Interesting....

http://www.linux-mag.com/id/7187

Dave?

Comparisons - Updated

Last year's ACW Miniatures project was the Battle of Stones River. I did a bunch of research, designed a new scenario for my personal ACW rules and play tested it several times to tweak the layout. I was pretty satisfied with the results and posted some photos in a previous blog entry of the battle as presented at Tactical Solutions Gaming I and RadCon 5. So last week, Gary Swearingen decided that he wanted to give Dead of Winter a go. DOW is the Great Battles of the American Civil War series boxed board game of the Battle of Stones River. Here are some comparison photos, just for fun.

Here is my layout for the start of the Battle of Stones River in miniature:

Here is the initial layout of all the counters for Dead of Winter, the Battle of Stones River, from the Great Battles of the American Civil War series:


When we get near the end of the Dead of Winter, I will post some comparison photos of the end states. The differences in complexity levels make for considerable visual differences, but the end results seem to be pretty similar, a line of Union troops faced by a line of Confederate troops overlapping a Union right flank in some disarray.

Here's Gary's report on Turn 2 from Saturday night:

Kim started the day with a punctured Union right flank and rebs streaming in everywhere.

By the end of the day the Union right flank was shaky but continuos and the rebs were stopped in their tracks or streaming to the rear.

It was a momentous drubbing dealt out to the rebs, any particular die roll needed was obtained as if they were loaded. So, a sound defense with a beyond belief number of devastating firing and manevering actions resulted in an evening without compare of total number of adverse results. The rebs generally had trouble retaining the initiative to keep any kind of firing or assault going anywhere, i.e. outgeneralled.

No union regiment was too small to outshoot a bigger reb regiment or two, artillery battery even an entire brigade in one instance. It one notable snippet, the Union seizes the initiative from the reb brigade charging out of the woods in the center and then proceeds to render about 70% casualties with artillery and rifle fire to the four regiments before they could respond or even run away. Felt like a Wooden ships & iron men initial broadside with a stern rake with an elite crew citical hit. Multiple times... Fortunately for the rebs, a random event ended the turn before more pain was inflicted.

The only positive was casualties are mounting for both sides, and for the rebs thses are painfully concentrated, which leaves several intact, mostly untouched reb brigades (resupplied) still moving forward. The second positive is that it can only go better in turn 3.

Here's a photo of the current situation:

Gary is right, 20 years of bad die rolling all came back to me in this turn. The combat charts in GBACW will punish loaded dice, because each table is randomized as you shift up and down, but more firepower will generally get more casualties. That said, an awful lot of my die rolls had the best effect for me and an awful lot of Gary's die rolls had the worst effect for him. This reached a point where I was compelled by my own conscience to point to the cross-indexed point on the chart to prove I wasn't cheating. Really. 'Cause I wasn't. The random factors aligned badly....

On the other hand, my right flank my look good, but one good peck and it's all headed for Nashville with the pile behind it. The corner where Sill blew up the Reb assault is now hanging in the air and next turn will not be good. Negley and Rousseau's divisions of Thomas' corps are sidling to the right to try to set up a backstop, but the right flank is gonna go, it's just a matter of how fast and how much (if any) damage they can do to McCown and Cheatham. Gary got greedy with the cavalry in turn one and I bushwhacked it, so I may be able to operate freely with the Union cav division on the far right.

It's been fun.

Painting Trim

So, the weather was quite nice today finally, so I got outside and painted the trim around the new windows. Rather than try to match the dark grey trim, we bought a pretty new blue color that would blend well with the grey base color. So I painted it all up and then took a picture. In the picture I noticed that the pretty new blue color seems to be pretty much almost precisely the exact same shade as painter's trim tape. ;op

Ok, when I redo the sofits (they are some sort of cheap wood substitute that has not weathered well and need to be replaced with actual pine one by four) next spring, it should look a little less like it's all ready to be painted... If you enlarge the photo, you can see the paint and it looks a lot better. It really is a pretty color.

Newnessness.

Kimberlyn turns into a gurl for her sixteenth birthday, pierced ears, high heels and everything.


And we have a bay window.

Kipling, Stalky and Co. "I gloat!"

November 6, 2006, 50 percent plus, 300 EV plus. I told you so.

Testing

"It will be part of the president's job to deal with more than one thing at once."

Barack Obama

Certainly the debate should go on schedule....

Scholastic Aptitude Test

"Jesus was a community organizer. Pontius Pilate was a governor."

Qualifications

A community organizer may not make many "executive decisions" as defined by the mayor of a small town, but a community organizer does have to get people who may have diametrically opposed views pull together in the same direction to achieve a goal. So I think you can safely say that "bipartisanship" skills are strongly a part of any successful community organizer's skill sets.

