Ships and how to run them

Here is my method for generating power for the next generation of large ships.

Ships, most of them anyway, sail upon the oceans. Oceans are full of Sodium Chloride. I would pump sea water into a reactor that would use Electrolysis of the sea water to produce sodium hydroxide by the following:

Anode reaction:

2Cl– --- Cl2 + 2e–

Cathode reactions:

2Na+ + 2e- --- 2Na

2Na + 2H2O --- 2Na+ + 2OH– + H2

This would require a DC current from onboard batteries.

Then the sodium would be passed into another reactor where a DC current would be passed through molten Sodium Hydroxide to produce Sodium Na.

Then it is stored in tanks for use as fuel.

The ships engine would be a steam engine who’s heat comes from the mixing of the sodium with water.

“Owing to its high reactivity, sodium is found in nature only as a compound and never as the free element. Sodium reacts exothermically with water: small pea-sized pieces will bounce around the surface of the water until they are consumed by it, whereas large pieces will explode. While sodium reacts with water at room temperature the sodium piece melts with the heat of the reaction to form a sphere, if the reacting sodium piece is large enough. The reaction with water produces very caustic sodium hydroxide and highly flammable hydrogen gas.”

The excess sodium hydroxide would be fed back into the 2nd reactor to make more Sodium while the Hydrogen would be burned or heat and its by product would be water vapor and that would be sent back into the ocean totally clean.

There is no such thing as a perpetual motion machine. So the ship would have to start with a fair amount of charged batteries but once the system gets going it should be efficient. Maybe…?

D50 Info

Well the folks at Nilon squeezed the D50 out of existance between the D40 and the D8. I guess Nikon doesn't like odd numbered cameras? Anyway technology ever advances. I was talking to a photographer I know and he has a bunch of Nikons. He think people that hem and haugh over 6.1 mp or 10pm are nuts. He has Old nikon with a Leaf digital back that is rated at around 12mp that cost 10 grand back in the day.

To him D40 D50 D70 D80 are all pretty much the same. Grrrrrrrrreat! They all blow the older hyper expensive digital back Nikons out of the water in many more ways than can be counted. He got a D40 and also has a D50 and D70. I am not sure why but this is his job soooooo. Anyway his honest opinion is that image quality in any of the lower end Nikons is superb . The bells and whistles changebut the guts are pretty much the same. And the algarythms used by Niko are also the same and that is what makes a Nikon digital image great.

Is Congress on the right track?

Yes. I know it is tempting to say that the Democrats are wrestling with Bush and any set back now in Iraq could be linked to the war funding issue. Bush backers are already there. But the American people have seen this from the beginning and are demanding action to solve this problem. Bush has a track record with America that is basically one disaster after another. The Democratic controled Congress is attempting to force the Administration into a corner. If Bush says that Congress is now trying to micro manage the war I would argue that his own micro management via Don Rumsfeld did not turn out so rosey. It is not like we just showed up in Iraq either. This mess has been grinding on now for more than 4 years with no end in sight. Pressure needs to be brought to bare on the White House. To force them to admit to themselves that there has to be an end game sooner or later. What is going on in Iraq cannot be put up with forever.

Pelosi and company are attempting an end run around the White House and are playing high stakes brinksmanship. They understand lives hang in the balance. Does Bush? Judging by his four year long war without victory, I would say one would really have to question if Bush understands the stakes.

Strings attached to money does not hamper the commanders in the field, only if Bush vetos the bill. All the bills do is force Bush to adjust his tactics. Clearly force is the only thing Bush listens to.

Hal is dead, Father Lives

Hal my trusty, and rusty, old Dell Precision 530 died quietly over the weekend surrounded by family and friends. Hal served me really well for almost 7 years. The only reason was his Xeon processor. He had been augmented since his childhood. Now his boxy self is waiting to be scavanged for organ donation.

I hate buying new computers. I hate it like the dentist, or rectal exams, actually they both take less time than setting up a new box. It makes not a bit of difference whether you have skills, computer hacking, or not. It is a lousy day no matter what. Like buying a car accept in the case of the computer you have to take the annoying parts home and try to figure it on on your own.

Not only is hardware a bitch, but so is Vista. I am sure Vista will soon be slicing my bread and wiping myy behind, but at this point it is a fun to be with as Hitler after Stalingrad. No that is not quite the right analogy. A better one would be having to deal with an anoying yes man who is actually terminally passive aggressive. "Can I do this for you!? Let me do it! Now watch me ruin your life!"

This new computer has a ton of shit in it that Iwill take time to figure out. It is not a super de duper machine but it is better than Hal, in that it is alive and younger, newer faster and more up-to-date .

Core 2 Duo E6400
2 GB ram
400 GB HD
250 GB HD -from Hal
NVidia 7300 blah blah card
Tunder Card with HD in and out.
Sound gizmos with sound stuff
Media crap I probably won't use
A remote control - You can use it like a mouse
Vista Ultimate, Ombre, Maximum, Gargantuo, Omni Potens Deus.

2008...almost

My two cents worth regarding the current 6 people out of whom will come the next President.

Hilary Clinton: Larger than life. Mercurial, tougher than the other men, and probably quite capable of leading the nation. However I don't really care for her. She is probably the best choice if you want a larger than life leader who will get stuff done while making lots of enemies.

John McCain: In my opinion the best the Rep's have to offer. Far better and more level headed then Rudy. He is clumsily trying to court conservatives who he will abandon as soon as he is elected. I do not think he is fooling too many of them. But they may vote for him just to back a winner. I have read his book and he seems pretty down to earth and very much not an ideologue. Too bad he is a republican. His wife and little adopted Bangladeshi daughter are pretty photogenic too. He would be an able leader as long as he did not follow the wishes of the idiotic dunderheads who tend to vote Republican.

Barack!: He has the big MO, or at least has had it. Could very well be a democratic version of McCain 2000's straight talk express, an express to no where. He is a charismatic generalist. People like that. However that might leave him open to problems in the general election. Could be a VP

Rudy: Big name and BIG BAGGAGE. The Fire Department of NYC hates him, he has problems being an open adulterer, and now there are revelations about when he knew about his crooked police chief. He would be a good VP, sort of Dick Cheney without the three hundred pounds of fat.

John Edwards: Rock solid and decent as they come. He would be the best choice if you wanted what Bush claimed he was. Edwards is the real thing. But he has a biiiiiiig battle to overcome Obama and Clinton.

Romney: I knew he was going to be in the mix. He is, I think, really running a Vice Presidential campaign like Edwards.

So My guess is this:

Clinton~Edwards vs McCain~Giuliani and I would have to say that if the race is set up like that it is anyone's guess who might win.

Memory

I know my head has lots of stuff in it. I know this because at odd times all sorts of personal history comes swimming to the surface. Making me think "Oh yes, I forgot all about that." only to have the memory float down again. I was determined to see some grave stones today to help drag up some recollections of people who are no longer walking around here.

