A Grotesque Baboon - - -

A "third-rate country lawyer", a "coarse, vulgar joker", "a dictator, an ape, and a buffoon." “The craftiest and most dishonest politician that ever disgraced an [American political] office."

A description of President Bush? No, that's the press' description of the President during the Civil War -- Abraham Lincoln.

I was preparing a nice post on our delicious St Valentine's Day dinner when I switched on the news to see if I could catch the latest on Romneys's endorsement of McCain or Obama's comments on Hillary's comments. Instead, Keith Olbermann was ranting about President Bush, the fascist.

President bashing is an American right and tradition, kind of like booing the umps at a baseball game when a call goes against your team. Or second guessing the coaches decision to go for it at 4th and 1. But Olbermann goes too far, regardless of political view that kind of slander is unnecessary and wrong. And I believe it does us all harm when we show contempt and disrespect for the office of the President. He is not just a Prime Minister, he is a combination of Prime Minister and peoples King. I will say the same about Clinton, Obama or any other person who takes the oath of office. The president can be criticized, but in my view, respectfully.

Leaders make unpopular decisions. I have no idea whether this war was justified or not. I do believe there is such a thing as a just war, I don't know if this is one of them, but that's not my decision. Disagree with this war all you want. Fight to withdraw all you want, but to say the President is motivated by personal animosity, oil money, self-aggrandizement or anything like it is wrong. I don't think President Bush's decisions are motivated by anything but the desire to protect the very people who are criticizing him. He may be right, he may be wrong, only time will tell. That's my opinion.

For the record my news watching of choice is:
Matthews / MSNBC
A Cooper / CNN
Hannity & Colmes / Fox

Shows I do not watch:
Olbermann / MSNBC
Lou Dobbs / CNN
O'Reilly / Fox

Comments anyone? Agree, disagree?

High-Speed Rail. What Do You Think?

I don't know about you but in concept, I like it. Traffic between DFW and the "lower 48" is becoming more than just annoying. It's getting dangerous, and if the danger materializes in front of you, forget it.
Austin, San Antonio and Houston would all benefit from a closer commute to us and we from being "closer" to them. DFW Airport would benefit. Southwest Airlines must be lobbying hard against it. One suggestion: have at least one car dedicated to forklift loadable cargo. I have driven from DFW to Houston and San Antonio in the evening and it is 75% FedEx, UPS and other freight company trucks.

I also like the private company investment side of it. If a financier is willing to speculate about the future as far ahead as 2020, have at it. If it pays off big for him, he deserves it.

Downsides:

• It is speculative, so if Texas stops growing at the current rates we could have a lot of hat and no cattle. But the chances of that are small, there seems to be no stopping the movement to the southern states (or northern if below the border).
• Security concerns me with high speed rail, but the French, Germans and Japanese are dealing with it.
• I'd hate to see them go hog-wild enforcing eminent domain laws.
  

Purely personal interest: I would love to take a 1.5 hour train to San Antonio. Leave Saturday morning, come back Saturday night.

I'm just starting to hear and read about this, if you know of any definite dates and plans please let me know.

Some Things are Just Cool #2: Walking Power.

Another fly-by Yahoo news item: the knee-attached battery charger.

According to an article in this month's Science Journal, researchers at Simon Frasier University in British Columbia have developed a new technology to generate electricity from the natural motion of walking. Assistant professor of kinesiology Max Donelan and other team members say their biomechanical energy harvester promises to revolutionize the way people charge the batteries that power all sorts of mobile devices, like laptops, cell phones, and emergency rescue gear.

A like product by a Japanese company (WSJournal/March 2007) connects chargers to StairMasters, etal., so that when runners use them power is generated and not consumed.

The self generated power supply is a growing segment. My sister gave me a hand cranked flashlight. No batteries needed, of course. Crank it 5 seconds and get 20 seconds of surprisingly bright light. I know another company makes hand crank radios, a good idea for survival equipment, overseas volunteers in remote lands, etc. This is possible because power storage capacity is a increasing while decreasing in size and weight. See: the SUV hybrid. Maybe the old starter crank will come back for cars. Crank for 5 minutes and drive for 5 minutes.

Unrelated philosophizing:
Power is a commodity. The means by which it is generated is unrelated to its value, except in the sense that the environmentally minded folks place a higher value on "green" energy as an ethical value added to its value as a labor/time saver. Like other commodities, the more of it in relation to the demand for it determines power's exchange value. Why is that important? Find a safe, inexpensive way to power things and we will be less dependent on foreign-oil power and consequently safer and wealthier.

I like the hand crank idea and wind power idea, it's fun to watch.