Category Archives: Uncategorized

As summarized by Science Magazine, life on Earth subsists in one of two ways: conversion of light via photosynthesis into an energy form which can be stored as a hydrocarbon, which can then be used later via oxidation, OR by simple theft – i.e., eating other organisms and stealing their stored energy in the process.

Now we have a report of a third way – using radiation:

Source: NASA

[Desulforudis audaxviator] takes a third path: It draws its energy from the radioactivity of uranium in the rock in the mine. The radiation from decaying uranium nuclei breaks apart sulfur and water molecules in the stone, producing molecular fragments such as sulfate and hydrogen peroxide that are excited with internal energy. The microbe then takes in these molecules, siphons off their energy, and spits them back out. Most of the energy produced from this process powers the bacterium’s reproduction and internal processes, but a portion of it also goes to repairing damage from the radiation.

I think it’s important to note that this is not a direct interaction with radiation, but rather taking advantage of a result of radiation – in a sense, the molecular fragments, fraught with internal energy, are the primary actors, and the process which produces them – radiation – is primarily important only in that it produces these fragments, although there is a secondary importance in that it can damage Desulforudis audaxviator in the process.

The Science article goes on to note that cosmic rays could take the place of uranium-based radiation on the surface of a planet dissimilar to Earth, thus giving organisms on those planets a shot at life, and this is exciting for exobiologists. I think it also gives exobiologists another way to consider how life might find ways to survive – thus leading to new tests as we explore Mars, Europa, and other potential harbors of life.

Reporters Without Borders maintains a list of “Enemies of the Internet,” and the United States occupies a spot on that list, which I suppose should be unsurprising in the wake of the Snowden disclosures:

In June 2013, computer specialist Edward Snowden disclosed the extent of the surveillance practices of the U.S. and British intelligence services. Snowden, who worked for a government sub-contractor and had access to confidential documents, later exposed more targeted surveillance, focusing on the telecommunications of world leaders and diplomats of allied countries.  Activists, governments and international bodies have taken issue with the Obama administration, as the newspapers The Guardian and The Washington Post have revealed the extent of the surveillance. The main player in this vast surveillance operation is the highly secretive National Security Agency (NSA) which, in the light of Snowden’s revelations, has come to symbolize the abuses by the world’s intelligence agencies. Against this background, those involved in reporting on security issues have found their sources under increasing pressure.   

The U.S. edition of The Guardian is still able to publish information from Edward Snowden, while the British edition is not, but the country of the First Amendment has undermined confidence in the Internet and its own standards of security. U.S. surveillance practices and decryption activities are a direct threat to investigative journalists, especially those who work with sensitive sources for whom confidentiality is paramount and who are already under pressure.

They go on to detail the role of the NSA, Snowden, FISA, and other items (my favorite name: The Five Eyes Alliance). Naturally, RWB looks at events from its own perspective, with its own priorities, which for journalists includes confidential sources – which the United States officially often hates. So I suppose it’s no surprise that we’re on a list that includes unsavory countries such as North Korea, Cuba, and Russia.

Nothing amazing, just some pictures.

Charlie Dunlap on Lawfare reviews Rosa Brooks’ How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything: Tales From the Pentagon:

Though subtitled “Tales from the Pentagon,” this book is not some sort of mindless “tell-all” by a former government official. Instead it’s a thoughtful analysis of national security in a capacious sense, as seen by a former journalist turned Georgetown law professor turned Pentagon official turned defense thinker. How Everything Became Waris one of those rare books in which there is no part not worth reading; moreover, it addresses an astonishing number of issues for a volume of this length. You’ll learn about such diverse security issues as piracy, military detention, our strategic deafness about Africa, stability operations, drones, covert operations, cyber, nonlethal weapons, the militarization of foreign policy, and much more.

The wide range of topics in the How Everything Became War is perhaps less for its own sake than to point to the interconnections between them, and also to show the structure of national security decision-making on a day-to-day basis and the many offices of government and officials—far beyond simply the Department of Defense and a handful of intelligence agencies—involved in making them. These are weighty topics, but the book proceeds in a deceptively easy narrative tone, revealing Rosa’s skill’s as a journalist. It opens, for example, with an account of sitting in an “anonymous Pentagon conference room … listening as briefers from the military’s Special Operations command went over plans for an impending strike against a terrorist operative.”

I’ve put it on my Christmas list.

