires and arrives at the point of use. The power supply must be able to respond to a change in demand, either increased or decreased demand, instantaneously. Electric power cannot be stored; it must simply be available when needed. Generating assets must be able to respond when demand changes. Base load units run at or very near full load at all times, load followers cycle up and down as needed and peakers kick in to meet high demand.

Wind power

Use of wind power can certainly offset a given amount of fossil fuel. This should be easy to understand. If you are getting electricity from a wind generator, you don’t need to burn a certain amount of coal or gas. This is a true statement. There are, however, certain problems with this logic.

First, the construction of wind generators requires enormous up-front capital costs. Typically, I have seen estimates that wind generators cost at lease 50% more than equivalent coal/gas installations. It’s actually higher than that due to some other factors regarding infrastructure (discussed below).

Construction of wind farms requires very, very large areas. Farms are being built that cover thousands of acres. The advocates of wind power are all for building these huge farms – as long as they are far away from where the advocates have to actually look at them. Why? Because these tower arrays are ugly. Well, I guess that’s dependant on who is looking at them, but I think they are unsightly. The residents of Martha’s Vineyard went ballistic when an offshore farm was proposed near them. The NIMBY effect rules in the planning of these farms. Hence, the farms tend to be sited far from the population centers where the power is most needed. This leads to increased line losses as discussed above.

In addition to the towers themselves, a vast infrastructure has to be built to connect all of those towers to the rest of the grid. This encompasses cable, towers or poles to carry the cable, transformers, switchgear and protective relaying. This amounts to a large expense and increases as more and more generating towers are placed. There is a definite impact to the environment and raw resources from all the manufacturing involved here. That impact is routinely ignored or downplayed by advocates of wind power.

Another problem with wind power is that the units tend to be full on when they are producing at all. This causes a problem in load dispatching. These wind power units cannot load follow, but are not reliable enough to use as base load units. Remember, base load is the lower limit which the grid must sustain. They also cannot be used as peakers. Most load dispatch systems I am familiar with somewhat reduce their load following plants output when wind power is available. But the load followers remain on line and producing ready to increase output when the wind power drops offline. So it is somewhat disingenuous to claim that wind power is replacing fossil generation. The fossil plants remain online albeit at a somewhat lower output. This lower output is accomplished at a somewhat lower overall efficiency. If you understand the modified Rankine Cycle that governs how power plants operate, you understand how this works.

Then there is the insurmountable engineering problem. The wind cannot be relied on to blow all the time within the operating parameters of the wind turbine. If the wind is not sufficient to turn the turbine blades no power is produced. If the wind is blowing too hard, the unit shuts down to protect itself and no power is produced. Therefore, the utilities are required to have 100% backup available for the wind generation because the power has got to be there when demand increases. Why? Because if the voltage is pulled down enough on the grid due to an increase in demand, the entire grid will collapse. Best case projections allow for wind systems to be available 35% of the time. Those projections are actually not accurate because they do not take into account time of day loading. In other words, the wind systems may be capable of producing power at night when demand is lowest, not during the day when it is most needed.

Basically, although some amount of fossil fuel is not used when the wind farms are actually on line, these projects can never be cost justified from an engineering standpoint due to the 100% backup capacity required. This is going to apply regardless of how high fuel prices go. There may be other justifications for construction of such a system, but the fact is that if one system is so unreliable that it requires a 100% (reliable) alternate backup, it makes no engineering sense to install the first system. Economically, you are spending more than double what you actually need to, to achieve the desired result.

This is an area I know rather a lot about, having spent my career in the utility business.

The installation of every, single utility-owned project has been a purely political decision. I limit it to utility-owned because that is my field. But it is no different for any other project.

Bottom line - wind power cannot ever be economically or engineering justified. Any system that is so inherently unreliable as to require an installed 100% backup system cannot be justified. If you were required to buy a car that would only run a percentage of the time and could start or stop at completely unpredictable random times, would you be happy? And then after buying that car, you were required to buy another fully functional one to cover the times the first was unavailable? On top of that, the second car has to be kept idling at all times to pick up when the first car drops out on you. Would that make any sense to you?

