7/11/2013 6:00 PM
The Evening Line for Thursday, July 11, 2013
Going through a few articles that have caught my eye but not gotten any real coverage over the last few days (OK, maybe a couple of weeks). Also, some notes on stuff going on around me. I’ll try to keep each one brief. And I’ll stop a little sooner than last time. Maybe.
Been seeing a lot of W lately. Front page of my NYTimes today. The most hated man in America thinks he can add something to the immigration debate. I was reminded recently, during a C-SPAN interview with a historian discussing Viet Nam and LBJ, that LBJ made a political decision not to send National Guard units to Nam. Army Reservists did go, but the rich parked their sons in National Guard units, because the boys could wear the uniform, but never face danger. W was placed in the Texas Air National Guard by his dad, through a connection to a general in Texas. Better TANG than DaNang, I suppose, eh, Junior?
Speaking of despicable, two days ago the Illinois legislature overrode Gov. Quinn’s veto, and became the 50th state to allow concealed carry of weapons. That means guns. CCW combined with ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws sweeping the country means that if Zimmerman is acquitted, it’s open season on hunting humans. You just follow his example. Can’t wait for the new ‘Welcome to Florida, Where It’s Always Open Season.’ road signs.
By the way, regarding the Second Amendment, if you go back to the first link above, to the AirForceMag, the third paragraph mentions that “In every war since the American Revolution, the militia—which evolved into the National Guard and Reserves—was mobilized to fight.” See, we’ve already got the ‘well-regulated militia’, so the CCW laws are based on, well, nothing but the successful marketing of fear by the arms vendors, not on any legal foundation.
In "violent robots" news this week (and neither of them is “Pacific Rim”). First, under ‘never-ending fantasy equals never-ending waste of money’ Reagan’s Star Wars dream of shooting ICBMs out of the sky took another hit this week by not making a hit. They’ve never shot a missile down without being told ahead of time where it would be, and haven’t hit anything since 2008. Doesn’t mean they won’t spend $40B on it, from the end of Bill’s first term (1996) to the beginning of Hillary’s first term (2017). But they’ve got 30 of these useless missiles deployed in Alaska and here in CA, and this failure means they’ll…add 14 more in Alaska.
Second, more impressive and successful, Boeing’s X-47B (read ‘pilotless jet drone’) successfully landed on an aircraft carrier, took off, and landed again, all on computers, no remote pilot involved. While this is a real accomplishment, it’s actually simpler than getting a human pilot to do it. There’s no ego on the drone that knows that it knows better than the guy on the landing deck how to land the plane.
A lot of pilots earn the Order of the Diaper on their first couple of attempts, if you know what I mean. That was a big ol’ adult Depends, not a codpiece, that W was sporting when he was landed on the Mission Accomplished photo op. Can’t have the president on camera wetting his pants. At least not visibly.
Changing subjects to ObamaCare. I think it was a mistake to push any deadlines, especially past the 2014 election cycle. I also hate that the Koch Brothers are funding a huge campaign against it. But the worst part is that no one points out when it's helping people now, already. Worse is when the criminals who made it necessary take credit for its effects. In a letter to the NYTimes on June 7th, Sam Ho, the Chief Medical Officer for UnitedHealthCare (and notice, just a ‘ho’ for the company, not even a doctor) talks about how his company has ‘put relevant medical price information at people’s fingertips’, without pointing out that this is required under the ACA law, ObamaCare, so we can actually do comparison-price shopping. All this new data that is required to be published is intended to change the market from a black hole where the customer is always lost, into the actual open market that Republicans and other small minds have always claimed it was. For good insight on the issue, check out how colonoscopies and births are priced. Makes you cry, don’t it?
On a lighter note, because anything is lighter than billionaires robbing the uninsured, an obituary of a well-lived life. Donald Bevan was a gunner in WWII until he was shot down, then a POW. You may know a bit about it. He co-wrote the play ‘Stalag 17’, which was a hit on Braodway and then on film. Later, he was the third caricaturist to draw for Sardi’s restaurant in New York. (There’ve only been four.) A marriage that lasted over 50 years, too. Talk about lemons into lemonade. Worth the read.
I got a few good comments last time I did this, thank you, as well as a “you gotta let people know what they’re in for, you had a lot in there,” so I’ll leave it there for a while.
Kelley
7/11/2013 7:11 PM
7/11/2013 7:23 PM
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