Sunday, December 28, 2008

You don't mess with the Zohan

All the action in Israel and Palestine is oddly familiar.
Oh yes! Let's revisit July 12 & 13 of 2006... The last time the Israelis kicked the bejesus outta Hamas/Hezbollah in Lebanon. You gotta hand it to those Israelis... when they peel the lid off of the can of whoop-ass, they don't play around.
So, it's no suprize that Hamas got their asses handed to them again this week.This is a recap of the last time someone tried to do that.

You see, the Israelis have a three pronged plan for complete annihilation of anyone stupid enough to give them crap.
First, they isolate a border or region for for an exercise. Then they close off water and power to that grid.
And the third part really gets your attention. They bomb, mortar and then march across that grid and they kill anything that's still resistant. Usually, by the time you're at step two, it's already too late.
The sooner Hamas and Hezbollah recognize this, the sooner they can get over this whole fued thing.

The Israelis should kick these terrorist organizations to the curb. Palestine might actually have a shot at obtaining land and status after that. These Hamas clowns keep stepping on any peace process and generous land offers that the Israelis make. Kinda like a few Republican folks I know here. All or nothing mentality. They do not know how to negotiate for changes. They push worthless campaigns that only hurt them in front of the very people they claim they are working for.

UPDATE: What is being found on most of the firepower and shells aimed at Israel is Iranian, and even some Syrian stuff. Big suprize there, right? I'm telling you all right here, and right now...that President Elect Obama had BETTER get his head straight on what he's going to do when (not if) Israel lights Iran up.....with the nuclear option. That's right. When Iran gets close enough to actually be capable of launching a nuke in the immediate future, there will not be an Iranian Government (existing) to push that button.


Friday, December 26, 2008

The Asperity of Desideratum

We've been over this. Here and Here
And then , in the last week, immediately before Christmas...
INOVA did it again. They actively pursued and attempted to pull a fast one in Leesburg's Town Council. They precipitated the rumor that if HCA comes to Broadlands, Cornwall Campus will somehow be affected and will need to be closed due to funding issues.

Now, what was interesting about HCA's response, was that they sent a letter saying that IF Cornwall was ever in trouble, they'd send funds to assure that it stayed open. That should have been the end of the discussion, because a very PUBLIC guarantee has just been made. Now, HCA will HAVE to honor it. So, now that Leesburg's worries are solved...

We move on to a picture of Bob Lazaro, and John Chapman, as it appeared in the Purcellville Gazette. Mr. Chapman and his building in Purcellville, have lined up with INOVA in blaming HCA for the lack of filling those offices, because INOVA wanted to play a round of dirty politics in pulling out of Purcellville. As a businessman, WHY ON EARTH would one ever "nail" one's business hopes and leasing opportunities to ONE company to the exclusion of all others?? Is John a good decision maker? From the evidence he's tossing around in the papers...I have to pause and evaluate his possible LACK of business sense, given the current economic storm we're about to weather.

HCA has their hands full right now, but I have NO DOUBT, that as good business folks that they are...they will most likely perform a county medical needs assessment that will no doubt include an outreach to communities like Purcellville, Lovettsville, and Middleburg.

By excluding HCA from his business circle, he just dissed a very important client who'd have been enthusiastic to do business with him and his building... If he hadn't played such a huge part in a very nasty and negative campaign against their hospital, without an awful lot of thought about what to do when they actually are given the go-ahead by the BOS to build their hospital...

John, you've got alot to learn about picking the side of your bread that should be buttered. And even more to learn about WHEN to butter it at all, because that usually precipitates a flurry of calls regarding your office space. When you butter the bread too quick, and all on one side...you just cut those inquiries in half...You slammed a door on an opportunity that you may have needed.

UPDATE: I've recieved documentation on INOVA's previous promise to have the Purcelville and Middleburg facilities online back in 2006.

http://mbecc.com/archive/pdf/Eccentric_05_03.pdf

LHI is currently working to add four new healthcare facilities in Loudoun County, to be operationalby the summer of 2006. The new facilities include a health clinic located in Middleburg, as well as a 20,000 square-foot facility in Purcellville, another in Lovettesville and a mobile clinic at Dulles International Airport.

The facilities planned by LHI have already found funding through the organizationʼs merger with Inova Health System. The merger agreement included Inovaʼs pledge of $200 million to be used for Loudoun Hospital upgrades, four new facilities, and construction of an urgent care center south of Dulles on Route 50, to be converted into a full-service hospital in the future.