A reader responds regarding our own terrorists:

Far too sophisticated a discussion for typical law-and-order types, or everyone should have a gun types, etc. etc. In fact, it’s a very good argument for extremely strict gun control — it’s much harder for a lone wolf to cause mayhem if he can’t acquire an arsenal of guns.

Sadly, that’s not necessarily true. Guns are the sexy way to do it – but driving a vehicle into a crowd can produce breathtaking casualties as well.

From the mailbag comes this dubious suggestion:

Why didn’t we think of this? A lot cheaper as well as you can tell who is guilty and who is innocent as for as their presence at a riot that gets out of hand.

Don’t you just love it?

The Israelis have done it again
This should be standard riot control equipment for all law enforcement agencies.
Great idea? Watch the video link at the bottom.

Forget the wall; just put sprayers all along the southern border with sensors.

Might have saved lots of store fronts in Baltimore and Ferguson……….

The U.S. needs to get some of this for the looters in any out of control demonstrations.

Israelis crowd control method…..
NOW WE ARE TALKING….BRILLIANT

Skunk spray! Leave it to the Israelis to come up with this ingenious crowd control method! For those who want less violent means used in handling protests, this seems to be the perfect fit. This is a riot control weapon that really works. It’s a non-toxic, non-lethal, but very effective. The Palestinians want it banned because it makes them feel degraded. I wonder how long the aroma lasts on a demonstrator. Looks like these guys may be eating outside for a while rather than around the family dinner table. Great stuff; the Israeli biomedical engineers have done it again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4_XZE3r3oU&authuser=0

Here’s the problem I have with using this against Americans.

They’re Americans.

This makes some sense for what is basically two countries with low-level hostility toward each other, even if Israel officially doesn’t really like the idea of a two state solution. Harmless but foul – if they’re not your citizens. I can see arguments for and against.

But the author of this email is advocating this as a way to break up American protests, and protests happen for a reason. The author of this email doesn’t see a protest as a legitimate form of communication with governments that sometimes need a good slap upside the head; for this writer, all protests are just an irritant, the protesters illegitimate. Well, sorry, but protests are a very important part of the political scene, and if they irritate you, maybe that’s the point. Maybe it’s good for you.

And the reference to looters – as if this happens every day of the week in America. No, it doesn’t, and it’s huge news when it does every few years. Is the writer advocating equipping every police force in the country with this equipment for events that so very rarely happen?

At what ruinous cost?

Is this guy an idiot?

The Beast with a Million Eyes (1955, aka The Unseen) features a cast that must initially share major acting time with members of the animal kingdom: a dog named Duke, a cow named Sarah, and a flock various birds, all of which are puppets for an invading intelligence that has its eyes on a bigger prize. Yet, reflective of the plot, they attack and kill humans, which leaves us confused because, as we learn later, this malevolent intelligence is looking for hosts that it can truly use to continue its existence.

So why kill an unsuspecting human just because he’s massaging your udders?

Between sadly oscillating female characters, a guilt-ridden father, a very young Dick Sargent as a somewhat aimless law officer, a voiceless man who makes for a fine ambiguity, and the aforementioned representatives from the animal kingdom, it’s a cast with only a little to recommend it, and the animals are soon knocked off by the humans (presumably they lacked membership in SAG-AFTRA). The plot kept us occupied for some time, but the characters are somewhat random at times, and at others they’re being stampeded by forces beyond their ken, while the dialogue is pedestrian. On the plus side, however, the art during the opening credits was actually rather fascinating, reminding our Arts Editor of the work of the famous surrealist Salvador Dali; the night scenes are well shot; the acting was competent; and there are absolutely no extended death scenes, leaving us to infer and imagine, rather than removing that intellectual pleasure through gouts of bloody gore.

The climactic scene no doubt was trying to convey something to us, but we were unable to understand what appeared to be a muddled point concerning love, eagles, and potentially possessed rodent (which was swiftly eaten by the eagle).

In case you’re interested, here’s a YouTube video of the opening of the movie. The good art starts at about the 51 second mark.

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94taCuipmhI

The falls and paths of Gooseberry Falls were gentle and soothing, scattered with weathered trees and their fallen kin.

My Favorite.

Hey, all. While messing about with iNaturalist I ran across a feature which permits connecting a website to iNaturalist in order to show your latest observations, so I added it to UMB. You’ll find them on the right hand side somewhere – I may move them around a bit. Maybe nobody will care, but it was fun. Enjoy!

