I learned of Neil Armstrong in a bunker at the northern end of Tay Ninh basecamp in the middle of a Vietnamese night.  I was monitoring the Tay Ninh command circuit which included the control tower at the base air strip.  Suddenly I heard "Oh wow, man, there is a man on the moon."  Somewhere in my mind I knew that the moon flight was under way but wasn't very attentive.  So, for me, any discussion of the moon mission is is conflated with Viet Nam and that hippie sounding "Oh wow, man..."

It is amazing to me that we could have conducted that massive war and, oh by the way, simultaneously sent a man to the moon.  What an amazing nation.

RIP, Neil Armstrong.

Wow. Gave up on tissues, using paper towels.

-GM

When I looked at NRO this morning and saw Rich Lowery's "...no one at National Review shares Derb’s appalling view.." in The Corner I immediately followed the links (slowly, TakiMag servers are a bit overloaded) and thought about the whole scenario for a few minutes.  Then, having just received the biography of Bill Rusher from NRO, I fixated on it its title "If Not Us, Who?"

Derb wrote some uncomfortable truths, both social and scientific.  And, IMHO, that we don't talk about them in a meaningful is the single largest contributor to racial strife in the US.

We, on the right, are discussing it.  The "Who" is us.  Now what are we going to do about and will anyone not on the right listen?

I think of the race baiters, and sadly conclude "probably not".  They'll just run Derb out of town on a rail and not ask why this acerbic but smart man would publish this.  The answer might be enlightening.

After posting I began to think of the impact employment has on travel.  I've had a long career in technology consulting mostly dealing with system architecture and high performance, high volume databases.  I lived in the wonderful little town of Granby, CT because it was almost equidistant between Boston and New York City. On the days I wasn't at AEtna in Hartford, I was driving to Boston or New Haven, the latter to I could catch the Metro Express to NYC.  On the remaining days I was catching the plane to Toronto or Quebec City.  Oh yeah, and one crazy "you have to be in London tomorrow" excursion.

Has anybody else lived like that? Pretty much constant motion over a region for an extended period of time?  I started my own company in Atlanta after I came back from Mexico and did the same regional type work over the South East and Mid-West.  Weird, no?  It must be a habit.

-GM

Hmm, when I picked random colors South Dakota wound up white but I've spent time in Rapid City and Sioux Falls.  Strangely, I've made the two outlying states through service in Vietnam, Alaska going there and Hawaii on R&R from there.

I've lived in 11 states.  Most of this gypsy existence has been the result of being a technology consultant about 30 years.  I've had gigs in states where I flew in so frequently it felt like I lived there.

Have made 5 provinces in Canada and lived for a year in Mexico City doing a consult.

70.  It would have been higher if I hadn't been blessed with a mother that sewed prom dresses etc. to pay the tuition that got me into a Jesuit high school, that got me into Cal Berkeley (class of '70, an interesting time to attend) and out of El Paso.  A stint in the Army, active and reserves, garnered some extra points.  And since my mother was "southren" lady, I was raised an evangelical Christian and came to know country music.  However, those guys in the long cassocks got me to eventually convert to Catholicism as an adult; that probably cost a few points!

We should watch out for some water well damage that does come from "fracking" but didn't occur in gas shale.  "Fracking" has been around a long time, much longer than the current gas "fracking" efforts.  In the early 80's, when I was in the "awl bid'niss" in Houston, my employer (still around but three acquisition's later) manufactured "frack balls"; small rubber covered metal balls that were used in "fracking" operations in petroleum fields, not gas or shale.  The purpose was the same, to create fractures the geological formations allowing (in those days) high pressure water or steam to pumped into wells that were in "tertiary recovery" conditions. The frack balls helped create the fractures and kept them open.  These processes (in areas like the "Austin Chalk" in Texas) were at more conventional depths (2 - 3 k feet), so water contamination was more probable.  Watch for people to blame current shale operations for contamination caused by 30 year old, geologically and technically different operations.

"I still don't see why I should be concerned..."

It strikes me that the notion of "moral turpitude" is absent from the discussion. An edited note from GA legal discussion regarding turpitude; “does the [crime/act], disregarding its punishment, meet the test as being contrary to justice, honesty, modesty, good morals or man’s duty to man?” [Italics indicate an edit on my part.]

Well, we know he isn't honest, nor is he modest, nor has he shown "good morals" or a sense of justice in the past, and he has not demonstrated a knowledge of "man's duty to man".  So, no, he shouldn't be allowed to practice law.  And were I a lawyer employing him as a paralegal, I would be concerned at the cost of checking the result of his legal research for fabrication, omission, etc.

Let him write novels where fabrication is, at least, expected.

It strikes me that the notion of "moral turpitude" is absent from the discussion. An edited note from GA legal discussion regarding turpitude; “does the [crime/act], disregarding its punishment, meet the test as being contrary to justice, honesty, modesty, good morals or man’s duty to man?” [Italics indicate an edit on my part.]

Well, we know he isn't honest, nor is he modest, nor has he shown "good morals" or a sense of justice in the past, and he has not demonstrated a knowledge of "man's duty to man".  So, no, he shouldn't be allowed to practice law.  And were I a lawyer employing him as a paralegal, I would be concerned at the cost of checking the result of his legal research for fabrication, omission, etc.

Let him write novels where fabrication is, at least, expected.

Gang,

A friend, the Chief of Medicine at a very good hospital in the West, advised me that "...nicotine is a great drug, it stimulates in the way you desire. Tired? It perks you up. Frazzled? It smooths and soothes.  Crappy delivery system, though."  This, to a now former smoker, as I was going in for a triple by-pass in his hospital.

So yeah, if they developed a non-risky delivery system, press on.

-GM

A large chunk of this tempest in a thimble can be dispelled by simply defining "hunting lease".  In Texas many citizens lease access to rural land for the purpose of hunting various game; deer, pheasant, dove, etc. don'tcha know?  The persons who lease the land don't own it, don't put signs on it, and generally have to agree to treat the leased space with care.  The Perry's did not and do not own the land, the sign was placed by an owner at some point in time prior to the lease and in painting over the name the Perry's were showing their commitment to diversity by likely violating the terms of their lease. 

Game leases are hard to come by and usually when one has a lease one is careful to respect the owners' rights and property so that you can maintain the hunting rights.  (Yes, I used to share a deer lease near Bandera, TX in the early eighties.)

-GM

Claire, I've been in the technology business for 35 years, in Berkeley, Los Alamos, Austin, and now Denver.  I have learned that technology is, indeed, wonderful...

When it works. 

As to your loss, well I've lost articles, Power Points, even the final version of a critical piece of geophysical code while on deadline, so I understand the frustration.

Then, as my Daddy always said, "It'll feel better when it quits hurtin'".

Regards,

-GM

The single thing that's missing is the notion that the factory owner is also a member of "the rest of us" since he/she enjoys the rights and obligations of citizenry.  And therefore the factory owner has, like the rest of us, and undivided interest in all of the things paid for... by all of us.  And since the interest is undivided, the factory owner is entitled to the shared use of the whole. The factory owner has already paid forward along with... the rest of us.

-GM

I'm just pleased as punch with this focus on Turkish gas related developments.  It is a boiling cauldron that is being ignored in the US press while they fawn over the latest Palestinian noise making.  The seemingly sudden availability of domestic energy sources is hugely important to Turkey.  Like Israel, they may be able to become a net exporter over the next 10 years. I hope that such attractive changes in the the Turkish economy do not blind the Turks to the strategic risks.  It might even be a chance for cooperation in the region if they can get past the national egos.

-GM

"Thanks you" ???  I need the editor.

-GM