From a purely engineering standpoint, installing a reliable system to cover for an unreliable system is never justified. It is a waste of time and money. In engineering, you build the reliable system and scrap an unreliable one.

However, State and Federal laws, rules and political pressures have made many utilities invest in what they know to be a losing technology for no other reason than to gain points with regulators. I know - I have been there when the projects were approved. Every person in the room understood it was a complete and utter waste of money - but the regulators encouraged (or outright required it) it AND ALLOWED THE UTILITIES TO PASS THE COSTS THROUGH to the consumers. Hence, the company gets "good boy" points AND doesn't actually have to pay for anything at all. The environmentalists successfully taxed every one of you (and me) with a technology that just makes them feel warm and fuzzy all over.

These projects could never be built without subsidies. Wind power proponents lobby and pressure the Government into providing substantial subsidies for the construction of these facilities. So the taxpayers foot the bill to build the wind farms. The utilities are required to buy the power produced by privately owned wind farms – when they are actually on line – often at a higher price than they can produce power from their own facilities. And the utility has to build full, stand-by generating assets to be there when the wind power isn't. So it's a triple whammy and waste of resources. We pay to build the wind power sites, pay again to build 100% redundant fossil systems and pay higher rates for the power as well.

There may be other reasons for installing wind power, but those reasons are political and/or moral (depending on viewpoint). Any argument that these projects make economic or engineering sense is not realistic. That’s my opinion, based on many years of experience in the power field, as contrary as that is to environmentalist dogma on this issue.

Pork Busters

This is a petition calling for clean leadership in the House of Representatives.

This little blog supports the cause. I've long held the opinion that both parties need to clean up their acts on lobbying money.

13 January, 2006

Twenty six years

It has taken 26 years for this sentence to be carried out. 26 years of legal wrangling.

Then his lawyers state that he's harmless now because he's in bad health due to his age.

Isn't this exactly like the guy who kills his parents then asks for mercy because he's an orphan?

Absurd.

Let's not forget what got him the death sentence. He ordered the murder of three people who testified against him and got him a life sentence.

Good lord.

Working on a screed

I just posted a rather long comment over at Jane Galt's site. I think I'll be expanding it into a blog entry.

Dodo grave yard

They have just found a Dodo graveyard. Neat.

Where's Kim - vol 3

So, now we have him zipping about in a caravan.

Some interesting things are going on here. Too bad the MSM can't be bothered to tell us a litle more.

What a terrible idea

This is going to end up hurting the little guy. The measure was pushed through by Unions with a distinct anti-WalMart agenda.

The ones most effected by this agenda-driven mess will be the ones least able to afford it.

Excuse me?

Is this a WTF moment or what?

Let's see, nobody in the entire world had ANY electricity just a century or so ago.

Humans have been around for quite some time.

How in hell did we manage to survive all these centuries? This is an idiotic story.

I blame Halliburton.

Heigh ho, cellular! Away!

This is downright amusing.

Strippers protest indoor smoking ban

Presented with no further comment.

At last! An Honest Politician!

He's not the perfect candidate, after all, he sucks blood.

Oh wait, how is that different. Never mind.

The funniest line: "Unlike other candidates, I'm not going to hide my evil side," he said.

Truth in politics at long last.

Are these incidents related?

First, two deer go to school, then another deer wants to rent a drama.

Coincidence? I think not.

Working up an appetite

Breaking and entering can really work up your hunger, apparently.

12 January, 2006

He was guilty

I remember seeing an A&E show on this case and thinking at the time that it sure sounded like he was guilty. I am glad the Governor authorized the tests, however. This should put the matter to rest for the victim's family.

May Wanda McCoy be at rest finally.

Where's Kim - part 2

Hmm. This is interesting....

Interesting that the entire hotel has been blocked off.

What is this guy up to?

Murtha hits bottom, digs

Not content with attempting to demoralize our troops, Murtha gets into bed with an active anti-American hate group.

And yes, I use the term anti-American intentionally.