One thing you don't get to do as a community organizer is drop a termination letter on the desk of somebody who disagrees with you when they are out, which when you think about it is really a pretty chickens... way to fire somebody besides.

Yes, we have a sense of humor. Don't you?

The Bug Hunt begins!

Stolen from Dude Abides at Daily Kos

You must see it to believe it....

Barack Obama's own words.

The America the Whole World Wants Back....

The America the Whole World Wants Back....

It's a bad sign....

They've removed the standings from the front page. Maybe nobody will notice when they finish last....

Update

I know I haven' t been keeping my blog up lately, but I haven't been completely useless. Here ar the completed Hill Martians. It's been hard to watch the Mariner's, high expectations have been alarmingly disappointed and so progress was much slower than it should have been.

Last weekend we went up to Mom's cabin on Lake Coeur d'Alene. My pile o' blocks looks just like it did when I left it, should be good for quite a while.








Mom had just returned from a trip to California and a visit with older brother Bruce. He sent us this gift made with his own hands:

















And this is what it takes to actually qualify as a blowhard in this family.... ;o)































And, of course, every trip needs a visit to a tourist attraction, this one is in Worley, Idaho.

I need a faster upload --

Mini-Faire, June 14, 2008

It's not as easy as I'd thought, but here it is.

Kennewick High School Divas, Swingin' at Basie's Place

Just because --- Pirates!

Real History

Just Read It.

More Enfilade

This was the game I had the most fun in at Enfilade this year, The Sword and the Flame on Mars, using TSATF with vehicle modifications for Space 1889. It wouldn't be Space1889 without a flyer, this is a custom conversion using a model of Jabba the Hutt's sailing barge as a base.... There was a lot of nice conversion work on the table.

The armor contingent includes a pair of spider walkers converted from the Burger King Wild, Wild West toys and some WWI tank miniatures with Steam Engine fittings added on.

Ooops. The natives have an armored unit in the woods. This evidently is the only unconverted vehicle on the field, something purpose built for steampunk games. It popped out of the woods and shot up my Martian sepoys, the spider walkers followed it back into the woods where they supported a British infantry unit against a civilized native company (they had a few shield guns, infantry with a musket that pokes out of a shield, supported by lots of hacker weapons). Between splitting fire to support the infantry and firing on a native muzzle-loading cannon supporting the native armored walker, one was destroyed and one was incapacitated and they failed to further incapacitate the native armored walker. The native foot units were decimated, but the infantry ultimately ran the survivors of the British infantry off.

The goal of the scenario is to rescue these guys. They moved away from their broken tank, triggering the swarm of natives that pretty much destroyed them.

And the armored units are too far away or out of line of sight, unable to support them.

The referee ruled it a marginal Colonial victory due to some successes and we apparently got farther down the table than anybody previously, but I Don't Think So. We failed the primary mission and without a good bit of time to do more damage to the natives, I don't think we have really impressed them so much.... That's my tank and the remains of my Martian Sepoys behind it in the center left of the photo. After being ambushed by a native rifle unit twice their size and the native armor unit, they are under 1/2 strength and next turn they decamped. The turn after that, they rolled a 20 to rally in the presence of the force commander.... I figure they are shedding uniform items and planning a religious conversion. ;o) I let Kimberlyn run the tank for a turn or two, she rolls better than I do.

Distraction/issue

This is a distraction. Michelle Malkin, a Fox commentator, has caused Dunkin' Donuts to pull this add because it might be misunderstood as sympathetic to Islamic jihadists. Male jihadists may wear a black and white scarf to show their sympathies. Feh! She's a woman, therefor it does not have that meaning even for those whom a black and white scarf has meaning. It's a fashion accessory. And (IMO) it looks good. Shame on Dunkin' Donutz for folding on this. It's a distraction. Here is this issue:

Educating John McCain about Iraq. From an Iraqi-American.

I feel it is my duty as an Iraqi-American to educate Senator McCain, who has demonstrated time and time again not only his fundamental ignorance about Iraq (ie., not knowing the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite), but his willingness to distort the realities there to suit his own political ambitions.

I recount this story not because it is extraordinary, but because it is the mundane in Iraq. When I tell other Iraqis this story, they congratulate me. My uncle was kidnapped and tortured, but he survived. For most Iraqis, these stories end in death.

When you see the distraction, steer the discussion to the issue.

