15 thoughts on “Boondoggles and Bombers”

  1. Just as a point of interest, the general college education Victor describes in 70s CA was equivalent to a decent high school education in CT in the 90s. CA wealth is often generated outside the educational system or by dropouts who merely have some branding. East Coast wealth is created by products of the educational system. This helps form a cleavage (yes, it’s there, but draped over with the delicate grace of a Jen Psaki) in the elite that comes out in struggles like East Coast Ivy leagues quickly shutting down the alternative Covid narrative that was beginning to come out of Stanford and UCLA.

  2. That Boondoggle Bomber sure is a pretty airplane., but I like your idea of cheap ground hugging drones. Will we build them first, or will we be catching up? You know that once something has been done, an idea is ‘easy’ to follow.
    You could take one of those drones, mount it on supersonic fuel tank and launch it from Disnyforia.

  3. Thank you for your content, Professor Hanson. Though I occasionally comment my disagreement, I look forward to and enjoy each episode. All the best to you and your family, and even to Jack and Sami, this Christmas. I appreciate you and your time.

  4. Enjoyed the story about you aged teacher. Reminded me of Mr. Grooters. He attended our church and was 90+ years old the middle 1950s, when I was a young boy. He told us stories about life in Iowa when he was a young man, before good rural roads, rural electrification, modern farm machinery. People like your teacher and Mr. Grooters are national treasures.

  5. Thank you, from an (almost lifelong) Okie who’s currently reading “Grapes of Wrath” for the first time, at the age of 61. I’ve a history with California, having been born there, grandparents buried there and family there still, including a retired college professor who shares with me a mutual respect for you and your work.

  6. Your intro banter gave me one of the best belly laugh sessions in a long time!!! It was particularly hilarious to me in part because I grew up roman catholic and well remember the special feast days throughout the year. One “feature” of them came to us who attended catholic schools. We had Disneyland nearby, and they offered all of us a deep discount to admission and rides in the whole place. These were always on weekdays, and we all but had the whole park to ourselves. The day would cost maybe ten bucks back when minimum wage was maybe $2.25.

    We very much looked forward to these “feast days”.

    I also enjoyed your discussion of the classic literature comparing how it used to be when I attended college to how it is selectively dissected and parcelled out to the lazy and incompetent. Those classics went in to me starting in early high school, and gave me a very different perspective on what remains of our culture.

  7. thebaron@enter.net

    To offer a clarification, the Immaculate Conception is a solemnity, not a feast day.

    The difference is in the event’s liturgical importance, and there are differences in the Mass between solemnities and feast days. Sundays and all holy days of obligation are solemnities.

    Jack gets a ruler across the knuckles.

    1. The Baron — I specifically said it was like Sunday a Holy Day of Obligation, although I did not use the word “solemnity,” and explained (in short) it was not a feast day a la that o St. Nicholas or San Gennaro. No rulers needed.

  8. The B-21 is primarily a (stealth) nuclear deterrence platform; it only took one Enola Gay to reach its target once air superiority was achieved.

    These super contracts are often long-overdue to keep strategic division of labor among the aerospace contractors as billions are invested in prototypes but only one contract is awarded, hence massive losses lead to mergers and bankruptcies unless new business is awarded.

  9. As always, I enjoyed the interview. Your discussion of the cost of the new B-21 reminded me of a conversation I had a year or two ago with someone very knowledgeable about Air Force finances and accounting. This person told me that the projected cost of acquiring, operating and maintaining each one of our new fighter models (I forget whether it is the F-22 or F-35) will well exceed one trillion dollars over its lifetime. One trillion dollars per plane!

  10. I see another argument in favour of more cheaper platforms rather than less more capable and more expensive. More platforms can be in more different places at the same time. That is not only a tactical advantage. This translates into higher readiness because the more numerous platforms need much less time to deploy for they have less distance to move if properly spread out in the first place.

    Similarly this translates into faster and broader avenues of improvement. That is because the total arsenal of numerous platforms can easily be split into fractions on which one tries new technolgies one such technology per fraction. Same goes for day-to-day maintenance.

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