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best.quote.ever

A buddy just told me a funny story about when he went to see a movie recently. As the movie previews went by and included the trailer to the movie '300', someone shouted out:

"too soon!".

I love it.

Posted @ March 30, 2007 09:24 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (3)

Congress escalates tensions in middle east

In a clandestine effort to help destabilize the middle east, Congress will begin the execution of "Operation Moonbat" next week. More details here.

At appears that the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi will be leading a crack team of Congressional Crackpots to Lebanon and various capitals of the middle east next week.

The list of crackpots includes:

Democrat Keith Ellison. Congressman from Minnesota- US 's first Muslim congressman.

Democrat Nick Rahall. Congressman from West Virginia, is of Lebanese descent

Democrat Tom Lantos. Congressman from California who is Jewish is chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee

Democrat Henry Waxman. Congressman from California who is also Jewish.

Republican David Hobson. Congressman from Ohio.

Hmmm. Let's see...

Keith Ellison. Middle East Venue. Access to camera time.
Henry Waxman. Middle East Venue. Access to camera time.
Nancy Pelosi. Middle East Venue. Access to camera time.

Oh yes I'm sure that we will hear a great lincolnesque speech on the virtues of America along the lines of 'look what I, a poor muslim child in the wastelands of racist christian Minnesota managed to accomplish, America is truly a great country' from Mr. Ellison next week. Yes, I'm absolutely sure that will happen...

Congressman Rahall was active last summer in trying to end the war between Hezbollah & Israel. And how did he do that you say? well by attacking Israel naturally! He came out against a "bipartisan congressional resolution" in July 2006 supporting Israel during the Hezbollah War. During the war he wrote a letter to President George W. Bush calling on him to tell Prime Minister Ehud Olmert "that enough is enough. It is time for the disproportionate use of violence to end and for negotiations to begin." No word on whether or not an equivalent letter was sent by Congressman Rahall to Assad and to Hezbollah asking them to stop shelling civilians in Northern Israel.

"What did you do in the war daddee"?

"Well son, I wrote a letter."

"Did you sprain you hand, daddee?"

"Why no son, I had my secretary write it, I simply signed it"

"No daddee, I didnt mean did you sprain your hand writing the letter, I meant did you sprain you hand patting yourself on the back?

Lantos? Well I like Lantos, so he gets a pass this time.

Henry Waxman? Haven't we tortured those poor people over there enough? Is this the real "shock and awe" weve all heard so much about? The Shock of Nancys lack of logic and the Awe of Waxmans idiocy? You couldn't do more damange to those folks if you strapped him to the hard point of a B-52 and...

Say, come to think of it, thats not a bad idea...

I have no idea who this joker from Ohio is, but unless hes going to take notes at the first annual "Beruit Festival of America bashing" that will surely result, then its a waste of my time.

You think this Congressional comittee will stop by the former Marine barracks for any sort of photo op?

Now remember kids, "politics ends at the waters edge".

Posted @ March 30, 2007 08:11 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)

Boeing 787 to debut on 07/08/07

Our first view of the new Boeing 787 will be this summer in Everett Washington.

Unlike the A380, the 787 is revolutionary, not evolutionary. Also, unlike the A380, the 787 is already the best selling aricraft in Boeings history, even before the first aircraft as come off the line.

This will be one big show for "propellerheads" like me in the aviation community.

I like the marketing tie in with the date, but it only works here in the states where dates are expressed as month/day/year. In Canada, where dates are expressed as day/month/year, no one will get the connection. Which makes me laugh all that much harder...

So, it looks like I'm going to Everett this summer. (like I need another good excuse to go to the Puget Sound area). So reserve my booths at Burgerville, Dicks, Ivars and the Friday Harbor Pub.

Posted @ March 29, 2007 11:44 AM | Comments (3)

I've seen this movie before

Hostage Taking; It's like the 'Beau Geste' of International Politics.

1. Third tier dictatorship takes Hostages.
2. "Wise old men" advise caution.
3. Third tier dictatorship increases rhetoric, engages in street theatre.
4. "Wise old men" assure their government leaders that diplomatic solution is just around the corner.
5. Public grows angrier by the day.
6. Third tier dictatorship asks for apology.
7. Months pass into years.
8. Hostages released to new administration in attempt to garner favorable negotiation stance.

