It hurts to kill

News Item:
OCALA, Fla. (AP) - Gov. Jeb Bush suspended all executions in Florida after a medical examiner said Friday that prison officials botched the insertion of the needles when a convicted killer was put to death earlier this week.

Here in California, thankfully, capital punishment has also been suspended. Yes, I know that the murderous criminals who deserve death are now not going to die, but deserving death and actually being killed by the state are two different things. We do not improve the murderer by murdering him or her ourselves. We participate in a culture of violence. We remove any chance for redemption.

But the reason they give for not executing murderers is absurd: It might hurt! Do you think dismembering a baby doesn't hurt? The same government that is too kind hearted to stick a needle into a convicted murderer thinks nothing of tearing the arms and legs off, one piece at a time, of an unborn baby.

Hypocrites.

What will Iran do with a bomb?

The picture to the left is the "Little Boy Bomb" that was dropped on Hiroshima.

The previous post described this as a uranium bomb. What that means is that it contains two pieces of the uranium isotope with a mass number of 235 that are shot together to make an explosive nuclear reaction.

Uranium is an atom with 92 protons in its nucleus, but with different numbers of neutrons. The mass number is the sum of the protons and neutrons. Uranium-235 makes up less than 1% of the atoms of naturally occurring uranium. So to make a bomb, you need to separate the U-235 from the rest of the uranium, which is mostly heavier U-238, assemble two smaller pieces in a way so that when they are rapidly brought together, they explode. This is not difficult for a country like Iran, which has a huge oil revenues to fund this work.

Separating the uranium is the difficult part of this work, since chemical separations don't work. There are two ways to separate the isotopes. One is to make charged atoms called ions, and send them at a high speed through a strong magnetic field. The magnetic field will cause the flight path of the ions to curve, with heavier ions going in a less curved path. Once the ions hit the a device called a "collector", which is placed at different distances along the flight paths in the vessel, they lose their charge and are converted back to atoms. The collector will accumulate U-235 atoms. When the U-235 concentration in uranium becomes higher than the normal concentration, the uranium is called "Enriched Uranium". When the U-235 concentration is lower than natural uranium, it is called "Depleted Uranium."

The instrument used to enrich uranium using magnetic fields is called a "Calutron". This is an expensive, but not technologically difficult method to produce bomb grade enriched uranium, and was the technique used to make the U-235 that went into the Little Boy Bomb.

Another way to enrich uranium is to react the uranium with fluorine to create uranium hexaflouride, which is a gas at elevated temperatures. This can be spun in a high speed gas centrifuge and gradually enriched, as the lighter U-235 will migrate to the top of the centrifuge tube and the heavier U-238 will migrate th the bottom. This process is repeated many times and requires many expensive centrifuges. This is the technique Iran is using to make bomb grade uranium.

The view that Iran is making enriched uranium for "peaceful purposes" is incredible. There is plenty of lightly enriched uranium available for nuclear power applications, and Iran has only a single nuclear power reactor. They are producing highly enriched uranium for only one possible purpose: to make a bomb. Yesterday, November 20, Iran stated that they were in the process of building 60,000 centrifuges for its nuclear "fuel" needs.

The production of uncontrolled highly enriched uranium with centrifuges is not consistent with nuclear power fuel needs. But it is consistent with making an atomic bomb. A simple atomic bomb will take about 25 kg of highly enriched uranium. Once Iran has this quantity (or any other country that wants to make a bomb), assembling a weapon requires only existing military technology, and is much simpler than making a plutonium bomb.

Iran will build a bomb as soon as they have enough highly enriched uranium. What will they do with it?

Why Iran is scarier than North Korea

The picture is of the mushroom cloud over Nagasaki. This explosion was made with a plutonium based fusion bomb, the same type North Korea tried to explode a few weeks ago, but failed. Even though radioactivity was detected, that was more from the dispersion of the partially fissioned and unfissioned plutonium than from a successful fission bomb, such as the one shown to the right.

