Wednesday, April 13, 2011

OBAMA AND LIBYA - - POLICY? WHAT POLICY? (posted April 11)

Let's see . . . paraphrasing him, we have (in chronological order):

1. "We're going to fire a s--tpot full of cruise missiles, but we're not going to put troops on the ground. No sir, we're not going to put troops on the ground, and that's my final word on the matter. Our objective is to stop the slaughter of innocent rebels by slaughtering Kadhafi military forces."
2. "It's American policy that Kadhafi has to go."
3. "This very limited military action does not have the removal of Kadhafi from office as an objective. But it's our policy that he has to go."
4. "Yes, that was a U.S. Air Force F-15 that crashed in Libya. It had mechanical problems. Sorry I didn't mention we'd be using Air Force and Navy aircraft in this effort."
5. "We apologize for the strafing of friendly rebels by the door gunner on the rescue aircraft retrieving the U.S. Air Crew from the crashed F-15."
6. "We are not going to put American troops on the ground in Libya. Nor is it our objective to force Colonel Kadhafi out of office. That is my position, and I'm sticking to it."
7. "The use of Special Operation troops in Libya will be temporary."
8. "The U.S. has withdrawn all its aircraft from operations over Libya, as the NATO forces have assumed responsibility for all operations including the No Fly zone."
9. "U.S. Air Force fighters under NATO command are being used to help enforce the No Fly zone."

April 15: This just in:
10. "On second thought, we're going to keep bombing until Colonel Kadhafi leaves office. Oh, and those U.S. Air Force fighters helping enforce the No Fly zone in the air? They are also being used to enforce a No Tread zone on the ground, as well as a No Artillery or other Libyan Military Assets zone on the ground."

Does anyone know what American forces are supposed to accomplish in this 'effort?' Can anyone identify just why we're involved at all? Can anyone explain how anyone can believe anything that comes out of Obama's mouth?

Let your friendly Ostrich Killer know.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

THE OSTRICH KILLER'S BUDGET SAVER

All of us have our favorite ideas on how to bring spending in line. Let's face it - in our personal budgets, we either have to cut spending to match our income, or increase our income to match our spending. At the federal level, that means either less spending, or more taxes.

We all love taxes, don't we? As long as it's the other guy who gets taxed, not me. I'm no different. But since we can't all go untaxed, maybe we should look at how to cut spending.

So here's my list:
1. Entitlement programs: First, any entitlement program not funded by its beneficiaries are scrapped. Gone. Done. Including all those federal employees who work on those programs. Close the offices, sell the buildings. You get the idea. Next, any entitlement program funded by its beneficiaries are kept apart from the general fund and may NOT be used as collateral or otherwise leveraged for any purpose other than paying its beneficiaries. Further, only those who pay into these sorts of programs - such as Social Security - may receive benefits from it, and then only in proportion to their participation in funding their personal accounts. Personal accounts may be willed to beneficiaries other than oneself in the same manner insurance policies can. This means NO DEADBEATS, ILLEGALS, OR NON-PARTICIPANTS WILL GET A DIME OF FEDERAL MONEY. Productive citizens will, non-productive won't. Yes, that's social Darwinism. This will save in excess of a trillion dollars a year, all by itself.
2. Welfare programs: Hey, didn't you read paragraph 1, above? No federal welfare. Of any nature. If the states want to provide any form of welfare, more power to them. But they can expect productive people to leave those states for states where there is no welfare.
3. Social Engineering Programs: We're talking things like Planned Parenthood, NEA (both types - National Endowment for the Arts and the National Education Association), PBS, "cultural awareness and appreciation" brainwashing in public schools, any affirmative action programs, etc. Elimination of these programs will save more billions.
4. Foreign Aid: You may be surprised to read this, but I'm not opposed to foreign aid. I'm just opposed to how it's done, although it doesn't amount to many billions. In the Ostrich Killer's budget, all foreign aid would be in the form of in-kind help, targeted to specific non-politically affiliated organizations in the various countries meant to receive such aid. For example, aid to Ethiopia would likely include drilling and irrigation equipment, farming equipment, seeds, etc. But no dollars. And any in-kind materials sent to these organizations would be built or grown in the US. Further, those countries who are not whole-heartedly pro-American would receive no foreign aid of any type. Nor would we allow imports from those countries.
5. The Space Program: They need a lot more money if they're going to reduce the chances of killing more astronauts and still do meaningful exploration. The Ostrich Killer is a big fan of space exploration. So I'd start by doubling their budget. That might almost bring their budget up to an amount roughly equal to the annual pizza expenditures by our citizens.
6. National Defense: This is an area where the question is not "how much can we afford?" but "how much is required?" Without a decisively dominant military, we don't continue to exist as a country. We hear that we have a 25-year technology lead on the rest of the world when it comes to defense items. Well, let's make that 50 years. Sitting on our collective asses and enjoying that technological lead won't keep us safe.
7. Other Programs, Agencies, etc: A deep review of every government agency - dept of agriculture, education, commerce, interior, etc - will be undertaken with the abiding question "does this agency or organization benefit the country more than it costs?" at the top of the list of questions. Any who are doubtful will be canned. Doors closed. People fired.