In the late 1700's and the early part of the 1800's we fought two wars against the Muslims over what was essentially "Hostage Taking". It should be noted that everyone in Europe hated us for it too. We established that we do indeed require a Navy and the Marines got a stanza in their anthem out of it.

In this century, in 1968, we saw this scenario play out in the USS Pueblo incident. Europeans might be surprised to find out that during the event, we didnt attack North Korea like a bunch of "cowboys". Americans might be surprised to find out that while the crew was returned, the USS Pueblo is still in North Korean hands.

In 1978, We saw our embassy in Iran captured by Iranian "students", and we all know how that movie got picked up to be a weekly one hour series thats still running for the last 30 years with the wherewithall of the 'Law and Order' franchise.

This weeks version of the movie is a British remake, but the plot is the same and yet I suspect, that this time the ending might also be somewhat different from the American ones weve seen before.

First, Iran usually does these things through third party actors so that they can use the excuse that "it wasn't us, it was those horrible kids down the street" and then politely tell the world that they would be happy to talk to them if only we could negotiate on other things at the same time. However, this time its not "third parties" doing the evil deeds, but the Iranian goverment itself that has taken the hostages. That doesnt play well with other governments around the world. So, I'm taking this as a desperate act on the part of the Iranians.

Second is a question of timing. Why now? Isnt a week after you get voted down in the UN a bad idea to go kidnapping other people naval personnel? Again, I smell the "stink of fear" on the part of the Iranian government.

Now the Iranians surely are who they are, but so are the British. I know everyone is quick to ask "What would Maggie do?" this week and use it to condemn Tony Blair, but I'm not going to go there yet. The British have a way of doing things and this is their folks that are being used as pawns, so good or bad, I say its Mr. Blairs call to make. I caution those of you who think he should be doing more to remember that what we see in the news is not whats actually happening behind the scenes. It will be years before we find out what was going on behind the scenes right now, so dont use the headlines on Drudge to give you any sense of whats really going on right now. You can bet your bottom dollar that the English are doing what they do best at this point to resolve the issue in a very polite fashion. I also want to remind you that when it finally comes to blows, it should be very clear who's side you should be on and why.

Oh damn, I've gone and shown my hand.

Two things are becoming increasingly more likely as we move forward and they both lead to some form of state level violence between England and Iran. Yeah, It's War I'm talking about.

Oh yes, You should have no fear about our role in this. I'm sure we will get to help out and exact a little not so quiet revenge for our past issues with the Iranians. Usually when 'John Bull' decides to throw down against some little tinhorn pissant dicatorship, we usually get to stand by and hold his coat and warn off the other little smartasses who think they want to jump in and help out the cat that "John" is rightfully kicking the crap out of.

First, diplomacy only goes so far and it also has a language of its own. When the Iranians said "you must apologize" what they really said is "forget it, you dont get them back unless you come back with a much better offer". They know damn well that when they made this offer that England had already provided proof that their people werent in Iranian waters, they just told England the equivalent to "f**ck off".

They just did it diplomatically, thats all.

Second, England has already started to close off economic ties to Iran. We did this sort of thing in 1978, so dont get your hopes up that as a result of England doing this that all of a sudden they will come crawling back to the table, begging the English to give them their pretty trade credits back, because thats not going to happen. The English have just told the Iranians to "f**ck off".

They just did it diplomatically, thats all.

So were back to another remake of the same old movie. Tinhorn dictatorship holds western superpower hostage in humilition which is resolved after much talking at a much later date.

or...

This time, something else happens(maybe- a very likely maybe). Remember, timing is a factor here so pay attention. Iran needs to escalate this little action from 'hostage taking' to something much more serious. Normally, its not in the hostage takers interest to escalate the situation. They just want to get your attention, they dont want you to actually fire up the SWAT Team and come bustin in through the door.

Usually what "state level hostage takers" are after is lots of face time with the other party for the purpose of getting other political issues resolved. We in the West don't do business this way(unless youre in the waste management business in New Jersey and your name ends in a vowel), but in the Middle East, this is business as usual. (Nothing personal you see, its just business. Been going on since the Crusades probably longer, so dont get your panties in a bunch you infidels... )But the timing this time tells me they are after something else.

