My New Year’s Resolution…

…is 1920 X 1200. Anybody want to help me out?

Even Jack Ryan wasn’t enough to stop the Borg…and now we will have President Obama

Many folks either didn’t know about it, if they weren’t from Illinois, or they forgot. Here’s what happened in the sequence of events that led to the election of Barak Obama to the US Senate.

Jack Ryan – not the character from the books by Tom Clancy – is a graduate of New Trier High School, Dartmouth, Harvard Business, and Harvard Law. He worked for Goldman Sachs and made a pile of money. In 1991 he married former Miss Illinois Jeri Lynn Zimmerman, a 1990 Theater graduate from Northwestern. After making all his money, Jack “retired” from Goldman Sachs and started teaching at Hale Franciscan High School in Chicago. This was a man who would be the quintessential Republican candidate – rich, well-connected, intelligent, dedicated to public service, with a beautiful wife.

But the Ryans divorced in 1999. Jeri moved to California full time to act, and the records of the divorce settlement – mainly having to do with their son, Alex – were sealed at their mutual request. When Ryan decided to run for the Senate in 2004, the Chicago Tribune and WLS-TV sought to have those records unsealed. Ultimately, after some legal tap dancing, some of the records were unsealed by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Schnider. Among the records were allegations made during the divorce proceedings by Jeri Ryan that her husband forced her to go to sex clubs with him with the intent that she have sex with him in public.

The Illinois Republican machine threw Ryan under the bus. There had been polls that said he was trailing Obama, so now they figured they had a loser. GOP State Chair Judy Barr Topinka – who later lost her bid for governor to Rod Blogojevich – said Ryan had misled the party into thinking the material in the documents would not be embarrassing. Ryan was pressured into resigning from the campaign in late July, 2004. The Republican Party fumbled around for a bit and finally brought in Alan Keyes from outside the state. Alan Keyes is a very intelligent and articulate man, but he was not from Illinois and came into the race too late. He was unable to overcome the cloud over the Republicans and lost heavily to Barack Obama.

Without this sequence of events, and the meddling into the private affairs of a parents of a young child, Barack Obama might still be a state senator in Illinois. I blame Jeri Ryan, Judge Schnider, the Chicago Tribune and WLS-TV, and the weak Illinois Republican Party.

As I write this President Bush is giving his Farewell Address. I completely agree with what he just said – he made the difficult decisions following the dictates of his conscience. I’ve not always agreed with his decisions, but I have tremendous respect for this man and all that he and his family have given to our Nation. God bless you, President Bush. I am profoundly sorry for the way your country has often treated you during there perilous times. May we all learn from your example.

While I am at it, I want to also thank Dick Cheney for all he has done for us. Except for the President, no one has been so unfairly dealt with by the media. Vice President Cheny is a good man and a devoted patriot. God bless you as well, sir.

SpaceX Falcon 9 goes vertical

 

Falcon 9 on the pad at the Cape

The article can be found here.

I’ve followed the work of SpaceX with a  lot of interest and hope. These folks are serious contenders, and have not let setbacks frustrate them. The Falcon 9 that was test-integrated on the pad at Complex 40 is not exactly the first flight article, although the first stage was. Some things can only be fit and some problems can only be solved at the pad, so taking the rocket there and doing the integration testing was a brilliant idea – and the company is nimble enough to make necessary changes quickly and without too many levels of management.

SpaceX hopes to launch the Falcon 9 for the first time in the summer, and I sincerely hope everything goes well for them. This is a company that is trying to do the right things, the right way, and they have the potential of standing the space transportation industry on its head.

And doesn’t it look gorgeous under the lights?

Commissioning of CVN-77

The US Navy’s newest aircraft carrier, the George H.W. Bush, was commissioned today in Norfolk, Virginia. I wish we could have been there. We were there for the commissioning of the Reagan, CVN-76, on a hot summer’s day.

I’m delighted they got the commissioning done before President Bush left office, and while 41 could still be attend the ceremony. President Reagan was unable to attend the commissioning of his carrier, and that was very sad.

This is the last of the Nimitz-class carriers. Unless something amazing happens politically and economically it will be the last carrier built for a very long time. It’s an amazing piece of work, and we as Americans should be very proud of the carrier and the President for which it was named. Congratulations, President Bush, and congratulations to all who built CVN-77 and serve aboard her!

Oh, and Happy Mule Deer!

Happy Mule Deer!

It wasn’t that funny a pun last year, and it’s probably not this year either. And I don’t care. It’s my 2009 and I’ll pun if I want to!

10 per cent!

Apple CEO Steve Jobs

According to this survey, Apple’s current share of the computing OS is 10% – that includes 9.63% for the Mac OS and .44% for the iPhone. This is the highest number for Mac ever, and the lowest – 88.68% for Windows.

I thought the fact the iPhone was included was interesting. Is it a phone, or a computer? The survey also included boxes like the Sony PlayStation and Nintento Wii – they had to be internet-enabled to count. Check it out – the numbers are interesting.