In other words, the North Korean bomb was a dud. The reason it failed is that plutonium bombs are hard to make. Plutonium fissions so quickly that conventional explosives have a hard time compressing the plutonium into a small lump for a long enough time to allow a significant amount of the plutonium to split and release all its energy. An improperly built plutonium bomb blows itself apart too soon.

Creating a plutonium bomb requires complicated machining and advanced detonator technology. But plutonium is created in a nuclear reactor, so it was readily available to the North Koreans because they have a reactor, and can use it to convert uranium to plutonium.

In the World War II the U.S. exploded three fission bombs. The first was a test of a plutonium bomb to be sure it would work. The second was the uranium bomb exploded over Hiroshima, and the third was the plutonium bomb over Nagasaki. The uranium bomb was never tested prior to use in combat. Uranium bombs are much easier to manufacture, once you have enough highly enriched uranium. In the case of the Hiroshima bomb, it was just assembled, and tested in combat. The problem is that the highly enriched uranium (HEU) needed to make the bomb is very difficult and expensive to make. It requires special devices such as a calutron, which can only make a small amount at a time, or very high speed centrifuges, which are a complex technology and difficult to keep clandestine. Still, it is what the Iranians are working on. Once they have enough HEU, the rest of the assembly of the bomb is not difficult.

Also, North Korea is surrounded by countries who are highly motivated to keep them from producing a bomb, especially China, who have significant influence on North Korea. Iran has enough oil revenue to be free of influence of its neighbors if its neighbors do not act in a very aggressive manner to keep the bomb out of the hands of the Tehran regime.

North Korea, even with plutonium in hand, is not as great a threat as Iran who are actively enriching uranium.

Thank you Barbara Boxer!

You will rarely see me agree with Barbara Boxer, but today I will bless her in my prayers of thanksgiving. She voted against the flag desecration amendment.

The amendment would have given the flag, a man made thing, special protection as a sacred object. This is repugnant case of too much government. I do not support flag burning. I have never burned one, I have never seen one burned. The thought of burning a flag is offensive. But even more evil is the thought of the U.S. Government raising a man made object to the level higher than religious symbols. Last time I checked, it was not a crime to burn a cross, stomp on a Magen David, put a statue of Buddha in a toilet, or draw an offensive cartoon of Mohammed. In fact, I am more offended by a cross burning than a flag burning, but it is not the government's job to protect me from being offended!

God bless Barbara Boxer.

No death penalty?

Zacarias Moussaoui was sentenced Thursday to life in prison. It makes sense. I hope he lives a long time an will have an opportunity to repent and be redeemed. I understand the anger and the desire for revenge and punishment. But if he were sentenced to death, we would continue to hear about it for a long time to come. Now he quietly disappears from humanity and will spend enough time, I hope, to understand how wrong he is.

The life in prison penalty made me feel proud to be an American.

Where Rush is Wrong

Rush Limbaugh is a kick to listen to. He has two views that are wrong, however.

One is his irrational dislike of hybrid automobiles. There are lots of arguements against hybrids, but they are mostly irrational and emotional. The facts are that hybrids get good gas mileage, and most owners enjoy owning them. If Rush hates them because they are driven mostly be liberals, that is an unfair guilt by association. Actually, Conservationists, like me, are usually conservative politically in many other ways, but we don't like to waste gas!

The other thing Rush doesn't understand is the effects humans can have on climate change. His logic seems to go like this:

"Can we make it rain?...Well if we can't make it rain it is arrogance to assume we have anything to do with climate change!"

This is confusing climate with weather. It is quite possible for human activity to change climate, and most evidence shows the effect of human activities is an increase in average temperatures worldwide.

Other than that, have at it, Rush!

Why not all Christians agree with "intelligent Design"

Christians all agree that God created each one of us, and that we are each giving a unique set of qualities, that we call gifts, that make us each unique. We are each a unique object of God's love.