I stopped at my Dads grave first. There are a lot of great things about my dad. He was one of those men who you would feel proud to be associated with. To be his son. Well that was icing on the cake to me. However this also leads to a problem of glorification that kind of dehumanizes the dead. It can turn them into caricatures in my mind. So on my way there, to that splendid hillside where one can see for a hundred miles, I tried to think of some memory that was not holy or grand. Some little memory.

When I was ten I had a fight with a friend. I cannot even remember what it was about. But I was mad about something a ten year old might be mad about. I was stomping around saying how I wanted to beat the kid up. My dad was in the yard and over heard me. He said, "Your not gotten beat anybody up." I was made madder that my own father seemed to be implying that I didn't have it in mean to do that.

I know now that is not what he meant. I have had to say the same thing to my kids at one time or another. My dad was a man who did not walk around with a chip on his shoulder and he didn't think too highly of those who did. I did not act on my initial impulse. By the time my friend and I were playing, in about an hour, it was all back to happy normality.

Another memory. My dad was a big kid who loved playing around as much as we did. I went into our kitchen one day and my dad had this big contraption sitting on the table. It was a volt meter, though to me it was like something out of a scifi movie. He had a wire wrapped around a tent nail. He proceeded to take the tent peg, that was galvanized, and stuck it into a potato. he took the wire and wrapped the other end around a light bulb. He took another wire and plunged it into the other end of the potato and then touched the base of the bulb. The light bulb lit up.

He then went on to explain how there was an electrochemical reaction between the potato and the metal electrodes in the potato. This somehow made electricity. At that time my only experience with electricity was finding out why you should not plunge scissors into a outlet. Events like this, to a young kid, helped me really trust what my dad had to say. Any guy who could light up a bulb with a potato and a nail was a guy to listen to. My inquisitive nature was never stifled by dad. If anything he was always showing me and my brother some other way to look the world.

This being said my dad was anything but an "intellectual". Some people like the idea of thinking of themselves as brainiacs or some how superior. My dad was not like that at all. He was a working man.

There are other memories. But they are mine for now.

Bush is right

GWB:
Any government that supports, protects or harbours terrorists is complicit in the murder of the innocent and equally guilty of terrorist crimes.

Me:
Okay GW is not our own CIA now funding Alqaeda assets in Lebanon since they are at odds with the Sunni Hezbullah? And how about Pakistan, the nation that bank rolled the taliban and sold nuclear weapons technology to North Korea? Are they not you buddy? Or what about the people you and your stupid war has killed in Iraq? You sound like a hypocrite.

GWB:
Any outlaw regime that has ties to terrorist groups or seeks to possess weapons of mass destruction is a grave danger to the civilized world and will be confronted.

Me:
Well technically you were not elected in 2000, you were appointed by the Supreme Court, something that is not spoken of at all in the Constitution 9The law) So you are an outlaw regime. You possess weapons of mass destruction. And you have proved beyond anyones doubt to be a danger to world civilization. So why would you be freaked out when Americans confront you?

GWB:
Free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don't attack each other. Free nations don't develop weapons of mass destruction.

Me:
You attacked Iraq, a nation that did not attack us. You actively possess and want to develop more weapons of mass destruction. So I guess you have forced the USA out of the club of free nations, at least by your standards.

GWB:
I believe that God has planted in every heart the desire to live in freedom.

Me:
You are so right. So get out of town you fascist pig! And don't let the door to DC hit you in the ass on the way out. Freedom makes us strong not your worthless wars.

GWB:
I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace.

Me:
I just want you to know that, when we talk about kicking you out of the White House, we're really talking about kicking you out of the White House.


GWB:
Our nation is somewhat sad, but we're angry. There's a certain level of blood lust, but we won't let it drive our reaction. We're steady, clear-eyed and patient, but pretty soon we'll have to start displaying scalps.

Me:
What you sew so shall you reap. I am glad I am not you.

Hopeful Future

We have all seen images like this in years past and they all look like happy images of yesteryear when people really clung together to make for a happy future. Now days we are all a bunch of self absorbed schleps, especially the youth. Hedonistic and unconcerned with anything other than their i-pods. Living in MySpace worlds that do not exist, and not having an opinion on anything but the latest band.

At least this is the conventional wisdom, or at least the way we are told to look at things. Well let me tell you about what I saw two weeks ago. I had to pick my daughter up from High School. She was in the gym, waiting in line. The bell had rang and they had no reason that they had to stay. They could have gone home, or to the coffee shop, or went out back to get high. Or just hung out with their friends on MySpace. But no, these lazy self absorbed kids had other ideas.

In front of them were rows of cots filled with other students giving blood. Willingly, without coercion, without payment, laying down and getting stuck with a big needle and literally giving their lives blood to total strangers, getting nothing in return but a sore arm, dizziness, and a day glow bandage. Many students I saw almost pass out. Still they went on to do their part in making the lives of total strangers better. They also joked around, chatted, laughed and carried on like all youth. None of them acted like what they were doing was anything special. In other words they acted like hero's, real hero's. The kind that are too busy with life to know how special they are.

Much of their blood will course into the veins of cancer patients. Some of whom will get a new chance to live because of these kids. Some of whom will get to live a bit longer so they have a decent chance to at least say goodbye. Some of this blood will help accident victims survive their trauma, some of this blood may save your life, or mine. None of it will be wasted.

To look out into the gym and see all these kids doing this is to make me feel pretty good about our future. So when people try to tell you how the young don't care, or are only interested in themselves remember that statement is usually a convenient, media generated, stereotype meant to make us older folks feel better about ourselves while looking down our noses at those kids, those little hero's, who will be, and in fact already are, saving lives.

Cimarron Processing Plant

This modest building is the beginnings of the Cimarron Processing facility at the end of the line for the Cimarron Mine. This is the oldest part of the comming facility. I have to build things chronologically. This building is actuall built into the wall of the bluff overlooking Gregg Junction. The back end is a now abandoned mine shaft from the middle 1800's. I downloaded plans for a gold processing facility and it will be my guide to what the final structure will look like. There is not a whole lot of room for it but Cimarron couldn't care less. Michael Patrick III is standing on the old loading dock looking stoic. The broze Cow in the upper left is atop Mijo MeatCo.

Fannin the flames of vacation

For those of you who cannot wait to explode into the summer vacationing season. Here are some links to help kill time, if not yourselves. They contain information that may or may not help you.

Cougar Campground
Yale Lake Levels
Campsite Weather Forcast and current conditions
Stuff you are glad you will not be doing on vacation
Alpine Lakes Information
Our hiking path

Happy 4th Birthday Operation Iraqi Freedom

Happy birthday Iraqi Freedom.
Happy birthday to the 3218 families of those killed fighting on "our side"
Happy birthday to the 100.000+ families of those who were unfortunate enough to be born in Iraq.

