Two Views

But first:

TWO VIEWS ON BOREALIS

Chris W: ‘You’re leaning pretty hard on Boeing. I’d better toss in a few tidbits. The press release talks about ‘Boeing Phantom Works’ as ‘the aerospace company’s advanced research and development unit.’ Well, yeah. But. Boeing Phantom Works is euphemism for ‘The old St. Louis McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom fighter aircraft R&D and production facility.’ That plant is BINO, Boeing In Name Only. The senior guys there would rather McDonnell Douglas had never been bought. They retain as much autonomy as they can and their R&D focus is about 99% military. They made $1 billion last year on JDAMs alone. Boeing’s commercial aircraft work is in Seattle, almost entirely. The point being, this press release looks shaky to me. Maybe they found some guys around St. Louis to give it a nod, but those guys are not the focus of St. Louis and probably have damn little money to spend on this stuff. When you get a press release out of Seattle, then you should maybe perk up. St. Louis is not the right place.’

☞ Okay, but for what it’s worth, the May, 2001 press release did list a Seattle contact. And the engineer I spoke with last week who seems to be intimately engaged in this latest project had a Seattle phone number.

Steve Ralph: ‘It’s taken a long time, and some shareholders have quite understandably given up. I got my shares by doing some consultancy work for them, so I’m in a different position to many, and can understand the technology, which helps in the face of such outrageous claims. Nonetheless, I am surprised at what a long winding road has been traveled to get to the recognition the current situation with Boeing indicates. Seems they are finally being taken seriously. I think until the certificated motor test appeared most people thought they were crooks and con-men. I have understood for years that the Chorus motor represents a huge shift in the way AC motors are built. If you can efficiently move a plane on the ground, you can do pretty much all the stuff electric motors aren’t so good at – i.e., high efficient torque at low speed. That’s a lot of stuff. And as a physicist, I can be quite certain the Cool Chips/Power Chips stuff works. The creation of the nano-gap seems to be sorted out now, so that should begin to roll. I’m currently working out how much energy I can get from a bucket of slush (which will end up at about -10C) using a low grade powerchip. Anyway, I’m sitting on a pile of assorted Borealis stock, currently valued about $30K, and feeling glad that I can understand physics.’

☞ The only thing I understand about physics is that you must not put money into this stock that you cannot afford cheerfully to lose. But if some of this stuff proves to be real and commercially viable, you’ll definitely be able to get the lawn reseeded. Maybe even paper the den.

And now:

TWO VIEWS ON EVERYTHING ELSE

When I first saw this letter going around, I thought it might be a hoax. But it doesn’t show up on Factcheck.org or Snopes.com or Hoaxbusters.com or Truthorfiction.com, so here it is . . . from the President of Bob Jones University to the President of the United States:

Dear Mr. President:

The media tells us that you have received the largest number of popular votes of any president in America’s history. Congratulations!

In your re-election, God has graciously granted America-though she doesn’t deserve it-a reprieve from the agenda of paganism. You have been given a mandate. We the people expect your voice to be like the clear and certain sound of a trumpet. Because you seek the Lord daily, we who know the Lord will follow that kind of voice eagerly.

Don’t equivocate. Put your agenda on the front burner and let it boil. You owe the liberals nothing. They despise you because they despise your Christ. Honor the Lord, and He will honor you.

Had your opponent won, I would have still given thanks, because the Bible says I must (I Thessalonians 5:18). It would have been hard, but because the Lord lifts up whom He will and pulls down whom He will, I would have done it. It is easy to rejoice today, because Christ has allowed you to be His servant in this nation for another presidential term. Undoubtedly, you will have opportunity to appoint many conservative judges and exercise forceful leadership with the Congress in passing legislation that is defined by biblical norm regarding the family, sexuality, sanctity of life, religious freedom, freedom of speech, and limited government. You have four years-a brief time only-to leave an imprint for righteousness upon this nation that brings with it the blessings of Almighty God.

Christ said, ‘If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my father honour’ (John 12:26).

The student body, faculty, and staff at Bob Jones University commit ourselves to pray for you-that you would do right and honor the Savior. Pull out all the stops and make a difference. If you have weaklings around you who do not share your biblical values, shed yourself of them. Conservative Americans would love to see one president who doesn’t care whether he is liked, but cares infinitely that he does right.

Best wishes.

Sincerely your friend,
Bob Jones III
President

Clearly heartfelt. The challenge for America is to continue to be a place where views like that can coexist with views like this:

A NEW YORKER’S POINT OF VIEW ON THE ELECTION

I am writing this letter to the people in the red states in the middle of the country — the people who voted for George W. Bush. I am writing this letter because I don’t think we know each other.