NewsOK reports that Oklahoma Governor Fallin’s response to depression in the Oklahoma oil industry is … to pray it gets better.

A statewide prayer initiative focusing on the oil fields and beleaguered energy industry will culminate Oct. 13 with an annual breakfast in downtown Oklahoma City.

The Rev. Tom Beddow of Ada, coordinator of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma’s Oil Patch Chaplains ministry, said he would like to see similar gatherings around the state as people pray for individuals affected by current economic woes, with the energy industry at the center.

“The oil field is hurting right now,” he said.

“We’re asking churches all over Oklahoma to open their doors, put on a pot of coffee and pray for the oil field, and not only for the oil field but the state, because the economy of our state is so connected to the oil field.”

Hubbard, with Oilfield Christian Fellowship- Oklahoma City, agreed.

“We have a saying: The oil field trickles down to everyone,” he said.

Hubbard said Gov. Mary Fallin has proclaimed Oct. 13 as Oilfield Prayer Day to raise awareness about the initiative.

I can’t help but think that perhaps they should be working on diversifying their economic base, not praying that, somehow, their major industry will magically get better. The time to work on that is now. Scout Finch with The Daily Kos points out that some have done very well with the industry – perhaps too well:

The “oil field trickles down to everyone.” Well, Oklahoma’s wealthiest person is Harold Hamm, an oil billionaire with a nearly $15 billion fortune, most of it from shale oil fracking. Yes, the same oil extraction method responsible for at least 90% of the earthquakes in Oklahoma. Maybe Oklahoma could raise his taxes and encourage him to trickle a little bit more down to the oil field workers? Or how about George Kaiser? Forbes Magazine pegs his net worth at nearly $10 billion.

Scott Chamberlain continues covering the FWSO fiasco with an epic takedown of a statement by FWSO management:

… one of these is first among equals: artistic development.  Art is the reason the group exists.  A group isn’t simply raising money, it’s raising money for the art. It isn’t just trying to “right size” the staff, but to build a staff appropriate to do the art.  And so forth. If a group doesn’t keep the art central to its thoughts and actions, why do any of it?

And so looking at Mr. Nurdin’s four pillars, I admit I shudder.  Note that his list starts with “generous benefactors.” In both placement (first on the list) and wording, this is completely wrong.  Perhaps “benefactor” is a non-weighted regionalism in Texas, but to me the word implies a level of ownership. It implies a dominant and submissive role, where a benefactor is a guardian angel with all the resources and power, and the beneficiary is a passive supplicant hoping for favor.  Like the relationship between Miss Havisham and Pip in Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations.

For this exact reason, I bristled at the similar views expressed by Karen Cohn, the former board chair of the San Diego Opera.  In particular, I was dismayed by her claim that the board “provided” opera to the city.  My response to her works well in Fort Worth, too:

The wording here deeply disturbs me, implying a clear sense of ownership and entitlement… you state that you provided the Opera to the public. You most certainly did not do so, nor should you have. This was not a private enterprise. You were a key source of support to the Opera so that it could fulfill its mission, but you were hardly the only source of support. Does board giving eclipse ticket sales? Does board giving surpass non-board giving? Board giving without these additional sources of support would not begin to be enough to keep the Opera running, so I find it odd that you feel you were “providing” the Opera to the community.

I figure the FWSO management should tell Scott to put up or shut up – and then hire him as Chairman of the Board, or Executive Director, or whatever position is best fit for cleaning house.

When both parties nominate the same person, it’s either a speck of sanity or brazen primary fraud. Politico reports:

Vermont Rep. Peter Welch is about as liberal a member of Congress as you’ll find. So what’s he doing running for reelection as a Republican?

Fear not, Democrats. It turns out Welch, the Green Mountain State’s lone representative, will be on the ballot this fall as both a Democrat and a Republican. A write-in campaign for the GOP nomination was launched on his behalf without his knowledge, and after coming out on top, Welch accepted.

“Obviously, there’s no secret about where my policies are, where my voting record is,” Welch said in an interview. Without a hint of sarcasm, however, he added: “I’ve accepted the Republican nomination [and] I’m pleased to have it.”

On most issues, Welch is a Bernie Sanders-backing, card-carrying progressive. But Republicans adore the 69-year-old congressman, and he’s actually kinda proud of his cross-party credentials.