But a recent proposal called "intelligent Design" (ID) promoted by some Christians is not accepted by all. The general idea behind ID is that at the biochemical and organelle level in living organisms, there are structures and biochemical processes that are so complicated that they could not have evolved according to the rules of Darwinian evolution, but must have been created by an intelligent creator. The ID theory does not say evolution does not occur, nor that the universe was created only a few thousand years ago.

Because of this, ID lies half way between the strict and literal view of the Bible where the world was created about 6000 years ago (5766 years ago according to the Hebrew calendar) in 6 days, and that any appearance of greater age was also created, and the completely atheistic view that the universe was not created by any God, but formed and changes strictly due to action of natural laws.

Since a good many Christians believe in the strict literal view of the Bible, there is by no means universal acceptance of ID among Christians. Also, many Christians take another view of the Bible, also highly respecting its authority as the Word of God, but interpreting the Genesis story as metaphoric, dealing not with the question "how did the world come to be?", but rather
"why did the world come to be, and what is our relationship as creatures, to God, the Creator?" These Christians do not seek to find literal concordance between the science of biology and the Word of God, because scientists seeks to answer different questions than those God is answering in the Scripture.

So adding the two types of Christians together: the Bible as Scientific Fact Christians and the science and Bible are not required to be identical Christians, you may end up with quite a large majority of Christians who do not accept ID.

As science, ID has one major shortcoming. The statement "because I cannot explain some complex biochemical process without assuming God, God must exist" is a logical fallacy. In the future, a discovery may occur that does not require God to be the source of the biochemical process. If such a proof is found, it does in no way disprove the existence of God. Because I cannot disprove the existence of God in this way, I did not actually prove the existence of God in the first place. I would need to first prove that not only can I not explain the biochemical process without assuming God, but that it is impossible that anyone will ever be able to do so. That proof that has not made.

Finally, many Christians feel that scientific proof of God is not attainable, because God's plan for the salvation of humanity requires faith, and faith, by definition, requires belief in things that cannot be proved (or disproved.)

Sunni, Shiite, and Kurd Differences Threaten to Break Up Iraq

Sunnis represent 20% of Iraq's population but have ruled the country with ruthless oppression since its founding. Now there is a lot of hand wringing about how Iraq might break up if "federalism" is enacted over Sunni objections.

Why is that bad? Iraq is not an authentic nation: it has no contiguous history and natural bonds between the peoples who live there. It is an artificial construction. Iraq created as a map drawing excerise by the British. If it breaks up into a more rational set independent states that represent true bonds between the people living there, it will be more stable, not less.

Sunnis will no longer be able to use the huge profits from oil taken from others to support their reign or terror over the other peoples in the country. If the Shiites are more aligned with Iran than with the Kurds, that is probably because it is a more natural and stable alliance. If the U.S. or the British press don't like it, too bad. The Iraqi people don't exist to make the U.S. or British press feel good.

I am happy to be proven wrong, but as long as the Shiites and Kurds cannot defend themselves against infiltration and murder by the terrorist Sunnis, there will be no stability in Iraq.

Racism in the news media

From the LA Times:

Katrina Takes a Toll on Truth, News Accuracy

Rumors supplanted accurate information and media magnified the problem. Rapes, violence and estimates of the dead were wrong.

By Susannah Rosenblatt and James Rainey, Times Staff Writers

First, I am not African American. My grandfather was "passing", but everybody else in my family is white except for a little Native American on my father's side several generations ago. But when I learned, as an adult, what my grandfather went through to become a teacher and then a school principal during the segregated '30's, I was shocked by the stupidity and racist mindset of people who lived "back then". Now, once again, I am shocked at the racism in the news media. You would never hear breathless reporting about baby rape in the aftermath of an earthquake in Japan, or landslides in La Conchita, California, so why did they spread such horrible lies about African Americans?

I'm sick of it all.

