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Vacation Blogging

Yes, the news is full of nothing bad news for the economy but I've never been busier in almost 30 years in the IT business, this is probably the busiest time Ive ever had in this business. Busier even more than the grand old Y2K days or the good ol' dot.com days.

You can read more about whats going on in the world of Information Technology today, here.

Yes, its really happening and its happening right now. Its why I havent been blogging as much as I used to. 20 hour days - 6 days a week. So, im exhausted which means its time for vacation.

In what is to me a most unusual move, I'm going to take time off in the summer, european style. For the next 5 weeks, Im off. Outtahere. Gone daddy gone. Dis-connected.

Well sort of. I've been an advocate and user of GPS tracking software for a long time, so I'm going to try to link my travels over the next 5 weeks to the blog along with some digital photography that I take along the way. Thats all I'm going to do for the next 5 weeks in the technical realm.

And the picture above? Its all I think of when I hear the word "Waterboarding".

See ya 'round kids...

Posted @ May 30, 2008 10:13 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Character is what you are in the dark

Albert Speer. Opportunist Nazi Dirtbag.

Here is a highly paraphrased and condensed version of memoirs of Albert Speer "Inside the Third Riech" ( Speer was German Minister for Armaments under Nazi Regime): "Sure, I knew Hitler was as crazy as an outhouse rat and what we were doing in the Reich was wrong and totally immoral, but I despite how much I disagreed with Adolph Hitler, I decided not to speak up and to hang out at my office in Berlin for awhile because I knew that there would be a great market for my memoirs after the war. After all, isn't that what its all about? "

Well that was my take anyway. It was the first thing I thought of when I heard some of the things that Scott "Cupcheck" McClellan has written about the Bush Administration.

Sorry Scott. If you were lied to, and you felt that the Administration you worked in as its spokesman was corrupt, out of control and frankly, just plain wrong, then the thing to do would have been to politely resign (as you were free to do at any moment during your service), walk down the street and explain why you did so to the New York Times.

I'm absolutely certain they would have listened to you. The fact that you didnt choose to do that when it supposedly happened to you, tells me volumes, not about the President and his Administration, but about your character. I have to conclude two things, either you are lying now, or you are a coward and an opportunist dirtbag, like someone else I can think of who springs to mind.

Who knows, maybe you are all three, sort of "one stop shopping" for people in need of a low character snivelling little weasel.

Oh, and Scott just to clue you in - nobody likes or trusts an opportunist turncoat no matter what side they are on. People might be smiling and patting you on the back now, but trust me, youve seen the last of anything "confidential" for the rest of your working career.

I hope it was worth it.

Posted @ May 28, 2008 05:08 PM | Current Events | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

If you cant fly against MIGs - Stay out of MIG Alley.

John McCain: "Anytime, Pal..."

Summer 08 -

Unable to run on any record of personal or professional accomplishment, Senator Obama will be forced to talk. Nothing is more risky to a political candidate than being forced to talk, to reveal to everyone their actual thinking on subjects to public scrutiny, their ability to discern facts and most importantly, their ability to lead the electorate. Smart politicians say little as often as they can. Any astute politician knows that public pronouncements and "pretty speechifying" is for strictly for amateurs.

Senator Obama will talk and talk and talk and before long, if it hasn’t happened already he will begin to believe the excitement that is generated every time he arrives on stage. By doing so, He will have fallen into the trap of believing what he says as true and accurate for no other reason than he says them. The things that he says must be righteous and true, for he, the candidate is special, why just look at how everyone loves him. The constant wages of his talking will be as if every day he were to add weight to his wagon. Pretty soon, even a pack of Clydesdales wont be able to tow it.

Labor Day '08 -

At this point in the campaign, at a moment when he feels safe and is certain that the race is his, Senator Obama will say something so incredible, so unbelievably dumb to even the most ardent supporter that it will tear away the set dressing of his act, revealing to the audience what appeared to be marble and fine woodwork was actually just the work of cleaver lighting, burlap bags and 'plaster of Paris' with the words "point towards audience" spray painted on the back in garish day-glo orange letters. The diaphanously thin "veil of believability" once having been pierced, can never be put back.