Makes me smile. Maybe the Vermonters will be the source of the return of sanity to the GOP. That would be a relief.

Daniel Roth of LinkedIn mentions a report on the television industry:

From Wikimedia

Joel Espelien, a senior analyst at The Diffusion Group, was mulling on this era of abundance recently and wrote a report for clients. The picture he used to highlight his analysis was surprising: a pile of dead fish. Today’s content frenzy, he said, is nothing more than overfishing — and will end just as predictably. As he explained it, the US TV audience is flat or declining, and not as accessible it seems. Adults watch 35-40 hours of TV a week, but probably 80% of this is news, sports and Law & Order reruns (or, as Epstein says, “shows that people already know and enjoy”). That leaves the entertainment world with 7 to 8 hours per week to fight over. And during those hours, consumers will try out only a tiny number of the 100+ new shows being offered this Fall alone. “Throwing this many new TV shows at an audience already saturated with video choices may cause many potential viewers to simply select ‘none of the above’,” he wrote.

I’m trying to understand how this analogy works. Overfishing is, to be technical, the harvesting of a particular species of fish (a fishery) beyond its carrying capacity in anticipation that the market will consume most of the catch. The unintended effect is the damage to, or destruction of, the fishery.

The analogy seems to be quite strained. While I can see a mapping from the catching, or production, of fish to the production of television shows, I don’t see a mapping from the consumption of fish to the consumption of the television shows. The harvest of the fish and the damage to, even destruction of, the fishery is unconnected to the appetite of the market for it, except that the resultant scarcity of the fish in following seasons may drive up the price of the fish – rendering it more valuable.

But the over-production of television shows merely results in overloading the consumer, not in the destructive exhaustion of the resource. Further, postulating that consumers, when faced with a plethora of shows, will simply turn off the TV and move on is a highly speculative assertion. There should be many services which will review these shows and tell the consumer the general content of the show, as well as its quality – and if there aren’t, then there’s a market opportunity.

Granted, I haven’t read the actual report – that costs money and time, neither of which I’m really willing to spend. Maybe I’m way off-base. Anyone see where I’m wrong?

Might be a put-up job…

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/TxNrizGdhtY

Iran continues to be stirred up concerning the upcoming American Presidential elections – with no clear conclusion in sight, according to Saeid Jafari in AL Monitor. A number of different opinions are proffered by various Iranians; here’s one:

A friend sends a CNN report concerning the use of the sport of fencing as therapy for young prisoners in Senegal:

Source: CDC.

Senegal is experimenting with a new form of restorative justice where these child prisoners – whose offenses range from violence to theft – are being taught to fence in twice-weekly classes that take place outside of prison walls.

The aim? Teach the kids how to follow rules and regulations once they are released from prison. …

“The weapon, the white attire, the mask, rites and rules, and situations of combat and arbitration. No other sport can bring together all these elements,” said the ASE founder. “The gradual change in behavior of jailed minors in the detention space and during hearings has convinced all prison staff and magistrates of its merits[,” said Nelly Robin, who came up with idea.]

A fascinating project. I hope to hear more about it in the future.

A reader comments on the VP debate:

If this were a real debate, Kaine wiped the floor with Pence. But since it’s an artificial TV spectacle, it was a lot more even. Pence did a good job of making bald-faced lies sound truthy, sounding like an evangelical and paternalistic minister, appealing to the emotions not the brains of the audience. Kaine provided specifics of plans and how they might work. Pence engaged in a load of fake bonhomie and the “I’m an all American red-blooded small town boy so you got to believe this bullshit I’m handing you”. Kaine flubbed some opportunities to pin Pence and Trump to the wall on some obvious lies, but in other cases, did a good job of nailing them on those lies. There was a lack of decorum on both sides, but since it would be tough to win by letting the other guy bullshit at length beyond his time, I guess one is forced to be rude and interrupt.

I about vomited when Pence bragged about the “good” things he’s done in Indiana, when factually he’s fucked the state and its citizens up but good — and along the way, dragged the American taxpayer into the mess. Like the HIV epidemic in southern Indiana due to his screwing over the only health care facilities they had in an anti-abortion attempt, and which grew so large and bad the federal government had to step in and spend millions of dollars. Pence makes my blood boil.

