Interesting Sites

It's not often that you'll see me recommend blogs, but there are two I've come across that are quite interesting – Fragments From Floyd and Methuselah's Daughter.

The first thing that struck me about Fragments is how many of Fred's posts remind me quite a bit of places up here in northern New England. At leasts his post about the possibility of getting 'shellacked' by 6+ inches of snow brought a smile to my face. We hardly even bother to plow only 6 inches of snow around here.

I posted a comment to Fragments and that prompted Fred to visit this blog. It turns out that he has his own version of Cadillac Man - “BTW, we have Cadillac Man down here, too, but he is usually driving a truck; and on our road to town, there is only ONE place to pass in 15 miles!”

I think Fred and I are going to get along famously.

Methuselah's Daughter is an unusual blog. I found it purely by accident. Oh, heck, I'm not really sure how I found it. But it's intriguing. To give you an idea, its header states “Musings of an immortal being.” Is this for real?

When I last checked it there were 4 posts, so it is a very new blog. Is MD really an immortal being? Is the URL really telling us she's been around for 3500 years?

If she has, then she's got to have some interesting stories to tell. If not, it's still going to be an interesting trip.

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“It's amazing how 'mature wisdom' resembles being too tired.” -- Lazarus Long

Thoughts On a Sunday Afternoon

It’s been an interesting weekend, so far.

My dear brother and I made it to one of the smaller computer shows on Saturday to pick up some odds and ends – I was looking for a hard drive and floppy drive for my new Linux box, and John hoped to find one of the older Pentium 200 MMX processors to upgrade his Linux box. We both managed to find what we were looking for.

Did I also mention that Saturday was his birthday? Yes, John was born on the 20th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. So the trip to Manchester for the computer show was my rather lame effort at celebrating his 41st year on planet Earth. He was underwhelmed, to say the least.

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On my trip down to Concord Saturday morning to pick up my brother for the trip to the computer show, I ran across an old acquaintance – Cadillac Man. (At least that’s what I’m going to call him from now on.)

You may remember I’ve written about him before and his propensity to pay attention to everything except his driving.

This time was no different.

He was puttering along at 35 miles an hour (the speed limit along that stretch of highway is 55) having a grand old time. Of course when anyone tried to pass him he’d swerve slightly towards the centerline to discourage such a move. And when someone did successfully get past him he’d flip them the Hawaiian Good Luck sign. A couple of times he also honked his horn and flashed his high beams at the vehicles passing him.

When it came my turn to pass Cadillac Man, I admit I felt intimidated. But I didn’t want to be late reaching my brother’s home. So I backed off a little distance, dropped down two gears, and gunned it.

He saw me coming.

Just before I pulled even with him I saw the window on the driver’s side of his car roll down. As I pulled even with him, he stuck his arm out and flipped me the bird big time. Maybe it was because I was a repeat offender in his eyes, but no one else passing him got the up close and personal touch. I’m not sure whether to be pleased or offended that he considered me a special case.

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A discussion with my friend Dawn reminded me of some of the advice I’d given to her and her husband Tim when they first moved to New Hampshire from San Diego. This is advice she passed on to some other friends – Tom and Kelcey – who made the move to New Hampshire from California not that long ago.

“Ninety percent of town business is discussed, debated, and handled at the town dump. It may be formalized at Town Meeting in March, but for the most part folks hash out the issues at the dump on Saturdays and Sundays. The dump is also where you can find out just about anything about what’s going on in town. That, and sometimes you find pretty nifty stuff at the dump that you can make use of.”

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This is one of those old Down East Maine kind of stories that everyone likes to hear now and then, the kind where everyone groans at the end. I first posted a version of it over at Liquid Courage because Vicky was in a bit of a foul mood. I hope you get a smile out of it, too.

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Stumpy Gilman and his wife Martha attended the Maine State Fair just outside Bangor every year. Every year there was a fellow there that gave airplane rides for the tidy sum of ten dollars.

And every year stumpy would say to Martha, "Mahtha, I think I'd like to take a ride in that young feller's aeroplane."

"But Stumpy," Martha would say, "that ride costs ten dollars! And after all, ten dollars is ten dollars."

Every year Stumpy would express his desire to take that aeroplane ride and every year Martha would tell him, "But Stumpy, that ride costs ten dollars. And after all, ten dollars is ten dollars."

Now Stumpy was getting along in years and he felt that if he didn't get his aeroplane ride this year, he never would.

It finally came to a head as Stumpy and Martha were standing at the fried dough stand at this year's Maine State Fair.

"Now Mahtha, I ain't gettin' any younger. I'm 71 years old and by gum, I'm gonna to a ride in that there aeroplane!"

"But Stumpy, we've been over this year after year. It costs ten dollars! And after all, ten dollars is ten dollars!"

Their arguing went on as they ate their fried dough and then their french fries (with vinegar) and their barbecued sausages. As their argument was getting heated, they happened to be passing by the fellow giving aeroplane rides. He could help but overhearing their argument and decide he should step in.

"I couldn't help but hearin' your argument, so I tell you what I'll do. I'll give you both a ride for free, but with one condition. If I hear a peep out of either one of you while we're flying, you'll both owe me ten dollars."

Well Stumpy looked at Martha, and Martha looked at Stumpy. No words were needed.

"All right, young feller, you got yourself a deal."

Martha and Stumpy climbed in to the fellow's aeroplane and strapped themselves in. The engine started, they taxied out on to the grass, and the next thing they knew they were flying over the State Fair.

Now the young fellow wasn't about to let the opportunity to earn twenty dollars slip by, so he proceeded to do all kinds of aerobatics, trying to get one of his passengers to say something. But they remained silent.

He did loopty loops, and swoopty swoops, barrel rolls, and even flew upside down.

But there wasn’t a sound from Martha or Stumpy.

Realizing that he wasn't about to get any money from the old couple, he gave up and headed back to the fairgrounds and landed.

As he started climbing out of the cockpit, he said to Stumpy, "Well, old fellow, I though I had you after that last bit of loopin' around. But I got to hand it to you, you didn't let out so much as a squeak!"

Stumpy finished climbing out of the airplane and turned to the young fellow.

"Well I almost spoke up when Mahtha fell out of the aeroplane, but after all, ten dollars is ten dollars."

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The skiers have arrived. It’s one of the earliest starts to the skiing season in northern New England in some time. Some of that is because of all the snow that has fallen down in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York. It sounds contradictory, but unless there’s snow on the ground south of the border, the skiers down there won’t be thinking of the snow up here.

The ski areas up here have been making snow for some time and Mother Nature has been adding her own white stuff to the slopes as well. Even Gunstock, the local ski area near me, opened November 30th. That’s their earliest start in five years.

While out on a few errands this morning I saw quite a few SUV’s with skis on their roofs heading north. Almost all of them had out-of-state plates.

I can almost hear the cash registers ringing now.

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And speaking of snow, it’s just started to do that here on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee. Is it a snow squall, or something more? I wouldn’t mind a few inches by morning.

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Something else I saw while out this morning – Ice fishermen. Some of the lakes and ponds are sufficiently frozen over enough to allow ice fishing. While Lake Winnipesaukee is nowhere near ready for anything like that, the smaller lakes and ponds have ice thick enough to support people walking on it.

I’m still waiting for some eager beaver to make the mistake of trying to drive his car or truck out on the ice a little too early in the season. Imagine the surprise when the ice breaks away underneath it and they'll get to watch their car or truck do an impression of a submarine. It happens almost every year.

I expect this year to be no different.

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The New England Patriots beat the Buffalo Bills!

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“Little girls, like butterflies, need no excuse.” – Lazarus Long

Concrete Cuddlers

Yes, this is old as the internet, but it still gives me a chuckle whenever the Season To Be Greedy comes around. Read it and laugh...

WeekendPundit Thought For The Day

It’s been a busy busy busy day for good ole DCE today. I’d hoped to have something more substantial to post this evening (like Part III of the U.S. Military stuff, but it’s still in the works), but other commitments have allowed me very little time to put together anything substantive. So allow me to lean on my old pal Lazarus Long and forward to you, our loyal 5 or 6 readers, some of his timeless wisdom.

I’ll have something of my own tomorrow (I hope).

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“There are hidden contradictions in the minds of people who ‘love Nature’ while deploring the ‘artificialities’ with which ‘Man has spoiled Nature’. The obvious contradiction lies in their choice of words, which imply that Man and his artifacts are not part of ‘Nature’- but beavers and their dams are. But the contradictions go deeper than this prima-facie absurdity. In declaring their love for a beaver dam (erected by beavers for beavers’ purposes) and his hatred for dams erected by men (for the purposes of men) the ‘Naturist’ declares his hatred for his own race - i.e., his own self-hatred.

In the case of ‘Naturists’ such self-hatred is understandable; they are such a sorry lot. But hatred is too strong an emotion to feel toward them; pity and contempt are the most they rate.

As for me, willy-nilly I am a man, not a beaver, and H. sapiens is the only race I have or can have. Fortunately for me, I like being part of a race made up of men and women - it strikes me as a fine arrangement and perfectly ‘natural’.

Believe it or not, there were ‘Naturists’ who opposed the first flight to Earth’s Moon as being ‘unnatural’ and a ‘despoiling of Nature’.” -- Lazarus Long

Acclimating To Living In Northern New England

Quite a few times I’ve written little bits and pieces about what life in northern New England is like. In some cases I’ve described the quirks and foibles of summer people, leaf peepers, and the totally clueless out-of-state visitors. I have, from time to time, given advice on how not to do things if or when someone moves here from somewhere else. (In this case, ‘somewhere else’ means anyplace except Maine or Vermont)

While perusing the always delightful Weirs Times, I came across this column by a former New Yorker still in the throes of adjusting to life here in the Granite State. You have to give folks enough time to adjust to the new paradigm. In the case of Brendan Smith, he’s been at it for only 17 years. (He confessed to me that he’d “been accused of holding a hammer incorrectly.”) With this bit of information and from my own observations of others going through the transition, he’ll need another couple or three years before the process is complete. By then you’ll have a tough time telling him from the rest of us northern New England yankees.

