Category: Current Events

He’s the last suriviving World War I veteran.  Video here.  We do hope that Congress agrees to pass a World War I memorial project.

It’s Memorial Day, and CNN is educating people about the holiday.   Good.  I note that Google once again doesn’t see it as a holiday fit for noting.

The EU is looking at changing how lights are measured from Watts to Lumens.  Really, you need both to be able to make informed lighting decisions.

SayUncle has a pretty good roundup.  Turns out it’s not really all that scary, Joe Biden’s hysterics to the contrary.

UPDATE: Speaking up hysterics.

UPDATE: A poem for Joe Biden.

The Mexican Swine Flu is coming!

The CDC and World Health Organization are concerned about the spread of the swine flu and it possibly being a new stronger strain of the virus because of its spread and toll in Mexico City. There also are fears the swine flu could prompt a flu pandemic that hits across numerous countries.

Lock yourselves inside.  When the undead begin roaming the streets, you know what to do!

The Four Corners monument is apparently off by 2 1/2 miles.  The initial survey that established the borders of those states in 1868 was off.  It would seem that all the maps would be off too, in that case.  If that’s true, I would imagine the bigger story is probably that some folks who believed they lived in one state will now find out they live in another.

I imagine this is going to have implications for water rights, considering the San Juan river now is going through states it wasn’t originally thought to be going through.  There’s an old saying in the west that whiskey is for drinking and water is for fightin’.  If this survey is correct, I would say Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah are going to be fighting for some time.

UPDATE: Actual location of the border is centered on this map here.  There’s going to be a lot of people affected.  Several towns.

UPDATE: Looks like the controlling law here was the Arizona Organic Act of 1863.

That all that part of the present Territory of New Mexico situate west of a line running due south from the point where the southwest corner of the Territory of Colorado joins the territory of New Mexico.

There would then have to be an act declaring what the border between Colorado and New Mexico territories was supposed to be.  I’ll see if I can find that.

UPDATE: Yep.  Congress passed “An Act to provide a termporary Government for the Territory of Colorado” passed in 1861:

That all that part of the territory of the United States included within the following limits, viz: commencing on the thirty-seventh parallel of north latitude, where the twenty-fifth meridian of longitude west from Washington crosses the same; thence north on said meridian to the forty-first parallel of north latitude; thence along and parallel west to the thirty-second meridian of longitude west from Washington; thence south on said meridian to the northern line of New Mexico; thence along the thirty-seventh parallel of north latitude to the place of beginning, be and the same is hereby erected into a temporary government by the name of the Territory of Colorado.

Washington is located at 77 longitude west, so that would indeed put the southwest corner of the Colorado Territory at 109 longitude west.   Hell, even Google Earth says it’s off.  Looks like Arizona and Utah just got more territory, and New Mexico and Colorado will lose some.  Of course, I don’t doubt this matter will go to court, and be settled there, but from a cartological point of view, the border seems to be wrong.

UPDATE: Very interesting Wikipedia entry on public land surveys.

It looks like there really was some fantastic marksmanship at work in this incident with the Somali Pirates.   I have to share Dave Kopel’s sentiment that President Obama deserves kudos for ordering the Navy to do what they had to do, and get the captain back by whatever means were prudent, even if it meant dead pirates.  When he does something right, I will praise him.  Let’s look at the marksmanship though:

U.S. Navy snipers fatally shot three pirates holding an American cargo-ship captain hostage after seeing that one of the pirates “had an AK-47 leveled at the captain’s back,” a military official said Sunday.

The captain, who’d been held in a lifeboat in the Indian Ocean since Wednesday, was rescued uninjured, Navy Vice Adm. Bill Gortney told reporters.

[…]

U.S. forces moved to rescue Phillips after seeing him in imminent danger on the lifeboat, Gortney said. A fourth pirate was negotiating Phillips’ fate aboard the nearby USS Bainbridge.

“While working through the negotiations process tonight, the on-scene commander from the Bainbridge made the decision that the captain’s life was in immediate danger, and the three pirates were killed,” Gortney said. “The pirate who surrendered earlier today is being treated humanely; his counterparts who continued to fight paid with their lives.”

Now imagine the shot they had to take.  You’re on the deck of a ship that’s pitching in the high seas, and shooting at targets who are also pitching in the same seas.  You not only have to be able to aim to where the targets are right now, but where they will be by the time the bullet finds it way to the target.  The distances involved are probably on the order of hundreds of yards, if not more.  The pirates “was shot in the head.” according to a defense official.

We should thank God we have such skilled men and women defending our country.  I’m going to bet future pirates are going to avoid American flagged vessels from this point forward.

UPDATE: Blackfive is reporting the distance was about 25 meters.  I’m surprised the pirates allowed themselves to be reeled in that close.  Either way, there’s no such thing as a fair gunfight.

Looks like the captain managed to jump overboard again, and the Navy shot the remaining pirates.  Nice shooting.  At least the Big-O had the stones to tell the Navy to do what they had to do.  There will be more piracy though, that much can be certain.  Blackfork thinks it never should have come to this point, and I agree with him.

I wondered, since it’s a bit harder to convince the international community to give up its irrational fear of civilians with guns, whether the Navy could buy a dozen or so old merchant vessels, fill them with Marines, and have them cruise the Gulf of Aden. Kill any pirates who try to attack.  Eventually, the pirates won’t know which vessels are carrying cargo, and which are carrying marines who will kill them.  Get enough countries to do this, I’m going to bet that a lot of these pirates decide life as a fisherman isn’t so bad after all.

Looks like we have a hostage situation.  I’m in favor of paying the ransom to get the crew back safely, then killing the pirates as they try to make off with the booty.  After that, I would attack all their coves and vessels.   It’s a shame we no longer have these in service.  Nothing says “don’t mess with us” than sixteen inch shells.

But we’re in the era of hope change, which means the pirates are likely to get away with this.  Fat White Man wonders why our merchant vessels aren’t armed.  The answer is because most of the rest of the world are afraid of guns, and don’t allow them in their ports in possession of civilians.

UPDATE: Looks like the crew is back in control.  Good to see Americans still fight back.