. . . I am a New Yorker. I was here, in my apartment downtown, on September 11th. I watched the Towers burn from the roof of my building. I went inside so that I couldn’t see them when they fell. I had friends who were inside. I have a friend who still has nightmares about watching people jump and fall from the Towers. He will never be the same. How many people like him do you know? People that can’t sit in a restaurant without plotting an escape route, in case it blows up?

I am a worker. I work across the street from the Citigroup Center, which the government told us is a “target” of terrorism. Later, we found out they were relaying very old information, but it was already too late. They had given me bad dreams again. The subway stop near my office was crowded with bomb-sniffing dogs, policemen in heavy protective gear, soldiers.

Now, every time I enter or exit my office, all of my possessions are X-rayed to make sure I don’t have any weapons. How often are you stopped by a soldier with a bomb-sniffing dog outside your office?

I am a neighbor. I have a neighbor who is a 9/11 widow. She has two children. My husband does odd jobs for her now, like building bookshelves. Things her husband should do. He uses her husband’s tools, and the two little girls tell him, “Those are our daddy’s tools.” How many 9/11 widows and orphans do you know? How often do you fill in for their dead loved ones?

I am a taxpayer. I worked my butt off to get where I did, and so did my parents. My parents saved and borrowed and sent me to college. I worked my way through graduate school. I won a full tuition scholarship to law school. All for the privilege of working 2,600 hours last year. That works out to a 50 hour week, every week, without any vacation days at all. I get to work by 9 am and rarely leave before 9 pm. I eat dinner at my office much more often than I eat dinner at home. My husband and I paid over $70,000 in federal income tax last year. At some point in the future, we will have to pay much more once this country faces its deficit and the impossible burden of Social Security. In fact, the areas of the country that supported Kerry — New York, California, Illinois, Massachusetts — they are the financial centers of the nation. They are the tax base of this country. How much did you pay, Kansas? How much did you contribute to this government you support, Alabama? How much of this war in Iraq did you pay for?

I am a liberal. The funny part is, liberals have this reputation for living in Never-Neverland, being idealists, not being sensible. But let me tell you how I see the world: I see America as one nation in a world of nations. Therefore, I think we should try to get along with other nations. I see that gay people exist. Therefore, I think they should be allowed to exist, and be treated the same as other people. I see ways in which women are not allowed to control their own bodies. Therefore, I think we should give women more control over their bodies. I see that people have awful diseases. Therefore, I think we should enable scientists to try to cure them. I see that we have a Constitution. Therefore, I think it should be upheld. I see that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Therefore, I think that Iraq was not an imminent danger to me. It seems so pragmatic to me. How do you see the world? Do you really think voting against gay marriage will keep people from being gay? Would you really prefer that people continue to die from Parkinson’s disease? Do you really not care about the Constitutional rights of political detainees? Would you really have supported the war if you knew the truth, or would you have wanted to spend more of our money on health care, job training, terrorism preparedness?

I am an American. I have an American flag flying outside my home. I love my home more than anything. I love that I grew up right outside New York City. I first went to the Statue of Liberty with my 5th grade class, and my mom and dad took me to the Empire State Building when I was 8. I love taking the subway to Yankee Stadium. I loved living in Washington DC and going on dates to the Lincoln Memorial. It is because I love this country so much that I argue with my political opponents as much I do.

I am not safe. I never feel safe. My in-laws live in a small town in Ohio, and that town has received more federal funding, per capita, for terrorism preparedness than New York City has. I take subways and buses every day. I work in a skyscraper across the street from a “target.” I have emergency supplies and a spare pair of sneakers in my desk, in case something happens while I’m at work. Do you? How many times a month do you worry that your subway is going to blow up? When you hear sirens on the street, do you run to the window to make sure everything is okay? When you hear an airplane, do you flinch? Do you dread beautiful, blue-skied September days? I don’t know a single New Yorker who doesn’t spend the month of September on tip-toes, superstitiously praying for rain so we don’t have to relive that beautiful, blue-skied day.

