Everyone knows the Mexican-American war from the history books.

Wars end with borders drawn and terms agreed.  Or, they used to.

Except that past string of corporate-owned politicians in Washington have ignored the border and instead have misappropriated resources of Border Patrol so that it’s a joke.  How did all those kids get here?

Now, it looks – just as I predicted before the election in no uncertain terms – like the Obama administration will roll out its 10-point plan next week which would let 3.7% of Mexico’s population to take up permanent residency here.

Democrats apparently have big hearts and don’t mind empty wallets (as long as they’re someone else’s):  The Washington Examiner notes that 42 percent of Medicaid signups are from immigrants and their US born offspring (used is the term anchor babies which isn’t a polite term).

The timing after the election is clear:  The administration will be moving as quickly as possible to roll the 4.5 million into America before the republican controlled congress and senate start blocking funds.

In the meantime, I’d like to congratulate the Obama administration for undoing the outcome of the Mexican-American war as part of the ongoing corporatist agenda to create a North American Union which will eventually do for our quality of life what the European Union has done for countries like Greece and Cyprus.

Way to go, O and ya’ll in the poor excuse for a congress.

By failing to enforce our southern border, they’re now about to unwind 166 years of American history because we failed to address the low-intensity conflict and the drug cartels that are rotting Mexico from the inside.  When Mexico falls, it will be by our hand.

The sad truth is there would not be drug cartels without a ready U,S. market and the porous  border allows for exactly that. 

Consequently, our taxes will go up, Mexico will continue to deteriorate, and the democrats will once again proclaim a great victory for “the people.”  Along with the CANAMEX highway and the Mexican trucks now displacing American rigs.  Yessir, fine defeat, this one. Way to frigging go.

For the record, I am a firm supporter of legal immigration.  The Executive branch, unilaterally deciding to impose a tolerance polity is not in my view, legal immigration.  It’s an imperial presidency.

Both sides of my family, decades ago stood in the lines at Ellis Island.  It insults their integrity to allow short-cutters  including many with criminal records to remain here.

I won’t bore you with more opinion.  There’s legal immigration (good) and there’s tolerance policies and ignoring the law of the land (bad).  We’ve lost the ability to distinguish between the two.  To wit:

8 U.S.

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As usual, a reader gets credit for sending me a press release link that I missed in my usual scan of the news.  Check this ou – from a university in Australia:

Griffith University academics are challenging the foundations of quantum science with a radical new theory based on interactions between parallel universes.

In a paper published in the prestigious journal Physical Review X, Professor Howard Wiseman and Dr Michael Hall from Griffith’s Centre for Quantum Dynamics, and Dr Dirk-Andre Deckert from the University of California, take interacting parallel worlds out of the realm of science fiction and into that of hard science.

The team proposes that parallel universes really exist, and that they interact. That is, rather than evolving independently, nearby worlds influence one another by a subtle force of repulsion. They show that such an interaction could explain everything that is bizarre about quantum mechanics.

Quantum theory is needed to explain how the universe works at the microscopic scale, and is believed to apply to all matter. But it is notoriously difficult to fathom, exhibiting weird phenomena which seem to violate the laws of cause and effect.

As the eminent American theoretical physicist Richard Feynman once noted: “I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics.”

However, the “Many-Interacting Worlds” approach developed at Griffith University provides a new and daring perspective on this baffling field.

“The idea of parallel universes in quantum mechanics has been around since 1957,” says Professor Wiseman.

“In the well-known “Many-Worlds Interpretation”, each universe branches into a bunch of new universes every time a quantum measurement is made.

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We consider the next moves for the leadership of our fictional Directorate 153 going forward.  We periodically look at a fictional extra-government unit that really pulls the strings in global affairs.  Not that it’s real, of course, but when we look at what goes on in the world, we can see what seems at times so much like an “invisible hand” that we have to consider the existence of such a group as a real possibility.

When we do, some interesting insights appear.  Particularly when there has been recent talk of the Berlin Wall anniversary and such.  Think of it as the “How we get bent-over next” search.

First, though,  coffee and headlines plus our trading model.  Oh, and do we thank climate change for this morning’s iced coffee?

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Coffee.

That’s what we need more of, around here.

Yesterday, for example, I missed my usual half-octane blend of regular and decaf, going for the decaf-only because it was time for my once-every-six-months visit to the doctor for the blood pressure and cholesterol checks.  Hence, no coffee…because with me, a cup of  serious caffeine is good for 10-15 more points on the high number.  I tend to add 10 points as a “white coat” reaction, anyway.

If the reference in the Monday column to Columbus Day made no sense, this morning I’d have to agree with you.  Doesn’t to me, either.  At least today is doesn’t.

Which explains why Mr. Timewarp somehow got into his head that Veterans Day was Columbus Day.  “No, you idiot,” wrote one reader directly “Ask Panama what day it is.”    Monday? I shot back.

Seriously, I would have asked the retired ex-SF/Ranger brother-in-law, but Panama was busily cleaning his favorite little .380 pistol at the time and Pappy didn’t raise no fool.  Several readers hinted at the error and I was slowly catching on.  I don’t take chances….