After a brief e-mail discussion with Brendan, he has agreed to let me post his column in its entirety with only a few conditions. So I guess this will make him a regular guest blogger here at Weekend Pundit.

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Our Little Secret
By Brendan Smith
The Weirs Times

Psst!! Yes you!

Listen, I've got a secret to tell you. It’s a secret I've been holding on to for years and I just need to tell someone. I figured since you were the only one reading this, I could tell you. I just hope that I can trust you to keep it a secret.

If you think you know anything about me at all then you’ve probably come to the conclusion that I am the inept Flatlander who moved here from New York 17 years ago and has been searching and trying to come to terms with the New Hampshire way of life ever since. There is much more to the story than that, for you see the person that appears on these pages is really only my alter ego...my secret identity. The rest of the time, whether it be by day or night, whenever the call comes up near or far, I become the champion of the downtrodden Flatlander, the defender of the Big City transplants. You've probably seen me running here and there with a roof rake or maybe stopping a fellow flatlander of making a fool of himself by rushing to save the day at a smoking sugaring house. Yes, it is me. I am Flatman.

But don't stop and think for one minute that all this superhero stuff is any fun. After 17 years of secretly saving flatlanders from totally embarrassing themselves I've been getting pretty tired. Middle Age is no fun for any superhero.

At first it was great. I was a young 29 years old when I was sent from the crumbling foundation of an overcrowded and stressful New York suburb. In order to be saved I was stuffed inside the back seat of a rusted Ford Pinto and sent hurtling at speeds reaching over sixty-miles per hour until I landed in the heart of the Lakes Region of New Hampshire. I knew right away that things were different for me. Just a breath of that fresh, clean air in my lungs gave me the feeling of a power far beyond those of mortal flatlanders.

After living here for a couple of years, so much time was spent dealing with my own assimilation as a suburban city Flatlander trying to come to terms with the many, many things I had to adjust to, that I never really stopped to understand my own powers. It was when I witnessed, one winter, a "new" flatlander in my community risking his fragile limbs trying to actually shovel snow off the roof of his one-story cape. I'm not sure what came over me, perhaps it was a deep force overpowering my mind coming from some far greater power directing my life to its real purpose.... or maybe it was just the Burrito I'd had for lunch, Anyway I knew that I had to help, but I also knew that I had to do it without being known. So I went home, quickly fashioned a makeshift costume out of a soup colander, my New York Mets comforter, a pair of long underwear and a pair of work boots. I slipped together my roof rake (only took me twenty minutes this time) and whisked over to the Flatlander’s house, New York Mets cape blowing in the wind. When I arrived he looked down upon me suspiciously, told his wife to get the kids in the house and then in his best New Jersey accent asked: “Whaddyawant?”

Realizing the growing suspicions in any Flatlanders mind, I raised up the roof rake, pulled down one patch of snow from the left side of the roof, and then, amidst his wide-eyed stare, I left the roof rake on the ground and started to leave. As I turned I saw the small form of the Flatlander’s daughter race from her mother’s arms, come up to my side and ask. “Who are you, masked man?” That was the turning point. I looked down into the sparkling crystal of her shimmering blue, innocent eyes and said. “I am Flatman.” And with that ran across the front lawn, tripping over a snow shovel left in the driveway. Getting up and cleaning the snow from my soaked costume, I continued as fast as I could back home, the snow that had fallen down the front of my longjohns feeling very cold and already working its way to a very itchy rash.

The next day standing on line at the grocery store deli department waiting for my turn to buy some horrendous New England Potato Salad, I heard two women in front of me talking. “They say he called himself, Fatman.” One said. “Strange name,” said the other. I must admit I was a bit peeved. Here I had risked my neck and my reputation to save a fellow flatlander and this was what I got...Fatman??? I knew that I had to now continue on my quest, not just to save fellow flatlanders everywhere, but to clear my own superhero name.

I waited for opportunities. Watched folks actually bringing junk to the dump. I would throw on my costume and run after their vehicles and stop them before they made such a social goof. I would steal out in the dark of night and attach red ribbons to the antennas of flatlanders cars before they drove their cars out of their driveways after giant snowstorms, I’d even watch as they entered hardware stores, stepping in to suggest certain things that they should and shouldn’t purchase. In each case I would let them know that they were being helped by “Flatman.” (I soon found it safer to wait outside the hardware stores since the owners weren’t taking too kindly to my costumed presence bugging their customers.)

Soon I had become known. And soon I had become depended upon greatly, perhaps more than I could have imagined. And soon I had become sick of the whole thing. But here I am today...faster than a speeding Segway, more powerful than a Lionel Train set and able to leap small snowbanks in a single bound and there’s nothing I can do about it. I’ve made this bed, now I have to eat it too…or something like that.

At 47 years old my knees and back hurt a little more and my costume doesn't fit around the waist like it used to. Sometimes, I must admit, that I see a new Flatlander moving in and doing something that could use my help but I pretend I didn’t see it and I go home to watch “The Sopranos.” I'm not proud of it, I just don't have the stamina I used to.
I do spend more time in my Fortress of Solitude, which is actually just the bathroom door shut with a couple of good magazines, but I’m trying not to feel too guilty over the whole thing. It’s not like I’m giving up entirely. I’m just cutting back a bit...downsizing if you will. I’ll still make the big moves when I see something that really needs my help but some things will just have to go as they are. Maybe I can use this time to bring along a younger partner. After all Batman had his Robin, but we’ll see.

So there it is. Thanks for listening. I really had to get this off my chest. I hope you won’t spill our little secret. I know you better than that. That’s why I decided to tell you.

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Brendan Smith can be reached at brensmith@metrocast.net

Unintended Consequences Redux

While my post about unintended consequences earlier this week delved into a very narrow area of interest, Steven den Beste has taken that idea and expanded it to include the entire globe. And while my post dealt with a single concept, in this case ‘Smart Growth’ and its effects on housing costs and availability, Mister den Beste has expanded it to include the unintended consequences that progress made in technology, medicine, agriculture, and other sciences and disciplines have had on peoples around the world. An interesting example is how medicines that reduce the infant mortality rates in poorer nations are found to be one of the contributing causes to famine in those same areas a few years later.

It goes to show that the old proverb, “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions,” is still accurate. If we cured poverty, famine, plague, and other conditions that caused mankind to suffer, the consequence could be that we actually added to human misery a generation or two down the road because there’d be too damn many people on Earth.

Check out Steven’s post and you’ll see what I mean.

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“The difference between science and the fuzzy subjects is that science requires reasoning, while those other subjects merely require scholarship.” – Lazarus Long

U.S. Military Weapons Systems, Part II

In this part, we’ll be looking at various aircraft used by the U.S. armed forces, including fighters and attack aircraft. Much of what is written here is not my work, but is quoted from the various web sites I used and linked to. Here and there I edited some of the text to clear up grammatic errors or correct some awkward phrasing.

Fighters

-- F-15 Eagle

The F-15 is a twin engined, all-weather air superiority tactical fighter. With a mixture of superior maneuverability, range, speed, weapons, and avionics, the F-15 is the premier fighter of the U.S. Air Force. It achieves its aerial superiority through a combination of a high thrust-to-weight ratio and low wing loading. The high thrust-to-weight ratio allows the F-15 to 'go ballistic', i.e. to climb straight up using nothing but the thrust of its engines. The low wing loading (the ratio between aircraft weight to its wing area) gives the F-15 its high maneuverability.

The F-15 can carry a variety of air-to-air missiles for engaging enemy aircraft, including the AIM-9 Sidewinder, AIM-7 Sparrow, or AIM-120 AMRAAM. The F-15 also has an internally mounted 20 mm Gatling gun with 940 rounds of ammo located in the right wing root.

The F-15 also mounts a number of Electronic Counter Measures (ECM) systems designed to help protect the F-15 from enemy weapons systems. “The F-15's electronic warfare system provides both threat warning and automatic countermeasures against selected threats. The "identification friend or foe" system informs the pilot if an aircraft seen visually or on radar is friendly. It also informs U.S. or allied ground stations and other suitably equipped aircraft that the F-15 is a friendly aircraft.”

The Fiber Optic Towed Decoy (FOTD) provides aircraft protection against modern radar-guided missiles to supplement traditional radar jamming equipment. The device is towed at varying distances behind the aircraft while transmitting a signal like that of a threat radar. The missile will detect and lock onto the decoy rather than on the aircraft. This is achieved by making the decoy’s radiated signal stronger than that of the aircraft.

Ground attack capability was added in the form of the F-15 Strike Eagle. A second seat was added for a Weapons Systems Operator (WSO), or 'wizzo' in Air Force parlance. The F-15E is configured to carry Mark 82 iron bombs, Mk 20 'Rockeye' dispensers, as well as other cluster munitions dispensers. It can also carry 'smart weapons', including the CBU-10 laser guided bomb as well as the AGM-65 Maverick air-to-ground missile. The F-15E incorporates a LANTIRN pod, used to improve night delivery of precision guided weapons.

-- F-16 Falcon

The F-16 Fighting Falcon is a compact, single engine, multi-role fighter aircraft. It is highly maneuverable and has proven itself in air-to-air combat and air-to-surface attack. It provides a relatively low-cost, high-performance weapon system for the United States Air Force and allied nations.