Happy birthday to the millions of refugees, the brutalized, the shell shocked, the depressed.
Happy birthday to all the congressmen who never went to Iraq after sending others to fight and die.
Happy birthday to Bush bravely and courageously sending other to fight and die. (Texas Cowheard)
Happy birthday to all the pundits who lied to us and those that still lie to us.
Happy birthday to all the terrorists that flooded into Iraq after we flooded in.
Happy birthday to all the Americans still dumb enough to think that this war was justified.
And happy birthday to all the American taxpayers who willing spent 410 billion of their own dollars to topple one man and create anarchy.
Happy birthday to all the kids overthere that get to be blown up while going with their mom to the market or their father to prayer.
Happy Birthday to all the Blackwater contractors making $110,000 a year along side soldiers who make only $30,000 a year and get to worry about ending up here.
Happy brithday to all the saps and finks and fat-headed idiots who got us into this big stinking mess.

No onto refuting and lambasting our useless leader:

Mr. Bush,

You spoke this morning of the need for patience. You spoke of securing Baghdad. You spoke of the importance of winning this fight.

1: We the People have been patient now for 4 years. Longer than it took us to defeat Germany and Japan at the same time.

2: Your grand strategy to bring stable democracy to the middle east now seems reduced to stabilizing one city. So much for grand illusions huh?

3: If winning this war was you main concern you, the President of the most powerful nation in the history of the world, had all the resources to do that. You chose to fight "on the cheap" and this is why we are stuck.

I would assert that GW Bush had no intention of winning any war in Iraq. I would assert that he, as a puppet of WAR INC. has been used to open an endless war where a few get rich while millions suffer. I assert that those supporting this useless puppet, useless to the American people, are also accepting of this idea of endless war and death. They seek the war of wars for various reasons, some for profit, others for God.

These people need to be stopped and sent away. Bush needs to be sent to prison for life for his butchery of US soldiers and Iraqi civilians. He is nothing but a mobster who happens to live in the White House. The organized crime of Washington needs to be stopped. NOW!

Comparing Lenses

What we have here are two Nikkor Lenses. The big dude is an 80-200mm f2.8 AF lens and the other is a compact 55-200 f4 AF lens.

The 80-200 retails for around $1,500
The 55-200 retails for around $150

Ivey has the big lens and I put it through its paces on the D50. I took a series of shots with both it and my compact lens. The only difference I found was the benefit of the f2.8 aperture. In low light the f2.8 rocks. On the whole I like my compact lens way better.

1: It is less than 1/4 the weight of the 80-200
2: It takes up less space
3: Its AF mechanism is slightly quicker

I thought I would see some appreciable difference at maximum zoom but both lenses appeared the same. The compact lens had no aberrations at the extremities. Nikon really made a great little lens. The big lens looks much better on the camera body than the small compact lens, but it is not as useful to me and does not give me as great a range.

So what do I want for my D50? Not much. A speed flash would be nice. But even that is not critical. Filter kit? No I have a UV and Polarizing filter and anything else can be done in photoslop. A higher power lens would also not be that helpful because then you end up having to shoot a lot on a tripod or monopod, unless you get a $5,000 lens.

Poll Crunch for March 2007

I have been very delinquent in not publishing a Poll Crunch. So here we go. Does the nation feel GW is doing better, worse, or what in his job as the big P? The numbers say it all.

Approve: 34%
Disapprove: 60%
Duh?: 6%

The slide in popularity has stopped for Mr. Bush. The hardcore of his supporters will not be moved by any amount of facts. So I think it is safe to say that, after a year of being at about this rating, Mr. Bush's hardcore support is 35%. They will vote for him even if horns grow out of his head and he starts farting brimstones.

Following up on my last blog about the 20%, that is the inner core of support. 15% is the outer softer core. Combined it is 35%. I will not waste my life trying to reach this mentally challenged folks. Their brains are simply wired differently than the rest of us. Pity them and for God sake keep them away from the reigns of power. They are a danger to themselves and others.

On the sobering side it is still 86 weeks before the next Presidential Election. 86 more weeks of the Bush league. It is also 86 weeks of electioneering by both sides. This is enough to loosen anyones bowels. The many headed hydra of the 2008 Campaign follows:

Jesus and God

I listened to a great Fresh Air, one of many, where two smart women talked about the gospel of Judas and how it and other Gnostic gospels show a broader view of early Christianity. One point that I wish was made is that despite all sorts of new writings and discoveries, Christianity for many will never change.

In my view 20% of Christians will gladly view any new information has an enriching addition to their faith. On the other end there is another 20% of Christians who will openly and soberly look at this stuff as satanic and designed by the devil to confuse the children of God. They will argue that all the details about the Word was worked out by God and his prophetic writers long ago. There is NO way for this 20% to ever get along with the others. They will never allow, in their own minds, the idea that each person can have their own authentic faith. To this 20% of conservative Christianity any allowance for differing views is an open door to hell.

They have their counterparts in Islam too. To many conservative Muslims, a Koran that is translated into English is blasphemous since the Koran was dictated verbatim by God in Arabic.

The 20% on the edge is, in my opinion, necessary to any faith tradition. Without it the faith will disolve. However if the 20% becomes too ascendant in a religion then it becomes a danger to the faiths existence. The rigidity leads to fractures in faith. The rigidity of the Church has led to a multitude of Christian traditions. The flexibility of Christianity has led to its subliminal and overt alteration of the entire world. Even Islam has been influenced and molded, to some degree, by Christianity as well as Judaism.

The 20% are also dangerous for they are the warriors. They are the ones who will strap a bomb on themselves, or hijack a plane, or argue about dropping a bombs on Iran, or want the Jews back in Jerusalem so that that the Jews can all convert to Christianity at the end of the world, which the 20% would like to help get started.

The 20% will always have uses in each faith, but it must be restrained by grander and more thoughtful segments of each faith tradition.

Now onto other things. It seems to me that we seldom question what we worship. Church services are held, songs sung, sacraments given and taken. I was reading "Places Inbetween" about a walk through Afghanistan and many devout Muslims, who could recite the entire Koran, could not read or write their own langauge. They also could not understand one word they had memorized. At first I thought this was pretty sad, but then I think of how like those peasants we are. Even when our services are said in a language we understand, do we comprehend much?

Our medieval view of a King God, with crown, or halo, angles waiting on him, the Queen Mary, the prince of peace Jesus. I hate to say that this view is silly but it is. If God needs angles and other such "servants" then that would mean God is not all powerful. Since an all powerful being would not need anything to accomplish His will. I think most of us worship a being assembled by visions of what we wish we were. A being capable of destroying the wicked, and at the same time being merciful on those who stray. A savior, a punisher, a guide, a lover, and friend and all totally perfect; never mind that what we look for could be mutually exclusive.

I have felt the connection to God. That connection, when viewed, is obvious. Even though I have this connection to this being, I cannot fathom the totality of what that being is. Nor can I know what the full implications of this connection are. Somehow the light and fluffy stories of old, may not be too helpful when this being reveals more of itself to me. Or then again may God will be an old man with a crown. Either way I am on the ride and will have to accept whatever is the reality behind the enigma.

