Definition:
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December 18, 2003
December 17, 2003
Flight
During lunch this morning we watched the reenactment of the first manned powered flight at Kitty Hawk. Phenomenal is the best word I can come up with.
Imagine you and your next-door neighbor deciding to build a rocket that could take you to Saturn and return you safely home. Or, how about designing a submarine to take you to the bottom of the Marianas Trench?
And you’ll do it all yourself
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Judges
This is an interesting comment:
“The only problem that occurs to me is how do you find impartial judges in Iraq? Saddam Hussein terrorized the country for so long, it seems to me it would be difficult to find judges that you could call impartial.” –ABC’s Charles Gibson
Gosh, I don’t know. Are we looking for someone who has no opinion, or someone who can act impartially regardless of their opinion? I’d rather have the latter. But I know Gibson really means, “Saddam is so guilty, he’ll never have a chance of beating this rap unless he can find a French, German, or Saudi judge willing to allow all kinds of irrelevant nonsense in the court.”
If you look at our federal judge nominating process, you’d have to conclude that it is impossible to find someone mature and intelligent enough to subvert their personal interests to decide things impartially. If that’s the case, our complete legal system is a sham.
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Dean Team
Howard Dean has added a new advisor to his team: retired Gen. Merrill A. “Tony” McPeak, former Chief of Staff of the Air Force. Old Air Force types will remember McPeak as the one who wanted us all to dress like airline pilots. He was known for other unnecessary changes, too. Among them, he had the 1st Special Operations Wing redesignated 16th SOW because the 1st Fighter Wing was the only unit that could be numbered 1. He was a fighter pilot
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December 16, 2003
Saddam-a-thon
Whew. I haven’t had the fortitude to sit through a newscast for two days.
Mrs Mulligan had her last class tonight (working on her Masters), so maybe she can relax a bit during the Christmas Holidays.
Windy and cold, so golf will be a weekend thing only this week. I play in just about any kind of weather, but as I get older, it gets harder to hit the ball when I’m bundled up. And I really want to stay on the straight and narrow in getting my swing in good shape. After going back to Hogan basics, my accuracy improved. Now I’ve taken that swing to a higher level with the computer-analysis concepts in Swing Like a Pro. I guess as an engineer I get pretty analytical (or anal, depending on your perspective). I studied Dave Pelz’s Short Game Bible, and retain many of his concepts in my short game. I can’t bring myself to carry a 64-degree wedge–I have enough trouble with the 60-degree variety–so I stick with three wedges.
I keep working on it religiously, and eventually it will come together. It is already improving, but the consistency is hit-and-miss, literally!
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December 15, 2003
Journalists
I have little regard for most. Perhaps it’s because I’m an engineer and my education, experience, and interests have given me a broader perspective on the world. I can’t believe some of the weak logic in their analyses, or the narrow point of view they often bring with their questions. So, I decided to take a look at journalism programs in colleges around the country to see if there might be a reason for this.
I did a simple Google search for ‘journalism degree requirements
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Interrogation
Call me a cynic. I don’t believe people will spend much time bothering to interrogate Saddam. He doesn’t have any information that would be of value. People who think he’ll answer all kinds of questions regarding WMD or the insurgency aren’t paying attention, and don’t understand the nature of dictatorships.
So far, Saddam has only answered questions with the kind of ‘Who, ME?
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