I think in this particular remake of 'Beau Geste', the Iranians actually want to fight the English. I think that just may be their actual goal. They are waiting for the English to overreact, they are waiting to be able to call for "world wide jihad" as the aggreived party. I think for the mullahs, that may be their only way out of their current predicament.

As of late, things are not going so well for the mullahs. "World Wide Jihad" as a franchise operation isnt exactly going where we all thought it would by this point. To be sure, it exists, but the chessboard has gone more towards our side than towards theirs. Headlines are one thing, but the mood in "the souk" of the middle east is definetly not going towards the mullahs. Add to it the fact that their "Dr. Evil operation" in North Korea has failed to produce a working atomic bomb, which means a ton of money was spent by the Iranians and "lil Kim" converted it all into warehouses of Cheap Brandy, Slim Jims and Skidoos rather than something slightly more nefarious. I take the recent report by the CIA that the North Korean bomb was a "fizzle" as one of the key factors in this hostage taking event. Its not just that the bomb itself was a "fizzle", but that the manufacturing process itself was faulty and that will take time to fix.

Time, that the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary government doesnt have.

The lack of a bomb means that nuclear extortion is probably out of the question, so there goes that line of revenue.

The lack of a full out war in Lebanon with Israel means that the "war against Zion" revenue pipeline is probably not going as well as it could be either, so there goes that line of revenue. Since the Israelis have left most of what can be called 'Palestine' they have diffused most of that anger and as a result lowered that revenue line as well.

"Outrage over cartoons that make fun of Mohammed" pipeline? I think thats at the the bottom of the charts by now.

And you know what, the kids around the campus at good old 'Tehran A&M University' have started getting that look in their eye again, you know the one the Shah and his henchmen saw in 1978 and completely ignored. The locals have all started to point out how similar things are now to those days and remind everyone how fast the Shah fell.

So I'm guessing here, but I think the Iranians actually are looking for a fight this time. The risk isnt that I'm right, because if they want a fight they will get one, the risk is that they might not be actually looking for a fight, but just might get one anyway.

To quote Fred Thompsons character Admiral Painter in "Hunt for Red October":

"This business will get out of control. It will get out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it."

Accidents happen. Not just to our side, but to their side as well. Somewhere on the coast of Iran is a battery of Chinese made Silkworm Anti-ship missiles. All it takes is one trigger happy comamnder to fire his missiles at just the right time and things will, as they say "get out of hand". If he sinks a commercial oil tanker or a military ship no matter the Navy, its war. Not just with England, or the US, any action in the gulf is action against the ecomonies of the world.

Big time.

20% of the worlds oil comes through that little alimentary canal called the "Straits of Hormuz". That little underpaid civil servant in a green suit doesnt have to hit your ship for your ecomony to get completely plinked off the target range. He manages to sink one ship and every insurance company in the world goes absolutely ape. Every futures index goes off the charts and every company already teetering on the edge of solvency will vaporize. And remember, he doesnt have to do it on the "orders of the mullahs", he just have to think it up all by himself. One underpaid man, one imported second hand 1960's generations anti-ship missile, just one ship and a global economy falls into the gutter.All this will happen to the world because of the rash actions of one underpaid junior officer at some missile battery outside of Bandar Abbas.

And thats the risk here. It's a big risk, and its a very real risk.

My advice is to watch closely, let the English do what they gotta do, but be prepared, Admiral Painter could be in this movie too.

And then start to think about what our reaction will be if one of the targets from our friend in Bandar Abbas isnt an oil tanker, but is a United States Navy Nuclear Aircraft Carrier, of which there are two in the area. I know what the President will, but what will those who are afflicted with the last stages of BDS do while our men are being picked out of the waters of the Gulf?

If the "bad thing" happens, you wont be asking "What Would Maggie do" but "What Will Nancy and Harry do" because thats the world we now live in.

Posted @ March 28, 2007 04:26 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)

A380 at LAX

Pajamas Media has graciously posted my article on observations of the LAX event.