I am lonely. I feel that we, as a nation, have alienated all our friends and further provoked our enemies. I feel unprotected. Most of all I feel alienated from my fellow citizens, because I don’t understand what you are thinking. You voted for a man who started a war in Iraq for no reason, against the wishes of the entire world. You voted for a man whose lack of foresight and inability to plan has led to massive insurgencies in Iraq, where weapons are disappearing into the hands of terrorists. You voted for a man who let Osama Bin Laden escape into the hills of Afghanistan so that he could start that war in Iraq. You voted for a man who doesn’t want to let people love who they want to love; doesn’t want to let doctors cure their patients; doesn’t want to let women rule their destinies. I don’t understand why you voted for this man. For me, it is not enough that he is personable; it is not enough that he seems like one of the guys. Why did you vote for him? Why did you elect a man that lied to us in order to convince us to go to war? (Ten years ago you were incensed when our president lied about his sex life; you thought it was an impeachable offense.) Why did you elect a leader who thinks that strength cannot include diplomacy or international cooperation? Why did you elect a man who did nothing except run away and hide on September 11?

Most of all, I am terrified. I mean daily, I am afraid that I will not survive this. I am afraid that I will lose my husband, that I will never have children, that I will never grow old and watch the sunset in a backyard of my own. I am afraid that my career — which should end with a triumphant and good-natured roast at a retirement party in 2035 — will be cut short by an attack on me and my colleagues, as we sit sending emails and making phone calls one ordinary afternoon. Is your life at stake? Are you terrified? I don’t think you are. I don’t think you realize what you have done. And if anything happens to me or the people I love, I blame you. I wanted you to know that.

☞ I’m not sure this tone will win many Red State converts. But then (speaking of tone) you have this, from the other side:

PARDON ME WHILE I GLOAT
By Rear Admiral Dick Van Orden, USN (ret.)

I am not normally a cheerful loser or a gracious winner. Whether its tiddly-winks or war at sea, I want to win, win, win! In fact, I hate to lose and when I win I sometimes want to rub the loser’s nose in his defeat. After a sleepless night I feel just rotten enough that the past six months of lies and innuendoes from the Kerry camp have it all come home to make me more vindictive than usual. As a result, I want to gloat.

Here’s why:

I am happy that the sound common sense of a majority of America’s voters resulted in a solid victory for a true patriot-and in the humiliating defeat of a lying traitor. There was no doubt in my mind that Bush’s truthfulness and forthrightness would prevail against the lies and half-truths of Kerry and his supporters, and I am pleased that a majority of good folks saw the light and pushed the Bush/Cheney button for justice and for increasing support for the nation’s bright future.

I am pleased that the left-leaning media-newspapers, radio, TV and newsmagazines-got their bell rung, but good. Now we are assured that these self-appointed “opinion makers” cannot pull the wool over the eyes of most of us, no matter how hard they twist the facts. Their early reporting of the “leaked” fraudulent exit polls and their sponsorship of other badly skewed voter polls were designed to mislead voters, in which they failed-miserably. And Dan Rather deserves a special place in hell.

I am delighted that the fat, disgusting A-hole, Michael Moore did not achieve the success that he wished for and that he was repulsed by so many intelligent Americans. May his soul burn in hell.

I hope the Hollywood friends of Michael Moore – especially Barbara Streisand, Whoopi Goldberg, P-Diddler, and their friends-are roasting in the hell of their own making. It seems to me that they all offered to depart the U.S. if Bush won the first time, which they did not do. The time is now doubly ripe for their exit.

I am blissful that all the treasure and invective of George Soros devoted to defeating George Bush went for naught. I only wish for a financial future of similar poor decisions by Soros; I want to see him as bankrupt in bank account as he is in patriotism.

I find it particularly satisfying that the high ranking military suck-ups whose lack of integrity led them to desert their commander-in-chief and follow a lying cheat, even though they knew, or should have known, that his dismissal from the Navy was “less than honorable,” as detailed in the military record that he refused to release. It is sad that such Navy types as Bill Crowe, Stan Turner, and even Jimmy Carter would be in that group. It is obvious that their motivation was the hope of a cushy job when their new-found knight in shining armor moved into the White House. Even their strategy was flawed, for Kerry is, and always has been, anti-military; he only used his military service-and those military “advisors”-for personal political gain. He would never have offered that cushy job, once he had used them, just as he never voted for the needed armament that they and their shipmates and their Marine Corps, Army, and Air Force brothers-in-arms needed so badly.

I am thrilled that the whiners who have complained bitterly about the “stolen” 2000 Presidential election must leave that fallacy in the past and now try to find something else to whine about — maybe they can even develop a fantasy that the four million vote plurality was a miscount, and continue their whining as they slink away into their caves.

It pleases me that Kofi Annan and the other United Nations sycophants failed miserably when they tried so hard to influence this election to ensure that a more pliable President Kerry would be elected. I hope they will now realize that either they clean up the bureaucratic, corrupt, do-nothing UN, or they will be short of funds when the Bush-led US decreases-or ends-its support.