IRA has scrapped its arsenal

NEWS STORY: IRA has scrapped 'entire arsenal'

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=1997332005

The world is getting to be a better place.  

Stopping Junk Faxes 1

Today I took the first step in stopping junk faxes. This morning I got 5 junk faxes in a row from a company who addressed a fax to "All Employees who own homes in California".

I called the number to ask them to stop faxing me and got put on automatic hold.

I called my State Senator's office, Tom McClintock, and asked what legistlation there was to prevent this sort of attack on my business, and was told a bunch of garbage that looks like it came directly from the Junk Fax Lobbyist Association.

I called the phone company, and was told there was nothing they could do.

Junk faxes take time, materials, and tie up capital equipment. It is not time to make them stop.

They drew first blood.

Exit Plan? Let's be careful about this

In the '70's we were deceived by the communists into believing that we could not win a war against communism in Southeast Asia, and we bailed out of Vietnam. Among the many horrible results of the quick and violent coming to power of the communists was the killing fields of the Khmer Rouge--The Kampuchean Communist Party. Between 1975 and 1979 the communists killed over 1 million people. They were not killed due to U.S. military action: they were killed, mostly in secret, by the Kampuchean Communist Party.

Now we have people with great political and demogogic influence demanding that we leave Iraq, but they are not thinking through the consequences of leaving before a democratic govenrment is in place. There are no good options to democracy. Imagine the consequences to Japan if after we defeated Japan we did not occupy the country and enforce democratic reform. Whatever your view of the reasons for going to war in Iraq, technically the formal war is over and we are there to enforce the development of democracy by keeping the murderers who want to excercise absolute political power from having their way.

If you want to hate Bush and his decisions, you are free to do so, but before you demand an immediate withdrawal from Iraq, tell me how you plan to create democracy after we are gone.

Make your life better

I'm an older guy: 51 years old, a Berkeley graduate, so still sort of a hippie from a now lost generation. When in high school I was an advocate for environmental protection. I went on to get a degree in soil science, a true ecology major. But over the years I have been kind of worn out by silly environmental activists who don't think through their positions. So I don't want to be thought of as an environmentalist, but as a conservationist. God has given us only so much, and we are required to conserve.

This week in central California where I live, gas is topping $3.00 per gallon. That's about $0.80 per liter, so it still isn't absurdly expensive, but being that California has historically been an oil producer and home to many refineries, it is much more than most of us are used to.

Anyway, still being a conservationist, I can't see a reason to burn gas just to go a few miles a day to work. So I looked at my old bike, and thought perhaps I could commute by bicycle. I live in a community with very many steep hills, and my old bike is not right for commuting, so I went out and bought a new bike for the purpose. Now for two weeks I've been riding to and from work, a total of 10 miles a day, with the last mile a tough hill climb. My legs are killing me, but I am getting a workout everyday without paying gym fees.

In the mornings I usually ride past a husky motorcycle cop with his radar gun. On almost every day after I wave hello to him he immediately pulls out to chase down some poor soul who was speeding.

I have to ride by an Andy Gump portable potty and a field spread with manure. I also ride by strawberry fields, and houses cooking breakfast in the morning and dinner in the evenings. I couldn't enjoy the aromas of the outdoors when I as driving in my car.

I can see children playing in the yards and on the streets. I see neighbors working in their yards, and hear the birds. I also see all the flattened road kill and the cigarette butts and garbage littering the streets.

I see other bicyclists, most of whom wear those tight fitting clown costumes that bicyclists like to wear. My bike, shown above, is your standard black bike with a luggage rack, headlight and a little bell, and I wear my business attire (very geeky--I look like a Morman missionary except for the aloha shirt I wear on Fridays). So I don't look like the other bicycle riders, and in fact I think I have only seen one other guy commuting on his bicycle.

But I am saving gas, improving my health, and enjoying the ride. My legs are always sore, because I keep timing my ride home and trying to improve on it, but, hey, I'm a guy and most guys have a testosterone problem that makes us this way.