In an air combat role, the F-16's maneuverability and combat radius (distance it can fly to enter air combat, stay, fight and return) exceed that of all potential threat fighter aircraft. It can locate targets in all weather conditions and detect low flying aircraft in radar ground clutter. In an air-to-surface role, the F-16 can fly more than 500 miles (860 kilometers), deliver its weapons with superior accuracy, defend itself against enemy aircraft, and return to its starting point. An all-weather capability allows it to accurately deliver ordnance during non-visual bombing conditions.

In designing the F-16, advanced aerospace science and reliably proven systems from other aircraft such as the F-15 and F-111 were selected. These were combined to simplify the airplane and reduce its size, purchase price, maintenance costs and weight. The light weight of the fuselage is achieved without reducing its strength. With a full load of internal fuel, the F-16 can withstand up to nine G's -- nine times the force of gravity -- which exceeds the capability of other current fighter aircraft.

The cockpit and its bubble canopy give the pilot unobstructed forward and upward vision, and greatly improved vision over the side and to the rear. The seat-back angle was expanded from the usual 13 degrees to 30 degrees, increasing pilot comfort and gravity force tolerance. The pilot has excellent flight control of the F-16 through its "fly-by-wire" system. Electrical wires relay commands, replacing the usual cables and linkage controls. For easy and accurate control of the aircraft during high G-force combat maneuvers, a side stick controller is used instead of the conventional center-mounted stick. Hand pressure on the side stick controller sends electrical signals to actuators of flight control surfaces such as ailerons and rudder.

The F-16 carries a number of air-to-air missiles in its role as a tactical fighter. These include the AIM-9 Sidewinder, AIM-7 Sparrow, and the AIM-120 AMRAAM. The F-16 also carries an internally mounted 20mm Gatling with 500 rounds of ammo. It is located in the left wing root.

In its ground attack role, the F-16 can carry a wide array of weapons. These include Mk82 and Mk 94 'dumb' iron bombs, cluster munitions dispensers, precision guided bombs (smart bombs), as well as air-to-ground missiles like the AGM-65 Maverick. The Wild Weasel version of the F-16 also carries the AGM-88 HARM, used to destroy enemy air defense radar systems.

The F-16 also carries LANTIRN when configured for ground attack.

-- F-14 Tomcat

The U.S. Navy’s F-14 Tomcat is a supersonic, twin-engine, variable sweep wing, two-place fighter designed to attack and destroy enemy aircraft at night and in all weather conditions. The F-14 can track up to 24 targets simultaneously with its advanced weapons control system and attack six with Phoenix AIM-54A missiles while continuing to scan the airspace. Armament also includes a mix of other air intercept missiles, rockets and bombs.

The Tomcat is a 2-seat, twin-engine fighter with twin tails and variable-geometry wings. Its general arrangement consists of a long nacelle containing the large nose radar and 2 crew positions extending well forward and above the widely spaced engines. The engines are parallel to a central structure that flattens towards the tail; butterfly-shaped airbrakes are located between the fins on the upper and lower surfaces. Altogether, the fuselage forms more than half of the total aerodynamic lifting surface.

The wings are shoulder-mounted and are programmed for automatic sweep during flight, with a manual override provided. The twin, swept fin-and-rudder vertical surfaces are mounted on the engine housings and canted outward. The wing pivot carry- through structure crosses the central structure; the carry through is 22 ft (6.7 m) long and constructed from 33 electron welded parts machined from titanium; the pivots are located outboard of the engines. Normal sweep range is 20 to 68 deg with a 75-deg "oversweep" position provided for shipboard hangar stowage; sweep speed is 7.5 deg per second.

The F-14 weapons complement includes the AIM-54 Phoenix, AIM-9 Sidewinder, AIM-7 Sparrow and an internally mounted 20 mm Gatling gun for air defense fitted on the left side of the fuselage. The F-14 can also carry the AGM-88 HARM and AGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship/land attack missile for anti-shipping and ground attack missions.

In ground attack configuration the F-14 is also capable of using ‘dumb’ iron bombs or precision guided weapons, such as laser guided bombs.

The F-14 is slated to be removed from service by 2008.

-- F/A-18 Hornet

The F/A-18 "Hornet" is a single- and two-seat, twin engine, multi-mission fighter/attack aircraft that can operate from either aircraft carriers or land bases. The F/A-18 fills a variety of roles: air superiority, fighter escort, suppression of enemy air defenses, reconnaissance, forward air control, close and deep air support, and day and night strike missions. The F/A-18 Hornet replaced the F-4 Phantom II fighter and A-7 Corsair II light attack jet, and also replaced the A-6 Intruder as these aircraft were retired during the 1990s. The F/A18 is flown by both the U.S. Navy and Marines.

The F/A-18 has a digital control-by-wire flight control system, which provides excellent handling qualities and allows pilots to learn to fly the airplane with relative ease. At the same time, this system provides exceptional maneuverability and allows the pilot to concentrate on operating the weapons system. A solid thrust-to-weight ratio and superior turn characteristics combined with energy sustainability enable the F/A-18 to hold its own against any adversary. The power to maintain evasive action is what many pilots consider the Hornet's finest trait. In addition, the F/A-18 was also the Navy's first tactical jet aircraft to incorporate a digital, MUX bus architecture for the entire system's avionics suite. The benefit of this design feature is that the F/A-18 has been relatively easy to upgrade on a regular, affordable basis.

The F/A-18 has proven to be an ideal component of the carrier based tactical aviation equation over its 15 years of operational experience. The only F/A-18 characteristic found to be marginally adequate by battle group commanders, outside experts, and even the men who fly the Hornet, is its range when flown on certain strike mission profiles. However, the inadequacy is managed well with organic and joint tanking assets.

The F/A-18’s weapon complement for air defense include the AIM-9 Sidewinder, AIM-7 Sparrow, AIM-120 AMRAAM, and an internally mounted 20 mm Gatling gun with 520 rounds of ammo fitted in the nose. The ground attack weapon complement includes the AGM-65 Maverick, AGM-84 Harpoon, AGM-88 HARM, various precision guided munitions including JDAM, and nuclear ordinance such as the B-57 or B-61 gravity bombs.

Ground Attack

-- A-10 Thunderbolt II (Warthog)

The A-10 and OA-10 Thunderbolt IIs are the first Air Force aircraft specially designed for close air support of ground forces. They are simple, effective and survivable twin-engine jet aircraft that can be used against all ground targets, including tanks and other armored vehicles. Because of its ungainly appearance, it is known affectionately as the Warthog.

The primary mission of the A-10 is to provide day and night close air combat support for friendly land forces and to act as forward air controller (FAC) to coordinate and direct friendly air forces in support of land forces. The A-10 has a secondary mission of supporting search and rescue and Special Forces operations. It also possesses a limited capability to perform certain types of interdiction. All of these missions may take place in a high or low threat environment.

The A/OA-10 aircraft was specifically developed as a close air support aircraft with reliability and maintainability as major design considerations. The Air Force requirements documents emphasized payload, low altitude flying capability, range and loiter capability, low speed maneuverability and weapons delivery accuracy. The aircraft is capable of worldwide deployment and operation from austere bases with minimal support equipment.

Specific survivability features include titanium armor plated cockpit, redundant flight control system separated by fuel tanks, manual reversion mode for flight controls, foam filled fuel tanks, ballistic foam void fillers, and a redundant primary structure providing “get home” capability after being hit. Design simplicity, ease of access and left to right interchangeable components make the A/OA-10 aircraft readily maintainable and suitable for deployment at advanced bases.

The A-10/OA-10 has excellent maneuverability at low air speeds and altitude, and is a highly accurate weapons-delivery platform. They can loiter near battle areas for extended periods of time and operate under 1,000-foot ceilings (303.3 meters) with 1.5-mile (2.4 kilometers) visibility. Their wide combat radius and short takeoff and landing capability permit operations in and out of locations near front lines. Using night vision goggles, A-10/ OA-10 pilots can conduct their missions during darkness.

The Warthog has an impressive weapons payload capability, with 11 external hardpoints to mount its weapons. These include Mk 82 and Mk84 iron bombs, MK77 incendiaries, Mk 20 Rockeye dispenser, various cluster munitions dispensers, GBU-10 and GBU-12 laser guided bombs, and AGM-65 Maverick missiles. The A-10 can also mount 2 AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles for self defense against air-to air threats.

But the most impressive weapon in the A-10’s arsenal is the GAU-8/A 30 mm Gatling gun. Carrying 1000 rounds of armor piercing depleted uranium shells, the A-10 is an impressive tank killer. To all intents and purposes the Warthog was built around its cannon, giving the cannon an airborne platform to do its job.

Originally scheduled to be removed from Air Force service by 2005, its service life has been extended well in to 2028. Some feel that decision was made because of its exceptional performance during Desert Storm in 1991. During Desert Storm it had a mission capable rate of over 95 percent, flew 8,100 sorties, and launched 90 percent of the AGM-65 Maverick missiles used.

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Part III will look at bombers, support aircraft, and helicopters.

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“Don’t try to have the last word. You might get it.” – Lazarus Long

Unintended Consequences

Despite the good intentions of many people, sometimes actions taken by them have unexpected and expensive consequences. An editorial in the New Hampshire Sunday News illustrates the concept of such unintended consequences. Though the editorial focuses on the effects here in New Hampshire of what is called 'Smart Growth', it also gives examples of the effects of the concept in other states.