Posted @ March 20, 2007 12:57 PM | Aviation | Comments (0)

A380 in LAX: Live

Arrived on time at 9:24am. First, the crowd went wild. Then they realized the aircraft was in fact a Boeing 747. Boos erupted from the press corp and just as quickly followed by laughter.

What have I learned so far? No one talks to you when you have a big badge around your neck thay says "MEDIA". You ask a simple question, they see that badge and suddenly everyone gets a case of the fidgets. its no wonder the media makes stuff up. you cant get anyone to talk to you, so you might as well just create your own story.

Oh yeah, and I've now got a big blue badge that says "MEDIA".

More to follow...

Posted @ March 19, 2007 10:51 AM | Aviation | Comments (0)

A380 in LAX: Gameday

Its going to be busy today. Im off to the Press gaggle in about 30 minutes. From there we get bussed over to the other side of the airport to await the arrival of the A380 at 9:30am Local time.

Were scheduled for about two hours of 'meet and greet' and photos in front of the plane this morning. The soonest I can get back for uploads and a quick writeup is about 1:00 PM.

Check back frequently.

Posted @ March 19, 2007 05:56 AM | Aviation | Comments (0)

The Ghost of Dr. Hugo Eckenar

Dr. Hugo Eckener – Director of the Zeppelin Airship Company, from the window of the Airship LZ127 – The Graf Zeppelin.

In 1929 Dr. Eckener needed to raise money to keep his company in business. His company, the Zeppelin Airship Company was having all the difficulties of a new technology in post war Germany could have. Rapant inflation, political strife unemployment and a web of various trade restrictions that were slowly strangling his company.

He hit on the idea of an “around the world” flight to show off the capabilties of his companies work.. Dr. Eckener was more than just the leader of a company; he was a true believer in the product. The product was the Airship, or as it was also known, the Zeppelin, after its inventor, Count (or in German - “Graf “) Zeppelin.

In 1929, not too many people in the world were arguing with him about the usefulness of airships by comparison to aircraft. While aircraft had clearly shown their value, airships still held much of the public imagination and the conversations in many places would always turn towards what this country or that was doing in the way of the use of Airships.

With the help of Newspaper Tycoon William Randolph Hearst, Dr. Eckener and the Graf Zeppelin made a triumphant flight across the globe. Crossing the Pacific by air for the first time and crossing the globe in the lighting speed of 21 days. While aircraft had also managed to fly around the world, none of them had done it with anywhere the speed an economy of the flight of the Graf Zeppelin.

You have to remember that when the airship Graf Zeppelin crossed the Pacific in 1929, saying that you were going to the “South Pacific” was like someone saying they were “going to mars” today. It was a far off place; there was little contact from the outside world, no radio navigation aids, few real time commincation methods at all. This trip was taken in a world few of us can understand. There was no navigation aids to work with, no weather forceasting that approaches anything like what we have today. When Dr. Eckener and the crew of the Graf Zeppelin crossed the Pacific for the first time by air, it was closer to the accomplishment of Francis Drake and the crew of the Golden Hinde than that of any modern comparative achievement.

When the Graf Zeppelin made landfall in San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge was not yet built, nor the Bay Bridge. Treasure Island, the artificial island at the tip of Yerba Buena Island in the bay was yet to be created.

Yes, there were still cows in Berkeley.

San Francisco was a small village by comparison the metropolis we know today. The Graf Zeppelin then turned south to fly along the California Coastal Range, overflying the home of his benefactor, Mr. Hearst in San Simeon.

The Graf Zeppelin arrived in a Los Angeles that was much different to that world than the place we see today. There was a Los Angeles, There was a Santa Barbara, and there was a Long Beach, but inbetween all of them, it was largely populated by small farms and very small towns. The freeways, for which the area would eventually become noted for, didn’t exist. The cars, which not everyone was yet driving, used hand cranks on the engine to start. Los Angeles International didn’t exist. International Airports, if they existed at all, were in Europe, not on the outer fringe of the western part of the United States.

Where Los Angeles International is today was a cow pasture. In 1928, the city fathers decided to create a new airport in the area where the current airport now sits. “Mines Field” was its name, and the entire airport sat between where Sepulveda Blvd and the 405 Freeway are today. Hangar #1, which is now a Fedex hangar, was built the same year that Dr. Eckenar came to call on Los Angeles. It is all that remains of that time.

