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Category Archives: Front Page
Poem of the Week: 8/31/08-9/6/08
All Along The Watchtower by Bob Dylan is this week’s poem of the week.
Rant of the Week: 8/31/08-9/6/08
The fairness of this rant might be doubted. But it is worth noting that males do tend to mature at latter age then females. That does have some consequences worth exploring.
Essay of the Week: 8/31/08-9/6/08
The Last Samurai and Europe’s First Suicide does what all good historical essays should do. It draws connections between different historical events that you would not have thought connected otherwise. But the essay would have been better off if the author had been content to make the comparison and contrast between General Maresuke Nogi and the European generals of World War I. Unfortunately, the author felt compelled to go off on rant at the end of the essay that does not fit with the rest of what he wrote.
Its a good time to be in the construction business in China
At least 30 people were killed or reported missing and about 180,000 homes destroyed in a powerful earthquake in southwest China, state media said Sunday.
More than 360 people were injured in Saturday’s 6.1-magnitude earthquake, which rocked Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, the official Xinhua news agency reported, citing the civil affairs ministry.
Granted this is not as big as last time. And 180,000 homes destroyed is not much in a country with over a billion people in it. But a couple of more earthquakes and and China’s construction industry is going to have a hard time keeping up with the rebuilding and the demands of China’s growing economy.
Coming Soon To A County Near You
From Businesses Week (h/t Calculated Risk)….
A decision not to make the interest payment would place the county in default and put it one step closer to filing bankruptcy over a $3.2 billion bill linked to years of court-ordered sewer improvements and risky credit arrangements.
Such a move would nearly double the previous record for a municipal bankruptcy, set in 1994 when Orange County, Calif., sought protection over $1.64 billion in debts.
And why did Jefferson County take on such a large debt?
Jefferson County got into trouble after it was forced by the courts to undertake a huge upgrade of its sewage system to meet federal water standards and stop raw and partially treated waste from being dumped into streams.
Acting at the suggestion of outside advisers, the county borrowed money for the project on the bond market in a complex and risky series of transactions. When the mortgage crisis hit and banks began tightening up on their lending, the interest rates on the debt ballooned.
The nearly completed sewer project has been under construction since 1996.
New Orleans to get hit again?
It looks like New Orleans may get hit by a major hurricane again. On the plus side, the majority of the oil rigs may be missed. Oil Drum has constant up dates.
Edit: More from Calculated Risk…..
We’re already seeing gas prices get hit. Shell Oil said it will pull all workers off platforms, along with nearly every other producer. More importantly, the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port will halt taking crude this weekend; it’s the only deepwater oil port in the nation.
Nuts.
Obama the Disney candidate?
Richard Candelaria's last dogfight
The Americans and the Germans had totally different styles as to how they manged the careers of their fighter pilots. The Americans would send their fighter pilots home after so many missions to train the next batch pilots . The German’s kept their fighters flying for as long as they could stay alive.
Thus, the top German fighter aces at the end of the war were the best fighter pilots around. But all of the rest of the German fighter pilots lacked basic tactical skills. The Americans aces never even came close to having the experience or skills that Germans aces had. But the quality of the American pilots over all was better.
One of the things to keep in mind about the American aces during World War II is that much of what they shot down were poorly skilled flyer’s who had little skills. This is especially true of those kills recorded in the latter part of the war.
But their is always exceptions. And one particular exception was Richard Candelaria’s last dogfight. In that dogfight, he tangled with two German jets and one yellow nosed BF 109 (the yellow nose being a sigh of an ace) as well as some 14 BF 109’s piloted by the usual low skill dog meat that the Germans threw up in the last part of the war. And he fought with all of them all by himself for what must have seemed like forever, but really was a matter of minutes.
The German’s always put their good pilots in the jets so Chandelaria was tangling with three good German fighter pilots in addition to the dog meat. Unlike so many other American air victories recorded in the latter part of the war, this dogfight took some real flying.
The clips below is part of series talking about mustang victories in World War II. But most of them where fights against low skill opponents. That is why I am only calling your attention to part 4 of 5 and part 5 of 5.
According to this account Chandelaria was shot down by German ground fire shortly after this battle took place. But since this account is based off of second and third hand sources and the writer was not even sure Chandelaria was still alive (he was cause History Channel talked with him for the above clips), I don’t know how far you should trust it.
McCain has picked Palin as his VP
And the Conservative base goes wild. Seriously wild.
Read this BlackFive Post and comment section to see how wild.
Read anyone of Rod Dreher’s posts on the subject (this one in particular). Keep in mind that he is someone who has said they would not vote for McCain.
Instapundit has a more balanced roundup of reactions.
The Volokh Conspiracy blows my mind with a collection of comments from Hillary supporters.
Regardless of the outcome, I am sorry that Palin was dragged into this election. It would have been better for her to stay in Alaska. But from McCain’s perspective, this was a good choice.
Sure he gives up the lack of experience line of attack. But he never could use this without reminding everyone that he an old man who has been in Washington forever. Besides, anyone who truly cared about experience was not going to vote for Obama anyway. So I don’t think McCain gave up a lot in that regards.
In return, McCain gets someone who can fire up the Republican base with out looking too scary to non base types, go head to head with Obama in both public speaking and good looks, and appeal to all those people for whom the gender of a candidate matters (except for those who think that nobody but a real man is fit for office. But what are they going to do, vote for Obama?).
One wrinkle on all this has not been mentioned is that Palin’s only real accomplishment has been to go after corruption in her own party. I wonder if this means that McCain wants to go after the rumors of corruption surrounding the political machine that put Obama in Congress. If that is true, I hope his people checked out the allegations that Palin was improperly involved in the firing of a trooper real throughly.
Edit: Here is the Wall Street Journal on the firing of the trooper….
He said afterwards that Gov. Palin and her husband had pressured him to remove a state trooper who was a former brother-in-law she and her family had feuded with. Gov. Palin denies that, saying she removed the commissioner she appointed 18 months ago because she wants “a new direction,” and offered him a job as liquor board director which he turned down.
The case stemmed from a messy divorce between the trooper, Mike Wooten, and his wife, Molly, who is Gov. Palin’s younger sister. In 2005, Gov. Palin alleged the trooper had threatened to harm her father and sister and that he had engaged in numerous instances of official misconduct, including using a Taser on his 10-year-old stepson and shooting a moose without a proper permit, according to state documents. In one instance, she told state investigators, she overheard him on the telephone threatening her sister: “I’m gonna f—shoot your dad. He’s gonna get a lead bullet.”
Mr. Wooten told investigators he tested a Taser on the boy at his request, thought he was within his rights to kill the moose and never threatened the Palins. An internal police investigation substantiated the moose and Tasering charges, but threw out most of the rest. He was ordered suspended for 10 days in 2006. He declined comment through a spokesman with the Public Safety Employees Association.
Many of Gov. Palin’s supporters dismiss the trooper matter as trouble being stirred up by her enemies. “Many of those who had been in positions of power and authority have been very envious over the past year and a half with Gov. Palin’s great popularity,” says David Carey, mayor of Soldotna, Alaska.
He tested a Taser on a boy and only got suspended for 10 days? If this is true I can see why McCain is not to worried about the whole thing.