Review of 300

I was prepared to dislike this movie. I have already heard enough right wing and left wing pundits tell my how I was supposed to take this film. Xerxes is Bush, going to his imperial doom! No Leonidas is Bush stalwartly defending liberty against all odds! Actually neither is Bush. Bush would not be on the battlefield of Thermopylae. He would have been back in Sparta, or Persia, playing the greek of persian equivalent of golf.

Enough talk of the texas turd. He has nothing to do with the events of 480 BC. This film was a big and pleasent, dispite the royal bloodletting, surprise for me. It's script was poetic, well acted, masterfully shot and edited, and on the whole worthy of an oscar of some kind. This was a good movie. As far as comic adaptations go this may be the best yet. Unlike other masterful adaptations, such as Sin City, one could actually care about the characters and their fate. Like the LOTR movies this film relied on a solid story. Unlike the maudlin and limp Alexander or TROY, though they were not totally bad, this movie was a film that the Greeks of Homer's Day would have loved to watch. It tells the tale from a perspective and does not deviate from it by trying to humanize all sides. This makes it a problem for some people.

I think that many people, in our politically devisive times, will want to read all sorts of crap into this story. This is stupid. The Greeks loved a good war story just like we do. Read the Iliad or the Odyssey, lots of warring there. War played a major role in Greek life just like it does in our own.

Poor Xerxes, after defeating Leonidas and his 300, was held in check long enough for the Athenian navy to muster itself together and wallop the Persian Navy at the battle of Salamis. Xerxes took off back to Persia leaving his army in Greece. The Spartans and the rest of the Greeks assembled and beat the daylights out of the remaining Persian army at the battle of Plataea and so ended the Greco-Persian war.

The movie ends with the begining of the battle of Plataea and totally ignores the Athenian sea victory. But on the whole it is a fitting Greek military epic. I give it a 8 on a scale of 1-10.

Building a Democracy

In 1776 the colonies of America, at least the ones south of the Saint Lawrence, declared their independance from Britain. The rebels were supplied by France and brutaly faught by the British. After 5 years of bloody war the British left.

In 1784 the first nation, after Britain, to recognize the new American republic was the nation of Morocco. Moroccos neighbor Algeria did not have such nice relations with the US. During the next war the US continued smaller wars in the waters of North Africa to reduce the "pirates"

On July 7th 1798 the United States recinded its treaty obligations with its former ally and launched sea operations against French vessals. Between 1798 and 1800 the United States and France faught at sea a war known as the Quasi-war.

Then on June 12, 1812 the United States delcared war on Britain over the latters continued blockade of Nepoleonic France, Britains seizure of American ships, and over the border with Canada. This lasted 2 years and resulted in the burning of the new city of Washington. The war continues untial 1815 when the British are finally stopped in New Orleans by Andrew Jackson. Couriously the battle takes place after the peace treaty is signed in Ghent.

In 1846 the US, after trying and failing to buy half of the nation of Mexico, went to war to take it. The war lasted two years and ended in the US having won all it wanted and also in the ousting the Mexican President. It was also the begining of the American anti-war movement led buy such figures as Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Quincy Adams, and Henry David Thoreau. The US had about 14,000 casualties.

Many of the future generals of the coming Civil War cut their teeth in the Mexican War. Fighting with indians continued all through this time from 1776 until, well pretty much now.

The Civil War, which claimed around 620,000 soldiers, tens of thousands of civilians, and impoverished millions, almost destroyed American democracy. The photo above is a negro grave diggers reinturing battle field dead.

I guess my point here is that we are really stupid to think that Iraq will settle down and be at peace anytime soon. For the first 87 years the United States was in one war or another. We are the poster child for successful revolutions. "Successful" revolutions. If we are the successs story good God almighty we better not get involved with making democracys around the world. Not unless we want unedning war and carnage.

Camping 2007

I really don't want to go into the minute details on this public blog but here is the camping map for 2007!! Yellow circles denote location of sites!!!

Who would Jesus Bomb?

The image below is disturbing and not at all nice. There is no way to look at this child and say that the child had to suffer so we Americans could be safe at home. Is that going to fly with God? Sorry we had to drop a bomb on this kid God, but we were at war with evil doers and doesn't that give us a get out of hell free card? The kid will probably grow up and be really happy that a bomb fell on the house. Heck it got rid of Sadam.

All I know is that if I was the father of this kid I would be toting an AK-47 and putting caps in the heads of the enemy that did this to my child. Where does the insurgency come from? Look at the kid, it isn't really to complicated to figure out. What would you do if your kid ended up this way because some forging nation wanted to "help" you out even though you never asked for it.



I know there may be some freaks and morally bankrupt people out there who can justify this image in thier own empty heads. So here is another real winner of an image. Does it make you feel better to have that stupid ribbon on your f'ing bumper?



This war makes me sick. I have no problem fighting an enmy in a war that needs to be waged, but this is the stupidest cluster fuck that I have seen. We either send a million guys over there or get the ones who are there out NOW!!!

Hitler and Coulter

"I spoke for thirty minutes, and what before I had simply felt within me, without in any way knowing it, was now proved by reality: I could speak! After thirty minutes the people in the small room were electrified and the enthusiasm was first expressed by the fact that my appeal to the self-sacrifice of those present led to the donation of three hundred marks." - Hitler recalling his first speech at a beer hall in 1919.

In 26 years 50 million people were dead along with Hitler. So when hatefilled fanatics rise to speak be forwarned. They may have a right to be heard, but we have a right to combat them with speech of our own. And use the laws at our disposal to force them leave the stage and hopefully avoid other conflegrations where millions have to die.

It is not good enough to simply say, after Ann Coulter refered to Edwards as a faggot, "well that is Coulter being Coulter." No that is not a good enough response. Whether it is a black leather coated Michael Savage telling a gay person, on the air, to "go get aids and die you pig!" Or a black leather dressed Coulter telling her freinds in the conservative community, who applauded by the way, that she would have to use the word faggot to talk about Edwards. Or Hitler railing against the Jews and Leftists it is all the same kind of hate speech. And it is all dangerous. Millions of corpes, from piles of dead at Aushwitz, to the dead GI's on Omaha beach, to the millions of Russian bodies frozen at Stalingrad all call out to us not to forget the power of words to unleash great evil upon the world.

Speakers who do not ask us to seek out the better angels of our nature, but try and divide and conquer, show us that they are wolves on the prowel and are not interested in the common good of mandkind. Those who would applaud Coulter for hate speech are not much different than the drunken Germans who applauded Hitler in that beer hall in 1919. And if you asked them then, about Hitlers rantings and ravings, they would probably tell you "Hitlers just being Hitler. He's harmless. Just a homeless Joe from Austria"

New bombs for old

While we are steadfastly, and sternly warning Iran about the consequences of making an atomic bomb we are about to announce that we will beging production on all new H Bombs!