If you wanted to go anywhere by air in 1929 Los Angeles, you went to Grand Central Air Terminal in Glendale. You will have to look hard to find it today, because it’s a strip mall. The terminal building has been preserved, but the rest of it is long gone.

In 1929, Dr. Eckener was demonstrating the superiority of European technology to the world by crossing the Pacific and landing in a sleepy California coastal town, far from the bright center of the world. The world rightly sat awestruck at his accomplishment. This was a staggering acheivement in any age but in 1929, it was positively heroic.

In August 1929, it was all chamapagne and celebration for the crew of Graf Zeppelin. The future looked very bright indeed for the makers of Airships. Sitting below the Graf Zeppelin on its arrival to Los Angeles, I can’t help but think that the smart set of the day would have been betting their money on the big, big future for the use of Airships.

It just goes to show you what a waste of time it is to try to predict the future. Stand in the shoes of the people living in LA in the summer of 1929, and see how far it gets you.

While the flight of the Graf Zeppelin is still one of the most successful flights of Airships, the future of airships was far less certain. (Interestingly enough, the only other airship not to meet a less than glorious end due to weather or accident, was the U.S.S. Los Angeles.) No one at the time would predict accurately what would happen to Los Angeles and the world in just the next 20 years.

The Stock market crashed in October 1929, marking the beginning of what came to be known as the “great depression”.

The Hindenburg crashed in 1937, marking the end of the Airship for transportation purposes.

In 1939; War.

The sound barrier was broken in 1947.

Los Angeles International Airport opened in 1949. (And yet, absolutely no Airships were seen at the opening ceremony – go figure…)

Tommorow I will stand on a ramp at Los Angeles International Airport mindful of its past and listen to lots of supposedly smart people with deep and varied backgrounds in business and aviation who will willingly opine loudly and proudly about the future of Airbus and the A380.

And we will all be just as full of crap as a Christmas goose.

If deep within the soundbites that will be made tommorow you hear what sounds to be an elderly German gentleman laughing at us under his breath, you’ll know that the ghost of Dr. Eckener has made his feelings known about the value of our prognosticating the future.

Posted @ March 18, 2007 10:38 PM | Aviation | Comments (3)

Springtime In El Segundo

Ah, Ive arrived back at the old neighborhood. El Segundo California ( It helps the ambiance if you say it like Jack Webb used to say the words "This is the city" at the beginning of Dragnet)

When I last left the industrial core of EL Segundo California, the brick building on the corner of Sepulveda and 110 said "HUGHES" and now it says "BOEING". Once, long before I showed up to work in some small function in the lowest level of its brick basement, it said "KAISER-FRAZIER", then it said "NORTH AMERICAN AVIATION", then "HUGHES" and now - "BOEING". You can trace the history of the Aviation industry by the sign changes on the properties. You can change the signs, you can even change the companies, but the inside of these buildings no matter who owns them or their jobs within, still give you the stale institutional ambiance of the Deparment of Motor Vehicles. Green walls, laminate floors, the occasional detrius from projects of the past. My building had posters made from long since gone satellites that had been launched in the 1960 and 70's. Most of the people I worked with had no idea what these satellites did, or what Hughes had to do with them, but there they were, just outside of the conference room. I'm sure that the "conference room" was used to store paperwork in the 1960s and that sometime in the 1980s it was upgraded to become a "conference room", but try as they might, it still had that "lost in the sands of time" feel about it.

Some things just never go away now matter how much around it end us changing. I'm sure that my desk at Hughes was used by some midlevel bureaucrat to fill out paperwork for the wartime delivery of North American P-51's. Later on, some poor schlub probably used it to write a report trying to explain (yet again) why the Kaiser-Frazier wasnt selling as well as they hoped.

I think the building I worked in might have even been part of the Kelvinator corporation( the refrigerator folks!), but I never found anything while I was there to indicate that to be the case. I did find things from all the other companies I mentioned. Like archaeologists finding signs of earlier civilizations, at Hughes Space and Communications, every time you opened a closet or storage locker you could be sure you would get atleast one "what the hell is this?" as a model of some once "super secret satellite" fell out onto the floor, now oblivious to its place in history or the man hours that were once expended to create it.