Some notes from Enfilade 2008

Much Fun Was Had By All

Never Give A Fifteen Year Old A Tank and a machine gun unless mayhem and destruction are a goal.... The teenager in question was Kimberlyn. Because she has an upcoming unit on the Russian Revolution, the battle below between White and Red Russians (and some uncommitted units that committed at an uncomfortable moment) in the Russian Civil War was a natural. I got her started and wandered off. When I came back, her tank, MG and rifle company had annihilated two rifle companies, a mounted company and a MG. The MG and the remainder of the rifles (she did take casualties) were holding the right flank, while the tank (below) had wandered off to the center of the battle field (the right flank is directly below the tank off picture) where it was still killing Commies.


Never Leave an Entire Flank of the Stronghold Undefended at Deployment. Note the two heroes and rider supports approaching the undefended flank at full speed. It went badly....


These existing light pictures looked much better on the little monitor.... Had a little tripod and a timer and everything. Obviously I have more to learn....

It can't be said better -- XVII

"They're trying to fool you, trying to scare you, and they're not telling you the truth because they can't win a foreign policy debate on the merits"

Barack Obama

In a nutshell.

"The Mariners get a man as far as third but can't get him home."

Mariners' play by play announcer Dave Sims
Middle of the fourth inning, Mariners down 6-5.

Done and done.

But I can assure you that no matter what happens, I will work for the nominee of the Democratic Party because we must win in November. And I know that Senator Obama feels the same way.

Hillary Rodham Clinton, Indiana, 05/06/08

Told ya so. Nothing else matters, elect the Democrat. Any Democrat.

Another stupid policy post

I just don't get why people don't seem to get some things that are blindingly obvious to me. For example, it seems blindingly obvious to me that there are some things that profit incentives are just not suitable for supplying.

If making a profit is the only suitable incentive, where services are not profitable, they will not be provided. The classic example is rural electrical services. While it is wildly profitable to provide electrical services (or rail services or phone services) where populations are dense making provisioning relatively inexpensive, it is unprofitable to provide the same service where populations are not dense which makes provisioning relatively expensive. The only solution is to provide incentives and mandates from governmental entities which spread the higher cost of provisioning for rural areas to the lower cost urban areas. Historically, this is what happened with railroads, then electricity, then telephones. The public mandated these actions because it was recognized that it would benefit the entire country for everyone to have these basic services.

So why isn't it just as obvious to anybody with brain cells that since the profitable way to provide health insurance is to only provide it to those who aren't sick, a private health insurance company out to make a profit will make every effort to exclude anyone who is actually sick or might get sick, in other words, anybody who might actually NEED it.

IF you accept that everybody should have health insurance because they might need it and SINCE it can be mathematically proven that insuring the entire population is the least cost per person way to provide insurance THEN it follows that the profit incentive cannot accomplish the goal. Therefore, government intervention of a time-honored type (equalize profit opportunity for provisioning low profit or actual loss making service areas using tax dollars or other government policy, remember, we did the exact same thing for railroads, electricity and telephone services) is required.

But when you design your program, keep in mind the goal is to PROVIDE INSURANCE FOR EVERYONE, not guarantee profits for the insurance industry, 'cause you can bet the insurance industry will be in there pitching for anything that lets them make a bigger profit. The voter's best choice is for the program that comes closest to providing universal coverage as that will spread the cost widest and result in the lowest cost per capita. So why do voters keep buying the nonsense that private health insurance is better? Logically and empirically that's just false.

Ask yourself this question. Why have so many large entities such as municipalities, school districts, large corporations and even states chosen to self-insure various risks? Because all insurance is just a bookie's bet that your insurance premiums will exceed your insurance claims and THE HOUSE ALWAYS WINS. If you are big enough, better to be the house yourself and save the difference.

John McCain is an iron

So yesterday, in response to a pointed question about his immigration policy, John McCain says you couldn't get Americans to do physically grueling work in hot weather for $50 an hour. The specific example was harvesting lettuce. The members of Union of Bricklayers, Hod Carriers and Masons in the audience wanted to know where they could sign up for the raise and better working conditions....

Y'know, there might be someplace you could sell that as straight talk, but not while talking to building and construction unionists. ;o)

aaargh!!!

I can't decide who I hate more, Aubrey Huff or Bryan Roberts.

Lilacs

When we moved in, it was gawdawful overgrown, so I hacked it down to size. Last year I had about three sprigs of lilacs. This year....

Volley and Bayonet - Auerstadt

Not a very historical result....


The initial setup:



Blucher and the AvantGarde, supported by the Right Wing make a combined arms assault on Gudin's brigade to the right of Hassenhausen instead of the historical all cavalry assault on Morand's division arriving to the right of the village.


I watched this come and thought that the brigade in the open might should turn to face the assault, but thought that would leave the other flank open. I later discovered that the adjacent unit to the left in the village would make that a "protected flank" by definition and thus not subject to the unfavorable flank modifiers. Didn't do it, got clobbered and then it just kept getting worse and worse.... Gudin got hustled out of Hassenhausen by the AvantGarde and suffered Division Exhaustion in the process. The Right Wing occupied the village.