“So-called "smart growth" policies show no sign of abating in New Hampshire. Those are laws designed to slow or halt urban "sprawl" and encourage or force people to live more closely together so they can rely less on their cars and more on public transportation. Smart growth advocates love to talk about preserving open spaces and increasing public transit ridership. What they hate to talk about are the unintended consequences of those policies, such as decreased minority homeownership, increased housing costs and worsened traffic congestion.”

My questions is, did they really think this concept through? Or did they get on to the “Me too!” bandwagon, looking at what appeared to be a great idea but conveniently ignoring the big picture? This concept brings to mind a post by Alice Bachini on a similar problem in the post-war UK. (Link via Samizdata) Hopefully we won't suffer the same fate.

“Last week Gov. Jeanne Shaheen issued what may be her last executive order. It called for all state agencies to apply the principles of the smart growth movement when expanding or awarding grants. This makes good sense in some areas. When agencies need new buildings, why shouldn't they look first at building in already developed places, preferably where housing is not far away?”

That part certainly makes sense, doesn't it? Now only if they can pull it off.

“But the idea can be taken to extremes and have consequences not in line with its intentions, especially when restrictions are imposed at the local level. A new study released this month by the Washington, D.C.-based National Center for Public Policy Research concludes that smart growth restrictions "heavily penalize minorities and poor." What is more, they fail to generate the environmental benefits their proponents tout.”

They had the right idea, but it was poorly thought out and poorly executed. It's not a new story, but now the state government has added to the problem.

“Portland, Ore. is the mecca of the smart growth movement. It has severely strict growth controls that have been shown in several studies to have increased housing prices dramatically. Accounting for the increase in family incomes and the increase in housing prices, the NCPPR study, which was conducted by an economic research firm in Portland, Ore., found that if Portland-style controls had been adopted nationally a decade ago, 260,000 minority Americans who are homeowners now would not have been able to buy their homes. A total of a million urban homeowners would have been priced out of the housing market.”

Hmm. I guess they didn't see that coming, did they?

“The study found that Portland's growth restrictions have increased suburbanization in that city, exactly the opposite of the intended effect. The smart growth policies there, which began a dozen years ago, have failed to reduce reliance on automobiles or reduce traffic congestion, according to the findings.”

Can you say 'suburban sprawl'? Sure you can....

“New Hampshire has the 13th toughest smart growth laws in the country, according to the Sierra Club. Shaheen's executive order, while probably doing some good in some instances, runs the risk of exacerbating some of the negative effects of smart growth, especially as it will encourage local planners to further restrict growth. Gov.-elect Craig Benson should consider reworking the order when he takes office.”

The housing market is already tight here in the Northeast, as it is in a number of places around the U.S. Making it more difficult and expensive to build needed housing is pretty dumb, exasperating an already critical shortage of housing, affordable or otherwise. 'Smart Growth' is an idea that needs to go back to the drawing board before we all end up on on the street.

Thoughts On A Sunday Afternoon

Here it is, the Thanksgiving weekend, and New England weather is proving to be as schizophrenic as ever. We’ve gone from whiteout conditions to sunny skies, from freezing cold with blustery winds to somewhat warmer with no breeze, and all of that over a period of less than 48 hours. It was nice and warm this morning, relatively speaking, got a bit windy and colder around noon, and now it’s back to warm and calm. It’s typical New England weather in late fall, that kind of almost winter weather that gives us a preview of what’s to come.

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A few moments ago one of the tourist trains of the Winnipesaukee Railroad just crossed over the channel at the blazing speed of 2 mph, probably a last run of the trains until spring.

There were 5 passenger cars and two locomotives making their way from somewhere south of Laconia towards Meredith. Every passenger car was full. What the folks on board were hoping to see is a mystery to me. There are no boats out on the lake or in the marinas. All of the fall foliage is long gone, so they weren’t leaf peeping. Maybe it’s one last tour of the now quiet summer resort town, with all of the seasonal attractions boarded up and the amusements at Weirs Beach now silent and ringing only with the echoes of the summer just past.

I walked down Lakeside Avenue at the Weirs the other day and the silence was like a heavy blanket. Where not even three months ago people were still at the beach, walking along the boardwalk, queuing up for a cruise around the lake, eating fried dough or licking ice cream cones, only silence remains. The attractions look forlorn, if that’s possible. Where a short time ago voices filled the interiors and people moved from place to place with that frenetic “I’m on vacation and I’ve got no time to waste” energy, one can only hear the winter winds moving down the avenue. No more flashing lights and signs trying to entice the summer people to sample the delights offered inside. The only signs one sees now are the “Closed For The Season” signs tacked up on the outside of the now unattractive attractions. The lights are dark, the bells unrung, and the only bit of life one sees is the occasional car or truck of one of year-round residents passing through this deserted outpost of summer.

It certainly makes me appreciate summer all the more.

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Believe or not, I’m still feeling the afterglow of our family’s Thanksgiving gathering. The weather cooperated for the most part, making travel easier. Somehow I managed not to overeat too much. We all watched the Patriots beat the Lions. And we had one heck of a good time. Yet another Thanksgiving to go into the ‘fond memory’ category.

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On the downside to this weekend, there’s this:

A little earlier I made mention of the unpredictability of weather in New England. How many people out there familiar with New England would think that we’d have to worry about avalanches? Believe it or not, on this past Friday two people were killed in an avalanche on the eastern slope of Mount Washington in Tuckerman’s Ravine. Avalanches tend to be prevalent later into the winter season in the White Mountains, but it appears that mid-winter conditions exist in the higher elevations.

Mount Washington can be deadly. A good friend was killed on the slopes of Mount Washington when he died in a fall off of the trail along the headwall above Tuckerman’s Ravine. He and some others were on a winter hike on the mountain and a gust of wind blew him right off the headwall. Others have died in hiking, skiing, and ice climbing accidents. The two deaths on Friday do not bode well for this winter. All we can do is pray that no one else will be hurt or killed this winter.

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“Climate is what we expect. Weather is what we get.” -- Lazarus Long

U.S. Military Weapons Systems, Part I

Since my last foray into describing new kinds of new military technology was somewhat popular, I figured I’d look in to systems already deployed by the U.S. military. I have first hand knowledge of the capabilities of some of the systems I’ll be discussing here, so I hope it will be interesting to our 6 or 7 regular readers. This first part will delve into some of the missile systems presently being used. Not all systems in use will covered here, but this should give a general overview of what is presently deployed.

Air to Air Missiles (AIM or Air Intercept Missile)

-- AIM-120 or AMRAAM (Advanced Medium Range Air to Air Missile)

Designated as the Scorpion, but better known as the Slammer, the AMRAAM is what as known as a ‘fire-and-forget’ missile, capable of tracking and destroying airborne targets beyond 20 nautical miles range. Carrying its own radar transmitter, it will lock on to a target and track it even after the aircraft launching it has turned away to engage other enemy aircraft. This means that the launching aircraft can engage multiple targets simultaneously.

U.S Air Force, Navy, and Marine fighter/attack aircraft carry AMRAAM, including the F-15, F-16, and F-22 for the Air Force, the F-14D and F-18 for the Navy, and the F/A-18 for the Marines.

This was the last weapons system I worked on before leaving the defense industry.

-- AIM-7M/P or Sparrow

The Sparrow has a long history with the U.S. military as well as its NATO allies. It is a semi-active (or beam riding) radar guided medium range air to air missile. I worked on four different variants of Sparrow while employed by Raytheon – 7E (it used vacuum tubes!), 7F (the first solid state electronics version), 7M (the first to use an onboard digital computer for advanced capabilities), and 7P (not much different from 7M except that the software for the computer could be updated in the field, as well as adding some new capabilities). There was one other version of the AIM-7, the 7R. The 7R was a dual mode missile, meaning that it used both radar guidance and infrared tracking for terminal guidance. Though I had little connection with that program, I was aware of its existence. The 7R program was cancelled in 1997 as it was seen as redundant in light of the AIM-120 deployment.

The Sparrow is carried by the F-15, F-16, F-14, F-18, and F/A-18.


There were also two ground-launched variants of AIM-7 – SeaSparrow (RIM-7) and Sparrow Hawk.

The SeaSparrow variant is launched from ships and can be used for ship-to-air engagements against anti-ship missiles or enemy aircraft. The SeaSparrow is housed in a box launcher and uses folding fins that extend once the missile exits the launch canister.

The Sparrow Hawk variant used the Hawk Surface-to-Air missile launchers tied in with the Hawk ground radar tracking system. Though never deployed, it gave the Hawk system some additional capabilities.

-- AIM-9 or Sidewinder

In service since 1956, the Sidewinder has been a primary air to air offensive and defensive weapon for the Air Force, Navy, and Marines. It is a heat seeking short range missile capable of all aspect target lock on, meaning it can acquire a target from behind, ahead, above, below, or from the side. Its short range makes it useful in ACM (Air Combat Maneuvering) environments, or dogfighting.

There have been many variants since 1956, however the only operational versions are the AIM-9M and 9M-9. The 9M has advanced infrared countermeasure detection capability, meaning it is more difficult to spoof using flares or other heat source decoys. It also has advanced background discrimination capability and a reduced smoke rocket motor. These modifications give the missile better target locate and lock-on abilities while decreasing the chance of being detected by enemy aircraft while in flight.

The Sidewinder also employs an Advanced Optical Target Detector (AOTD) for fuzing the warhead. The AOTD uses lasers for target ranging and triggers the warhead when the missile is within optimal range for target destruction.