A whole new production line of happy little H-bombs will start up in the not to distant future with bi partisan support. You see all the thousands of H-Bombs we have now are getting old and we can't have them not work in case we want to commit global suicide so we better make new ones.

This will cost the taxpayers more billions so forget about retireing or healthcare. You need to prop up the arms industry. I know that other sissy nations get to exist with very high standards of living and no H-bombs but who wants to be them. We'd rather live short overworked lives under the nuclear umbrella.

Nobody is going to make a fuss over this. The assembly lines will start up and thousands of super-bombs will roll off destined for the tops of missles across the midwest and trident submarines. I am so glad we had them all on 9-11 they sure helped us out. And who can forget how they helped us win Vietnam, and Korea and Iraq. Hell those things are so f'ing useful. Money well spent. Never mind that you can't acutally use one. But just when you think your johnson is a little small, all you have to do is think of a minuteman II and your manhood, at least for a minute, is restored.

I wonder how peaceful the world would be if all the tiny peckered idiots left?

Republicans Unite!

Satan responded today after Britney Spears scribed 666 in her head and chanted "I am the anti-christ" at her rehab center, saying "My side must really be losing! With anti-christs like these who needs enemies!" He then went off to sulk on a brimstone.

So what does the self professed "antir-christ" have to say about GW Bush? You would think that Bush, being Gods chosen President, would probably not fair well with devil dudes. But shockingly this is what she had to say,

“Honestly, I think we should just trust our president in every decision that he makes and we should just support that, you know, and be faithful in what happens.”

Words to roast in hell by, says this author. No need to read every other word in the bible and try to figure out satans plan for Earth. The anti-christ has spoken, in all her drugged up, fading glory.

Now on to other not-news:

Anne Coulter, supposedly a person of note at last weeks big Conservative Action gathering in DC, called John Edwards a "faggot" This is not news since pretty much all conservatives that I know refer to gays as faggots and blacks as the "N" word. The only difference is that the only use the "N" word behind closed doors while the "F" word they feel can be used in public as much as they want, sort of like how the conservatives of yester-year felt about the "N" word. So how would Coulter refer to Mary Cheney?

I personally love letting the right-wing-nuts speak. As a democrat I wish to take this opportunity to thank:

Anne Coulter
Rush Limbaugh
Michael Savage
Laura Ingerham
Sean Hanity

And all the other conserva-nazis out there for helping the Democratic Party get back into the seat of control. Now please don't stop now wing-nuts. We need your continued aid and support to retake the White House. I am confident with your help, as before, the liberal agenda (making life better for people) will win the day.

Thanks Righties!

Ack! Iraq part III

Fact: President Jalal Talabani is in Jordan in a hospital and has been for almost a week.
Fact: Vice President Abdul Mahdi was injured when his enterage came under attack today at the Public Works Ministry.
Fact: Car bomb on Sunday killed 60 and wounded many more.
Fact: Today US forces began artillary attacks into Sunni areas of Baghdad

The bomb that was supposed to kill the Iraqi VP was placed in the ceiling of the room he was in. In other words this was a carefully planned assination attempt. 25 others were wounded in the bomb blast.

I am at a loss to understand how artillary barrages into southern Baghdad are supposed to calm things down? Clearly the US, by its own operations, is escelating the violence in Baghdad with the idea that more violence now means less violence later. God knows if this will work. Iraq is in the middle of a civil war and we are still along for the ride. From a military standpoint I am again at a loss to understand why the command allows its army to remain in an engagement it does not control?

In order to regain the initiative now would mean the reduction of Baghdad, or at least of sizeable areas of the city, resulting in massive colateral damage. The authorities are using militia to defend them and press their own agendas. The Prime Minister needs Sader to keep him alive, the President is not around either. So it is the hight of stupidity and foolhardiness to put our troops into such a hopeless situation. Who are they defending? What government? What part of the government? Is a Sunni death squad any more evil than a Shiite death squad? Are bathist sympathisers more trouble than the government rife with allies of Iran? It seems that there arre no forces in Iraq, other than the poor shleps on the road, who are worthy of one drop of American blood.

Now we are going to sit down with Iran and Syria to talk about Iraq. Talk to the Syrians who are terrified of Hezzbulah and the Iranians who actively seek an anti American islamic republic in Iraq. Oh yes by all means lets talk. But now, instead of talking to them from a position of strength, we are coming to the meeting hat in hand, not knowing where else to turn.

God help us.

4-6-6-4 Challenger a Challenge

The plastic drive shaft that failed has been replaced with a steel shaft that has been machined specifically for this unit. It is probably the only Rivarrosi locomotive with an all-metal drive shaft. That is the good news.

The bad news is that, like the Northern 4-8-4 the track needed some adjusting to allow the beheamoth to make certain curves. It took about an hour of pulling track, scrapping off balast and glue and then realigned shit to make it work. But now all the curves for all our locomotives work flawlessly. That is the bad news being turned into good news.

The other news is that there is a little attachment on the locomotive that allows for electrical pick up off the trailing truck as well as the tender that is sheared off. I do not think VIC's new about it. I think I can fix this but it is in a very tight spot. How I found out is that the trailing truck (the last 4 wheels) tended to jump the track at odd times. Sure enough the attachment is gone. So I have to get a little, itty bitty, tiny winny, screw or rivet to fix it.

I added Kadee couplers between the cab and the tender too.

The Queen

I will be the first to admit that I love a good story of kings and queens. At the same time, being a student of history, I am not much of a monarchist. A sizeable part of me, when I see the queen, or Diana, or Prince Charles, is revolted. Why? Because these people maintain a life of privilage for no other reason than they are the decendants of warlords as brutal and amoral as any in Afghanistan or other lawaless regions of the world. Their estates are based on conquest, murder, theft, slavery, and repression on a global scale. I will not say that the current crop of royal idiots is up to no good. The sins of the fathers and mothers, cannot be put upon the heads of the sons, or daughters.

I am an American in the literal sense of the word and do not trust, or like aristocrats. That is why I have distaste for the Clintons and the Bushes and wish niether family to have anything to do with the White House. Yet I suppose we are all family members of someone else so it shouldn't matter. But to me and I think many Americans, it smacks of royalty to have familys battleing for power. I thank the Roosevelts, Kennedys, Adams, Bushs and perhaps Clintons, for their efforts. But would never think to vote for one of them based on who their family was.

I'd even vote for the son of a goat hearder if I thought he'd do a good job. (hint)

The royalty of the world are a bunch of has beens, they are mold growing on the corpse of past glory, glory long dead and not worth much when it was alive, at least to the comman people who had the misfortune to be governed by them.

What the hell is this thing?

This place is about 8 km east of Kabul. This structure is massive. It looks fortified and is 850 x 425 meters. It looks like it might be a prison. It does not look like an army base, at least not a US base. This view is from 12,000 feet up. I find Google Earth so helpful if letting me know about the lay of the land in news stories.

After hearing about the VP being at Bagram during a suicide attack on the main gate I was able to fly over to the air base and check it out. You can always tell US airbases by how F'ing huge and well planned they are compared to the squalid crap around them. See below...



