argus

I can already envision the head-shaking when this post is read. “I thought for sure ol’ Morris would’ve posted some cheery Christmasesque piece. But oh no…” Etc.

…but I have to. I have to make (yet another) political/newsie post. Hours of sitting around with family led to the inevitable (albeit in passing) discussions about “what has gone wrong in Iraq” and the like. And the lack of knowledge and historical perspective displayed was …saddening. Because, as Victor Davis Hanson writes (in a piece discussing the latest buzz about canning Rumsfeld), we — we, the American public — are to blame for the difficulties in this war. As we were to blame for Viet Nam.

Yes, you heard me right: the American people lost Viet Nam, not the American military (the inevitable mistakes made by the military command in Viet Nam were made orders of magnitude worse by the lack of understanding (and therefore support) of the American public).

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Pics are up from the work dinner outing to David Tran’s family’s restaurant, Phoenix Noodle Cafe.

Today’s lesson: economics.

Let’s see .. current unemployment figures would be described as “low” — if there was a Democrat in the White House. We have record home ownership. Minority incomes are rising faster than the incomes of evil white folks. Home ownership is at a record high. More Americans are working right now than at any time in the entire history of our country, and now we read that the DOW is at a 3 1/2 year high. Why? Because American businesses are reporting better-then-expected earnings. The DOW closed yesterday at 10,737.70 … the highest close since before 9/11. In spite of all of this you will still see talking heads on television talking about how bad the American economy is. I even heard the word “dismal” yesterday.

Curse that Dubya!! Down with Bushitler! The economy’s in the tank! No blood for oil! Save ANWR!! Etc. etc. , ad infinitum and without any basis in reality. The “Right” doesn’t need to do a single thing to marginalize the “Left” — through continually denying and ignoring reality, the Left is marginalizing itself. Good riddance.

In related news, Larry Kudlow writes about the President’s domestic visions for next year.

Question: What does the stock market know that the mainstream media do not? Answer: almost everything.

Saw an article in passing on CNN.com this morning, about Boeing launching a prototype of one of their new Delta 4 Heavy booster assemblies. Nothing really spectacular about it — still old-school rocket technology, etc. etc. — except for this bit:

The successful launch was a critical milestone for the Delta 4 Heavy, which features three of the company’s common core boosters joined side-by-side. Fired simultaneously, each of the three hydrogen-powered Rocketdyne-built RS-68 main engines generates 17 million horsepower, about the equivalent of 11 Hoover Dams.

It’s that last line that gets me. How exactly does Hoover Dam generate something that is best described in dam horsepower? As a reasonably sharp tack, I deduce that the authors of this article (or, really, the CNN.com science desk staff) must be talking about some slightly muddled metric regarding the dam turbine output capacity. Then again, it’s possible that there’s some obscure tie-in to the dam water flow rate. I’m not entirely sure. And even if the dam horsepower angle is technically correct, surely there is a better way to compare these things. Joe America is going to read this article and try and figure out how exactly the comparison is meaningful to him …other than somehow giving the impression that 3 Delta class boosters strapped together and fired simultaneously pack quite a dam wollop.

This one definitely — definitely — goes in the “WTF” category.

http://www.live-shot.com/

In a nutshell (from the website):

LIVE-SHOT is a new concept. You can challenge yourself and compare your skills to other members with our on-line target shooting. We have developed a system where you can control a pan/tilt/zoom camera and a firearm to shoot at real targets in real time. Currently, shooters will be able to fire 10 (ten) .22 caliber rounds at paper and silhouette targets. You may also have a DVD recording and/or the paper target from the session shipped as an option. Look for additional, varied shooting systems along with competitions to come online soon.

Just wait! — it gets better! (more…)