Surface To Air Missiles (SAMs)

-- Patriot

Patriot became famous during Operation Desert Storm in 1991. The Patriot is capable of engaging multiple targets simultaneously. Though designed primarily as an antiaircraft missile battery system, the Patriot was used to shoot down incoming SCUD tactical ballistic missiles fired by Iraq in to Saudi Arabia and Israel. Though it was never conceived as an antimissile defense system, its performance in the Gulf was nothing less than fantastic. Despite the controversy about the number of SCUDs destroyed, the fact that the system was able to engage the incoming missiles at all was incredible.

Upgrades to the Patriot system (PAC-3) have included new and better target discrimination systems, allowing better antimissile intercepts.

The Patriot Missile battery consists of a phased array radar (part of the Patriot system I worked with), an engagement control station, computers, power generating equipment, and up to eight launchers, each of which holds four ready-to-fire missiles. There are about 90 soldiers assigned to a battery, but three soldiers in the engagement control station are the only personnel required to operate the battery in combat.

-- Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD)

Deployed as an adjunct to other theater air defense systems like Patriot PAC-3, THAAD uses a hit-to-kill warhead designed to destroy tactical ballistic missiles. It is capable of protecting population centers, though its primary purpose is to defend dispersed military forces.

The THAAD system consists of four primary components – truck mounted launchers, interceptors, the THAAD radar system, and the THAAD battle management /command and control.

-- RIM-67 Standard Missile 2 (SM-2)

The Standard Missile 2 is the U.S. Navy’s primary surface-to-air fleet defense weapon. It is an all-weather, ship-launched medium/extended range missile. SM-2 employs an electronic countermeasures-resistant receiver for semi-active radar terminal guidance and inertial midcourse guidance capable of receiving midcourse command updates from the shipboard fire control system. SM-2 is launched from the Mk 41 Vertical Launching System (VLS) and the Mk 26 Guided Missile Launching System (GMLS). SM-2 continues to evolve to counter expanding threat capabilities, and improvements in advanced high and low-altitude threat interception, particularly in stressing electronic countermeasures (ECM) environments, are being implemented through modular changes to the missile sections.

It is capable of tracking and destroying incoming enemy aircraft, missiles, or surface ships.

Air to Ground Missiles (AGM or Air-to-Ground Missile)

-- AGM-114 Hellfire

The Hellfire missile is primarily used in its anti-tank/anti-armor role. Different versions have been deployed, but primarily it is the laser-guided version that has seen the most use. The Longbow variant is designed to be used in conjunction with the AH-64 Apache Longbow and incorporates an optional radar/IR seeker, giving it a ‘fire-and-forget’ capability. The Hellfire can be launched from helicopters, fixed wing aircraft including UAV’s like the Predator, and from ships.

A Hellfire missile launched from a Predator drone was responsible for taking out a high-ranking Al Qaida chief in Yemen earlier this month.

The more advanced variant of the Hellfire missile includes dual warheads designed to defeat reactive armor, making it one of the best anti-armor missiles in any military arsenal.

-- AGM-65 Maverick

The Maverick is designed for close air support, interdiction and antiaircraft suppression. It can hit a wide range of targets including armor, air defenses, ships, transportation equipment, fuel depots, and other targets. The Maverick saw action in the Persian Gulf War in 1991. Over 57,000 were used over the course of the war and over 85% of them hit their targets.

There are three versions of the Maverick – electro-optical (i.e. TV guided), infrared imaging, and laser guided. The warhead is located in the center section of the missile body and is cone-shaped. There are two warhead variants used – a standard cone-shaped warhead triggered by a contact fuze in the nose of the missile, or a heavy penetrating warhead using a delayed action fuze to allow the warhead to penetrate the target using its kinetic energy before detonation.

The Maverick can be carried by the A-10 Warthog, F-15E Strike Eagle, and F-16 Falcon. During the Gulf War, A-10 pilots used the infrared imaging Maverick slung under their wings as a poor man’s FLIR (Forward Looking Infra-Red) system, giving them night attack capabilities the A-10 doesn’t usually have.

-- AGM-88 HARM (High Speed Antiradiation Missile)

The HARM is designed to detect, track, and destroy enemy ground radar systems. This can include SAM missile and antiaircraft artillery (AAA) radar and other elements of integrated air defense radar systems. Though not considered a smart weapon and incapable to differentiating between friend and foe, the HARM is still a highly effective weapon. The F/A18, A-6E, F-4G, and F-16 aircraft can carry the HARM. HARM is used primarily by Wild Weasel antiaircraft suppression squadrons whose mission is to take out enemy antiaircraft capabilities, making easier for follow-on strike aircraft to reach their targets without worrying about enemy SAM’s and AAA.

Man-Portable/High Mobility Missiles

-- FIM-92A Stinger Missile

The Stinger is a short range heat seeking air defense missile capable of protecting ground forces from low flying fixed wing aircraft, helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles, and cruise missiles. Originally designed to be fired from a shoulder launcher, it can also be launched from Bradley Fighting Vehicles and HMMWV Hummers. It also has short range air to air capabilities when mounted on Kiowa and Apache helicopters.

The effectiveness of the Stinger missile was well demonstrated in Afghanistan when the U.S. supplied them to the Afghan Mujahadeen fighting against the occupying Soviet forces in the 1980’s. The Stingers greatly changed the battlefield tactics used by the Soviets by denying them use of aircraft and helicopters for close air support of ground troops and armored units.

-- BGM-71 TOW Missile

The TOW, or Tube-launched, Optically-tracked, Wire-guided missile is an anti-tank system capable of penetrating up to 30 inches of armor at a range of more than 3000 meters, meaning it can take out just about any modern era tank. It is considered one of the most lethal short-range antiarmor weapons in the U.S. arsenal. It can be launched by a single infantryman using a tripod mounted launch tube, or from launch tubes mounted on vehicles and helicopters.

Because it is optically guided, the operator must keep the crosshairs of the sighting mechanism on the target. As long as the operator can see the target, he can hit the target. Advanced sights allowing use in low light or inclement weather have extended the combat capabilities of the TOW.

There are a number of variants in service, and newer ‘fire-and-forget’ versions are scheduled for deployment in 2005.

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Part 2 will deal give an overview of some of the aircraft presently being used by the U.S. armed forces.

An Englishman’s View Of America On Thanksgiving

Andrew Sullivan posted an article he’d written for the Sunday Times of London back in November 1996. It’s as poignant today as it was back then, despite some opinions to the contrary. Go give it a look.

(Link via Buzz Machine)

More Noise From The ‘Peace At All Costs’ Left

An editorial in today’s Laconia, NH Citizen brings up point that in war civilians are going to die. This is nothing new, and something my brother and I have commented on in the past, both here and at other blogs.

“No doubt, modern warfare has made monumental technological advances in recent years, including "smart" bombs that are able to strike targets with pinpoint accuracy.

Like an electronic game screen, we saw for ourselves the videotaped air strikes on television, first on Iraq during the Gulf War and then in Afghanistan. We watched missiles lock onto their targets and destroy them in a blink of an eye.

Precision notwithstanding, we still must acknowledge that innocent civilians have been killed by bombs in the U.S. war against terrorism in Afghanistan.

That is a lamentable fact of war.

But professor Marc Herold is making assertions suggesting that precision bombing isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and that the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan has killed thousands of innocents — on the order of 3,100 to 3,600 people.

He implies either that precision bombs are simply not precise, that the United States and its allies have been sloppy with their targets or that allied forces are purposely targeting civilians.”

Professor Herold is a professor of economics and women’s studies at the University of New Hampshire. That right there makes me a bit suspicious since it seems a report he published is quite a bit out of his area of expertise. Maybe his efforts fall under what might be called “The Expert Fallacy”. The Expert Fallacy means that someone who happens to be an expert in one field or another believes that their expertise carries over in to unrelated fields.

Well guess what?

It doesn’t.

Herold’s 200 page report relies on media sources for compiling the numbers of civilian casualties, which is another factor making its veracity highly suspect. He assumes that all of the media reports he used are accurate and true. That’s an assumption he can’t afford to make because many of the foreign media outlets do not adhere to the same journalistic standards as the media in the U.S. (My Gawd! I’m actually defending the U.S. media! What’s next?!)

How many times have foreign media reports of large civilian casualties in U.S. bombing raids been able to be verified by the U.S. media? Not once.

How many of these foreign media sources are antagonistic to the U.S.? Too many.

To quote the op-ed piece in the Citizen, “It’s exactly like taking what is reported on the Arab state television station al-Jezeera as the gospel truth.”

“[Professor Herold] implies either that precision bombs are simply not precise, that the United States and its allies have been sloppy with their targets or that allied forces are purposely targeting civilians.”

What he’s really trying to say is that he believes the U.S. military purposely murdered Afghan civilians. But civilian casualties are a hard cold fact of war. They happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. As in Afghanistan, civilians in Iraq were killed during the Gulf War. Not on purpose, but as a tragic consequence of the war. But these civilians were not murdered.

“On the other hand, more than 3,000 innocent civilians died in New York and Washington, D.C., when the act of war was brought to the shores of the United States. They died as they worked to earn a living. They were not killed collaterally. They were targeted and murdered in cold blood.

Terrorists killed thousands of Americans by launching "barbarous air bombardments" on Sept. 11, 2001.

The reason we went to Afghanistan is because we can’t afford to wait for their next precision attack.”

Maybe it’s my engineering background, but I wouldn’t have used such suspect data in compiling a report like Professor Herold’s. But then again, Professor Herold has a point to prove. Why should he let something as trivial as facts get in the way?

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“Expertise in one field does not carry over into other fields. But experts often think so. The narrower their field of knowledge the more likely they are to think so.” -- Lazarus Long

Thanksgiving Day

I won't be posting on Thursday, and I doubt that my brother will. We'll be too busy with family, eating, football games, and travel.