The location of the suicide attack is not even on this image. The following image, taken from farther up has a red dot, added by me to show you the location of the main gate. As you can see the VP was never in danger and probably didn't even here anything more than a distant rumble. Short of a nuclear attack it would take an entire army to capture this base.

Footwear for fun! And the fun itself

This is the fun itself. Yeah I know. I have one 100% taker on this trip (HS of course) I need to send in for the permit by March 1st. Again we will not be climbing this face of Dragontail. This is for harty souls of considerable experience. Asgard Pass to the Enchantments is our ugly route. Other than a lot of sweating and grunting, and possible skinned knees and profanity, we should do just fine. Due to the steepness of this section I really want us to get into good shape and not worry about carrying the kitchen sink. It will be about like the last bit on South Sister. Once we get to the top of the pass we will be in The Enchanetments, about as alpine as it gets.

Mountain Goats like salt so if we take a leak we are not supposed to pee on a bush since the goats will paw them up to get at the salt. They are also pretty tame and will be around.

Bears are also in the area. The main problem with them is that they will eat our food. So we need to keep it up in a tree (15 feet up 5 feet out. We should also cook away from where we sleep.


I tried these on yesterday at REI and they were mighty comfy.

New Places on the layout

The Glacier Lake area is not easily reached by road. This fire truck is driven by volenteers along the "old Glacier Lake Rd" This road is, today mainly a hiking trail. It is maintained by the railroad as part of its right of way to fight fires that may flare up during thunderstorms in the late summer.


The 6012A negotiates, at a snails pace, the curve in the middle of Torment Gulch. This area is notorius for two reasons. Firstly the radius is narrow and trains have derailed in the gulch on numerous occasions. Five Miles per hour is max speed in this area. The second reason is that this secluded area was where the G&G used to stop to pick up its consignment of pot bundles under the overpass in the background.

Status of 4--6-6-4 Challenger

The rear drive shaft failed. The Rivarossi Company is out of business so Vic's Hobbies is fabricating a new drive shaft. So for now the locomotive is in the round house waiting for parts. In reality these big beasts were mechanical nightmares to take care of. The heavy moving parts and forces applied to them ment that each engine, from the time they left the round house, litterally shook themselves to death. EMD's were far less trouble.

Stats for the Challenger:

Cylinders: 21x32"
Weight: 500 tons
Drive Wheels: 12 69"
Tractive Effort: 97,400 lbs

Odom on the mark while Cheney is missing the point

Uncle Dick Cheney says:
"Having tasted victory in Iraq, the jihadists would look for new missions, " he said in a speech during a visit to Australia. "Many would head for Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taliban, others would set out for capitals across the Middle East."

I Say:
WELL THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT THEY ARE DOING NOW YOU STRPID DUMB SHIT!

So who is this guy here?



Lieutenant General William E. Odom, U.S. Army (Ret.), is a Senior Fellow with Hudson Institute and a professor at Yale University. As Director of the National Security Agency from 1985 to 1988, he was responsible for the nation's signals intelligence and communications security. From 1981 to 1985, he served as Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence, the Army's senior intelligence officer.

From 1977 to 1981, General Odom was Military Assistant to the President's Assistant for National Security Affairs, Zbigniew Brzezinski. As a member of the National Security Council staff, he worked upon strategic planning, Soviet affairs, nuclear weapons policy, telecommunications policy, and Persian Gulf security issues. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1954, and received a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1970.

So what does this man have to say about Iraq?

"As Congress awakens to these realities -- and a few members have bravely pointed them out -- will it act on them? Not necessarily. Too many lawmakers have fallen for the myths that are invoked to try to sell the president's new war aims. Let us consider the most pernicious of them.

1) We must continue the war to prevent the terrible aftermath that will occur if our forces are withdrawn soon. Reflect on the double-think of this formulation. We are now fighting to prevent what our invasion made inevitable! Undoubtedly we will leave a mess -- the mess we created, which has become worse each year we have remained. Lawmakers gravely proclaim their opposition to the war, but in the next breath express fear that quitting it will leave a blood bath, a civil war, a terrorist haven, a "failed state," or some other horror. But this "aftermath" is already upon us; a prolonged U.S. occupation cannot prevent what already exists.

2) We must continue the war to prevent Iran's influence from growing in Iraq. This is another absurd notion. One of the president's initial war aims, the creation of a democracy in Iraq, ensured increased Iranian influence, both in Iraq and the region. Electoral democracy, predictably, would put Shiite groups in power -- groups supported by Iran since Saddam Hussein repressed them in 1991. Why are so many members of Congress swallowing the claim that prolonging the war is now supposed to prevent precisely what starting the war inexorably and predictably caused? Fear that Congress will confront this contradiction helps explain the administration and neocon drumbeat we now hear for expanding the war to Iran.

Here we see shades of the Nixon-Kissinger strategy in Vietnam: widen the war into Cambodia and Laos. Only this time, the adverse consequences would be far greater. Iran's ability to hurt U.S. forces in Iraq are not trivial. And the anti-American backlash in the region would be larger, and have more lasting consequences.

3) We must prevent the emergence of a new haven for al-Qaeda in Iraq. But it was the U.S. invasion that opened Iraq's doors to al-Qaeda. The longer U.S. forces have remained there, the stronger al-Qaeda has become. Yet its strength within the Kurdish and Shiite areas is trivial. After a U.S. withdrawal, it will probably play a continuing role in helping the Sunni groups against the Shiites and the Kurds. Whether such foreign elements could remain or thrive in Iraq after the resolution of civil war is open to question. Meanwhile, continuing the war will not push al-Qaeda outside Iraq. On the contrary, the American presence is the glue that holds al-Qaeda there now."

- Lt Gen William Odom in the Washington Post of Feb 12th 2007

Trouble in Gregg Junction

The Northern Pacific is here now and they have been throwing their weight around. The G&G is a bit miffed at having to make room on the rails for all the traffic the NP wants to put on them. Then again since they are making money for every ton of freight moved and passenger taken they cannot complain too much.

We went to the WGH show . The EMD F7a Unit above is and MRC locomotive and its cheap!!!!! The locomotive is supposed to pull streamlined passenger cars

News Watch: FUBAR+SNAFU=US News

The "surge" has begun in Iraq. There is violence in Iran. Russia is complaining about the US throwing its weight around. 100,000 manufacturing jobs lost in 2006. So let us look at the leading stories for CNN's web site:

Girls' school bombed in Iran, gunmen besieged
Anna Nicole Smith's dead son gets it all
Video shows apparent al Qaeda attack
Pelosi: Iraq vote sets new direction
Mom yells for 911 aid in knife fight over fetus
Police: Attackers video homeless man's beating
Pastor falls from God's house to the big house
Britney Spears reportedly in, out of rehab
Weather woes batter JetBlue
White skin still the best skin, filmmaker finds
Elephant won't play polo, trashes van instead
'Lost' loses millions in ratings war

I see only 3 stories that are worth my reading. All the rest are total BS. Now let us look to the other side of the Atlantic for their headlines. Are they trying to be any more informative?

