Congress: Wanna get away? – First Read

Reid’s job is to help move President Obama’s agenda through the upper chamber, but he must also protect his five-seat Senate majority, and gun-rights groups are threatening to go after vulnerable Senate Democrats who back the president’s calls for a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines.”

So why call for a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines? Why not just give the assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines to the militias,  and let the militias worry about the collection of weapons? Wasn’t forming militias a big part of the 2nd Amendment to begin with? If the majority of the people think we need to arm ourselves with automatic weapons, then let’s arm ourselves with automatic weapons.

If not, then let us keep supporting our first responders. Not really sure there are the funds to do both.

via Congress: Wanna get away? – First Read.

The Flag

A General on a mission is called a flag-general. In today’s world, of video games and simulations, it is important for a flag-general, especially with a Red team under his/her flag, to understand not just when he loses, but that when he wins is also an important event to note.

Because it is harder to prove a negative than a positive, the flag-general may not remember whose side he is on, and, because all flag-generals are winners, it is doubly hard to prove, by their Red team, that they are losers.

As an example, if you are a flag-general and just bought a house and,  if you are on your hands and knees, crawling around under that house looking for only God  knows what, then, perhaps, you haven’t really won.

If this is true that you didn’t actually win, it is because you didn’t know your enemy. The reason you didn’t know your enemy is because the Red team hid the enemy from you. That is what Red teams do, they hide things from you.

But what we do know is that a flag-general would do only what his God knows, to complete his mission. This is because his God is under his flag, and, of course, because the reverse of that is true, they are both positives.

TSA on the Quick and Cheap

SCMP report: “Following the ill fate of taxis and fruit knives, toy planes in Beijing are also facing a crackdown ahead of the 18th party congress.

The title of the SCMP reports should read, “The Chineses show Mitt’s team how to do it”.

“It” is the protection of a segment of a society that is terrified, and has a  strategy that says countrywide:  screw everyone else, protect those who matter, in the cities that matter.

I’m not saying that the 53% don’t matter. I am just saying that they are a long ways from being  job creators, so don’t look for too much help from a “new” and “approved” TSA.

Without much help from Washington, we may need to start relying more on the help of our own National Guard. They can provide mission-based security that private contractors can only dream of.

I mean who are those in Washington; job creators or job takers?

As it is, they are a little bit of both.

via China: Ridiculous security measures for 18th party congress « China Daily Mail.

Winning

I think the verdict

is out that winning

is more important than any calculation that can be made.

Unfortunately, winning requires a calculation of any kind. So I guess this is one bridge too far.

Just for you interested, my posting for my busiest day was called The Human Condition.

 Not sure what the Human Condition was about, , probably something about Jesus of Nazareth, because I am speaking from a Christian nation, but just giving some context.

Exploring the Advantages

I’ve been working on the area of property that I highlighted in my last post. I am trying to bring out the advantages of the environment, and there are many. It not only has a magnificent view, which I hope to also show, but the landscape, that I remember when I was first introduced to Bea’s house, the house that my wife’s mother gave a beautiful orientation to, was very comfortable and comforting. It has been under some neglect in the watering, trimming and maintenance, but the potential is still there. Here is a photo after I cut-back some of the ivy from the abused pine tree, which is what I call a tree that has ivy all over it. The surrounding trees show the effects of low water and the last hot days of summer.

Location, Location, Location

I have been helping my wife through the process that she and her siblings are going through, i.e. selling her mother’s house and property.
Realitors will tell you that it is the location that is most important requirement when selling a house. This house is located high above and overlooking the City of The Dalles, Oregon, and the Columbia River. I like to say that it is literally a million dollar view, and she is only asking half of that. So for now, I am in the Observation mode.

To start with I am first identifying the area the land covers. With the use of Bing Maps and AutoCAD softeware, this is the area, first as taken from Bing Maps:

Later with the help of AutoCAD I inserted an overview of her property lines:

:

I am not a big fan of pirated software, so I hope I haven’t broken any copyright laws. Bing lets you print out a copy of the map, but to make it work in my AutoCAD program I had to scan it and convert to a Jpeg format. If I have broken some kind of laws, I hope they understand that I don’t charge for this and I am in the learning (still after all these years) mode, and not profit mode. I bought a registered copy of AutoCAD software, so that is not a problem. It is an old version, so what is a problem: going through newer versions of Microsoft’s Word, as a text editor, and WordPress itself.

While in many ways the second drawing is rather crude, the AutoCAD overlay showing the property lines has an accruacy of 15 decimal places, which means the Bing map is really quite good. While overlaying and scaling the drawing was mostly guess work, as a first time effort, I like the outcome so far.

It should be noted that what makes this location unique does not show up in this area drawing. North is towards the “top” of the page, and the difference in elevation between the north property line and the south is several hundred feet. Depending on how much more involved I become with this project, my next drawing task would be to improve this area drawing and show a 3d view. A 3d view you don’t need glasses to see, ha!

The location is also just down the hill from Columbia Gorge Community College and next to that the new National Guard center that is being built. There is also some history associated with the area, as there is a pioneer cemetery (or) that is interesting to walk through, and parked discretely next door.

Feedback on how this looks (and possible directions I need to follow in my task) in WordPress would be appreciated.