See you all on Friday and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Global Warming, Junk Science, And Eco-hysteria

For some time now I’ve been listening and reading about the dire consequences of global warming and how it’s All Our Fault^TM. Like much of the debate over the health consequences of silicone breast implants, this one is based upon a number of factors that have some correlation, but aren’t necessarily the cause of global warming. The rest of the debate is based upon junk science that has no basis in fact or tries to tie vaguely related phenomena or statistics together in an effort to say, “Ah-HAH! This is what’s causing the change in climate! It’s us evil humans!” Like one of my favorite nuclear physicists says, “Correlation does not imply causality.”

The biggest problem when trying to address global warming is that many people’s experience when it comes to their local climate is that their time frame is too short. One lifetime is nothing more than a blink of the eye when it comes to entire history of the human race. The variations in temperatures and precipitation for a given are far wider than most people realize. There are a number of factors that affect climate, both on a local and global scale. Few of them are due to mankind’s activity. Let’s look at a few of them.

Volcanism

Volcanic eruptions can have an immediate as well as a long term effect on climate on a global basis. The last large eruption was Mount Pinatubo in the Phillipines on June 15, 1991. Though nowhere near the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history, it was the second largest in the 20th Century. The volcanic ash and sulfurous aerosols from this eruption were lofted over 35 kilometers into the upper atmosphere, blocking a portion of the sunlight reaching the Earth’s surface and causing a drop in the average temperature in the northern hemisphere. The ash remained in the atmosphere for over a year, giving spectacular sunsets and affecting the amount of solar radiation reaching the Earth’s surface. The sulfurous aerosols remained in the atmosphere for longer than 2 years with a similar affect on insolation.

The eruption of Tambora in Indonesia in 1815 brought about the “year without summer”. It was the largest eruption in the modern era and lead to crop failures and famine throughout much of the Northern Hemisphere. Almost 50 cubic kilometers of ash and sulfur aerosols were ejected into the atmosphere.

Solar Output

The Sun’s output isn’t constant. It changes on a regular cycle. There are three cycles that can affect the climate on Earth – the 27 day solar rotational cycle, the 11-year sunspot cycle, and a recently discovered 16-month cycle. There are even longer term cycles that affect the Sun’s output as well.

Between these three cycles, the Sun’s output changes from day to day, month to month, year to year, and century to century. Though the swings in output aren’t drastic, they do have an effect on the amount of solar radiation reaching the Earth. And it is the solar radiation that drives Earth’s climate. Change the amount of solar radiation reaching Earth and you change the climate.

Orbital Variations

Earth’s orbit around the sun isn’t a perfect circle, but an ellipse. The elliptical orbit is affected by the gravitational pull of the Sun and the other planets within the solar system. Sometimes the Earth is closer to the sun (usually during the northern hemisphere’s winter) and sometimes it’s farther away (during the northern hemisphere’s summer). The Earth also wobbles within its orbit due to the moon. At a full moon the Earth is slightly closer to the sun and it’s farther away during a new moon. The difference isn’t great, but it is there.

Axial Tilt

Even Earth’s rotational axis isn’t fixed. The axis wobbles slightly, in part due to the influence of the Moon’s gravity as well as the interactions between Earth’s outer crust and its molten iron core. The variation is slight, but it might have some miniscule effect on seasonal variations.

Other Factors

In the December 2002 issue of Scientific American, an article by Daniel Grossman points out a theory that the most severe drought of the past 12,000 years caused a number of civilizations from Egypt to India to collapse approximately 4200 years ago. The drought lasted 300 years.

The time just after the last Ice Age, called the Helocene period, exhibited abrupt changes in temperature and aridity. These changes can’t be All Our Fault^TM because there weren’t very many evil humans around to cause these changes. There were no SUV’s, no fossil fuel burning power plants, no massive deforestation in the Amazonian rain forest by the greedy capitalists seeking to exploit….er…rape the land, no strip mines to pollute the surrounding ground water. There were at most a couple of million people on the face of the planet at the time and they had little if any effect on the climate. But the climate changes still happened with no help from us.

What I’m trying to get across here is that global warming or global cooling have been going on for eons without any input from us. While it’s true that modern humans do have impact on the environment, and through that an effect on the climate, I believe the effect that we have is quite small compared to the normal climactic fluctuations, great and small.

It is arrogant of tree huggers and Greens to think that if we voluntarily impoverish ourselves by giving up all the Evil Things we own or do that we’ll be able to stave off climate change. The climate is going to change whether we’re here or not. And no amount of junk science or crackpot eco-hysteria is going to change that.

Despite studies by climatologists, the conclusion that global warming is occurring because of human activity is premature. They don’t have enough of a historical record to prove the long term trend. And I recall that when I was a kid in junior high school the climatologists were all warning us about an impending ice age.

I wish they’d make their minds up.

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“Money is truthful. If a man speaks of his honor, make him pay cash.” -- Lazarus Long

Another One Of Those Days

Ever have one of those days where there is so much going on you have no idea which way to turn? It’s been one of those days for me.

I had about a dozen different subjects I’d thought to write about today and I thought all of them profound, but when I actually sat down at the keyboard to put them to ‘paper’ they no longer were as profound as I’d thought. Quite honestly, they were lame.

I’m still working on the military post, and it seems I’ve opened a real can of worms on that one. It isn’t that I don’t know where to start. It’s that I don’t know where to stop. It’s taken on a life of its own.

Other distractions didn’t help, even though some those distractions were pleasant. One of those distractions was a phone conversation with my goddaughter and her parents. They live out in Washington State, so the opportunity to see them doesn’t come very often. We’re trying to work out a visit over the Christmas season. It’s been too long since I’ve seen them. Of course, a lot of that is my fault, but let’s not dwell on that, OK?

Then there’s that shit-for-brains cop killer Andrew McCrae, captured in a hotel not far from my dear brother’s home. It sounds like he’s been overindoctrinated in the anti-globalization movement or overdosed by the Tranzis. About the only movement he should be involved in is a bowel movement.

One of the other good things that happened today was having lunch with my good friend Jane (Sgt. Mommy to her friends…but not of Sgt. Stryker fame). It’s always a good day when I get a chance to sit down with her and gab about everything and nothing. She has a tendency to keep me on an even keel.

So even though all of these things I wanted to write about ended up circling the toilet bowl, it still managed to be a halfway decent day (even though it was one of those days).

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“Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of – but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.” – Lazarus Long

Thought For The Day

The post I’ve been working on about U.S. military technology is going to take a lot longer to put together than I’d thought, and rather than doing a poor job of it, I’d prefer to wait until it’s done right and proper. So for your enjoyment, I offer the following Thought For The Day:

“The correct way to punctuate a sentence that starts: ‘Of course it’s none of my business, but…’ is to place a period after the word ‘but’. Don’t use excessive force in supplying such a moron with a period. Cutting his throat is only a momentary pleasure and is bound to get you talked about.” -- Lazarus Long

Mid-Fall Ramblings

I’d started out putting together a post detailing some of the systems presently in use by the U.S. military, but decided to put off posting the first part until Monday evening. Instead, I wanted to something with a lighter tone to it. So here goes…..

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Eddie and Kim by the house today to take their motorcycle out for one last ride before putting it up for the winter. Eddie had stopped by earlier in the week to put the bike in the garage, but realized he’d failed to add stabilizer to the gas tank. The relatively nice weather today gave them a perfect excuse to stop by, pick up the bike for a ride around the lake, and add the stabilizer to the tank in the process. It’s now tucked away for the winter.

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If you’re really into schizophrenic weather head for New England. As the late great Samuel Clemens once wrote, he noticed 168 changes of weather in a single day while sitting on the porch of a house in Connecticut. As the old saying goes, if you don’t like the weather in New England, just wait a minute.

And if you’re in to extreme weather, then there’s only one place to visit – Mount Washington. The mountain is host to the world’s worst recorded weather and home of the famous Mount Washington Observatory. Though only 6288 feet above sea level, the summit experiences arctic weather and is regularly buffeted by high winds (often in excess of 90 mph). The highest recorded winds at the summit were 231 mph, measured back in April of 1934.

During the summer months it’s not unusual to find temperatures in the 90’s at the base of the mountain with temps in the 40’s at the summit. If you’d like to know what the weather in Antarctica is like, just visit the summit of Mount Washington in the winter and you’ll have a pretty good idea.

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Thanksgiving is soon upon us. I’ve written about how it’s one of my favorite holidays, and this one will be no exception. I’m looking forward to the food, time with my family, and the Patriots/Lions game. It’s going to be a marvelous day!

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There’s one thing I’ve always wondered about – why is it that when men wear women’s clothing they’re called transvestites, but when women wear men’s clothing they’re called fashionable? Seems to me there’s a double standard there somewhere.

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The last boats have been removed from their slips in the marinas. Every slip is empty and looking forlorn. The powers that be have lowered the level of the lake in preparation for the winter freeze. The railroad drawbridge over the channel has been lowered and locked in the down position, ready for the snowmobilers once the season starts.

Summer is finally gone.

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It’s time to start sealing up the windows for the winter. I’ve got my gray window putty and heat shrink plastic sheeting ready to go. But I admit I’ll be putting it off as long as I can. I guess it’s my reluctance to admit that the warm weather months are gone until spring.

The other pre-winter ritual I’ll be performing is finally getting my ham radio antennas installed – one on the roof and a second hanging between two trees in the back yard. It always seems that I wait until the cold weather is upon us before I actually get around to putting them up. Somehow antennas put up in inclement weather always seem to perform better. I’ve never been able to figure that one out.

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Officer Lynn is on the mend. Though she’s still feeling a little twinge in her back now and then, she’s back to work. She did have a bit of fun trying to round up a couple of loose roosters the other day. I guess she never learned that you don’t chase them (they can almost always evade you). Rather you trick ‘em or trap ‘em. She said that the next time she needs to deal with farm animals she’d give me a call.

I hope we’ll be able to spend a little bit of time together over the long Thanksgiving weekend and so far, it looks like we will.

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It looks like the Eddy sense of humor has managed to get one of my nephews into a heap of trouble. Being only 14, he hasn’t yet come to realize that satire and sarcasm are learned arts. Not so much the use of them, but the when and where of using them. This time he used one of them on a teacher at the most inopportune time and managed to draw a 2-day suspension. It looks like I’ll have to take the poor boy under my wing and show him the ins and outs. Sometimes something like this is better left to a non-parental unit like yours truly.

I’ll get him straightened out.

Maybe.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where all the women are better educated than the men, all the men play hockey, and all the children are waiting for the first snow day of the school year.

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“Waking a person unnecessarily should not be considered a capital crime. For a first offense, that is.” -- Lazarus Long

A MODEST PROPOSAL ON CORRECTING THE EFFECTS OF POLLUTION

Okay, I'm in a pissy mood tonght and I haven't been holding up my end of the blog. Fortunately my big brother is both dedicated and prolific- way to go, bro. Still, this has been banging around for a long time and I've been in to the Golden Elixir, so here it is, with tongue only semi-inserted in cheek:


Global warming is probably real. I came to this conclusion some time ago based on my understanding of the rate at which carbon is being deposited in to the atmosphere as a byproduct of the consumption of fossil fuels. I am still unconvinced about the horrific results predicted by the Chicken Little crowd, but I see no harm in an idle consideration of the possible methods to control and reduce general environmental pollution.


First, let us eschew all the conventional thinking on this subject and get to the root cause: what causes pollution? No, not greedy Industrialists, though they do play their part. Consumer–driven capitalism? BZZZZT, wrong again. We want to concentrate on causes, not symptoms. Over-reliance on fossil fuels? No, no, no, no, no…


The problem is people.


There are already too many people in the world and more are arriving every day. I admit this is nowhere near an original idea, but I think there are unexplored avenues here, roads down which the squeamish fear to tread. It is past time for us to gird our loins and take the first step. Don’t be shy.


Why is population the problem? People consume. In order to consume, people must produce. In order to produce, people must expend energy. Energy is not freely available, but must be extracted from energy-rich resources and converted to usable form. Everything that is considered pollution, from CFC’s to litter on the streets to radioactive waste has its foundation in the expenditure of energy to produce some commodity consumed by human beings. There are absolutely no exceptions to this cycle.


In an effort to reduce the effects of this cycle various schemes are put forth seeking to improve efficiency, recycle resources, and reduce consumption on a per capita basis of less renewable resources. These are all very good ideas and are worth pursuing, but they are also doomed to eventual failure. If the world was to reduce per-capita energy consumption by say 35% (and that’s an awfully big number), we would buy at most one generation of benefit. As population continues its unchecked growth those savings are quickly eroded away. Just a 50% increase in population reduces the net benefit to only 3%. Doubling the population results in a net loss of 30%. Keep in mind that we started with an unrealistically high number at the outset and the conclusion has to be that recycling and efficiency improvements can only be one part of an over-all plan.


Another way to mitigate the damage would be to force those of us fortunate enough to live in the developed world to accept a lower standard of living. This is actually being attempted in a very back door way by environmentalists in the US and Europe who seem determined to force us all back in to the caves while they drive around in their SUV’s ensuring the environmental-ideological purity of those they deem fit to survive. Various plans are put forth to limit the population’s access to convenience foods (too much packaging and energy expended), disposable products such as diapers, razors, lighters and the like, all in the name of saving Mother Earth. There is on going resistance to new power plants of any type (even when they are planned to replace less efficient, dirtier facilities) in the hopes that reduced availability will force people to consume less. Again, this is a process that is doomed to failure because the average Joe will only put up with it until it becomes irritating, then it is gone in the next referendum.


"But wait!" comes the cry, "The consequences of failure to act are so terrible!"


Really? Let’s examine the consequences in a worst case scenario. The Earth continues to warm and resources dwindle. Farmland goes arid, sea levels rise while fish stocks are depleted, and skin cancer rates skyrocket as the ozone layer thins. Within a century or even less large swaths of the world’s human population begin to die off. Since the damage the population has done is long-term this die-off does nothing to alleviate the problems and eventually humanity (and most living things on the planet) sinks in to extinction.


In this terrible denouement there lies the seed of an idea. Mother Nature is an unforgiving bitch and she deals with rampant over-population the same way every single time. She is showing us the way, only in this case our technology and determination not to yield to the inevitable stays Nature’s hand until it is too late to do any good. So, let’s give Mother Nature a little assist: I propose that we institute a program to systematically eliminate two-thirds of the world’s population.


Naturally, there would opposition to such a plan, so we as a nation would have to force the rest of the world to go along with it. Fortunately (for our purposes), the resulting war would probably serve to eliminate at least one-sixth of the offending individuals (an entire third if we decide to ignore our silly reluctance to use all those nifty Neutron Weapons we developed to counter those immense Soviet Tank Armies). Of course we would have no incentive to take prisoners, either. After that we could swiftly do away with the worldwide prison population and the political leadership of all the conquered nations.


With those goals accomplished we come to the hard part: eliminating one-half of the remaining population. Fortunately the world is chock full of crazies who could be bent to the task of randomly killing every other person they meet. A nice implanted time-release poison could be used to limit their scope (and add to the body count). Within a couple of years we should have attained our goal. And don’t concern yourself with all those corpses. We will ban all conventional burial practices, and then I’ll introduce you to my innovative Top Soil Reclamation Project. We Need Fertilizer!


When it is all said and done we should have a quieter, cleaner world. Everyone should have a decent home (what with all that vacant property going begging) and our worldwide energy consumption should have declined by 60% or more. There should also be a booming business in psychotherapy as the population tries to come to grips with the horror of the past decade or so, not to mention all the work to be done in dismantling and recycling all those now deserted houses, apartment buildings and other surplus infrastructure


Ah, full employment! And the imposition of the Licensed Childbirth Program should keep the problem from ever arising again. But remember: It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature…


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"May the bridges I burn light my way..." -Norm Goyette

The Ever Increasing Costs Of Health Care

I was perusing Jay Zilber’s blog and came across this. In his post, Jay makes a pretty good case for some kind of national health care system. He does make comparisons of our present system with Canadian and British socialized health care, rightfully blowing off some of the anecdotal evidence that their systems don’t work. But he also makes the point that their health care systems as they are now aren’t adequate. He's on point about the free market health care system in the US and how it is pricing those in the most need right out of system.

“Maybe pure socialized health care is not the answer. I'm not claiming to have all the answers. But one thing I do know is this: Free-market health care is as much a scandal, in its own right, as the worst horror stories you've ever heard about rationed health care in Canada and Britain. We already impose our own brand of rationing in America, by making our health care unaffordable to all but the rich and moderately well off. Possibly, only the chattering classes who have commandeered the debate -- among which I would certainly include professional journalist Andrew Sullivan -- have failed to notice.”

There are a number of reasons why health care costs have gone up in leaps and bounds that Jay doesn’t address, and the single payer health insurance, i.e., national health care insurance, won’t escape those same causes.

The biggest cause of the rapidly rising cost of health care can be summed up in one word:

Paperwork.

The paperwork necessary to run a modern health care practice is staggering. Very little of it deals directly with a patient’s medical history or the actual care provided. Most of it is used to justify any treatment given, any medicines used or prescribed, any tests ordered by the physician, or for government required reports….in triplicate. This is something I’d looked into about 5 years ago. While I thought I knew what the real cause of spiraling health care costs, what I found was surprising.

Between one third and one half of the cost of health care is the insurance paperwork. That’s a lot of money going to waste that could be used to actually treat patients. Talk about bureaucracy in action. And if we are foolish enough to go the route that Canada, Britain, and so many others have, the amount of paperwork will multiply and the quality and amount of medical care will go down.

The second biggest cause of rising health care costs?

Malpractice claims and insurance.

Malpractice insurance premiums have risen even faster than health care costs. This is one factor causing physicians to rethink how they run their practices or abandon them altogether. It causes physicians to run extra tests, not so much to confirm a diagnosis but rather to collect exculpatory evidence in case there’s a malpractice suit. Many will also screen potential patients to weed out those that have filed malpractice suits in the past.

One of the cures for this malady is tort reform. Despite the claims by the Association of Trial Lawyers of America that they help keep bad doctors from practicing, they are not doing us any favors by making health care more expensive. They are doing themselves a favor, enriching themselves at our expense. (Who do you think receives a big chunk of any malpractice award? It sure as hell isn’t the plaintiff.)

Maybe it's time to rethink the whole health insurance structure. I can see insurance for catastrophic health care, but do we really need it, or want it, for the day to day medical needs when in the long run it would be cheaper to pay those expenses out of pocket?

What do you think?

Pelosi And The Socialist Agenda

Since it seems like a lock for Nancy Pelosi to replace Dick Gephardt as the Minority Leader in the House of Representatives, it will behoove us all to keep a close watch on Ms. Pelosi and her socialist cabal. One of my earlier posts, found here, gives a brief glimpse of the attitudes we might expect from the future House Minority Leader and the extreme leftists in the Democratic Party. However, further reading and digging around have given me a better idea of the agenda of Ms. Pelosi and her cohorts despite her protestations to the contrary.

