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There Goes the Highway Money

Wyoming says, “no farther“:

This week, Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal signed House Joint Resolution 2 (HJ0002), claiming “sovereignty on behalf of the State of Wyoming and for its citizens under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government or reserved to the people by the Constitution of the United States…”

“For decades we have shared increased frustration dealing with the federal government and its agencies. What started out as a leak in the erosion of state prerogative and independence has today turned into a flood. From wolf and grizzly bear management, to gun control, to endless regulation and unfunded mandates – the federal government has become far too powerful and intrusive.”

For your own good, of course. Washington politicians are much smarter than those at the state and local level.

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Jumping the Shark

Gareth Porter unveils a conspiracy theory:

For weeks, the U.S. public followed the biggest offensive of the Afghanistan War against what it was told was a “city of 80,000 people” as well as the logistical hub of the Taliban in that part of Helmand. That idea was a central element in the overall impression built up in February that Marja was a major strategic objective, more important than other district centres in Helmand.

It turns out, however, that the picture of Marja presented by military officials and obediently reported by major news media is one of the clearest and most dramatic pieces of misinformation of the entire war, apparently aimed at hyping the offensive as a historic turning point in the conflict.

Unfortunately, it’s not the conspiracy theory he meant to unveil:

Gareth’s argument is supported by an ISAF official “who asked not to be identified” confirming that Marjah is a “rural community” — which adds to the air of a secret plot revealed. Except there’s no secret. The official was me, and I didn’t ask to be quoted anonymously.

Why report the news when you can just make it up?

Update: Oops. Link fixed.

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Taunting Your Prosecutor

Not the best idea ever:

A murderer who wrote a bragging letter to prosecutors when he believed he could not legally face the death penalty has been executed by electric chair.

Although a distant second to Texas when it comes to the article of capital punishment, the Commonwealth of Virginia doesn’t play when it comes to murderous child rapists.

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Drill Baby, Drill

Because if you don’t, somebody else will:

The Obama administration is poised to ban offshore oil drilling on the outer continental shelf until 2012 or beyond. Meanwhile, Russia is making a bold strategic leap to begin drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico. While the United States attempts to shift gears to alternative fuels to battle the purported evils of carbon emissions, Russia will erect oil derricks off the Cuban coast.

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Career Decision

This is one of the reasons that I myself was not much given to the whole “flyover” enthusiasm.

People could see.

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Hateful Facts

Bit of a dispute in the Great White Up. There was a debate between free thinking Wafa Sultan and Danial Pipes that had the temerity to touch on the Aisha situation. In a synagogue.

The whole thing sent “hardened, secular Muslim” Tarek Fatah into something of a lather.

So tell me, any Canadian jurists out there: Is truth, in Canada, a defense to slander?

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Sporty

There was an (I assume) very occasional reader y-clept Deodo who used to drop in on me in PM whilst I was working on my tailwheel qual to offer encouragement and advice. Mentioned that the Travelair I hope to someday fly was something of a dog contrasted to his own machine, the Bücker Jungmann Bü-131. Which, given the video he sent along – from right here at Gillespie – I’d have to agree.

Not that they’re giving away Bü-131s, or anything.

Deodo and his wife Gail, I was happy to see, got a story on his plane in the Pacific Flyer recently.

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Typhoon

Courtesy of occasional reader redc1c4, an English Russia photo essay of a Soviet era Typhoon-class ballistic missile submarine. Menacing hull, impressive crew and operations spaces.

Parlous condition of the valves and gear between the pressure hulls.

Still, at a length of nearly two football fields and 20,000+ tons displacement, that’s a damn big boat.

Back in the Cold War days, we in the skimmer carrier Navy didn’t worry much about Admiral Gorshkov’s blue water fleet, no matter how menacing their physical appearance might have been.

We used to worry quite a bit about their subs though.

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Another One Bites the Dust

Sub CO relieved for cause:

The commanding officer of the Pearl Harbor-based fast-attack submarine USS Chicago was stripped of command Monday after he was found guilty of drunkenness and conduct unbecoming an officer during an ROTC visit last week, the Navy said.

An interesting contrast from previous reports of relief for cause: Not only is the CO identified by name, but also his dereliction identified.

Usually the cause is not released for “privacy reasons,” and a generalized “loss of confidence” in one’s ability to command cited.

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‘Bout Time

The Senate does something useful, while awaiting the House to gain enough votes to “deem” the Senate’s version of health care reform as having passed:

The Senate late Tuesday unanimously passed a proposal that would dramatically boost the number of flight hours that commercial co-pilots must have before they can fly passengers.

Moving forward on a bill to reauthorize funding for the Federal Aviation Administration, senators approved an amendment offered by Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y. The measure would require new co-pilots to have 800 hours of flight experience under specific, rigorous conditions. That’s up from the current 250 hours of general experience.

Of course, from the co-pilot perspective, that just means another four or five years of dragging banners up and down the beach or teaching teenagers and retirees to solo before taking on responsibility for dozens of lives.

Intermixed, of course, with “specific, rigorous” training.

This significant investment of time and money will then allow them to earn as much as $25,000 a year, counting per diem.

Two hundred and fifty hours really isn’t that much in an aircraft requiring two rated pilots. Eight hundred?

Better.

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