Here are the NPR and The New York Times fact-checks; I find I prefer the Times over NPR, as it seems more definite. With regard to the situation involving abortion and HIV in Indiana, Romper provided coverage just prior to the GOP Convention:

In 2015, Pence declared a public health emergency in Indiana after officials determined that the growing number of cases of HIV caused by needle-sharing among drug addicts in one southern county had reached the scale of an epidemic. But the story doesn’t start there. Pence, whom you may know as the man who last year championed a religious freedom law that critics argued essentially codified discrimination against LGBT people, was involved in the making of the epidemic long before he publicly admitted its existence. Even before he signed into law a measure that restricted abortion access so severely it prompted the #PeriodsForPence campaign during which Indiana women called his office to encourage their governor to stay out of their uteruses by describing their periods to him, Pence’s anti-abortion agenda was setting the stage for a major health crisis.

I had not heard of this, but it sounds like a serious misjudgment and indicative of a lack of deep thinking, much akin to his blunder last year with the anti-LGBT bill that caused such a ruckus. Or is he just the hand-puppet of someone else? I suppose, sans an inside leak, we can never be sure. I’ve noticed the current chatter is that Pence was really making a bid for the 2020 GOP nomination by throwing Donald under the bus, but this early on it’s only rumor. Does he really want to run against Hillary in 2020? Well, his plan might be to assume the economy goes south and the electorate sours on her.

I should be appalled by the number of lies Pence told, bald-faced lies. They should have made me faint from shock. It’s a sad tale of the GOP collapse of responsibility that I didn’t. I did shake my head, though.

galliwasp:

The Jamaica giant galliwasp (Celestus occiduus) is a species of lizard in the Anguidae family. It was endemic to Jamaica. It was last recorded in 1840 and is now extinct, likely exterminated by introduced predators like mongooses. [Wikipedia]

Reference found on Expedia, where their commemorating lost species, via Treehugger.com:

The coldblooded Giant Galliwasp would sun itself in the tropical heat of Jamaica, becoming one of the most iconic animals on the island due to its large size for a reptile – it grew to over 60cm in total length. When settlers arrived, bringing dogs, cats and mongooses, they upset the delicate balance of the island’s ecosystem, causing the death of the species.

On Lawfare Paige Pascarelli gives an overview of the studies of homegrown terrorists such as recent bomber Rahami to Anders Breivik, the Norwegian who killed 77 several years ago, and comes to some tentative conclusions:

The pictures we took of Cascade River falls…

It appears the Turkish military, once a deeply respected institution, is being systematically neutered. The latest move is to remove its military wing and make the civilian medical system responsible for war casualties. Metin Gurcan on AL Monitor describes the situation:

The Turkish government is following through on its radical decision to totally dismantle the military medical network of about 900 doctors and more than 4,000 military nurses and paramedical personnel.

Under the state-of-emergency decree issued July 31, two weeks after an attempted coup, the 125-year-old Gulhane Military Medical Academy (GATA) in Ankara and 33 other military hospitals in different parts of Turkey were transferred to the jurisdiction of the civilian Ministry of Health. The medical needs of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) will be handled by the civilian medical system.

The transfer inevitably created a battlefront of discord between the military high command and civilian politicians, generating angry debates in the public sphere and also between civilian and military elites.

The debate in the public sphere was triggered by reports that a specialist sergeant who had suffered serious burns Sept. 6 had died. The sergeant, part of the Euphrates Shield military intervention against the Islamic State (IS) in Syria, was said to have died because he was not evacuated from the Gaziantep Public Hospital to GATA’s highly specialized burn unit. Reports claiming the sergeant had died because of incompetence in the civilian medical system spread like wildfire on social media. The reports added that the civilian system has been experiencing serious problems in prioritizing TSK casualties from clashes with the Kurdistan Workers Party and IS, thus hurting TSK morale and motivation.

According to Minister of Health Recep Akdag, such reports are malicious fabrications.

And even if it’s a true report, would it matter? If public support for the government is as strong as it appears to be, the ideological requirements of Party over the well-being of citizens will over-rule humanitarian and efficiency requirements, until the Party is dispossessed of the government – and that would be a “necessary but not sufficient” requirement. Any replacement government might also be motivated by ideology (either political or religious) and continue to see micro-control as being a necessity.

Metin’s report later speaks of concerns about losing institutional knowledge concerning military-oriented specialties, but I wonder if they are losing institutional knowledge about the political system itself. I am not particularly knowledgeable about the Turkish political system, but I do know that for many years it had stood out for being a secular system that refused to let any particular religious sect take over – as enforced by the military coups. It now appears the military is being co-opted, and the state will fall under the sway of one of the sects. That will place institutions at the whim of ideological purity, and may result in the degradation of the governmental institutions that support society.