Publius at the Weirs Times writes: “To Conservatives who follow the course of events in the USA, having the other party turn to one of the gaggle of far out politicians from the San Francisco, California area proves that the Democrats have lost their moorings. Rather than defending the constitutional rights for which its founders pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor, these people care only for the “rights” discovered by Liberal [leftist] judges who rewrite the US Constitution and those of several states to suit their fancy at the moment.”

“Forget about free speech – it is only for liberals and incumbent politicians. The right to bear arms? It’s obsolete. Only government enforcers such as Janet Reno’s troops should be allowed to have weapons. The right to own property? It’s gone if the government wants to use it for any plant, insect, or animal except a human being.”

Let’s face it, today’s Liberals (actually I should call them Socialists) believe that all power lies with the courts, and the legislatures and the electorate be damned. The arrogance of these elitist snobs never ceases to amaze me. If legislation doesn’t turn out the way they planned, they turn to the courts to bypass the lawmaking progress. They use extortion of the courts and the trial bar to collect fines, fees and ‘taxes’ in lieu of going through the constitutional process of a representative government and justifying such levies before the electorate.

“The…election of Pelosi to the be the minority leader of the US House of Representatives must be understood to mean that the Democrat Party now is committed to working for more of the same. Much more sinister is the record of the new leader’s association with an arm of the Socialist International of Lenin, Trotsky, and Josef Stalin.”

If Ms. Pelosi has indeed been taken in and is influenced by the Socialist International, as have many others, then shouldn’t she be up front about it and sever all connection with them? If she doesn’t, then she is irrevocably tying in the Democratic Party with the Socialists, something most mainstream Democrats won’t tolerate. Defections from the party will grow and will ultimately destroy it. The centrists and conservatives in the party will depart, leaving the party in the hands of Socialists who do not have the American people’s bests interests at heart.

“There are indications that the baggage which their new leader carries with her may lead more Democrats, especially those from the South, to leave their party for the GOP in the manner of Strom Thurmond, Phil Gramm, Richard Shelby, and Ben Nighthorse Campbell.”

The very heart of the Democrat Party will be eaten out and it will be nothing but an empty shell. The party of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson “will go the way of the Federalists, the Whigs, the Know Nothings, and others.”

And that will be a sad day in America.

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“Political tags – such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth – are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good for the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort.” - Lazarus Long

What A Difference A Day Makes

Did my last post suck, or what? Rereading it this morning I realized I obviously went brain dead partway through writing it. See what happens when you have too many distractions and not enough se...uh...sleep?

Differences

As happens so often, a subject for a blog post presented itself during a discussion with some co-workers. In this case comparisons were being made between people here in New England as compared to other places in the U.S. The discussion compared work attitudes and conditions as well as social interactions in and outside the workplace.

I won’t go into great detail as I have no great wish to bore you to death, so I’ll be sticking to generalities with just a few details thrown in here and there to keep things interesting.

One of the strengths (or weaknesses, depending on your point of view) of living in New England is what some call the Puritan work ethic. For the most part, people in New England work hard, work long hours, and in some cases even revel in it. It wouldn’t surprise me to find out that the Type A personality workaholic was invented here.

One of my co-workers, Kim (of Eddie and Kim fame), made mention of the differences between working here in New Hampshire as compared to California, and the small company work atmosphere compared to the big company work atmosphere. I’ve been exposed to both, at least here in New England. Of the two I find I prefer small company corporate life.

I worked for 20 years for one of the big companies (Raytheon). And while I enjoyed working with bleeding edge technology, the attitude of many of my fellow employees was less than encouraging. Not that they ever shirked or did less than their level best when it came to doing their jobs, but their attitudes towards other employees was something I thought I had left behind in high school. Management attitudes didn’t help, either. Too often the attitude displayed there was one of “Shut the fuck up and do what I told you to do!” It was less of a partnership and more an almost benign dictatorship. Unfortunately, there was more than one dictator, which made it difficult to please any of them. No matter what you did, you knew you were going to piss off somebody somewhere in the pecking order.

After twenty years of putting up with that, the opportunity came to get out. The company was offering voluntary separations with a large cash incentive. All it took was one look at that big bag of money they were offering to give to me if I left and the decision was made -- I was outta there!

In case you’re wondering, I decided to use every penny Raytheon paid me to leave and took some time off. Little did I realize that it would last as long as it did. It was also when I started writing in earnest. So far it’s led to a number of short stories, two novels, and starts on two more.

About 18 months later I took a job with the small fiber optics firm I’ve mentioned now and then. The differences between it and Raytheon are profound.

At Raytheon, permission to try something out of the ordinary that might lead to a new and less expensive way of doing something was damn near impossible to get. There was quite a bit of low level corporate management CYA in evidence. It kind of reminds me of a scene from the movie “Head Office” with Rick Moranis:

“I didn’t make that decision! I approved that decision! Don’t you know the difference between making a decision and approving a decision? Listen, I gotta go! I’ve got a dead father-in-law who’s pissed off because he’s in semi-private rather than private. I’ve gotta Mercedes that’s leaking more oil than…than…than Poland! I’ve got 35 phone lines to answer!” Hangs up and pulls out blood pressure cuff, wraps it around his arm, and starts pumping the bulb. “I love this business!!”

There are actually people just like that in corporate America.

Kind of scary, huh?

At the fiber optics firm, I was encouraged to try new things, or try different ways of doing old things in order to do it better/faster/cheaper. That was true of everyone at the company.

Then, not quite three years ago, our company was acquired by a big company (who shall remain nameless…..unless they piss me off). Inevitably, things changed. There were more rules, more regulations, and more paperwork, but the small company atmosphere remained.

Kim’s experience is different. She spent most of her working life out on the Left Coast where corporate society is different on many levels. One of the biggest differences she notices is there is a lot more corporate gossip in our company. She believes it detracts from getting our jobs done and makes us seem less professional.

At first I thought she was overstating the case. But then I thought about it for a while and realized that there was some truth in what she said. When it comes to ‘shooting the breeze’ with a co-worker, I am as guilty as anyone else is. In some cases, even more so. But the one thing I don’t do (at least as best as I can recall) is gossip. It disgusted me in high school and at Raytheon, and I dislike it intensely at my present company. (Kim wants me to let you know that she was the first to use the phrase “dislike intensely” while discussing this post. I merely stole….uhh.…borrowed it from her.)

But gossip is also something that is unlikely to go away. Many of the people working at our company have known each other for years, some having worked together at other companies in the past. That makes for a strong bond, almost like a family. And families gossip. With large companies, no matter where they are located, that level of widespread intimacy doesn’t exist. Under those circumstances it easier to keep yourself at a distance without seeming standoffish.

One of our other co-workers had commented to her that she would have to adapt, to blend in to get along. He might as well have said, “We are Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.” Why should she have to change just to ‘fit in’? What should she change?

I like her just the way she is. She’s outspoken, and I like that in people. I don’t always agree with her, but I’m always willing to listen to what she has to say. We may discuss our viewpoints, then agree to disagree.

But not all companies are like that here in New England. I know of so many that are not.

And then there are the differences in social interaction.

When I was at Raytheon, I spent very little time with my co-workers outside of work. That has nothing to do with Raytheon, but the shift hours I was working (11PM to 7AM) and the fact that I lived about an hour from work did.

But it’s different at my present place of employment. It’s rare when I don’t spend some time with someone I know from work sometime during the week.

One thing that I have come to know is that everybody has his or her own idea of what is an ideal place to live. I’m not talking about the fantasy of living on the beaches of Maui, but a place to call ‘home’. For me, it’s here in northern New England. For others, it’s in Florida, Tennessee, Arizona, Washington state, Oregon, or some other place within the U.S. Whether it’s the landscape, the climate, the community, or the individual people, everyone has a place that makes them feel like they’re home.

My ex-girlfriend hated living in New Hampshire. It had nothing to do with the weather or the scenery. She disliked the politics, but even that wasn’t what irked her the most.

It was the people.

She didn’t care for the way that the people in the small town where she made her home always seemed to know her business. I’m not talking about the townsfolk knowing what color panties and brassiere she was wearing, but about things going on in her life. It unnerved her when she found out the people in town knew about the trouble her teenage son had gotten himself into. She didn’t understand why anyone would be interested in his troubles. She didn’t understand that most of them were not putting her down or disparaging her for it. They were concerned for her and her son. She didn’t understand that what affects her also affects the community. What they were showing is what is called neighborliness. She saw it as being too nosy. They saw it as looking out for a neighbor – her. It was a matter of misconception.

But she’s now in Virginia after a false start towards Indianapolis. She feels she fits down there. As long as she’s happy, that’s all that counts.

Kim loves it here. As she said to me today, “I have never felt as much at peace as I do here.”

There are some acquaintances and friends that I know who moved up from Texas. They would never move back there. New Hampshire fits for them. They love the people, the neighborliness. They’ve found ‘home’.

There are other friends that moved away and won’t be returning here because they’ve found a place that fits them. They’ve also found ‘home’.

There are two families that I helped make the move from the People’s Republic of California to northern New Hampshire. Both families love it here. As one of them said, “There’s a lot less BS to deal with here than back in California.” Welcome home, folks.

It’s no different than some people preferring to live in cities and others preferring to live in suburbs, along shorelines, in the desert, or in the mountains. The social interactions may be different from place to place, but somebody somewhere will find them perfect while others will think they’ve landed in the seventh circle of hell. The funny thing is that they’ll both be describing exactly the same place.

There is no one place that is the best place to live for everyone, just as there is no one company that is the best company to work for. To quote Albert Einstein, “It’s all relative.”

But it is these differences that make us what we are as families, communities, and as a country. It these differences that can give us great insight. It is these differences that make help make life interesting.


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“Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can’t help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.” --Lazarus Long