But El Segundo is El Segundo. Post World War II - Cold War industrial architecture, sitting shoulder to shoulder with late 1970's glass and beam in the same block as an oil refinery ( hence the name of the town - it was the second refinery, making it "El Segundo") and right there in the middle is a nice set of middle income homes, looking all the world like they were lost in a time warp, sometime around 1965.

Just when you adjust to that, you find that it all sits right next to one of the best beaches in Southern California. Ah, sanity at last you say, and then you drive a bit further and see the sign that leads you to the biggest sewage treatment plant in Southern California. ( And yes, I know you've always wanted to tour a big giant sewage treatment plant, there is in fact a tour for the public! interested in what they find that gets flushed down the pipes every day? Well heres your chance to see your wish fulfilled!)

It's then you know for sure that you are someplace unlike any place else in the world. "The Second?"; if thats the case, I have no real idea what "The First" must be like.

And right in the middle of all of this, sits the home of Barbie, the Mattel Corporation. Well, at least it was when I was here last...

You go to lunch at any of the fast food places in the area and see badges for people working at Raytheon, Lockheed, Boeing, SpaceX, Hughes and always, right there in that line would be some guy from "Mattel". It could be very surreal if you were anywhere else, but this is El Segundo, where nothing is really out of place.

The aviation community here is abuzz in anticipation of tommorows arrival of the A380. The word I have from the folks in the hotel is that the Beach area at the end of the runway is already full of people anticipating the arrival. On the north side of the airport, the highway is blocked off and crowds are encoraged to start forming at 5:00am. All this for an aircraft that doesnt arrive until 9:30am ( which isnt that much different from the time they would need to be at the airport in advance, were they to fly out on it...)

I'm going to pop out and get some dinner, drive around for a bit and see if theres anything worth putting to film.

I'll be back later. I want to blog about the arrival of Dr. Hugo Eckner and the Graf Zeppelin to Los Angeles in 1929 and how much as changed and not changed since then...

Posted @ March 18, 2007 05:53 PM | Aviation | Comments (2)

My Birthright as a Californian

I got to use it today. It's the follwing phrase.

"We were going to go skiing this morning, but we decided to go to the beach instead."

That about wraps it up for those of us who were actually born here, and still remain. Its not "Mark Twain" and it wont fit on a license plate, but anyplace you can live where mountain skiing or playing at the beach is an option for a days play, isnt so bad.

Posted @ March 17, 2007 07:27 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)

Captain Ahab meets the "White Whale"

The A380 is coming to Los Angeles for a big press show on Monday.

Hmmm. The A380 is coming to LAX and Jerrys Deli is right down the road from LAX in Marina Del Ray. Well, thats enough right there to justify a quick visit to my ancestral homeland, dont you think?

Well I thought so too...

So a few phone calls to the right folks,(thanks again Roger!) and my previous Monday plans are now completely shot to hell, just so I can look at the Airbus A380 as it makes its arrival in the United States.

If you're in the area on Monday and you want to get a great view of it without going through the hassle of going into the airport, I recommend going to the In and Out Burger on Sepulveda Blvd at about 9:30am. It's a great place to watch planes on any given day, but this particular day and timeyou will get to see the Airbus A380 arrive. You shouldnt have any trouble figuring out which one is the A380, it will be bigger than anything you will see in the sky or on the airport that particular day.

I don't care that the A380 is built in Europe and competes with the home team of Boeing, all I care is that its an airplane, and it flies. I appreciate the engineering of aircraft the way some people appreciate a work of fine art from one of the masters.

I'm an airplane freak from way back. As a kid I probably made every aircraft in 1/72 scale that existed in kit form. The entire 'Battle of Britain' was fought in minature over my head with model aircraft that were hung from the ceiling. If you've ever seen the model plane collection at the Chino Air Museum, that was pretty much my bedroom as a kid. I'm a pilot and a real life airplane builder as well. My dad used to say that the only reason I worked anywhere was to get enough money to go flying and he wasnt totally wrong. Where most men dream at night of swimsuit models of questionable moral values, I dream of doing Immelmans in a Spitfire or landing on a carrier deck, or just watching the landscape go by from the cockpit window. I have on occasion traveled across three states just to see an obscure one-of-a-kind aircraft( the douglas skyshark - idaho. been there - done that... ) I willingly confess, It's an obsession. Fly a T-6 over my house at any hour of the day and I'm likely to come running out of the door like a kid chasing after an ice cream truck.