US House rejects Bush Iraq plan
Seven jailed for Turkey bombings
Smith left her estate to dead son
Anti-US protest planned in Italy
Clashes reported in Iranian city
Italy orders CIA kidnapping trial
King of Nepal is stoned by crowd
Mauritania pilot outwits hijacker
Paraglider survives 32,000ft fall

On the BBC I see 3 stories I could careless about. Sort of backwords from the CNN site. Who is trying to inform whom? Clearly CNN is more interested in pushing fluff and white-bread and not anything really news worthy. It might scare the kiddies.

But to be fair let us look at CBS NEWS. Perhaps the former bastion of Cronkite and Rather is better at informing America:

Iraqis Upbeat, U.S. Guarded On Crackdown
NY Man Charged With Trying To Fund Terror
House Rebukes Bush On Iraq
Anna Nicole Smith's Will Is Released
N.J. To Honor Out-Of-State Gay Marriages
Docs: Patients Lie, And It's Bad For Them

Sort of a mixed bag from CBS. I am amazed how the death of a bimbo is in all the papers. Now on to FOX News!

Uneasy Quiet in Baghdad
House Dems push through anti-war resolution
Prominent Maine auctioneer who vanished five years ago located in Pa
Will Clinton Suffer Nader Nightmare?
Woman, 84, Admits Sex With 11-Year-Old
Bomb Strikes Iran Near Site of Deadly Blas
Inventor of TV Remote Control Dies
Italy Indicts 26 Americans in CIA Kidnap Case
Anna Nicole's Will Leaves Estate to Dead Son

Hey the 84 year old having sex with the kid pushed Anna Nicoles will to the bottom of the page! Way to go FOX!

Okay back accross the water to Reuters News:

House repudiates Bush troop buildup in Iraq
House backs tax breaks to advance wage hike
FDA widens peanut butter warning
Afghanistan vows to crush any Taliban offensive
Bush has two moles removed from his face
Judge orders Padilla's military jailers to testify
Warren Buffett heads list of top 2006 donors

What lowly reporting from Reuters! No Anna Nicole Smith at all!! How can we count on them to give us our daily dose of non-news? On the other hand how about them moles? Now I will go to Russa. What are the Russians learning from PRAVDA?

Models die of anorexia trying to become slimmer
Many Americans share Putin’s views on US-led foreign policies
Condom appeared after global epidemic of syphilis
Putin starts political intrigue linked with Russia’s new president in 2008
Russia and the USA wage a hidden political war
Russian army plagued with sex slavery and male prostitution
Anna Nicole Smith’s death remains a Playboy mystery
Man reads between naked buttocks to predict future

Hell yes!!!! That is why we and the Rusky's could kill each other off! We have too much in common. Such as trival and low-row media headlines! Pravda has the most cleavage of any of the websites too. I wonder what the Chinese are reading?

Japanese PM, Chinese FM meet on bilateral tie
Haneya to form national unity gov't within 3 weeks
U.S. House slams Bush's Iraq plan
Over 100 Africans drown as smuggling boat capsizes
Bomb explodes in southeastern Iran
WHO reports promising results on bird flu vaccines
China's central bank to raise deposit reserve ratio
China greets Year of Pig

The Chinese have a lot to learn about, no pun intended, Yellow Journalism.

Norther nPacific arrives

The Northern Pacific sent a team of workers down to check out the G&G trackage to make sure all was well for the forthcoming passenger service. All proved to be in order. The 6012a is parked on the maintenance spur waiting along with a box car full of NP materials for the station. The workers, should you wish to welcome them, are currently staying in a little caboose infront of the station.

Ack! Iraq part II

Why we are screwed in mathamatical terms:

26 million Iraqis

80% like us
20% hate us

Of the 20% that hate us 90% are too affraid to do anything but hate us.

That leaves 520,000 people who hate us enough to be actively involved with wanting us gone. That is a pretty sizable force. Furthermore this 520,000 man force is spread proportionally accrocc Iraq, with many more in the cities than in the countryside.

We on the countrary have a measily 140,000 troops. The best there have ever been, but far too few to secure the nation of Iraq. Many like to compare occupied Germany that never suffered such an insurgency with Iraq. The reasons for the total peace in Germany is made clear by the following statistics:

"Allied forces in Western Europe consisted of 4 ½ million men, including 9 armies (5 of them American--one of which, the Fifteenth, saw action only at the last), 23 corps, 91 divisions (61 of them American), 6 tactical air commands (4 American), and 2 strategic air forces (1 American). The Allies had 28,000 combat aircraft, of which 14,845 were American, and they had brought into Western Europe more than 970,000 vehicles and 18 million tons of supplies. At the same time they were achieving final victory in Italy with 18 divisions (7 of them American)."

There is NO credible comparrison to the situation in under-occupied Iraq. The US command made a fatal error in misjudging the numbers required to subdue Iraq. This error has continued to this day. The situation is strategically hopeless unless conscription starts in the US. Short of that there is no reason to keep US combat forces in Iraq one day longer. There is simply no way that the small force we have can do the job, no matter how honorable and full of valor they are.

USA and trains FYI

If you think of trains and people getting around on trains you probably think of Europe or Asia or something like that. The USA is that "car centric" land where rail is dead. Not so! The worlds largest manufactuer of locomotives is General Electric, the worlds 2nd largest manufactuer is General Motors. It might also interest you to know how modern locomotives (deisels) work.

They are hypbrds of a sort. The deisel engines do not drive the locomotive. They charge batteries that drive electric motors. Thats right boys and girls Americas railroads led the way in electro-magnetic-deisel engines technology. All the trains you see chugging along the rails are being driven by electrical power.

Railroads are also not bad to work for at least according to the government. The average wage for a railroad worker, in a Class I railroad like the Untion Pacific, in 2005 was $67,000, including total benefits it was $92,000. The a number of empolyees for a typical class I railroad was 162,000. Class I railroads operate 475,000 frieght cars nationwide. Revenue for US Class 1 railroads increased from 35.4 billion in 2003 to 44.5 billion in 2005. Furthermore net income (the real bucks) rose freom 2.7 billion in 2003 to 4.9 billion in 2005.

So what do railways haul? Well 42% of all freight in the US is coal (804 million tons of it) accounting for almost 10 billion in revenue. The rest is about equal amounts of everything else for a total of 1.9 trillion tons generating 47 billion bucks in revenue in 2005.

How much rail is there in the ol USA? Well as of 2005 there was 171,000 miles of it. The real wierd bit is the following: Accoding to the most current statistics US rail usage has increased from 575 billion ton-miles in 1960 to 1.7 trillion ton-miles in 2005. In other words the rumors of US rails death have been greatly exagerated.