Going forward, we’re just going to have to agree here:  Every-so-often I will display signs of aging.  Or, I am so helplessly addicted to coffee that I can’t function without it.  I should put a little flag in the heading of each column that says something like “  Coffee:  ON” or “ Coffee: OFF.”  We might even find a correlation with spelling errors.

Where were we now?  Oh yes….

So I’m there at the doc’s place. The blood pressure was fine… although the doc is still trying to sell me on preventative medicine.

“You know, we need to talk again about you having a colonoscopy, since you’re almost 66 now….”

At this point I gave him my best upper-management Look of Death for Saying the Wrong Thing. I’m good at it. 

He looked worried, furrowing his brow as he weighed whether to press the point….and then brightened and said “Well, OK, we talked about THAT then….”  Smart man.

In a previous session I’d explained to him (in no expletives deleted terms) that I appreciate that there is a trade-off between a colonoscopy and risk of having some dreaded disease, or other.  But I also made it clear that when someone sticks various instruments and implements up in “No thank you” areas, and wants me to shoulder all the liability if anything goes wrong, no, that is not exactly “risk sharing.”  Show me some quid pro quo, bro.

Near as I could read the proposed 13-page waiver of liability fine print, if something goes wrong (like an intestinal wall is broken) that could lead (worst case) to death.  I suppose that at least would not be a tax event from my standpoint, but still….

Let me think about this:  My side of the equation is, let me see:  Money and death.

The doctor’s side of the equation?  If something we4nt wrong, they might have to do emergency surgery and that could delay the next appointment on the health care delivery conveyor belt, or in extreme cases, delay a tee time.

The good news is that there was an article in the October (yeah, the month when Columbus Day was) issue of MIT Technology Review that described how a spoonful of special yogurt and a urine sample might very quickly replace the colonoscopy.

I’m sending my doctor a copy of the article and mention that “when the test yogurt is available in strawberry flavor I’ll be taking that replacement test.  Provided the waiver of liability is less than two pages.  I might consider other flavors, too, like blueberry…”

Alternatively I should really ask if a self-inspection is out of the question since several readers have suggested that my head is already conveniently located in the required inspection position.

The “Offset of Reality” Problem

Since this is a pseudo-holiday, we can focus on the important items next.  Not that personal health isn’t, but to my way of thinking WoWW (World of Woo-Woo) reports are much more fun to study than, oh, say colonoscopies.  One is shit weird while the other is just weird shit, if that doesn’t ruin your PopTart.

Some readers think that the report from James in yesterday’s column gives away the real source of Woo-Woo reports (like jottles and such) as nothing more than perception breaks on the part of the people involved…  Reader Bobbi sent this….

Hi George,

   As much as I’d like to blame the Hadron collider, I think reader James is probably correct. It’s probably what makes the difference between an autistic person and a normal person. Maybe Woowoo is a glitch in that system.

  This morning I had a brief one. I had a rack of 40 test tubes, each with its own screw-cap lid securely fastened. One tube in the first row had its lid missing.

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OK, Ok, I get it… just the facts:

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 214,000 in October, and the unemployment rate edged down to 5.8 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment increased in food services and drinking places, retail trade, and health care.

Household Survey Data Both the unemployment rate (5.8 percent) and the number of unemployed persons (9.0 million) edged down in October. Since the beginning of the year, the unemployment rate and the number of unemployed persons have declined by 0.8 percentage point and 1.2 million, respectively. (See table A-1.)

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for whites declined to 4.8 percent in October. The rates for adult men (5.1 percent), adult women (5.4 percent), teenagers (18.6 percent), blacks (10.9 percent), and Hispanics (6.8 percent) changed little over the month.

The jobless rate for Asians was 5.0 percent (not seasonally adjusted), little changed from a year earlier. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.) In October, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was little changed at 2.9 million. These individuals accounted for 32.0 percent of the unemployed.

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Check ride day, so I’m in a a no-nonsense mood.

As the chief pilot of Ure International Airways, a concept admittedly borrowed from the late Ernest K. Gann, author of The High and the Mighty and one of the finest aviation writers of all time (along with Richard Bach of Jonathan Livingston Seagull and One), there are requirements to stay current on flying skills.  These have to be dragged out and shown off to a flight instructor or check ride pilot every so often, or you’re grounded.

It was almost 35-years ago I’d met Ernie Gann.  He’d just done the television special Masada based on his mini-series story The Antagonists. 

After all these years, the home-base of great author/pilots has blurred a bit, no doubt the effect of long-chain sugar molecule relatives and too many after-flying stories.  This is called “hangar flying” and the proof runs anywhere from 3.2 to 86, depending on heat and local supplies.

Gann and his wife, as I recall lived somewhere up on or northeast of Whidbey Island, north of Seattle.  Richard Bach, and his wife, lived up in the San Juan Islands, but for reasons I never understood, they moved to somewhere down in Oregon.  Seems like a fair number of pilot/writers despite sometimes awful weather.

Let me take that back.  I do understand.

