Where are we?

How do we get into a situation where the difference in politics define us?  As Decmocats we are required to believe that women are in control of their body’s whereas we Republicans  have to believe in “pro-life” .   How do these decisons realate to what government is supposed to do for us?

More importnatly, why are relativity trivial issues like this key to either party?

Help me understand…

A couple of months ago I was in a gunshop and saw this awesome little pistol  for $275.  It’s like a miniature 1911 in 380.

FI Model D

Image shamelessly stolen from Star-Firearms – go there for many more details including the hi-res pic.

The one I saw was a Iver Johnson Pony.  For a tiny little pistol in a 380 caliber, it felt perfect in my hand.  Also, the slide was easy to operate which is good for my wife.  Actually, I have my carry guns and I was thinking of this little guy for her.  Of course at the time I didn’t know what it was so decided to go home and research it a bit before plunking down the cash.  Never fails that  by the time I decided to buy the thing, it was gone.

It appears another company has bought the Iver Johnson name, but clearly it isn’t the same company that made the gun that I want….  http://www.iverjohnsonarms.com

So, for the last few months I’ve been looking for one of these little pistols.  A friend spotted a couple of of them on GunBroker however by the time you get them transfered I thought it was too much money. Haven’t seen one there since.   Then last weekend I went to the gun show – primarily to look for one.  I was surprised when one seller had 2 of them – one Iver Johnson Pony and one Star Model D!  Alas – both were pretty poor condition and he wanted $500 for either.  When I looked it up, the Iver in 90% was $250-275 according to the “book.”  (PS:  What is the “official” book for pricing guns?)

So here is my shout out – who knows where I can find one of these things at a reasonable price?

-Kyle

Oh my.  How can we be in such a situation?  5000+ barrels of oil still pouring into the Gulf of Mexico every single day for well over a month and none of the “fixes” seem to work.  How does this go on?

I’m thrilled about some of this. Thank the lord that it is happening on US shores.  As consumers of nearly 25% of the worlds oil supply, and the country most able to effect change, this ecological disaster happening here cannot be ignored.  If this were happening in the Persian Gulf or Yellow Sea it would be easy for us as American’s to not give it the attention it deserves – not in my backyard mentality would prevail as it has so many other times.  Or even more amazing the Niger Delta where it appears oil companies have been running amok for years.

BP, Transocean and Haliburton all have blame to share in the mess.  I’m sure there are others, but these three stand out on top.  Political dances aside, these companies must pay for what they have done.  Period.  I’d expect that this disaster should bankrupt some if not all of them.  Once the flow is finally stopped, the cleanup with take years and billions if not trillions of dollars.  The entire brunt of this expense should absorbed by these companies as well as others who are found to share the blame.  Not a dime of taxpayer money should go to this effort – with perhaps an exception for whatever it costs to find the legal and political will to force them to pay.  No company is too big to fail and if it brings them down, so be it.  Only after every last resource these company have are exhausted should the taxpayer jump in and finish up the job.

The other place we obviously will have to spend some money in in regulation and oversight of this industry.  How they have been allowed to build these things with obviously inadequate failsafe systems is beyond me.  All existing wells, worldwide, need to be retrofitted to whatever new standard is determined.

What other industries are on the brink of similar issues?  Chemical, power grid, etc?  Who knows, but someone should find out!

-Kyle

As my first foray into blogging takes hold, I wanted to introduce you all to what started all of this.  As a network engineer that desgned and installed Mitel phone systems I found it quite disheartening how little information seemed to be available on the internet about these system.  One night on a whim I registered the domain and http://www.mitelforums.com was born.  It more or less sat there, very little traffic or interest.

Then after not checking in for a couple of months – low and behold – 30 or 40 new posts with discussions and conversations going on.  And it was good, pertinent information to boot!  Mitel Forums was taking off – as a discussion by techies, for techies.  I couldn’t believe it.  After that, I started checking in at least daily and jumping into the conversations myself.   Good, helpful information was being exchanged.

Things ran along like that for a couple of years – ups and downs in traffic, minor spammer issues, all the fun of running a small forum.  Life is good – and thanks to the really smart people posting there, I consider Mitel Forums a resounding success.

-Kyle