The main death that occured is in passenger service. Freeways killed the US passenger train system. However freightlines are thriving and have continued to thrive with the exception of the years between 1920 and 1940 when freight actaully declined.

4-8-4 can run on the railroad now!

The #3781 is seen here pulling a westbound freight. Until today this big machine had a lot of trouble negotiating the mainline. The trouble was due to the nature of cow catcher on the front. It had little wings on either side tht just caught on switch levers. Alone the loco was fine, but the drag caused by a train behind it meant that the nose pointed slightly farther ascew from the tracks.

I took snippers and fixed the problem by removing the offending parts. Now the locomotive runs fine on the main line.

The 4-8-4 type of steam loco is called a "Northern" since it was originally built by Alco for the Northern Pacific. It became one of the most sucessful steam loco configurations and continued in service until the end of the steam era. G&GRR purchased their Northern when the Gregg's bought the railline itself from the Union Pacific. Keeping this oil-burning version alive and well takes a lot of man hours.

Awe the little trains sets of America.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise and reopened the question of slavery in the West, was the handiwork of Senator Stephen A. Douglas. Douglas had a desire to promote a railroad from Chicago to California through Nebraska. Already Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, advocate of a southern transcontinental route, had persuaded President Pierce to send James Gadsden to Mexico to buy land for a southern railroad. He purchased the area now comprising southern Arizona and part of southern New Mexico for $10,000,000.

Douglas's proposal, to organize western territories through which a railroad might run, caused extreme trouble. Douglas provided in his bills that the residents of the new territories could decide the slavery question for themselves. The result was a rush into Kansas, as southerners and northerners vied for control of the territory. Shooting broke out, and "bleeding Kansas" became a prelude to the Civil War.

Pondering the Progressive ~ Conservative divide

Marxists and convservaives are more alike than either wish to admit. Niether is progressive. Although their specific goals are different their outlook on the world is very similar. Basically they think that a human can be molded into whatever it needs to be by philosophy. They seem to pay very little attention to the hard-wired nature of mankind. An example of this for the Marxist is the silly notion that property and wealth can be equally owned and administred by all. This is flawed since human beings are heirachial in nature and so the very act of attempting of "administering" that kind of total equity is self defeating. You invariably end up with a group of people controling things for the masses.

The conservative has their own silly examples. Choosing sexual orientation for example. Anyone who has to choose what sex to be attracted to is probably, by nature eitehr bi-sexual, or homosexual and having difficulty admitting that to him/herself. Another great example is work makes people rich. This is true if you consider the worker making the CEO rich. But the fact is that the amount of effort you put into your career has limited value in making you wealthy. More often than not it is luck, inherritance, or marriage that makes you wealthy. There are millions of workers who bust their asses everyday but are not Donal Trump. Objectivist romantics like Ayn Rand, liberitarians, and conservatives all fail the test of statecraft since their ideas do not meld with the reality of the big messy world.

There will always be poor, sick, young, old, crippled, insane, unlucky, unwise, people who cannot simply be thrown away. Any type of society can choose whether or not to take care of its citizens. But the democratic republic MUST choose in the affirmative. I would say that many dictatorships or oligarchies have taken care of their people and many have not. All democratic republics have to do this. It is a means to an end. The conservative can't see this reality.

Whether it is social, spiritual, or economic, the conservative, is forever trying to stop the river. But the river always torrents around them. Though they build dams, the river of progress overtops them. Their view seems real but because it does not take into account the reality of human nature they fail in most of what they do. Even crime and punishment. States with no captial punishement have the lowest rates of violent crime. States with high execution rates have high rates of violent crime and further it seems that punishment by death offers no value to curb crime. The death penalty is a good example of a policy that, on the surface seems solid, however in reality the only humans who are deterred by the death penalty would not be committing the act in the first place.

Morality itself a product of human evolution cannot be reconciled with conservatism. True moral virtue is only possible through the enlightened view of the world based in fact not ideology. Anything less is not morality but favoritism.

So Marx and Grover Norquist would get along nicely.

Way to go W! Man you Rock!!!

President Bush said today, "It's a good sign that there's a sense of concern and anxiety. It means the government understands that it has a responsibility to protect their people. And we want to help them."

So it is a good sign that people who live in Iraq are concerned and have anxiety? I think that being concerned and anxiety have long been part of Iraqi life. I am really getting sick and tired of Bush, who has ruined and brutalised Iraq, talking about the poor Iraqis like they have to pull themselves up by their boot straps.

Now who is this guy? Well he is a member of Parliement in Iraq named Jamal Jafaar. Before that he was a terrorist who bombed the US and French embassies in Kuwait in 1983. He is also most likely an agent of Iran. Thanks Bush.

Northre Pacific is on its way

The details are now arriving about the deal between NP and G&G. Northern Pacific will stop in Gregg Junction to pick up passengers going both north and east. Much of the equipment that they will use has been used on their prestigeous North Coast Limited. SP&S has not given up and may also use the facilities at Gregg Junction.

I am not quite sure why MRC is selling its stock of HO scale loco's for so little money. Retail they go for around $75.00 But the G&G will not complain. There is a hitch though that will need attending to.

The paint scheme for the MRC locomotive is not a match for any of the existing off-the-shelf NP passenger cars. At least none that I have been able to find. So that means that the NP is either destined to pull passenger cars that are not matching or we have to paint the cars to match. I would like to do the latter. The colors are:

Main color: Dark green-black
Thick stripe: yellow
Pin stripes: orange-red.

Mike I need you to air brush three cars!!!!!! Below is a mock-up of what the finished train will look like.

Yes to change the subject...Train News!

Two whole mountains where leveled and two new ones sprouted up in their place. After making progressively better scenery I demolished some older mountains and made new ones. The G&GRR is operating flawlessly with Mikes old Athearn engine. It runs slicker than snot and all the rolling stock is working perfectly too.
The SP&S is still in negotiations with G&G RR to use their Portland line. The Northern Pacific is not such a stick in the mud, they will start serving Gregg Junction very soon. Northern Pacific passenger service is on its way! The NP was started by order of the President (Lincoln) back in 1864. By 1883 it was completed and ran between Minnesota and Portland then up to Tacoma. Eventually the NP was absorbed, in 1970, along with the Burlington, Great Northern, and SP&S into the Burlington Northern RR.
In 1996 Burlington Northern merged with AT&SF to become Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway. It was one of the 4 last serviving transcontinental railroads in the United States. It currently has direct control over 50,000 miles of track making it the second largest rail network in the US after the Union Pacific.


G&GRR got rid of the old Bachmann POS transformer. That machines voltage ouput curve sort of looked like a reverse L. It has been replaced with an MRC 1370. This unit uses solid state technology to control the current not a little wire on a coil. This should mean far smoother train operations for all locos.

Of course this means that G&GRR is now turning its attention to the electrical situation of the layout.

Problem 1: Wiring under layout is a big mess.
Problem 2: Blocks are non-existant.
Problem 3: More stuff like #1 and #2


Here is the current G&GRR layout in all its trackiness.