Such are the little pleasures of riding to work. So get a bike and make you life better.

How to stop Islamic terrorism now

If a 800 pound tiger were sitting in the room with you, would it make sense for you to ignore it? After the London bombing last week, there have been many talking heads telling us the best way to protect ourselves from terrorism, and how we are doing a bad job of it now. But they are ignoring the cause, and there is really only one cause.

Let's take a hard look at the cause of terrorism. First, we are not being attacked because we are in Iraq or Afghanistan. That is a silly leftist political position that ignores the last 30 years of Islamic terrorism that I can remember. We are not being attacked because or our freedoms or our lifestyles or anything else like that. That is a crock of rightist hooey. The Islamic terrorists have no interest in our lifestyle or our democratic freedoms. There is only one reason we are being attacked, and it is the 800 pound tiger that everyone is trying to ignore: we support Israel, and the terrorists cannot tolerate that.

There is one plan that will not only stop terrorist acts against the U.S., but have Islamic women ululating in ecstasy in the streets for CNN, just like they did on September 11th. The mullahs will bless the U.S. and we will thought of as doing the work of Allah. They will love us instead of hate us.

What is this plan? Right now, the only country in the world that is powerful enough to attack and destroy Israel is the United States. If we were to destroy Israel and push the Jewish nation into the sea, all terrorism will stop. Any other approach will fail and the Islamic terror will continue.

So you have to ask yourself: Is this what we want? Do we want to destroy Israel?

Our only answer to that question is no. We have these choices: to battle in Iraq (a war for to build a democratic state in the Mideast besides Israel--and no, it is not about oil--don't be misled--the U.S. has access to plenty of oil without Iraq) and Afghanistan (a war to destroy a terrorist Islamic government) or sit here and accept that there will be inevitable terrorist attacks against us. You may not like it, but that is the way it is. Now, tell my why I am wrong.

Burn, baby, burn

The house has passed legislation making the burning of the U.S. Flag a crime.

Is the burning of a Koran a crime? It is in Saudi Arabia. It's probably punishable by death there. Is burning a Bible a crime? Not here. I have seen high school students rip the pages out of Bibles to roll marijuana cigarettes. Smoking the cigarette is a crime, but not ripping up the Bible to make it.

So we are asked to support elevating the U.S. flag to the level of a sacred object, more sacred than the Bible. We are expected to treat it with respect, and I do, but burning a flag is a very powerful political statement, and I can’t see what the public benefit is to prevent that statement from being made, other than I find flag burning offensive. But other than being offended, I am not harmed if someone burns a flag.

When I was young, the rallying cry of conservatives was "I may not agree with what my opponent is saying, but I would give my life for his right to say it." I could not conceive of burning a flag, but now the House is proposing to give more protection to the flag than to the Bible. Desecrating a flag cannot happen because the flag is not a sacred object. All that burning can do is offend patriotic Americans, like myself, BUT AMERICANS DO NOT NEED PROTECTION FROM BEING OFFENDED. We do demand protection of our right to free speech. We are going to need it to protect our country.

Issues of Life and Death

The deaths of Terri Schiavo and the Pope occurred within a few days of each other. The Pope, as one of his last acts, condemned the murder by dehydration and starvation of Terri Schiavo, who was murdered by her husband with the complicity of the State of Florida.

We can argue about the right to death, freedom of choice, right to life, and a number of other things, but I would like to propose one view that I have not seen elsewhere. That is, the husband, by several acts on his part, not the least of which was violating his marriage vows, should not have had the power of life and death over his wife.

A lot of noise has been made over the law in this matter. The law did not allow for the saving of the life of Terri Schiavo.

Confucius said: "If the people be led by laws, and uniformity sought to be given them by punishments, they will try to avoid the punishment, but have no sense of shame. If they be led by virtue, and uniformity sought to be given them by the rules of propriety, they will have the sense of shame, and moreover will become good."

