Of all the subjects that caught my attention was the issue of our nuclear arsenal. To me the issue is not someone capable of using nuclear weapons, but electing someone who will do the things to avoid first use. For if someone uses a nuclear weapon against us, retaliation is expected. Its to do the things like a military draft, or building conventional arms to avoid having to resort to nuclear weapons, that can prove to be a tougher action to sell to the American people today.

Am I concerned that people are considering the first use of nuclear arms, the answer is yes. Colonel Hunt, who recently published a book commented on radio on the feasibility of using what used to be called theater nuclear weapons or battlefield arms with neutron warheads. Thats a subject that needs a reality check since we never stockpiled the neutron warheads anyway. But to hear one of the candidates suggesting glowing sand, which is a reference to the green radio active glass created in the first nuclear test, we need to step back a bit and ask people if they truly are listening to themselves.

Now I can also say the anti-nuclear/ Anti-military groups are already producing their news article that the republican candidates are preparing to start a new Nuclear Arms race. Well, Putin has already begun one with his own new programs for a bomber, new SLBM systems (thats missile and submarine) and is beginning deployment of a new ICBM. The only thing we are doing is a new bomber, long needed given the truncated production of the B-2. But to hear Herman Cain state that the Minuteman ICBM was 30 years old, I realized even the Republicans have no idea how old these systems are. The Minuteman may have had its last examples made in the early 70s, but the technology is late 1950s when the first Minuteman 1s were built. Thus both the B-52 and the Minuteman are over half a century old. Only the Trident system and its Ohio class submarines are reasonably young and even those subs are 30 years old now. And what is endangering this system is the fact the nuclear reactors that propel and power these subs was designed with 30 year lifespans. Were I am concerned that too many people seem to be throwing around the idea of limited nuclear war, I am equally concerned that we will soon have a readiness problem with not just one leg of our defense triad, but all three legs.

Do we have the money to support such a series of high tech programs: the bigger question is do we have the people to support it. So many major firms with such large numbers of foreign workers who can never be security cleared for such a project. Equally a large number of companies with very young engineering staffs who might have to be conscripted if any of the present world hot spots erupts into a major conflict. The aerospace, and ship building firms have set themselves up to not be able to even accept a major government contract. Boeing may not understand this, but when they threatened Congress that they would leave America and have all their future aircraft designed by foreign engineers if the Export/Import bank was not renewed, was nearly a declaration that they were withdrawing from the Bomber selection process.

I never thought I would live long enough to where people in the media and or authority would be so ignorant of firearms, or now terrorists, that they could make the statements that immediately erupted from the report of a major shooting in San Bernardino california.

First, we had the initial reports. Three gunmen armed with "long guns" had shot and or killed as many as 20 people. They then had disappeared.

We nearly immediately had Obama and Feinstein talking about gun control as if it was a single crazy shooter who they knew had bought his gun at a gun show. A CNN report speculated that the shooters were members of a white supremacist militia. Others noted that the shooters left the scene which meant they were not terrorists since terrorists want to have a final shoot out with authorities. Even Mark Levin saying that his Colt M1911 pistol was not a semi-auto.

All the while the important points were being missed. In a building with according to the Police upwards of 300 people were in, only some 30 victims. The description of the building and population within reminded me of the Bataclan Theater in Paris where so many people were killed. Why then didn't they, the attackers, do more. Where they prevented from moving to the next floor by some security measure. 

The argument that the assailants couldn't be terrorists since they simply left the site after their attack is in error by the actions of the terrorists who attacked Charlie Hebdo, who casually stopped to pick up a shoe that fell off the foot of one of the shooters. The final fight of the Hebdo shooters was two days later; And that fight included a new shooter who attacked a Jewish Grocery as a diversion. Little remembered fact is that the wife of the terrorist leader is reported to have reached Syria just after the attacks. Yes, quite different from the later Paris Attack where the wife of the leader blew herself up at the end of her husband's shoot out with Police, again several days later.

The weapons: banned over a quarter of a century ago in California and barred from importation by the Government since 1999. No matter how many times the on scene reporters were saying the weapons were AK-47 type arms, the National reporters were changing it to AR-15 style rifles (different style and different caliber). But the AR-15 is also the required arm for CMP shoots, required by the Clinton Administration in 1998 and thus still available for purchase, except in California.

In the end National reporters, and even the Obama White House, has already decided it was domestic violence with legally purchased guns. The local Police are still looking for the remaining gunmen- as of this time two were reported dead though the woman might have just been the wife of one of the gunmen. One of the assailants has been named with an islamic name and the Police and FBI are still investigating.