I am overjoyed at the failure of Osama bin Laden’s carefully timed video of invective against the US and its President in hopes of using Islamic scare tactics on the American people. Bin Laden’s aim was to entice our voters to elect a new President who will not be as robust in his pursuit of terrorists and more willing to “negotiate” with Islamic Fundamentalists. He did not understand that Americans are not as panicky as the French, fearful as the Spanish, or unthinking as the English. (As for the Germans, they should know better; we have defeated them in battle often enough to convince them of the rightness of our ways.) I hope Osama dies in a blast from a bunker-buster before he gets a chance to make another video or another attack on our nation.

The blatant attempts of European nations and the EU to cause our President discomfort in his efforts to bring peace to the world make me glad that they are so disappointed with the election results. My joy is unbounded at the chagrin of the French and German and other anti-Bush, anti-American nations (including the people of the UK-but not their loyal and faithful government led by Prime Minister, Tony Blair). Now let those U.S.-sheltered Europeans worry about the end of American financial and military assistance when they have problems. Let them beg for American military aid and other handouts that have helped to sustain their economies. And let them perish in their own sweat when we remove out troops from Germany, the Balkans, and other trouble spots where we have pulled their chestnuts out of the fire.

I relish the hope that Islamic fundamentalists will now understand the election result as a blow from which they cannot recover. It fills me with joy that their dreams of world domination will be shattered by Bush’s and the American nation’s resolve to see them defeated and sent to join their Allah-without the 72 virgins waiting for them.

It pleases me more than I can say that the Senate Minority Leader, Thomas Daschle lost his seat. As the leading obstructionist for the Democrat party, he was primarily responsible for withholding approval of many Bush appointments to Federal judgeships, high-level positions, and other necessary personnel. Good riddance!

The demise of the junk-yard dog, loudmouth James Carville, also brings me great happiness. That happiness is further enhanced by the victory of the first Republican to win a Senate seat in Louisiana, Carville’s home state.

I am delighted with the success of John O’Neill and his Swift Boat Vets-and with those thousands of non-Swifties who joined with them-on their forthright revelation of the truth of Kerry’s service in Vietnam. They took a truthful but difficult position and made an impact — good and honorable Navy men all. Bush gets gentlemanly credit for not using them and their data in his campaign to demean Kerry, but the word was out that they spoke the truth. I maintain that they were the MVPs of this election; their testimony turned the tide against Kerry, and he never recovered.

And, finally, I must express my unbounded gratification at the defeat of Senator Kerry, a worthless Senator, anti-military extremist, lying self-promoter, and former Naval officer who disgraced us all. His traitorous collusion with the enemy is second only to that of Jane Fonda. He should have been court-martialed for giving aid and comfort to the enemy in time of war. His dishonorable quest for medals and a quick return to the US, where he turned against his shipmates and lied about their actions resulted in a less than honorable separation from the Navy. Jimmy Carter’s amnesty allowed him to file for, and get, an honorable discharge 18 years after he left the service. He should have received a court martial.

While my thoughts may seem to be mean-spirited, do not be confused-they really are mean-spirited, as I mean them to be. I have suffered the tortures of the damned over the past year as I heard and read the lies and nasty remarks from politicians, citizens, and media “experts” about our President. I have barely tolerated the feeble but divisive attempts of foreign and domestic peaceniks to build a case against our war on the Islamic fundamentalists, who use terrorism as a weapon against us in order to intimidate out citizens and drive some of our gutless politicians to seek “negotiations” to avoid “confrontations” with those who seek to kill our citizens.

Most of all, I have seethed with anger at those who shamefully derided out military, blissfully reporting on their failures and neglecting their successes. They triumphantly celebrated our difficulties by running daily body counts of our own heroic men killed in battle with the enemy, even publishing their pictures in papers and on TV as if to mock the President who sent them to defend our nation. I have only disgust for such tactics. And those are the very same people who now plead for “united actions” in the House and Senate, now that they are in a steadily declining minority. I would advise our President to ‘watch your six’ because these are really enemies and they are not to be trusted.

Four more years! How sweet it is!

Rear Adm. Dick Van Orden, USN (ret.) served as chief of naval research, vice commander of the Naval Electronics Systems Command, commander of the Naval Electronics Laboratory Center and project manager of the Navy Satellite Communications Project.

☞ Needless to say, I find the above appalling – as I expect quite a few Bush voters would. But from a financial point of view, how bullish is it that we live in a country so deeply divided – yet governed now largely without checks and balances? I have smart friends who think the stock market is cheap here, and they may well turn out to be right. But I think we have some problems to work out.