The parents had asked for custody. The relationship between the parent and the child is the foundation of virtue. This particular relationship between the husband and wife had no virtue, as Terri had been abandoned by her husband.

The claim of her being in a persistive vegetative state has several problems. First, the diagnosis is difficult to make, especially in a brief examination by a court appointed physician. Persons with brain damage sleep quite a bit more than they are awake, and when they are awake they do not exhibit all indications of consciousness. Therefore such a diagnosis can only be made after spending several days with the patient. No physician did that.

But it is irrelevant. If the parents want custody, it should be theirs, as they have a stronger claim to custody than a husband who wants to see their daughter dead. In given the choice between life and death, when the choice is given, choose life. It is rare enough for the choice to be given.

There are too many instances of abuse of wives by husbands, and this was one that ended in the death of a disabled daughter of parents who loved her and wanted her back. There is no virtue in this.

Thanksgiving Proclamation

George Washington

City of New York, October 3, 1789

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor, and Whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me "to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanks-giving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness."

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th. day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be. That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks, for his kind care and protection of the People of this country previous to their becoming a Nation, for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his providence, which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war, for the great degree of tranquillity, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed, for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions, to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually, to render our national government a blessing to all the People, by constantly being a government of wise, just and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed, to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shown kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord. To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and Us, and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

Support Democracy!

"I don't care about the result. All I care is that we are having an election. This is a sign that things are improving for Afghanistan."

This is a quote from a VOTER in Afghanistan. Democracy will end terrorism.

Media Bias favors Right Wingers

Dan Rather has been demonized by right wing talk radio and bloggers for his use of forged documents to attack President Bush, and the right wing whines about “media bias against conservatives.”

Well, the right wing ought to be grateful. Left wing politicians, such as Clinton, get a free ride from the press, even when they lie under oath about serious sexual harassment crimes. Can you imagine what the press would do to Bush if he were caught in a lie about sexual harassment? There have been no investigations by the press of the charges against Kerry about his war crime admissions, nor about the charge that he used political connections to fabricate a third, sanitized and glorified Silver Star citation. And his brother Senator from Massachusetts, Edward Kennedy, got away free from any investigation of what was likely to be felony drunk driving and homicide with the death of Mary Jo Kopechne.

In contrast, right wing politicians are hammered by the press. And both right wing politicians and the general public are prosecuted by the government ruthlessly. Martha Stewart is serving jail time for not telling the truth to government employees, and although she was never even charged with a crime related to the stock transaction, it is enough that she told a lie. Kennedy lied about Mary Jo Kopechne, and Clinton lied about his sexual harassment, and Kerry lied about atrocities committed in Vietnam, but none of them have been jailed.

But the right wingers (and the general public) should be grateful for this. Since we, the general public, and they, the right wingers, are held to a higher standard, right wingers are much more likely to be honest and honorable. I certainly do not agree with a lot of the righty-tighty viewpoints, but I know I am much more likely to hear the truth out of George W. Bush that John F. Kerry, since there is no investigative reporting in the major media about the truth behind Kerry’s claims.

The leftists cannot field a decent and honorable candidate. Because of the pressure to say whatever you think your audience wants to hear, it is much more work for a lefty than a righty to be honest in politics. Since there is no pressure from the mainstream press for the lefty-loosies to be honest, the honest lefty-loosies are selected against. I think the last of the honest lefty-loosies was Jimmy Carter.

How to create a bogus service record for any presidential candidate

Go to CBS's website and download this document:

http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/BushGuardaugust18.pdf

Now open up microsoft word, set your margins at 1.2 inches on either side, use Times New Roman font, and a 12 font size. Type it out, and you will get exactly the same doucment! CBS's document is a fake. I got this from http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/ and demonstrated it myself.

CBS:

Week after week after week after week, they told lie after lie after lie after lie.