Slobodan Milosevic apparently died of a heart attack while I was on vacation. Gee, what a loss….
Here’s the kicker, though. His “trial”, which will now be forever unfinished, cost $200 MILLION and took 4 YEARS (and wasn’t even close to being finished when nature intervened).
Pathetic. Some people think there is such a thing as “International Law” - is this what they believe in? This farce of a trial costing enormous amounts of money and time? In the end, either God, nature or just plain luck was needed to end it (depending on what you believe in).
Gee, it’s great to be back from sunny Florida. Today we had a thunderstorm go over. This is the sky right after it passed over heading North. So it is cold and rainy here. Quite a change from sunny and warm!
Digital cameras are really handy, but they still are not up to the quality of my old Nikon 35mm cameras. Although the Pentax S40 I used for this picture (and all the ones I took in Florida) is a 4.0 Megapixel camera and is pretty decent. Of course, this is a tiny little snapshot camera and the lens is not even close to my old Nikkors. I used to use an 85mm f 2.0 most of the time - wonderful piece of glass that is.
My youngest daughter really wants to get her hands on my old cameras, but I think I will wait until she is a bit older before I let her play with them……
Well, there’s a brewing controversy about the “new” James Bond. Or to be more accurate, the newest actor to play the part of James Bond. The new actor is Daniel Craig, an Englishman. Critics have established a new web site to attack him, among other things, as too blonde.
Ok, I have enjoyed many of the Bond movies, but really only the ones starring Sean Connery (who will forever be James Bond to me).
But can we get at least some perspective here? This is a MOVIE and Craig is an ACTOR. If the movie is good, fine. Go see it. If it is bad, fine. Don’t go see it. If you like Craig’s performance, fine. If not, fine.
It seems some folks take their Bond addiction very seriously….
But it’s just a movie, folks.
Here’s a headline:
“Polls: Public Worried About Gov’t Secrecy”
The article reports on two recent polls. If you actually bother to read more than just the headline, it strongly contradicts the headline. A solid majority favors some secrecy. And a stunning 73% believe the President should keep some information secret if it will help with the war on terror.
Where’s the worry? In the minds of the media that mindlessly repeat the Democratic Party meme about the “secretive” administration. Jerks.
If the reporter was honest, the headline would read “Majority favors some Gov’t secrecy”. But that would be honest. Can’t have that, can we?
Every home should have one!
This photo is from the “Rocket Garden” at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor’s Center. If you have never visited the KSC, you really should try to go there. It is a really great experience.
The previous post covered the tragedy of Apollo 1, where Gus Grissom died. The above photo is from launch pad 5/6 where Grissom made his first suborbital flight. The Redstone rocket is real, but the capsule on top is a mock-up. Two manned Mercury missions were launched from here, Alan Shepard's and Gus Grissom's (Mercury-Redstone 3 and 4, respectively). John Glenn's later orbital flight, as well as the rest of the manned Mercury flights, took off from pad 14. Pad 5/6 and pad 14 are both historical sites now. Grissom's capsule, Liberty Bell 7 sank when the explosive hatch triggered prematurely. It was recovered in 1999. My family and I went to see the restored Liberty Bell 7 earlier this year. Wikipedia has a very thorough article on the Mercury program
here. Incidentally, Grissom did have a successful flight in Gemini 3 (he named the capsule "The Unsinkable Molly Brown). But even that flight was marred when the two Astronauts were reprimanded for having smuggled a corned beef sandwich on board the craft. The crumbs released could have wreaked havoc in the capsule. I think Gus Grissom was probably the most unlucky of the original 7 Astronauts. Regardless, he was still a hero. Who else would willingly strap a rocket onto their back?
On January 27th, 1967 at 6:31 PM, EST at pad 34 at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, an Apollo spacecraft with Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee aboard caught fire. All three Astronauts died. It is believed that all three succumbed to the poisonous fumes generated by the fire long before the fire could actually claim them. Although two unmanned Apollo tests had occurred previously, the craft that claimed the lives of the three Astronauts will forever be remembered as Apollo 1. I still remember the special reports as the media announced the tragedy. My best friend and I were both space nuts at that time and we followed the space program closely. While in Florida, I visited Pad 34, now a historical site. The pad will never be reused for launches. The photo above shows the concrete launch pad for the Saturn 1B rocket. The metal gantry has long since been removed. To three of my childhood heroes - Rest in Peace.
The Harris Poll examined what institutions Americans have confidence in.
47% have a great deal of confidence in the American military.
25% have a great deal of confidence in the White House.
10% have a great deal of confidence in Congress.
This is an interesting result, no? The poll was unsponsored, by the way. Unlike Zogby’s hit polling.
I notice the media loves to trumpet how badly the President is doing in polls, but they seldom mention how badly the Congress is doing and never, ever mention how little confidence Americans have in the media. They only got about 14% in this poll.
Here’s the actual Harris Poll report.
H/T Instapundit for the link
Back from vacation, tanned, ready and rested. Ok, make that burned, frazzled and exhausted. But happy, nonetheless.
I have some new material I’ll be working on soon, too. Sometimes a little time off can give you some new ideas….
Uncategorized | Gaius Sunday, 12 March , 2006 | 
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