This also begs the question .... Since INOVA has $2BIL of tax free money in the bank, how is HCA going to strap INOVA over anything?? I do not run around pledging money that I don't already have set aside for a promise. Seems INOVA pledged money to a project, and then went about building a fund to fulfill that promise??

Friday, December 19, 2008

Powerline travesty

Many of you are familiar with the PATH process and Allegheny Power's attempt to place an additional power line from Ohio straight on up to New Jersey and New York by way of Loudoun.

We would derive ZERO benefit locally. They just want the land to place this pass-thru on. In order to to put this before the SCC (The State Corporation Commission -you know...the one that Timmy Kaine just tipped in Dominion Power's direction with the appointment of one of Dominion's top lobbyist to that commission) Allegheny knew they were having trouble with a couple of adjacent conservation easements, and that they were going to be called on that fact, so they drew up an alternate route. Right thru my land.

The path is laid out in these maps.

Basically, they're willing to go around a couple more conservation easements, and burn 5 miles of cable in an effort to get back to their established right of way. Furthermore, they do not want a special tax district created on this bold move.
Now, if I needed access to a piece of land on the other side of my neighbor's place, and I wanted to pass thru his property to get to that interest, I'm probably going to have to negotiate a payment for that option. I'm not naive enough to think he's going to give it to me out of the goodness of his heart.

Here's my piece of ground in the yellow outline. The dotted line represents the alternate route of a 735Kv line on 225 ft towers. Can you imagine what the resale of my property would be with such a monstrosty looming over the house? For power that won't even benefit my neighbors?

powerline path

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

And in the "just for fun" venue...

Or, maybe the WTF? column...
Most of you are familiar with the big beast I drive. I ventured far and wide, and could never find a vehicle that carried all I needed to carry, sipped fuel instead of gulped it, and went where I needed to go without hesitation. So I had to build it.

Now, I've recieved plenty of ribbing from those who are unfamiliar with the very nature of the beast. But once they've seen it perform, and become aware that this thing still gets 20 mpg on the highway... they usually cease laughing.

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This has been a 3 year build, starting with the custom 4x4 suspension under it. I designed the suspension and drew it out on an AutoCad program, and then a local welder and I executed the installation to the truck's frame. The rear is a 1999 E-350 Superduty Sterling. (That's one and a 1/4 ton duty ...for those unfamiliar with the hardware) I have a matching one ton axle for the front. I'm still drawing up that suspension, with improvements to the current setup.

I have an 8000 lb. winch up front, and a 9500 lb. winch ready to install as a backup unit. There is a plethora of snatch blocks, tree straps and other pulling gear in the truck, as well.

The picture provided here is a mockup of the truck's upcoming surgery in the spring. It still is more van than truck right now, but with the surgery in the spring, it'll become more truck.

UPdate: Evidently, LeeJ -of Oppressive Word fame - thinks that I drive this truck for my ego.
What he overlooks, or is flatout too stupid to compute is... I'm a contractor. I have a number of crews that build stuff. And I need a truck (the bigger the better) to pull 1200 to 4000 lbs. loads on a frequent occasion.
Lee's a builder, too. Which makes me wonder how he carries his materials.....One can wonder.

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Global.......warming??

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Cartoon courtesy WashingtonTimes
How bout global cooling.
Seems our friend over at NOVATownHall (who appears to have much more time than I)

http://novatownhall.com/2008/12/10/the-big-chill-on-global-warming-begins/

has located a couple of outstanding links to the phenomenum that I'm sure all of the "normal" folks have by now noticed.

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2008/dec/10/global-warming-freeze/

And then the scientist back it up...650 for global cooling vs. 72 for warming.
Smackdown??
http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=2158072e-802a-23ad-45f0-274616db87e6

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Ah...so THAT's what they call it now!!!

Native Intellectual Capacity.
What we old-timers call "common sense".
I tripped across an article and I'm now purchasing the book referred to in the discussion.

http://www.emorywheel.com/detail.php?n=25177

Although this is a piece about the author, and in that same vein, his assertions regarding the younger generation, some of the comments in the discussion below it are pretty much hearty endorsements for Professor Mark Bauerlein's point of view.

The book: The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future

This kinda ties in with my posting "The politics of me". Something changed in the last 20 years in the set of circumstances that these kids grew up in, as opposed to the world I grew up in, and this book probably has it's finger on those answers.

Pearl Harbor. The "day that will live in infamy" is upon us.

Doesn't seem like 67 years, does it??
This day in history, the Japanese unknowingly opened a can of whoop-arse.
Ric over at http://hoodathunk.wordpress.com covers the press that this remarkable and historical event got in the Washington Post. It was literally minimalized and pushed to page A4 in a five inch by one inch column.