Meanwhile, the AvantGarde, hardly damaged by the poor defense of Hassenhausen scattered Friant's division approaching to reinforce. Without Bernadotte, the situation is irretrievable for Davout....

Better out than in....

My gall stones....

And the Boss speaks.....

The quintessential spokesman of blue-collar bitterness and hope:

Dear Friends and Fans:

Like most of you, I've been following the campaign and I have now seen and heard enough to know where I stand. Senator Obama, in my view, is head and shoulders above the rest.

He has the depth, the reflectiveness, and the resilience to be our next President. He speaks to the America I've envisioned in my music for the past 35 years, a generous nation with a citizenry willing to tackle nuanced and complex problems, a country that's interested in its collective destiny and in the potential of its gathered spirit. A place where "...nobody crowds you, and nobody goes it alone."

At the moment, critics have tried to diminish Senator Obama through the exaggeration of certain of his comments and relationships. While these matters are worthy of some discussion, they have been ripped out of the context and fabric of the man's life and vision, so well described in his excellent book, Dreams of My Father, often in order to distract us from discussing the real issues: war and peace, the fight for economic and racial justice, reaffirming our Constitution, and the protection and enhancement of our environment.

After the terrible damage done over the past eight years, a great American reclamation project needs to be undertaken. I believe that Senator Obama is the best candidate to lead that project and to lead us into the 21st Century with a renewed sense of moral purpose and of ourselves as Americans.

Over here on E Street, we're proud to support Obama for President.

Bruce Springsteen

And that's the end of that.

Before the dawn

It's always darkest before the dawn and Obama has been hammered for a 'gaffe', implying that small town Americans in Pennsylvania are 'bitter'. Now, if you read the whole comment, it's surprisingly accurate assessment of WHY Americans are disillusioned with Republican rule and Clintonite triangulation before that, but look at the surprise endorsement he pulls out of his hat...

This is not something that I do regularly but as I listen to the candidates in this race, I am struck that we continue to hear about the problems and the same challenges that we have been talking about for decades. Protecting jobs here in Pennsylvania, breaking our dangerous and costly addiction to foreign oil, making health care accessible and affordable - these are neither new issues nor new ideas. And yet we have failed to make real progress.

As a grandfather and a citizen of this community I think Barack Obama's, thoughtful, strategic approach is important for America. When I hear how excited young people seem to be when they talk about this man, I believe he will do what is best for them which is to inspire them to be great Americans.

This time, we can't afford to wait. Our country needs a new direction and a new kind of leadership - the kind of leadership, judgment and experience that Senator Obama has demonstrated in more than 20 years of public service, and in a particularly impressive way in this campaign. Senator Obama has rejected the say-and-do anything tactics that puts winning elections ahead of governing the country. And he has rejected the back-room politics in favor of opening government up to the people. Barack Obama is the one candidate in this race who can finally put an end to business as usual in Washington and bring about real change for Pittsburgh and the country as a whole. He has inspired me and so many other people around our country with new ideas and fresh perspectives.

True sports fans know that you support your team even when they are the underdogs. Barack Obama is the underdog here but it is with great pride that I join his team.

Art Rooney, President and Owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, America's Blue Collar Team.... Heh.

It Can't Be Said Better - Eh... XV?

Every now and then somebody says something in so pithy a way that it can't be said better. Today's topic is IEEE standards:

A proprietary undocumented text format as the de facto standard -- and that's what .doc is -- is a shame for all parties involved. It's like using a special patented ink that can only be read with special patented sun glasses. Who would want to use that for all their scientific, private and business documents? Probably nobody. Why they do so with computers is beyond me.

Mathias Ettrick, The KDE Man

I'm dyin' here.... ;op

The eight year old in the Clinton "3AM and the red phone is ringing" ad is now eighteen. Taken from stock footage purchased from Getty images, Casey Knowles is, and this is the best part, an Obama delegate to the Washington State legislative district caucus just like me. ;o)

Science

There's a scientist in Congress again! A real scientist! With a physics degree and everything!

Do you think it will make a difference?

Money Matters

Obama set the one-month fund raising record for a presidential candidate with $55 million dollars in February, eclipsing John Kerry's one month record of $44 million set after winning the nomination on Super Tuesday, 2004. Clinton added another $34 million for a total Democratic Presidential Candidate take of $89 million dollars, actually doubling Kerry's record as the sole candidate....

John McCain has a campaign that has been in financial dire straits and so would be desperately seeking donations. As the acknowledged Republican nominee since Super Tuesday he raised $12 million in February. 89/12 = ?