Now I get to cover a real live aviation event. I get permission to oogle airplanes.

This is one sweet deal.

Let the blogging commence...

Posted @ March 16, 2007 02:37 PM | Aviation | Comments (0)

Richard Jeni: October 31, 1962 – March 10, 2007

"If you have a choice of selling shoes to ladies or giving birth to a flaming porcupine... look into that second career..."
Richard Jeni - Comedian.

I've noticed as of late that can measure the passing my life by remembering Comedians who have died. I can tell you exaclty what I was doing when Sam Kinison died, Richard Pyror, John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Michael O'Donoghue or Phil Hartman and I'm sure 10 years from now I'll remember what I was doing when I heard Richard Jeni died.

Death is one thing, but suicide? I don't get it. Dying is easy and inevitable, so what's the rush? I always thought it was a shame to waste what life you have when so many were begging for more. How many people in the Intensive Care Units in hospitals around the world cry out for just another hour, another day or to hold on just long enough to hold the hand of their loved ones? For someone to consider suicide just seems so damn angry to me. Its like eating a four course meal in front of a homeless man and laughing at him for what he doesnt have.

I've never understood the process of thinking that would lead you to want to commit suicide, ritual or otherwise. Everytime I see it happen, I understand it even less than I did the time before. I understand cancer, sickness, disease or even "old age", but I do not get suicide.

I don't think I ever will.

It's when I see something like this happen that I'm reminded that for some people, life on earth is a life spent in a very lonely place that is awash in a universe of irrationality.

Posted @ March 11, 2007 07:13 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (2)

What Might Have Been...

The 1973 Colani Motorcycle Study.

Posted @ March 09, 2007 12:07 AM | Comments (0)

Timesuckers

1. New Laptop.

Toshiba Tecra M6(Its not "mine", its from the good folks that actually pay me to work). Theres few things more fun than a squeaky clean new laptop. Add "New Car Smell" and you've got the same rush as getting a new car. Getting a new laptop is like moving into a new apartment, no matter how well you pack, theres always something you forgot to move.

2. Broken Dishwasher.

We seem to grind up dishwashers here at Casa Varifrank. This is the third one in 6 years. Whirpool, Maytag, and now Bosch. Yes, I'm very unhappy about it. You just can't have nice things these days. In the rest of my 45 years I dont think I ever had a dishwasher fail, in the last 6 years - boom - three of them. Why? well of course, I blame Bush...

3. The Big Sleep. 1946 Humphrey Bogart. The Unedited Version( on TCM this evening)

I've been trying to watch it for the past 5 hours. Its a two hour movie. Everytime I get started, I go 15 minutes and someone or something interrupts. Yes, its the one with the incredible and yet most uncomfortable almost like catching your parents talking dirty to each other "Horse Race" dialog that occurs between Bogart and Bacall. You just have to see it to believe it. Elisha Cook from the "Maltese Falcon" makes an appearance.

I get a kick out of watching people walk around in what is supposed to be post-war LA in heavy east coast overcoats and hats. They must've roasted when they made this film. All of the women who appear in this movie are spectacular. Now if I could just get people to stop pestering me about things for the next two hours, I might be able to finish it.

4. Sick Kid. The young one finally got the flu that ripped through these parts last month. I hate it when kids get sick, it has a way of invading your every thought even when everything is fine. To parents, a kids fever, no matter how small, is the boogeyman made real.

Delays occur but the work continues. We will soon return to the further adventures of Mr. Hastings as soon as the deck is clear.

Posted @ March 06, 2007 10:20 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (2)

Libby: A chill wind

Libby convicted.

There is only one lesson to learn from this whole adventure.

Scooter Libbys Rules of Public Service:

Rule 1) Under no circumstances talk to anyone in the press about anything, no matter how trivial or mundane the subject may seem at the time.