Will Turkey turn into Iraq over the next century, with strong-men as leaders and dissenters firing up bombs? The Kurds, who might be best considered as a conquered populace, have of course caused occasional havoc, but now I’m thinking of ethnic Turks who happen to be in religious sects not currently in power.

From a reader…

HOW TO SAVE THE PRINCESS IN 8 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES

You need to rescue the princess with code – but sometimes your code doesn’t work and the princess is a dragon and you’re a fish.

Welcome to programming

https://toggl.com/programming-princess

I particularly enjoyed the PHP critique.

Having read and watched the Libertarians struggle with 3rd party status for 20+ years, it’s not surprising that these struggles continue in the wake of the two major parties, even if both seemed to be straining at the seams this year, what with Sanders dragging the Democrats to the left, while the GOP has started hemorrhaging membership because of the erraticism of the Trump campaign. It sometimes has the scent of the eternal about it.

However, for those libertarians who have real ambition to be on the national stage, the recent performance of Presidential nominee Gary Johnson must be especially heart-breaking – because he seems to be promoting a simplistic, isolationist nonsense as a philosophy that will really tar the party & brand for years to come with the epithet of “know-nothings”. A few days ago Johnson drew a blank on the contested city of Aleppo, in Syria; shortly after he couldn’t think of a single foreign leader that he admired, despite prompting. Now consider this report from TPM:

“Five days after the interview Andrea, I still can’t think of a world leader that I respect,” Johnson said. “I mean, having never been involved in politics before, I will tell you I held a lot of people in this country on pedestals thinking that they were role models. I got to meet them up front and personal and found out that they were empty suits.”

“When it comes to talking about a foreign leader that you respect, that you admire, I have a hard time with that one,” he added. “That’s politics. That’s just who I am.”

When Mitchell pressed him further on the issue, reminding him that foreign policy was part of president’s portfolio, Johnson suggested that his lack of knowledge on the topic was actually an asset.

“You know what? The fact that somebody can dot the Is and cross the Ts on a foreign leader or a geographic location, that then allows them to put our military in harm’s way,” Johnson argued.

“We wonder why our men in service and women suffer from PTSD in the first place,” he continued. “We elect people who can dot the Is and cross the Ts on these names and geographic locations as opposed to the underlying philosophy which is, let’s stop getting involved in these regime changes.”

This is a profoundly unserious proposition for an era in which military weaponry can strike from so far away with so much power. Even when cross-bows were the epitome of military power, it was worthwhile for leaders to understand what was going on in the kingdom next door; today, ICBMs make it imperative that we understand what is going on across continents. Does he really reject monitoring the leadership of North Korea as they attempt to build nuclear weaponry that will reach the United States?

At its heart, this is a rejection of knowledge, and I can say with some confidence that this won’t sit at all well with most libertarians. Many software engineers are libertarians, and data, which we gather, shepherd, and interpret, is a close cousin to knowledge. More generally, libertarians rely on the economic research and knowledge of such economists as Hayek to bolster their ideological positions, and so they have to at least pay lip-service to knowledge. Suggesting that knowledge leads to doom should be considered a heretical notion by the rank & file – and I think it will strike many libertarians that way. I no longer monitor the “establishment” libertarians, and I don’t know how easily Johnson obtained the nomination – and if he remains as popular with the base. But I think this reprehensible statement may mark the end of the political career of Johnson, and possibly his running mate, William Weld, as well.

It’s one thing to suggest that perhaps we interfere with other countries too much – I’d even have some sympathy for that position, on a case by case basis – but to suggest ignorance is a virtue is well beyond the pale.

And if you’re still considering a vote for Mr. Johnson, rufe on The Daily Kos has taken the trouble to enumerate the Johnson/Weld ticket’s positions on some issues here. An example:

2. Civil Rights

• Gary Johnson supports the use and expansion of private prisons, which are rarely audited for compliance and create a financial incentive for incarceration

The positions strike me as little more than surface thinking.

Located on the northern shore of Lake Superior, this retired lighthouse is a popular tourist attraction which we visited during our recent vacation trip. The first few pictures are of the interior of the lighthouse itself.

Then a couple of pics of the grounds.

And, finally, a couple of dramatic pics of the lighthouse exterior.