It all depends on which is more important to a fellow; sailing or flying.  If yo8u like flying and sailing or boating, there is nowhere better.

The principles are the same, in either case.  You have a wing (which is all a sail is) and you control the angle of attack (with a yoke if by plane or sheets if by sea) and the lift is what makes adventure happen.

This time of the year, and in fact usually starting in late August, the San Juans tend to develop morning fog.  Some of the best (and safest) pilots you’ll ever meet fly for Kenmore Air Harbor which makes regular stops at places like Friday Harbor and Roche Harbor.

Gann lived, as I recall, more inland, away from the foggy Straits.  I want to say Coupeville, but memory is likely bad on that.  Bach’s move to Oregon would make a lot of sense.  The Cascade range tends to “scrape the rain out of the clouds” before they head east and that means central and eastern parts of Washington and Oregon have lots of clear days.

This morning, as fate would have it, the weather looks to be clear in the San Juans, Coupeville, WA, and even Seattle looks like good flying.  Portland, Oregon, on the other hand is looking at dense fog.  Just moving to Oregon doesn’t solve all problems, after all.  Next week there will be rain in Eastern Oregon and possibly snow on the backside of the Cascades where it’s cold.

Check rides, like today’s, aren’t especially difficult. Once learned, manipulating the controls of an aircraft is sort of like riding a bike.  But it’s the “head work” that takes a little bit of doing.  Even with a good memory, the process of staying sharp involves practice, study, and testing.

So yesterday was spent mastering a course in Aeronautical decision-making which involves working out acronyms like PAVE, IMSAFE, and PPP. And just when you get all that done, you remember that you need to brush up on the colored light flashes from a tower which are still used in the event of total radio failure at night.

The education part never stops.  I even carry my Washington DC SFRA card.  (SIFF-rah) Not that I plan to fly into Washington…it’s sort of like a USCG 6-Pack Captain’s ticket for ther serous boater:  Brag point.

The main difference, though is that if you have a captain’s ticket (even a 6-pack, not a 7 oceans sailing master 300 tons) and something goes wrong, the insurance outfits will point at the captain for not avoiding trouble.  In aviation, its somewhat the other  way around:  The more study and recurrent training you can document, the more insurance companies like you.  Rates come down because 80% of aviation accidents are people issues, not mechanicals.

And then there’s the fine points of chart-reading.  What does the little “H” in a circle in the corner of the VOR information box on a chart mean?  (HIWAS service available.)  And the Acronyms go on….and on…. until you get to the final CIGARS (controls, instruments, gas, attitude, run-up, safety before take-off) and finally you can get back in the sky.

The FAA has a continuous education programs called WINGS and it’s a fine service.  On tap for today, amd, we’ll see how much of the following I get through to bag WINGS basic:

From the Commercial Pilot Practical Test Standards for Airplane

1. Area of Operation IV, Task A: Normal and Crosswind Takeoff and Climb
2. Area of Operation IV, Task B: Normal and Crosswind Approach and Landing
3. Area of Operation IV, Task F: Short-Field Approach and Landing
4. Area of Operation IV, Task K: Power-Off 180º Accuracy Approach and Landing
5. Area of Operation IV, Task L: Go-Around/Rejected Landing

Successful completion of an Instrument Proficiency Check in accordance with 14 CFR Part 61, section 57(d) [FAR 61.57(d)].

The Instrument Proficiency Check must comply with the requirements set forth in the currently approved Instrument Rating Practical Test Standard, FAA-S-8081-4. The Rating Task Table in that publication lists the minimum tasks required.

From the Private Pilot Practical Test Standards for Airplane

1. Area of Operation II, Task A: Preflight Inspection

2. Area of Operation II, Task D: Taxiing

3. Area of Operation III, Task A: Radio Communications and ATC Light Signals

4. Area of Operation III, Task B: Traffic Patterns

5. Area of Operation III, Task C: Airport, Runway, and Taxiway Signs, Markings, and Lighting

6. Area of Operation IV, Task E: Short-Field Takeoff and Maximum Performance Climb

As luck would have it, there’s not going to be much of a crosswind this morning, but I might propose that I “slip” the airplane in, instead of using flaps, and then straighten out just before landing.  That’s how flying was done in the old days:  By dipping one wing (say the right) while applying opposite rudder (left in this case), the airplane flies “sideways.”  Since more frontal area is presented, the airplane tends to lose altitude…fast! 

When you land in a crosswind, the process is about exactly opposite.  You make your approach normally (with flaps if needed) and you’ll be flying a crab angle in order to track over the ground on the runway heading while the wind is trying to blow you off course.

Once you get the feel of the correct crab angle, you simply fly this all the way down to the ground until you  are just about to touch down.  Holding the nose at the proper attitude (up) you apply enough “slip” so that the airplane “straightens out” and lines straight ahead onto the runway center line.  As speed comes down (and the nose wheel drops, you increase aileron down (on the into the wind side, right in this case) and smoothly slow the airplane.

If the wind is from the right (pushing you to the left), you slip with the right wing going down and the left rudder pedal.  For wind from the left, (pushing you right) the left wing does down and in goes right rudder.

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