Rule 2) The press is not interested in the truth or "giving you a voice", they are interested in their own future book deals and getting invited to the right kind of cocktail parties. If they thought they could get away with outright killing you,( which would naturally get the producer of the Bill Maher show to call their agent and get them booked on the show - because they'd be considered "edgy and provocative"), you'd be dead in a parking lot somewhere, face down with an ice pick in your skull by lunchtime that afternoon. I dont care how much they smile at you, in Washington, every microphone is a snipers rifle, every television camera is an IED. You're not a senior administration official on background, you're a target for a future indictment.

Rule 3) If you are in doubt at any time during your service about what to do when meeting a "member of the press", refer immediately to rule #1.

Rule 4) If you ever think about bending rule #1 "just this once because the truth needs to come out"; refer immediately to Rule #2.

For a press corp that has spent the last 6 years bemoaning access to the White House, I can't see how this helps them. I can tell you that if I worked in Washington and my phone rang this afternoon from anyone in the media, there is no way in hell I would ever pick up the phone. The Sunday chat shows are about to be filled with reporters talking to each other, because no one at any level of government will dare even sit at the same table as the press.

Kinda makes me wonder if this was all part of "Bush's evil plan" after all...

Posted @ March 06, 2007 09:49 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)

Spring Sunday

It's 70 degrees, no wind, light clouds.

So do I sit inside blogging on a day like today or perhaps take the bike out for a spin?

What would you do?

I'll blog when I get back...

Posted @ March 04, 2007 11:52 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)

a brief intermission...

While 'Privateers' is still in production, this is brief intermission. This is the week of tax preparation as well as some overwhelming workload from the revenue producing side of my life.

Here's a few tidbits to chew on during the commerical break:

1. UPS, the last customer for the freighter version of the A380 has now mercifully officially, formally and for the last time cancelled the order. You'll be somewhat shocked to hear this because on Feb 23rd UPS and Airbus announced that both parties had renegotiated the contract. The fine print however said that UPS could walk away if there were any further delays. UPS wanted to take delivery in 2009, but this week discovered that Airbus had already begun to shift workers from the freighter to the terribly behind schedule passenger version of the A380. As a result, deliveries slated for 2009 were pushed back to 2012, so now its "goodbye giant freighter".

2. What can we expect from Airbus now? With no customers for the A380 Freighter, Airbus will in all probability cancel the line, but like most Europeans they wont come right out and say that, they will insist that the company is producing the line, even when its obvious to everyone( just evidenced by UPS ) that there is no such thing.

3. And yes, French Aerospace Unions will go on strike against Airbus to protest job cuts, causing further delays to an already badly disorganized European Aerospace group, making job losses even more certain.

4. McCain announces Presidential candidacy and his poll numbers go down. The last time I saw this phenomenon was at the end of the internet boom when tech companies were hyped by underwriters, until they actually went public and the market responded by not buying the stock, leaving their underwriters with lots of overpriced stock. My bet is Mccain doesnt even make it to the Iowa primary. When you are a Republican and your biggest fan in the main stream media is Chris Matthews, the piece of legislature you are most known for is "McCain-Feingold" which is a byword for excessive government intrusion and you've spent your career as a "maverick against the far right wing of the party", then your chances of securing the Republican nomination during the primary are pretty laughible to those of us out here in flyover country.

Meanwhile, Rudy Guiliani seems to have inherited the "teflon suit" from Ronald Reagan; nothing seems to stick to this guy. He smiles,laughs at himself and his numbers go up every time he opens his mouth.

Hillary! and Obama are going round and around in a sort of "deadly embrace", each fundamentally defined by the weaknesses of the other. He because at the core of it all - he "isnt she", and she because of the bulk weight of the number of posters, buttons, flyers and other campaign ephemera thats been sitting in midwestern warehouses extolling her virtues as a candidate, just waiting for this opportunity to be used.

While Iraq may not go down in history for having finished off Al-queda, it will be noted that it did help end the political ascendancy of the matriarch of the Clinton family. Along with her sparkling demeanor, the "long campaign" is her worst enemy. If she's done in Iowa, she's done. She's the "Howard Dean" of the 2008 campaign, the one who everyone in the "main stream media" put their money on, and the folks in the caucuses just sat back and laughed at.

In 2009, she will replace Howard Dean as head of the party.

Posted @ March 02, 2007 07:35 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (2)