Do you like the above? Send a copy to Obama. Don't like it? Send a copy to Obama.

Saturday, April 02, 2011

IPAD AND IPAD2 REVIEW

Yes, you're reading a first for the Ostrich Killer's blog. A techno-review of a popular product type. Why? Let me tell you a story.

My kids gave my wife and me an iPad for Christmas. Naturally, we were impressed and pleased. But once we got it home we discovered the truth about this gadget. Here's what we found:

1. No USB port into which to plug anything useful - unless you went to an Apple store and bought one of their items. The port is of a proprietary sort, and can only fit Apple things.
2. No additional memory card slot.
3. No productivity programs - not even if you could use the non-standard keyboard displayed on the screen.
4. Anything you wanted to load into the iPad had to come from or through iTunes. We would have to open an iTunes account.
5. There was nothing of any value in iTunes when I went looking for productivity software. There were simple, micro-versions of word processors and spreadsheets that required using the useless, klutzy non-standard keyboard on the screen, but that's it. There were hundreds of apps that were mostly novelties and games, and that wouldn't work in an environment where one was not connected to the internet.
6. To do anything - even games - one had to download - and usually pay for - them from iTunes. To send a file to yourself, you first had to send it from your laptop to your iTunes email, where you could then get it for the iPad.
7. There was plenty of memory for a full-fledged operating system, but instead they had a non-compatible, minuscule reduced instruction set type of OS. There was plenty of RAM for installing actual programs, but there was no provision for that.

I suppose that, in the interest of full disclosure, I should report that I have little respect for Apple zombies. You know what an Apple zombie is - the guy who stands in line overnight to be sure of getting a new Apple gadget on the first day it's released. They're living proof that P.T. Barnum, or whoever, was right about there being a sucker born every minute. So far only Panasonic (Toughbook) and Itronix have come close to creating a useful tablet-type PC.

An iPad and other current generation tablet devices, such as the Motorola Xoom, have a long way to go yet. They won't be there, from the Ostrich Killer's perspective, until they:

1. Allow for the plug and play connection of standard peripherals (keyboards, mice, speakers, ethernet, etc.) through standard ports;
2. Allow for loading actual programs, not just cute little apps (why not an Apps window, all by itself, available through an icon click on the desktop, while the rest of the desktop is used for 'traditional' computing stuff?)
3. Enough environment headroom to allow for running real programs and storing their resulting files;
4. Built-in G4 or better cell connectivity;
5. Built-in GPS;
6. Grey scale option switch in lieu of color to free up RAM and prolong battery life;
7. Ability to switch OFF wifi and cell connectivity and operate in true stand-alone mode;
8. Weatherproofing, or at least the option of buying a true weatherproof case that will still allow operating the device.

Your Ostrich Killer says that Apple could give the iPads away and make money on everything people have to pay for from iTunes in order to make the iPad do anything fun or even marginally useful. Realizing that, the logical definition of an iPad is: a hand-held portal to the iTunes store. That's all it really is.

Nope. Tablet devices aren't there yet. Who'll be first to make something useful? Apple? I truly doubt it. They're into toys. And so are their customer, who delude themselves that they're 'cutting edge' or some other euphemism meaning they're visionaries among the blind.