Look for Senator Obama to repeat his strategy of "not debating" when after going head to head with McCain. The press looked the other way that time, next time they wont be able to.

Mid October '08
Like a magician who's trademark "saw a women in half" trick has been revealed to the audience to be simple act of contortion on the part of his assistant, the candidate will talk more, raise his voice and get more angry at the audience reaction to his failure. Now under scrutiny, the electorate will conclude that the candidate is a fraud and not worthy of consideration. The audience will throw rotted fruit, while the “true believers” will close ranks around their wounded messiah and the groups defined as "us" and "them" will become clearer in their membership.

Barack Obama exists as a viable candidate simply because he is not Senator Hillary Clinton. When Democrats clamor for change, its not just a charge aimed at the Republicans and evil President Bush, its also aimed at their own party. To many of the "progressives" in the Democrat party, Senator Clinton is the past that they want to move away from. They want to change from a party of compromise, a party where Hillary Clinton "voted for the war" to a party that is for its own religious dogma before it is for anything else.

To paraphrase Jim Morrison and the Doors, "they want the world and they want it now".

It is entirely likely that any other candidate would have filled that role equally as well as Senator Obama. In 2004, it was Howard Dean, who certainly filled the role of progressive messiah, but the party at large chickened out not because of "the Dean scream", but because Howard couldn’t shut up. His candidacy should serve as a warning to Senator Obama, but instead, it is serving as a template.

This time, the Democrats are committed to their leftist, progressive messiah. Senator Obama wasn’t the best candidate this party could have put forth, he was just better than all the others who were running, which is not so much of an endorsement of him as it is a criticism of them. He is the dream fulfilled of every Senator in office, to be the "one special person" who comes from nowhere to win "the big prize". Once Hillary Clinton is removed from the possibility of running for office at the head of their party, Senator Obama will have fulfilled his role and will no longer function in the same way. It will be like a wall where the primary support is cut away from under it.

The wall might stand, but it will sag and it will not withstand the slightest distress.

To be sure, Senator Obama has an accomplishment that he can refer to in the future. He has successfully removed the Clintons from the Democratic Party and for that, Republicans if not the nation at large should thank him. Democrats on the other hand have lost a great deal with the end of the Clinton legacy. Democrats will have lost the legacy of a political wing that showed that it could win against the Republicans and regain the heart of middle America, Bill Clinton showed Democrats the best way to win in the modern world and he often worked against his own party to do it. Democrats have decided instead, that Clintonism just wasn’t progressive enough. Like the shakers before them, they will make their own way in the world.

What this election has already shown and will be most remembered for is that Hillary Clinton is not Bill Clinton. It will also be the election where the Democrats finally transform themselves from the party of "Happy Days are here again" to the party of European socialism, a combination of the most virulent components of the European Green Party and socialist Labor parties.

The irony is, that those political parties only succeed because of parliamentary procedures where they are forced to share power with other smaller parties. Our founding fathers have thankfully have saved us from that fate.

Its been said many times that "old age and guile always overcomes youth and inexperience". From now on when this is referenced on the internet, “wikiquote” will say "See 2008 US Presidential campaign".

Honestly folks, I've never in my life seen a bigger political mismatch than this one. I actually feel sorry for the guy because he has no idea what’s about to happen. He actually thinks this is all about him.

McCain will win because he will make a coalition of Democrats and Republicans. He will be the President because he can lead Americans, not just the Republicans.

Welcome to the show, President McCain.

Posted @ May 22, 2008 08:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

my mid afternoon scribbles have come to life!

Yves Rossy, former fighter pilot, defies Euro enviro craziness to create an actual working flying jet-pack.

Posted @ May 15, 2008 07:39 AM | Aviation | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)