HMS Falcon--a strange bird?

Today I saw something of a Halloween Trick in a parking lot--a pick-up truck with a sticker (or magnet or some other type of decoration) on the tailgate reading "H.M.S. Falcon" and "Royal Navy 1776," with a Union Jack (sans the diagonal red stripes) between the lines of text.

Without an opportunity to speak with he truck's owner, I'm left scratching my head. This sticker commemorated an enemy warship. OK--it was two centuries ago, so the wounds are healed, making the sticker considerably less offensive than one reading "Panzer Division," "Viet Cong," or "Taliban." Nonetheless, it seemed odd that someone was celebrating a British warship from the time of the Revolutionary War.

A Google search didn't reveal much useful information. A sloop called the Falcon fought in the Revolution, off North Carolina in May and September of 1776. In 1790, William Bligh (of Bounty fame) served as a commander on the Falcon. It occurred to me that the Falcon might be a museum, but searching for "Falcon" with "museum" finds a museum dedicated to World War II gliders and a couple of websites dedicated to falcons, as in birds. A visit to the Royal Navy's website illuminated absoutely nothing. I even asked friends if they had heard of the ship. Again nothing.

Sometimes, I'm just left to wonder...

Of course the Republicans are ignoring libertarians...

Recently, I've seen two columns regarding the brush-off the libertarian wing of the Republican Party has been getting. Steven Greenhut, a columnist I enjoy and respect (despite what I see as a misplaced affinity for the Republican Party), lamented how a many of the speakers at a convention he attended seemed enamored more with power than with liberty. Then, on Monday the 29th, Shellie Sullivan called it "baffling" that prominent conservatives are ignoring Ron Paul.

I have long held that the Republican and Democratic Parties have no meaningful difference--that both parties are dedicated to the expansion of their own power before all other goals or ends.

With that assumption, it's hardly surprising that most Republicans are embracing some very authoritarian positions despite their need for libertarians to help vote them into office. It's even less surprising, despite his strong poll and fundraising results (including, interestingly, the most donations from military personal and veterans, despite as staunch an anti-war record as you could hope for), that Ron Paul--a principled libertarian--is being as marginalized and ignored to the extent the Republicans can get away with it. Libertarians and their ideals don't support the expansion of power; for a party dedicated to the expansion of its power, that is an unforgivable sin.

A Jovian attitude...

Sing after me (to the Disney tune, of course): Io, Io, 'round Jupiter we go!

Call that a little Callisto music...

(Those puns will probably make you want to drink a lot of GanyMead.)

A train to nowhere for those in wheelchairs.

As long as I'm writing about things that read like bad jokes, how about this?

Not too many stations in the New York Subway have access for the disabled--about 60 out of 400+, and some of those don't have access to all areas of the station. The two busiest stations (according to the 30-year-old stats I have from "Urban Rail in America") in the system are pretty good, however--Times Square, for instance, has access for all trains except the Shuttle, and Grand Central has access for all trains.

The bad joke is something those familiar with the subway may have spotted already: the shuttle only goes to two stations--Grand Central and Times Square. Basically, according to the map, you can get on the shuttle at Grand Central, but if you're in a wheelchair, you can't use it to actually go anywhere. Why they don't say "except the shuttle" for both stations, I don't know. (I thought you had to use stairs to get to the Shuttle platforms at both locations, but I'm far from certain that there isn't a ramp at either station; though the map strongly supports my memory for Times Sq..)

On the bright side, wheelchair-bound riders can at least use the 7 Train between those two stations.

No peace

When I first heard that Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize I thought it was a joke. It isn't.

I know that the Nobel Prize these days is often quite political and left-leaning. But guys, it's the Nobel PEACE Prize, not the Nobel Scare-Everybody-About-The-Environment Prize. If Gore's movie is the most significant work for world peace last year, it would have been a more profound and effective statement to no award a prize (as they did--or didn't do--during most of the years of the World Wars).

Maybe my politics is coloring my opinion, but I still tend to think the Grameen Bank will do more for world peace than "An Inconvenient Truth" in the long run.

A note to myself...

I'm always leaving notes to myself around the house, so I thought I should leave one on my blog: blog more. Procrastination and trivial distractions make for a quiet blog. I have a couple of blogs tonight, and one more when I find a sheet of paper I need to quote from.