I think even Republican donors must think the Democrat is going to win so why throw good money after bad. Does anybody really think he has a chance against either of them? Whoever wins, we will bury him.

Corporations can help.....if they want to.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23377190

Hey! Wait a minute. I want a google phone number!

So what?

A man of consequence from England, circa 1585










A man of consequence, United States, circa 2008






A man of consequence in Eastern Africa.


Unless you want to actually make an argument, we are done here.... (And trust me, you don't want to go there.)

And another one gone....

Radcon has come and gone yet again, and much fun was had by all. HOTT GotS went well, and looked good, but I only took one photo as I was having too much fun and forgot:

During a lull, Rick Ingram and I took out a couple of biplanes and Rick's Richthofen shot the ... out of my Rickenbacker, reversing history.

My big event was Stones River and I took a panorama of the table at setup:


Lots of experienced gamers involved, Phil and Terry gave poor McCook to Joe who had helped playtest at War Eagles and Bryan, (a new guy) and Terry's buddy Kayle had the Confederates.

McCook got buried in the first turns by a flood of gray, unhampered this time by bad command die rolls.

Terry tried something I've thought should have been tried before and continued Crittendon's assault across the river and was in a fair way to annihilating Breckenridge when the Recrimination phase ensued (we ran out of time). But with McCook annihilated without extracting much in the way of casualties from Hardee, I have to wonder how well Thomas (in a much more open field than Chickamauga) could have stood against Hardee AND Polk with no help available but the Union Cavalry....

We had a lot of newbs for the HOTT Tournament, so it was more like open gaming than tournament, but Hunter looks like a likely recruit for starting an army of his own, and another player whose name I don't remember signed up on the HOTT list and is looking for a copy of the rule book.... Good signs. I have posted many pictures of the armies before and the only new one available was Andrew's insect army which still has not seen the elephant, so I didn't go find the camera for the event.

Laura asked me to take on Gaming Chair for next year, apparently for lack of stupidity on the part of other available parties, so I have an official position on the concom again. I foresee hate and discontent, and then another successful con....

Now.

Caucus

Well, we caucused at Kennewick High School yesterday. I made Jennifer go along to cancel my indifference, since Edwards is out. Of the eleven people caucusing, it started with 6 for Obama, 4 for Clinton and Kucinich die hard. The Kucinich die hard was persuaded to the Obama camp and the delegates broke 3 for Obama and 1 for Clinton. I was elected one of the Obama delegates and the Clintonistas are sending Jennifer (she says "How'd that happen?"), so now we will go to the legislative district caucus and cancel each other again! Edwards for somebody's vice president!

Kimberlyn went along as ground guide, she has written her on post on the subject on her blog.

Andrew's Bug Army

Regular readers may recall that I promised Andrew I would build an army for Sparky, his Aerial Hero, to command. Herewith are the bugs....

The front rank is a Scorpion (Blade), a giant spider (Shooter), a giant ant (Behemoth) and another giant spider (Shooter). The second rank is four spider Hordes and the rear rank is the aerial contingent, two flyers flanking Sparky.

Andrew woke up and followed the army like a moth to a flame....

A picture worth a thousand words....

Air War

There will be Wings of War at RadCon! The reprint of the planes arrived at Infinite Frontiers this month. (Finally!) I picked up enough planes to have a good furball and there are more if anybody likes the game. Since they didn't get here in time to schedule the game, we'll just fly them over HOTTGotS. It won't hurt the spirit of the event. ;o)

Wings of War is the simplest aerial game ever, but it is complex in it's simplicity. It takes about 30 seconds to learn the rules, five minutes to get the hang of flying and you can play for as long as your interest lasts and get better at outguessing your opponent, or get creamed if you are too predictable. This is GREAT Fun! Drop by the gaming room and take a plane out for a spin....

The miniatures are painted in the personal schemes of famous aces. Here is the Hun Formation in closeup, the infamous Red Baron (Curse you!), Ernst Udet, second only to Richthofen in that garish Albatross D.Va and Arthur Rahn (6 victories) in the lead, 'cause you have to have a victim on point.....

The Horse Race

Josh Michael at Talking Points Memo:

It's about delegates. It's dead even. You've got two well-funded candidates who've demonstrated an ability to power back from defeats. And neither is going anywhere.

Whatever the mass media wants to put in the headlines or the campaigns want to say for themselves, that's the fact, jack. It (The Dem nomination) ain't over 'til it's over.