Anyone who would do what these cretins do to wounded American troops are beyond contempt. These are NOT just anti-war protestors, but actively anti-American.

Any member of Congress who would do a photo-op with these people should be run out of office. I sincerely hope whoever is going to run against Murtha has these pictures.

Make sure you follow the links at the end of the story to see what fine, upstanding folks these are.

H/T The Officers Club

Oh. My. God.

You have GOT to be kidding me.

So, he gets to keep changing back and forth at the people's expense........

What are you people thinking......

(Is the correct term for the second operation an addadicktome?) Sorry. It just slipped out.

Wait, I thought it was Green Eggs....


Dr. Suess would be so proud. Sniff.


Taiwan, home to the world's first transgenic glowing fish, has successfully
bred fluorescent green pigs that researchers hope will boost the island's stem
cell research, a professor said on Thursday.



Green Ham and Eggs doesn't sound quite right, though.....

It's a bird, it's a plane...AAAA! It IS a bird....

Hide the children if you see an eagle.

The new McCarthys

For a long time, the left has decried the antics of Joe McCarthy during the 1950's. Recently, George Cloony made movie to show how evil McCarthy was and how heroic journalists united to take him down....

There are whole websites out there on the internet devoted to combating the "new McCarthyism". The sites are run by "Progressives". (You'll have to search them yourselves, I won't link them).

So, what were McCarthy's tactics?

For Senator McCarthy, "A witness's refusal to answer whether or not he is a
Communist on the ground that his answer would tend to incriminate him is the
most positive proof obtainable that the witness is a Communist." Insisting that
the people who took the Fifth were guilty of whatever it was they refused to
talk about, the committees plied reluctant witnesses with damaging questions in
the confident expectation that they could not answer them. Scientists could not
deny outlandish charges that they had spied for the Soviet Union; teachers could
not rebut similarly exaggerated allegations that they had brainwashed their
students.

Guilt by association was a routine tactic....

So would anyone who watched the disgraceful performances by the Democratic Senators at the Alito hearings doubt that that is EXACTLY what they are trying to do? Painting Alito as some kind of secret bigot because he once belonged to a group that advocated some things the Senators don't like? Asking him over and over questions that they know would be improper for Alito to answer then trumpeting his refusal to answer as a reason to doubt his qualification for the Court.

Joe Biden, Ted Kennedy and their pals. Meet the new McCarthys......

Have you no shame, Senator Kennedy? At long last, have you no shame?

(You'll have to look into the history to understand that last sentence).

Biden is an embarrassment

This comment is so unbelievably condescending:

"I take him at his word that he didn't know what the group stood for, but
I'm required to ask him," Biden said. He said membership in the group raised
questions about "how sensitive he is to the plight of women."

The plight of women? Wow, he sure thinks highly of women doesn't he? Poor fragile things couldn't make it in the world without the protection of the Joe Biden's of the world.

I know a few women, my wife for one, that could put Joey-boy in a plight for a remark like that......

If the facts won't support you, lie like hell.....

This is nothing but a slanted, sleazy bunch of spin masquerading as reporting.

From Tom Brune, Newsday:

Democrats returned to the issue of abortion yesterday, repeatedly pushing Alito
to say he thought Roe was settled law, suggesting it will not be easily
overturned, as Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. had in his recent confirmation
hearings. But Alito doggedly refused to do so, indicating that Roe is still very
much in play.


Emphasis mine.


From an AP report bylined Jesse Holland:

"I don't think it's appropriate for me to speak about issues that could
realistically come up" before the courts, he said, falling back on a line also
used by now-Chief Justice John Roberts and other Supreme Court members during
their confirmation hearings.
Unlike Roberts, who said during his confirmation
hearing last year that he thought
Roe v. Wade 'was "settled law," Alito said
it was a precedent that should be respected. He would neither agree nor disagree
that it was settled law when asked repeatedly by Durbin.


Emphasis mine.

Note the spin imparted by the Newsday "reporter". Alito SAID NO SUCH THING, but the reporter reports as fact that he did.

But the MSM says it is objective and reports fact, right? Uh Huh. They are counting on readers not being able to read discriminatingly.