Hasty Ruminations

NASA is finally returning to some worthwhile work, after decades of wasted time and money on space shuttles.

The Mars lander is mesmerizing to me.

But, once again, the lander is not what dominates my thoughts.

I want to meet those guys in the other spaceship, who tooks the pictures as the lander was landing on Mars. They are the real story!

It’s funny what a pending book you wrote or had someone write for you does to some people, particularly people who seem to have no morality to speak of, no moral compass, and a willingness to sell their lies (or their truth about previous lies, or vice versa) for any price.

In his book, Scott McClellan says the likely verdict of history would be that “the decision to invade Iraq was a serious strategic blunder”, adding: “War should only be waged when necessary, and the Iraq war was not necessary.” Here is a guy who has managed to avoid any involvement with war, in his reading, in his education, in his service to the country. Heck, I don’t think he even plays World of War Craft on the internet. Yet, as a former White House mouthpiece who then was in his thirties, he is now some kind of strategic expert and the Sun-Tzu of when war is necessary. It proves that he was selected carefully for his White House jobs, as were all the rest: As a liar, he fits right in with Ari, Rove, Rumsfeld and all of them. Because he was at least lying then, or now, or both.

62-year-old Idaho Senator Larry Craig says a new book he is writing will focus on energy policy, the state of politics today, his political career, and, oh yes, the turmoil of 2007 after his arrest in an airport sex sting. Thus, he somehow becomes an expert on energy, politics, and his path to “success” by soliciting homosexual sex in a Minneapolis airport.

If a person is a moral zero, how can he also be judged an idiot? See if he writes a book about it, and then tags on his other agenda items.

The Tagged article (below) has stirred up some fun titles. Here’s a simple participation thing that spun out of another’s memoir title:

What do you think Saddam Hussein’s last words were?

Or, really, any famous person’s last words? Just write ‘em in the comments. Six words or less.

I think Saddam said, “Don’t you think that’s too tight?”

The ever gentle and always frolicsome Sandy has tagged me. The idea is a six word title for one’s memoir. Sandy’s offered two titles: Is That Sandy With An I?, and You Forgot To Sign Your Name.

Here’s mine, the story of my life: A Collect Call. From The Pope.

The rules are simple:
1. Write a six word title to your memoirs.
2. Post it on your blog.
3. Link back to the person who tagged you.
4. Tag five more blogs.

I tag:

A. The very articulate Brenda at Planet Brenda.

B. Judy, who has a penchant for tagging, at Imagine The Possibilities.

C. Suanne, a writer and soon to be bachelor degreed at Tales from the Raven.

And that’s enough for now.

Let’s have some fun!

The U.S. Navy, as it does every year, sent 2% of its world wide fleet of commissioned war ships into New York harbor yesterday, for Fleet Week.

An amphibious helicopter carrier, two cruisers, and two guided missile destroyers. Five ships. That’s 2% of the fleet of 276 ships.

The fleet is so small because the politicians are in love with nuclear aircraft cariers, which cost $4.5 billion each plus $160 million per year operating costs, plus the cost of the airplanes (a couple of billion, I guess.) The cost of a new guided missile destroyer of the Arleigh Burke class is $1.1 billion, including the weapons systems, plus $20 million per year operating costs. So, we can buy six DDG’s for one CVN, and those six can operate cheaper than the birdfarm.

No doubt, carriers are very capable and very impressive, and enemies view them very warily. But we also need more ships, for responsiveness, agility and crew rotations.

Besides, we had an alternate acronym to “CVN”. We called them “HVT’s”.

“High Value Targets”.

American Airlines – the same ones who cancelled all of those flights without warning to comply with safety inspections going back over two years – decided that they have not angered their customers enough. Gerard Arpey, chairman and CEO, said the industry will not sit by hoping things will improve. They will charge for all checked baggage.

“The airline industry as it is constituted today was not built to withstand oil prices at $125 a barrel, and certainly not when record fuel expenses are coupled with a weak U.S. economy,” he said. Despite exorbitant ticket prices and ridiculous fees, and elimination of in-flight service and of course the arbitrary flight cancellations instead of doing inspections as required..

This means that Gerard was not loved as a child. In fact, if he had gone to my grammar school, my high school or my college, his name alone would have targeted him for daily use as a punching bag.

Gerard didn’t see enough negative feedback after cancelling more than 900 flights in one week without notice, so now it’s the extra $15 for the first checked bag. Imagine paying someone to lose your luggage!

Hasty Ruminations has learned that American may also make these further charges until they reach a satisfying CAF (Customer Anger Factor):

1. Divide the overhead bins by seat numbers, and install the quarter/key locks like they have in train and bus stations. $3 for every hour of flight.
2. Restroom quarter meters to open the door. $2 in the first hours of flight; $5 in the last hour.
3. Window shades will be locked up at night, locked down during the day. $2 to unlock.
4. Trash collection $.50 per piece.
5. In flight arbitrator to settle disputes without calling in the airport cops: $500.

Hey, American: I USED to fly you, a lot. I still have Frequently Inconvenienced frequent flyer points. I seldom checked a bag in your RLLDS (Random Luggage Loss or Destruction System), so how about paying ME $15 for not checking a bag?!  THEN we will talk about your failure to do adequate security screening, which has resulted in a whole new goup of feds (TSA) taking away my Constitutional right to fly without everyone seeing the holes in my socks.

Abba Muppets

Speechless. I am speechless.

So Big Brown won the Preakness, race #2 in the Triple Crown, after winning race #1, the Kentucky Derby.

I think he won because he saw what they did to the #2 horse, Eight Belles,  in the Derby last week.  So, of COURSE he won!  Number 2 isn’t a good place to finish; that’s just horse sense.

At the Belmont Stakes, I bet his jockey wears a holster under his racing silks… and lets Big Brown get a peak just before they say “They’re off!”

I can’t leave it with a Trilogy of Hillary, Obama and McCain.

There is, of course, a fourth person running.

The trilogy is complete. We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.