This seems like a really good idea...

This seems like a really good idea...  Nobody – especially the Iranian leadership – really believes that Obama would ever use our military to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.  Everybody – especially the Iranian leadership – believes that Israel would use their military.

The fly in the ointment is that Israel has very limited means to project its military power in Iran.  Not zero means, but far less than the U.S. has – mainly because it lacks long-range bombers.

So here's the idea: sell or lend Israel some B-52 bombers that we have mothballed.  Israel + B-52s = military deterrent that the Iranian leadership would believe.

Oh, yes.  Let's do it now!

If I were Vladimir Putin...

If I were Vladimir Putin...  Bret Stephens writing at The Wall Street Journal.  Here's his lede:

If I were Vladimir Putin I'd invade eastern Ukraine this week. Strike while the iron is hot.

Never again will the taking be so easy. Never again will the government in Kiev be so helpless. Never again will the administration in Washington be so inept, its threats so hollow. Never again will the powers in Europe be so feeble and dependent. Never again will Western monetary policy do so much to prop up energy prices.

While Mr. Putin is at it, he might consider invading one of the Baltic states. Barack Obama isn't about to ask Americans to die for Estonia, where a quarter of the population is ethnically Russian. The U.S. president wants "nation-building at home," after all. Let him have at it.

Go read the whole thing!

Here's some background...

Some of my Estonian friends are quite worried...

Levitated molten aluminum...

Levitated molten aluminum...  Using a 1.6kw induction coil...

Oh, the bivalves!

Oh, the bivalves!  The delicious Delingpole lampoons a hysterical warmist...

This is very hard for me to imagine...

This is very hard for me to imagine...  Someone asks you what gender you are, and you say: “I don’t know.”  Really.

If they do something well...

If they do something well ... it was probably an accident.  And most likely someone will be punished for it... 

This item circulated in the run-up to the 2012 elections, but I can't remember if I posted it back then.  The numbers below are at least approximately correct.  Clearly it's not an apples-to-apples comparison, though: the existential threat posed to the U.S. by Nazi Germany and Tojo's Japan was a very different challenge than the healthcare problems that ObamaCare seeks to solve.  However, the point about the Obama administration's competence is right on target...

During the 3-1/2 years of World War 2 that started with the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and ended with the Surrender of Germany and Japan in 1945, the United States produced 22 aircraft carriers, 8 battleships, 48 cruisers, 349 destroyers, 420 destroyer escorts, 203 submarines, 34 million tons of merchant ships, 100,000 fighter aircraft, 98,000 bombers, 24,000 transport aircraft, 58,000 training aircraft, 93,000 tanks, 257,000 artillery pieces, 105,000 mortars, 3,000,000 machine guns, and 2,500,000 military trucks.

We put 16.1 million men in uniform in the various armed services, invaded Africa, invaded Sicily and Italy, won the battle for the Atlantic, planned and executed D-Day, marched across the Pacific and Europe, developed the atomic bomb and ultimately conquered Japan and Germany.

It's worth noting, that during the almost exact same amount of time, the Obama administration couldn't build a functioning web site.

Via Doug S., friend, former colleague, and Idaho-mogul-of-everything.  And he's not so very far from our new home!

Another great optical illusion...

Another great optical illusion...  But at least I can understand this one...

“A good man.”

“A good man.”  A tribute to my father from fellow horticulturist, nurseryman, and plantsman Mike Johnson, of Connecticut.  This is from a newsletter he publishes a few times a year.  He sent a copy to my mom, who scanned it and emailed it out.  Click to embiggen.

This is the time of year my dad and I would usually plan our summer trip.  That thought has occurred to me many times in the past few weeks.  There are many good memories that triggers, but also the pain of loss.  Still.

Another frequent thought this past week: I would have loved to just walk around our new place with my dad, and get the benefit of his knowledge and ideas for the trees and shrubs on the property...

I'll bet you've missed the most surprising thing in this post!  My mother scanned that newsletter and emailed it.  By herself.  Right at the moment the only way I can explain this is by extraordinary divine intervention...

Groan...

Groan...  Scott Adams has a great pun in today's strip...

Babies, lemons, awesome...

Babies, lemons, awesome...  This reminds me of the reaction of our cats whenever they smell something citrus.  There's no way you could get a cat to eat a lemon wedge without losing your arms in the process...