HOTT GotS Ready to Go

The armies for HOTT GotS are done, completa, fin... On the right are the Old Glory figures as Lee the Magician and Grant the Cleric. The Union army has some available alternatives, you can choose from generic infantry as Spear with some Zouaves or Western troops in Hardee hats rather than kepis, and a stand of black troops as Warband, any six stands out of the available nine.... Hidden behind the Zouaves is Berdan's Sharpshooters as Sneakers, giving you an option of two artillery or one artillery and the Sharpshooters. The Cavalry on the left are either one stand of Riders or one stand of Knights if you use the stand with GA Custer on it....

The Confederate army doesn't have any options, seven stands of AK-47 armed infantry as Blades; one stand of artillery; one Lurker (Mosby's Partisan Rangers on the left in the photo) to make the AP come out at 24; one stand of Knights with JEB Stuart in command and Lee as the Magician....

Now all I need is to come up with something for a stronghold....

It Can't Be Said Better -XVII

I haven't been looking in on Slacktivist regularly. His chief claim to fame is for deconstructing the absurd theology of the Left Behind novels, which bores me. However, he also often examines other aspects of what a Christian daily life really means if you have actually read and studied the Bible on an powerful academic level (as opposed to reading it with an axe to grind). And then, sometimes he just explains the real world.

If your company is large enough that that guy has a boss -- your boss's boss's boss's boss -- then not only does he not know what you do or how it's done, but he cannot see any difference between its being done well and its being done poorly.

Read the rest of the post

Latest Miniatures

I have completed the first of two planned Union Corps. Thanks to a steer from Phil to WarFlags, I even have flags for them, without having to wait to have them sent.Here's a divisional closeup.
It's not actually entirely a complete corps for Volley and Bayonet because it still needs another corps battery and a mounted corps officer, but I will have to buy a pack of mounted generals to do the corps commander. So I figured it is close enough for now.

economics 102

This is a very interesting proposal for a solution to the problem of job exports from a tax analyst.

I am one of the people who decides to locate jobs outside of the U.S. Specifically, I am the head of tax for a U.S. multinational. It is my job to advise that high value manufacturing and research should, from a tax point of view, be located outside of this country. I advise that it is better to invest cash in foreign operations than in American ones. If the recent tax proposal of House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rangel becomes law, I will advise that good administrative jobs should be moved out of the U.S. I don’t like giving that advice, but under current law that’s what the numbers dictate. I want to change that.

The proposal is tax neutral in its entirety:

But there is a simple solution that works. Give corporations a deduction for dividends they pay, and make up the tax revenue by getting rid of special rates for capital gains and by imposing a 7½% tax on individual income over $500,000 a year, which is all it takes to be revenue neutral. That would make the U.S. the best location in the world for high value operations. It would restore our economy and give middle class workers market power.

Interestingly, this is a truly bipartisan proposal. Both parties would have to give on doctrinal hobby horses. The Democrats would have to give on capital gains taxes, the Republicans have to give on tax preference for the wealthy, specifically a new high income tax bracket and regarding the exchange at death from parent to child as a taxable event.

It's interesting and somebody put a lot of sincere thought into the proposal, but until the Republican party leadership actually recognizes that bipartisanship means actually giving something or giving something up, it isn't going to happen. At this point, an examination of the record tells us that Republican bipartisanship is code for "You give us what we want and we won't accuse you of being soft on terror....(fingers crossed under the table: until the election)"

HOTTS GOTS Begins -

The infantry for the Union Army for RadCon's Guns of The South using Hordes of the Things (HOTT GOTS) has been rebased and a little touch up painting done. The figures for both armies have been removed from their old bases and the personality figures should be here tomorrow. There is still some finish work to do on these bases and of course, a little painting and a lot more basing to do.

The planned Union Army list will be:

US Grant - Cleric (To be painted, Old Glory figure should arrive tomorrow)
1 Cavalry or 1 Knight (Knight if led by GA Custer - Have painted figs, need based)
2 Artillery (need based) or
1 Artillery and 1 Sneaker (Berdan's Sharpshooters on left in photo)
6 stands of Infantry as Spears. Assortment above includes Western infantry in black hat, Zouave infantry, or various stands of regular ACW infantry;
or 5 stands as spear and 1 stand of Black Infantry as warband.

I have 15mm model of the farmhouse that was Meade's Headquarters at Gettysburg to paint up that might make a stronghold, but it's out of scale, so I don't really like it, but I don't have anything else to hand. Maybe could take some card stock and make a couple of rows of A tents and a firepit....
The Confederate army list looks like:

Robert E. Lee - Magician (To be painted, Old Glory fig arriving with Grant)
1 Cavalry or 1 Knight (Knight if led by JEB Stuart, need based)
1 Moseby's partisans as Lurker
1 Artillery (need based)
7 stands of AK 47 armed infantry as blades to the union spears.... (I have a lot of old figures with scrawny rifles and bayonets that have broken off. I plan to cut them short and pretend they are AK 47's.)

