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Odd Lots

7 Comments

  1. Brian Tkatch says:

    The difference between Wilson and Obama is, people still know Wilson was president. Not everyone knows Carter was president. If Wilson had such an effect, even if you disagree with him, you must admit he did a job that he is remembered for.

    Obama will be shortly forgotten after he leaves office, as all his signature policies are done away with.

    1. Rich Rostrom says:

      We should be so lucky. Much of what Obama has done is baked into regulations, or has already had its desired effect (e.g. the devastation of the coal industry).

      Also, the Deep State is packed with Obamists. Even the most determined and energetic President will have immense difficulty changing policy against the Deep State.

      And don’t forget the Fourth Estate (the press) – Obamists almost unanimously, as is the Fifth Estate (the academy).

      Everything he has done will be praised unless it is too egregiously bad to ignore, in which case it will be blamed on Bush or buried. (How many people today know what the Red Scare was, or the American Protective League?)

      If (as seems likely) Obama is succeeded by a Democrat, his malign agenda will be continued, with the enthusiastic support of the Deep State and full cover from the press and academy.

  2. Rick H says:

    Regarding ships at sea, I use the http://www.marinetraffic.com site to learn about the ships passing my little corner of the Puget Sound. The site tracks ships all over the world. Although military ships are not shown, so I have to pay attention to the Navy tugs that escort the submarines past my place on their way to/from Bremerton.

  3. jic says:

    “The reasons I loathe him […] are mostly about his hatred of the US Constitution. He came as close as any President ever did to being a dictator, and that’s precisely what he wanted to be.”

    By that criterion, maybe FDR was even worse?

  4. Bob says:

    I think thorium is our least known but potentially most important element especially for sci-fi fans. See this recent talk on using thorium breeder reactors for among other things to power space ships and colonies on other planets and the moon by Dr. Frank Shu at the SETI institute colloquium:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUgAYQc96is

    I was lucky enough to attend in person and it was an inspiring talk. One interesting factoid is that fission fragments to propel the space ship are emitted at speeds (~10^7 m/sec) greater than the escape velocity from the solar system so they won’t hang around anywhere near us.

    He also shows that plutonium recovered from from spent reactor fuel rods cannot be used to make a bomb because of the buildup of a Pu isotope that is so radioactive it will cause premature fizzles instead of detonation (and also kill anyone who tries to assemble a bomb from it.)

    The comments section of the YouTube video has interesting comments from Dr. Shu and others.

  5. Tom says:

    20K/yr for health insurance ?

    1. Yes. The one before it was $22K. We shopped harder, paid less, got a lot less.

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