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Comment Of The Day But, sometimes not every day. |
Most recent past comment.
Farrago.
March 15, 1999
1. China has a whole bunch of little bombs,
the technology for which they stole from us, and they  seem
to be building up their arsenal. Buried deep in the mountains
east of Xian, like the little terra cotta army, are approximately
20 nuclear warheads on liquid fuel rockets, aimed at the United
States. These are very unsophisticated missiles by modern standards;
they each take over an hour of easily visible from satellites
activity to power up and fire. The warheads are very powerful,
but not at all accurate. The Pentagon believes they are intended
as "city-busters." The Chinese have another 300 warheads
that are shorter ranged, aimed at countries like Japan, India,
Russia and Taiwan. And, the Chinese are busily improving their
systems. As Gill Bates, software specialist at the Pentagon euphemistically
put it, "This could complicate our calculations in the years
ahead." Just thought you might like to know that the old
fears of big thermonuclear explosions lives on. Don't ask me
why.2. Jim Anthony is not exactly the stereotype of a prognosticator, to be sure. He is a retired barber, frail and, get this, in 1962 he caught, perhaps the last blue pike in Lake Erie. They are now declared extinct. But in the ensuing 33 years, he kept it frozen in his refrigerator, and fought off efforts of his wife to throw it out every time she defrosted their 1957 GE. "I kept telling her that it was more and more valuable as time went by, but she just wrinkled her nose and wanted to chuck it out." In an  attempt
to explain his commitment to the frozen remnant of a race of
fish that once spawn an entire industry on the shores of the
Great Lake, he said, "It's hard for me to explain, but that
blue pike meant a lot to me." Jim's frozen fish has become
the central clue in a scientific mystery, and perhaps the last
hope to return the extinct blue pike to viability. Native only
to Lake Erie, the delicious mild and meaty taste of the blue
pike created an enormous demand in the '30's and '40's. But in
1975 they declared extinct, the victim of pollution, over-fishing
and changes in their habitat. But now, utilizing the DNA from
Jim's freezer, the blue pike may well live again. "When
I unwrapped it," said one scientist from the Fish and Wildlife
Service, "my stomach jumped." He went on to say that
he had looked at many types of Walleye, but the blue pike from
Jim's icebox was so unique, he knew that it was like a fossil
from the Jurassic period: "We could build a new generation
of blue pike from it." Hey, the movies are leading the way
after all.  3. George W. Bush Watch: He is pulling all-nighters on foreign policy these days. It has occurred to his nascent campaign handlers that there actually is a world beyond Texas. And on the "Meet the Press" shows over the weekend, many commentators were speculating about his vulnerability and ability to withstand the test of fire in the national press. They also spoke about the fact that he will look like a beginner on the world stage, vastly different from his Dad or Bill Clinton. So, if he fizzles, who have they got? Slim pickin's out there for the GOP, as we have said before. |
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