Merry Christmas to All

To those who keep coming here only to find that I have not added anything new, I apologize. Sometimes in life, we have little time because we work hard. While I have had some of that, most of my time shortage lately has been due to playing hard. My wife and I departed Thanksgiving weekend, on a Caribbean cruise. This is our second cruise where both have been on Norwegian Cruise Line. I highly recommend them. We saw some beautiful sights in the ports of call: Samana, Dominican Republic; St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands; Tortola, British Virgin Islands; Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas. We had a closeup view of some deep poverty in Samana. I wish my son "Chip" were with us to see how much opportunity we have in the US. In St. Thomas we went on a "helmet dive" where they put a 70 lb. helmet on your head for oxygen and you do a walk on the bottom about 30 feet down. Very cool. We had a great Catamaran ride and snorkeling in Tortola and spent a relaxing day on the beach in Great Stirrup Cay. The food and entertainment was very good. We had a great time. We got to relax a lot. It took me 1.5 days to get my mind settled down to relaxing, but I did it. Now I can't get my mind back to working mode :)

Last weekend my wife and I celebrated our 24th Anniversary. I used a weekend deal with my timeshare to spend the weekend in Phoenix. We had a very, very good time.

With the last remaining vestiges of vacation time, we have decided we want our family together for Christmas. The difficulty is that my oldest son is stationed in Japan. So...Olive Oyl, Chip and I will be spending Christmas with him in Japan. We leave in the next few days and get 3 solid days with him. I wish I had more time, but it is what it is.

So, now you all know some of what I have been up to. I have almost written a post or two on the political developments. Here are a few brief political comments:

It is fun that the liberals seem to be more upset with Obama than conservatives. Not sure how long that will last, but it is fun for now. Looks like the Dems are going to steal a Senate seat in MN and I have yet to find a Lib that is upset about it. Our Illinois governor has really stepped in it. My prediction at this time is that he will get away with it. The only reason he may not is the concern over embarrassing Obama. The question is - what does Blago have on Obama? The Global Warming skeptics seem to be growing in strength. There is a sense of desperation to act on Global Warming now. The question is - can the auto industry take a costly hit right now in the name of junk science? Can the economy take a carbon penalizing tax? How soon before Obama burns capital harming the Coal industry, or angering the Left more by supporting more nuclear power? There is not a lot of wiggle room to do anything about Global Warming (except talk). By this time next year we will have another year of cooling under our belt due to the lack of solar activity. We will have more scientists flip to the skeptic side. We will have more talk of a little ice age. Even now in their panic, the global warming crowd is blaming warming on the cooling trend. If that is so obvious why didn't they predict a cooling trend due to the warming? They are beginning to sound like Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka.

All the political commentary until I get back from Japan. Everybody have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Your Friend,
AICS