I'm still waiting for some 60mm x 60mm metal bases which should be here next week.

The army lists are still mutable if anybody wants to make suggestions.

Stones River

War Eagles once again playtested my Stones River Scenario in preparation for RadCon. I had felt that the initial games using one stand per brigade made artillery too powerful and difficult to simulate. Using two stands per brigade, I reorganized the scenario.

This made McCook way too resilient and the Confederate assault wasn't set up right either. After running the first three turns three times, I think we have something that works again. The photo is the first take, which resulted in Cheatham being decimated and McCown being unable to get around McCook's flank. Cheatham's remnants also kept Cleburne (behind him in the photo) from getting into the fight.

The first adjustment was to break up Davis and Johnson's divisions of McCook's Corps into non-contiguous brigades in hopes of making it harder for them to organize a defense, but timely command rolls by the Union and poor rolls for the Confederacy got them into good order and we stopped it and reset again.

The second adjustment was to move Cheatham all the way to Cleburne's left and put McCown a stand width ahead of Cheatham and all the way outside of McCook's right. That let's the initial turn clash be Cheatham and Cleburne fully engaged, while McCown moves on around. With the broken up deployment of Davis and Johnson, this cost McCook two full brigades in the first two turns and any decent command rolls by Hardee should keep the assault rolling. As it was, John rolled a six for McCook's initial command roll and using all six points managed to get Davis and Johnson into a refused flank with artillery support. Hardee still had the numbers, but poor command rolls meant he couldn't exploit the advantage before Rosecrans could get reinforcements into position.

The command problems posed by the rules set add some really juicy friction that drove both commanders crazy, which is exactly what they are supposed to do.

Why not voter ID laws?

This is why.

I was one of those who thought that it made sense to require a photo ID to vote until I tried to help my politically active 83-year-old mother try to get one. At the Bedford Bureau of Motor Vehicles branch we were treated like terrorists. The supervisor was stone-faced as she handed us a piece of paper and said that she could not answer any questions and that we should leave now. The paper said there was a problem with Mom's Social Security number, but gave no indication of what it was or how to resolve it.

Social Security's automated phone menu was gloriously unhelpful. When I finally did get through to a human, he knew of no problem. The state BMV also claimed it had no idea of what was wrong. So I took Mom to the Bloomington BMV. There we were inches from success when they noticed that her Social Security card, Medicare card and Indiana driver's license all had her married name, but her birth certificate had her maiden name.
Even though the Social Security office has her maiden and married names on file, the BMV was unwilling to use its records to confirm my mother's identity. After long conversations with the supervisor and phone calls to the regional BMV manager, I was told to contact the county where she was married to get a copy of her 59-year-old marriage license.
When it finally arrived, after more phone calls and fees, we returned to the Bedford BMV, where we were finally given a photo ID without ever being asked for the marriage license. It took 100 miles of driving, hours on the phone, and several weeks to provide the same security against voter fraud that a simple signature would have offered. Could she have done this without my help? No.
Justice St. Rain

Add to that the fact there is been no (zero, zip, nada) prosecution for voter identity fraud in recent (Post WWII) history, and Voter ID laws are clearly a solution without a problem to solve.

It is therefor obvious that they have some other reason.

Their clearly obvious effect is to make it more difficult for some types of voters to cast a vote on election day.

Another word for that is Disenfranchisement.

And Disenfranchisement benefits only one political party.

Do you get it now?

It Can't Be Said Better - XVI

Seahawks thou art wretched!

It Can't Be Said Better - XV

Out of the mouths of babes....

War Mongering

So some Iranian speedboats went bombing around some US Navy ships in the Persian Gulf and Surprise! The Navy refrained from blowing them out of the water.

Last nights Republican debate:

• One of the most bizarre moments in this debate, or any other debate for that matter, came when Brit Hume pressed the candidates on whether they agreed with the "passive" response of the Navy ships that were confronted by Iranian speedboats in the Strait of Hormuz — the ships threatened to fire on the Iranians if they did not desist in their approach, rather than immediately fire as Hume would prefer.

• The candidates all stood by the decisions of the captains on those ships, despite Hume's repeated urging that they be stronger. Among the top-tier candidates, only McCain came even close to criticizing Hume, calling it "a bit presumptuous" to judge the captains, who trained for a very long time to reach their positions and are trusted to make those judgments.

I am sure those captains are intimately aware of rule # 1 of modern naval warfare: "He who shoots first, sinks last." Once the missiles are in the air, everybody is going to the bottom.... Destroyers for speedboats is a lousy trade, so they aren't going to shoot first. Somebody needs to explain this to Fred Thompson. I heard him on NPR this morning saying if the Iranians had pushed it they'd get introduced to those virgins they are looking for.

