Like the US? Thank a pirate!

From a Washington Post Review of Michael B. Oren's Power, Faith, and Fantasy : "In the perilous early years of the republic, the Muslim Barbary powers preyed on American shipping and captured, tortured and enslaved hundreds of innocent men and women. When John Adams and Thomas Jefferson implored the pasha of Tripoli to stop, Oren recounts, the pasha's emissary insisted that the Koran made it the "right and duty" of Muslims "to make war upon" whichever infidels "they could find and to make Slaves of all they could take as prisoners." George Washington raged, "Would to Heaven we had a navy to reform those enemies to mankind, or crush them into non-existence." And Congress did create a navy in the 1790s primarily to crush the Barbary powers and protect American traders and missionaries. President Jefferson -- so often mislabeled as an idealist, pacifist and isolationist -- eagerly launched the war and ordered the permanent stationing of U.S. naval forces thousands of miles from the nation's shores. "

I doubt that many Americans are even aware of the role pirates played in the formation of the United States. When our founding fathers declared independence from Britain, our ships lost the protection of the British navy. Unable to just pay the ransoms (the European way) the United States was at the mercy of the pirates. Thus one of the reasons the states united was to pool their resources and build a navy.

It's interesting that for the last couple of years we're hearing the same thing happening. Pirates operating off the coast of Africa are operating at will and the UN has done nothing about it. In fact, the policy is to pay the ransoms. Finally, the United States Navy Seals heroically rescued an American hostage yesterday. I think most Americans are thrilled to see us using our power, so hard to protect in our defeatist political climate, to defend the our rights of our ships and our people in international waters. My prayer is that our new President acts decisively and doesn't wait for the UN or Europe to dictate our response.

My sleep study

This very exciting (yawn.) I'm now undergoing a sleep study. That is, I will be in a few hours.

It's all because my wife thinks I have sleep apnea. Apparently she is under the impression that ceasing to breathe during the middle of the night is unusual. Hah!

So I agreed to go through with it just to humor her. The upside? I get the TV all to myself tonight!

Lately I've been doing a lot of Twittering. WEll, I guess I haven't been doing it as much as being twittered by other folks. I'm following Lance Armstrong, who is a manic twitterer. So is Rainn Wilson, who is one funny fellow. Jimmy Fallon is also a Twitterer, I think he's mostly nervous about his upcoming talk show...which starts tonight by the way! I'm not sure how long I'll be into it. I'm sure if circumstances were different I'd be too busy to engage in such foolishment. But its a diversion for now.

So what's going on with Battlestar Galactica right now? I think there are only 3 episodes left and I can't wait for it to end. It was once so promising. The miniseries and first two seasons were gripping. Then they went to New Caprica...and the show pretty much jumped the shark.

The occupation was a thinly veiled commentary on the whole Iraq war (yawn.) The best part of it was when the Galactica jumped into the upper atmosphere... that was, for an engineer and space nut, exhilarating to watch...especially with the so-called accurate newtonian physics and all. Then the writers tried to cover patch up all the plot holes they'd opened up and it got really stupid.

First, the whole concept of their being 12 models. At first, no one knew who or how many human-looking cylons there were. It was suspenseful not knowing if the person next to you was a cylon. They introduced various characters then revealed them as cylons as necessary. Probably the best one was when Lucy Lawless was revealed. Well done!

Then they said, "Let's say there were only 12 models." Suddenly they had to utilize everyone who had been exposed so far over and over again. Some of them were forgettable such as Doral and the low-key doctor guy. What a waste of a concept. Then to further insult our intelligence, they said "OK, we've shown 7 so far, let's say the remaining 12 are the "final five" and make them so kind of special Cylons." What a crock. They tried to claim that this was intentional when we all know the writers are making this crap up as they go along. Sheesh.

The latest episode was called "Someone to watch over me" and in it Starbuck hallucinated about her father. I really just want to know what's the deal with Starbuck, and what's going to happen to the ship and then I'll be done. I have a feeling they're going to do some kind of Matrix Revolutions type ending ("all this has happened before, and it will happen again...unless something (Neo) does something different this time.")

Check please! I'm done!

Goal Setting

I've always believed that high achievers are driven by their vision and goals. In fact, you first have to have a vision in order to set goals. It is this process of defining your vision and then following through on your goals that I'm interested in at the moment.

What does it mean to have a vision, to be a visionary? Well simply stated it means that you imagine a world or a scenario or an outcome that doesn't quite exist today. I think the term visionary is usually applied retroactively though. For example, when Bill Gates envisioned a PC on everyone's desk running his software he was probably considered just a dreamer. Of course it came true so in hindsight he was a visionary.

It is the definiing one's personal vision that is captivating me right now. We are so inundated with opinions and things that are important to other people right now. For example, the news we get is filtered through the lens of the writers, editors, and agencies that produce it. Similarly for politicians and those that follow them (bloggers, etc.) They decide which issues are important to them, and through coverage by the press, they become the things we talk about over dinner, etc.

"Never let a serious crisis go to waste. What I mean by that is it's an opportunity to do things you couldn't do before."

.............White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, November 2008

He might as well have been explaining his boss's "stimulus" plan. WSJ Article

Pelosi is the worst liar ever

Or maybe I should say the best one?

The House passed an 812Billion dollar "stimulus" bill yesterday. The breakdown includes something like $111B for "medical" related spending. The majority of it is for Medicare/Medicaid. How much for science and technology? $16B.

The American people should be absolutely outraged at this!

To top it off, our illustrious, and bi-partisan speaker of the house, Nancy ($32M dollar) Pelosi had the nerve to go on the morning shows touting it as a victory for the average American. She is still harping on the fact that we've already "given" $700 to the banking industry. Oh and she also took credit for catching Citigroup trying to buy and $50M jet and then canceling the order. What a piece of work she is.

I wish she would crawl back into whatever crypt she escaped from!

Read for yourself: http://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/legislation?id=0273

By the way, it's 647 pages of bureaucratic bull.

2009 Sprint Cup Schedule for MS-Outlook

I'm doing this as a service to my fellow man.

I entered the entire NASCAR Sprint Cup 2009 schedule into my MS-Outlook. Since I sync my Outlook with my mobile phone, I'll never miss another race! I'll actually be notified one hour in advance of each race thanks to the reminder feature.

I'm making this file available for purchase through ebay! Please help me send my kids to college!

Close Encounter of the R2 Kind

A few weeks ago I had a little time to kill on a layover. So I took the shuttle from Dulles to the Udvar-Hazy annex of the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum. It's a great place for any space or plane nut to spend a few hours. It's actually on the grounds of Dulles airport and there's a $1 shuttle from the terminal.

One of the pop culture exhibits is the "Mother Ship" model used in the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." It was interesting to learn that the model was made from parts of other commercially available models such as model trains.





I was also surprised that the builders attached some very small inside jokes that were too small to appear in the final film, but can be found on the model if you search long enough. I found a tiny TIE fighter, a graveyard, and some other things.

Here's a closeup of my little buddy, R2-D2, standing on the hull: