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Almost anyone can fly a plane off a runway – the skill set for a small General Aviation plane like a Cessna 152 is rather small.  Believe it or not, ANY one can land a plane – gravity and physics stand ready to help the plane meet the ground.  It is far harder, however, to land it in such a fashion that 1) you can walk away unaided and 2) the plane can fly again.

Back in May, the US Navy launched its first UAV / UCAS drone off the flight deck of an aircraft carrier – a robot plane under both human operator and autonomous operation.  Now the Navy has closed that loop in having an XB-47 drone successfully land on that same deck.

From Military.com:

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Much has been written lately about how “the base”, the conservative / libertarian / constitutional / TEA Party wing of the party – the grassroots, are starting to really turn the Evil Eye upon the other part of the Party.  That would be those that write the talk, talk the talk, and then act and vote opposite way.  Often times, with disdain for the base and with their eyes on the political advantage instead of doing what they should be: standing up for and protecting the Values for which we sent them there.  Promise to cut the budget?  You’d better do that.  Promise to do something else?

Yeah, it’s called Keeping Your Word.  Build our Trust with you – don’t break it in being “pragmatic” or so that you can reach being a Ranking Member or Chair one day.  Or Leadership.  After all, it isn’t about the Win to Get The Power – it is what you do with it once WE help you win.  And yes, we Watch.  And last night I watched a PERFECT example of how the Republican Party continues to play small ball and excuse their way out of doing the right thing.  Sure, they’ve had 37 votes in the House to repeal Obamacare – meaningless votes except for the rubes who believe they actually accomplished anything.

Those of us who actually KNOW, have been waiting for them to do The Right Thing – which of course, they have refused to do and yakked their excuses all around it.  PERFECT Example?  I listened to the Hannity show last nite with Eric Cantor, part of the Leadership in the US House of Representatives.  Sean had THE question that most of us in the grassroots want answered: “Would you use the option to defund Obamacare ’cause that is in your authority?”

Disappointed was my reaction:

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“The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified.”

– President Barack Obama, Inauguration, 1/20/09

Uh-oh – this isn’t going to help “the Government works right” meme, eh Barack?  You know, that implicit Progressive Boast that Government is “capable”?  Well, the series of scandals, often seemingly by his political appointees and certainly by those on his ideological bus, has put a frown on that.  Certainly the IRS, targeting TEA Party groups simply because of a political disagreement, strikes even more fear of the most feared agency in the Federal Government.  But wasn’t that kinda the plan?

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Remember that argument?  That Government spends far less on administrative costs, 2-3%,  so that ALONE is a good thing (with the implied meaning that the Government can do as well as private insurance (who were around 20-25%).  What they didn’t ever want to talk about was the fraud in the Government’s Medicare / Medicaid system with a run rate of around $80 Billion (although I have heard of lower ones of $50 – 60 Billion).  Private insurance spent more as a percentage basis (4-7%) but their fraud rates were far, far less; spend a little more percentage wise to find it and spend FAR less in outgoes due to fraud (“Fraud, about 9 % of the Medicare budget“) – see:

Or take Medicare. Other than the source of its premiums, Medicare is no different, economically, than a regular health-insurance company. But unlike, say, UnitedHealthcare, it is a bureaucracy-beclotted nightmare, riven with waste and fraud.

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“May I suggest a good book today – and a GREAT Obamacare healthcare insurance plan??”

Well having seen that the ALA had pledged local libraries to be in the Obamacare “sign up here” corps (like other “community organizers” like the discredited ACORN organization (where Obama was an instructor in Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals), unions, and other left leaning organizations whom, if I were a betting man, would have Voter Registration materials with the policies whispering “and remember which Party is giving you this free healthcare!” – yes, I am that cynical), I asked and received answers from two of my three Town Selectmen (Oh Gus?  Still waiting).  The only thing of note is that while ACORN (or its reconstituted and renamed chapters) will be getting paid for its solicitation of soon-to-be-healthcare-wards-of-the-State (and remember – Obamacare is getting School systems to recruit “the children” to badger their Parents to sign up), those 17,000 public libraries will be doing it for free on the local taxpayer property tax dime.

In responding, they said no from their standpoint but the final decision would rest with the town’s Library Trustees.  So, I asked them, too!  Do you think I’ve received an answer yet (emailed on 6/30)?

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If You Don’t Work, You Die

I was reading a Nero Wolfe book the other day and there is a man we’re obviously supposed to dislike going on about how it’s stupid to try to feed all the hungry in the world. It puzzled me how this could be even disputed, much less a bad opinion. Given the different kleptocratic kakistocracies around the world, trying to feed all the poor is in fact to support dictators and evil men. Trying to feed individual, targeted poor is different, but then you can’t feed “all the poor in the world.” Of course, this was a time when the power of governmental organization and “scientific governance” were considered forces for good…

Indeed.  I do believe that most of the world’s poor ARE poor not because of themselves but because of bad government – incompetent at best and at worst, evil and tyrannical.

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We do work hard, we Groksters here at the ‘Grok.  No, we don’t do it for the fame, the glory, or the money (er, none of us earn a dime here (Unlike Zandra Rice Hawkins of Granite State Progress; an transplant supported by outside-the-State Billionaires) – we’ve found ourselves to be on solid ground when we realized that we should not give up the day jobs) – but we do have lots of opinions on a whole lot of subjects, issues, and events and we are not shy about sharing them from our Conservative / libertarian (note the small “L”) standpoints of free markets, fiscal frugality, Constitutional values, limited expressions of Government, and Individual Freedom and Liberties.

So when someone else gives us a H/T (Hat Tip) or asks us to speak or uses some of our material (in the way it was meant), it is most appreciated.  Four recent ones come to mind

• The hard work that Grokster Steve has been putting in on GrokTALK! every Saturday morning resulted in a national syndication for our podcast (and soon, adding in live audio streaming and call-ins)

• Grokster Rick has had one of his blog posts picked up by the Swedish outlet, Kristian stadsbladet: The Gay Marriage Report

• DaTechGuy (Pete Ingemi) had Grokster Mike on his syndicated radio show to share his views on “stuff”

• And then someone walked up to TMEW and I in Lowes picking up a few things…

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After doing GrokTALK! podcast in Concord this morning, I headed north on Route 93 in heading back to the Lakes Region.  Heavy traffic: lots of out of state plates and a bunch of boats and camping trailers being towed.  That said, the overall speed was quite high and then I remembered that the speed limit had just been raised from 65 to 70 MPH from Concord northward pretty much up to the border (excluding the Notch).  I would have to say that most folks were in the 70 to 75 mph range.

Then I also remembered what I had read in the Nashua Telegraph as first the Senate approved the higher limit and then again when Gov. Maggie Hassan signed the bill.  Concern for more accidents, more deaths?  Nope, what caught my eye was a crie du coeur from those whose Enviro mindset is that we peons driving at all is “a sin against GAIA” – we should NEVER be allowed to ‘create more pollution’ under any condition:

“…goal should be to increase fuel mileage and reduce unnecessary travel.”

The message?

• How DARE you even think you should be able go faster! 

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