God in politics

DHinMI at DailyKos had a decent summary of the Democratic party debate last night in New Hampshire and a short paragraph about the Republican debate which says more about his/her preconceptions about Republicans than the actual vapidity of their policy statements. The meat of the paragraph is this:

The Republicans presented a bunch of bickering, mean-spirited and short-sighted candidates, only one of whom faced hard realities (but offered isolationism and a return to the gold standard as the panaceas), and only one of whom came across as warm and optimistic (and he distrusts science and thinks God talks directly to him, which we've already seen in the last 8 years doesn't turn out that well).

I have heard a lot of people on liberal sites make the assumption of that last parenthetical expression, that talking to God removes rationality from the discussion and I need to take exception to that.

God can and will speak to us all. But he speaks in a still, small voice not with the sound of trumpets. It is easy to miss it in the noise of every day life. And it is altogether too easy to mistake ego for that still, small voice. It is especially easy if you take the shortcut of listening for the still, small voice before bothering to study the information available. That's what is wrong in the White House, not that he listens to God, but by not listening to everyone, he can't hear what God is truly saying. That takes humility whose opposite is hubris. Beware of hubris and know the limits of your own knowledge, especially when listening for the still, small voice.

Not AFC fans

Photo was taken this afternoon from my back porch during the AFC Wild Card game between San Diego and Tennessee. The sun was out early 'til about 1:30 0r 2:00 PM and probably tempted them out, but apparently it wasn't cold enough to drive them in after the clouds moved in.... I like the Santa hat with the sleeveless shirt. ;o)

San Diego tried hard to lose, but in the end they scored more.

It can't be said better -- XIV

Good news for Democrats, bad (really bad) news for Republicans:

Total Voter Turnout (approximate)

356,000

Percentage of total vote

24.5% Obama
20.5% Edwards
19.8% Clinton
11.4% Huckabee (R)

Kinda says it all, doesn't it?

New Year's Day

Gary Swearingen's annual War Eagles New Year's Day Wooden Ships and Iron Men bash this year was a historical scenario based on the Battle of the Lizard: Two French Squadrons descend on an English convoy of supplies for the war in Spain for fun and profit.... The convoy is covered by a single English squadron. The insubordinate French junior Commodore has launched himself at the English. Tsk. The French senior Commodore plans to slip his frigates past the English to wreak havoc in the convoy.


That worked out rather better than expected. One of the French frigates would make the Yankee Clipper look slow and was very well handled, ducking between Chester (50) and Ruby (50) and raking them both and all but dis-masting the Ruby, then swooping past and into the convoy....then the wind changed.



Things went rather badly for Brian Swearingen, in charge of the English squadron, all day. First there was the little matter of twos. In a game system that rewards high die rolls, a substantial majority of his rolls were (you guessed) twos. At one point, he had like twelve consecutive, plus lots of others. It was weird.

Then there this little mis-judgment:


The plan (I think) was to ram that little 50 gun ship with his big 'ol 80 gun Cumberland and tangle up the entire squadron, but he came up just a bit short.... On the other hand, orders were to hold up the French squadrons at all costs and it took most of the efforts of the entire French squadron the rest of the game to finally force the Cumberland to strike.

The other French squadron, a 60 gun and 3 50's with dubious crews, was supposed to get cored by Royal Oak, 76, on the left and Devonshire, 80 guns on the right of the French battle line and coming down the wind.


But the French Admiral, counting on his large crews, rammed the Royal Oak and boarded it from his crack 60 gun flagship, Mars. Honesty compels me to give slight credit (2 crew hits) to a timely stern rake at long range by a 50 from the other squadron.

The toughest part came after winning the boarding action, extricating the prize and the flagship from under the guns of the Devonshire, with the English downwind. Sailing upwind with under-crewed, damaged ships isn't easy. We got knocked about pretty good on the way out.

Then came the denoument. Moments after the Cumberland struck to the other squadron, which had been pounding it and getting pounded forever, the Devonshire is swarmed by three French 50's simultaneously. That took just about forever to set up maneuvering mostly into the wind, but it was over quickly once it happened. ;o)


Gary ruled it bragging rights for everybody and plenty of French recriminations over who did the most, which was very historical. The two squadron commanders were supposedly still sniping at each other years later. (Duane and I are still arguing over who gets the Ruby. We'll probably still be arguing in 2108.... I had a prize crew on it, by gum! And it was my frigate that stern raked it nigh dis-masting it on the way by, making it a sitting duck!) The English squadron was tasked with stopping the French at all hazards, so losing all his ships was not strictly a failure, since only one (but very fast) frigate broke past them before the convoy had time to scurry to safety.