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[Gerald Ross]

So does my wife. It IS an accepted pronunciation according to my dictionary. I believe our current president pronounces it the same way.

[Mark Jerde]

Someone told me the houses President Carter built in Florida did not get blown down by hurricane Andrew. Why? They actually followed the codes. Does anyone know if this is true?

BTW 20 +/- years ago I was construction labor. One remodeling job we took out a concrete block wall. The code said that every "x" feet you had to fill in the concrete blocks with concrete all the way to the foundation. The wall looked good from the top but when we took it out we discovered whoever put the wall in jammed cement sacks in the holes and there was only about 3" of concrete at the top of the wall to fool the inspector. That wall never fell down, but it never had a hurricane pushing against it either. Therefore I think the President Carter story could be true.

If I ever build a house, the parts I don't do personally I will be watching and filming.... ;-)

-- Mark

[Mark Jerde]

I'm another lifelong republican and agree with your comments.

However, I often wonder about the leaders and the times they are in. I wonder if anyone else (FDR, JFK, GW, TJ, JA, ..) could have done any better. I was in high school at the time and usually had my head up my *** so my recollections may not jibe with history... ;-)

-- Mark

[Doug Miller]

Dunno, but I believe it easily, and anyone with an engineer in the family will understand why. :-)

-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)

Get a copy of my NEW AND IMPROVED TrollFilter for NewsProxy/Nfilter by sending email to autoresponder at filterinfo-at-milmac-dot-com You must use your REAL email address to get a response.

[J T]

Thu, Jun 24, 2004, 10:11am (EDT-3) [e-mail] (Richard=A0Cline) claims: Unfortunately, he was a very poor president.

Perhaps. But, certainly not. compared to any of the last bunch.

JOAT Use your brain - it's the small things that count.

- Bazooka Joe

[patriarch]

[e-mail] (J T) wrote in news:28547-40DC1647-374@storefull-

3151.bay.webtv.net:

He was the last of the lot for whom I felt good when I voted.

Lately, there's been a lot of nose-holding...

Patriarch

[Lobby Dosser]

patriarch wrote in news:Xns95138569ACC84gmadsencomcastnet@216.148.227.77:

Lately, they need to hand out barf bags with the ballot.

LD

[J T]

Fri, Jun 25, 2004, 8:00pm (EDT+4) patriarch (patriarch= [e-mail]) says: He was the last of the lot for whom I felt good when I voted.

If I recall rightly, I voted for him.

Now, I don't vote FOR any of them, rather I pick the one I consider worst, and vote against him. "Lesser of two evils", I suppose you could say. I did NOT vote for Slick Willy's opponent, but definitely did vote AGAINST Slick Willy.

Jimmy, if you're on the group, you've got very low taste. LMAO And, if you are, hi.

JOAT Use your brain - it's the small things that count.

- Bazooka Joe

[B a r r y]

We've got a great choice coming up this year.

Are there any statesmen in da' house?

Barry

[Hylourgos]

I looked into this some years ago and remember there being a good deal of exaggeration involved, or at least the Carter camp allowing his education to be exaggerated. He may have some sort of an engineering degree from the Naval Academy (not exactly MIT, but fine...). I have yet to see a credible source indicate what the actual degree was in. USNA does not have a program in nuclear engineering.

As for Carter's experiance in nuclear engineering, his own Library site

it rather subtly:

"From 3 NOV 1952 to 1 MAR 1953 he served on temporary duty with Naval Reactors Branch, US Atomic Energy Commission, Washington, D.C. "assisting in the design and development of nuclear propulsion plants for naval vessels." From 1 MAR 1953 to 8 OCT 1953 he was under instruction to become an engineering officer for a nuclear power plant. He also assisted in setting up on-the-job training for the enlisted men being instructed in nuclear propulsion for the USS Seawolf (SSM 575)."

That phrase "under instruction," without mentioning any completion of instruction, leaves enough doubt in my mind that he ever became a genuine bona fide nuclear engineer, or anything close to it.

The USNA site mentions that "he later did graduate work in nuclear

*physics* at Union College" [emphasis mine], which I find uncredible or at least an exaggeration. UC has no nuclear physics program, nor mentions Carter anywhere in such capacity in its site as you might expect, although he may well have taken a course that included nuclear physics as a component. Hardly something worth touting.

Don't get me wrong, I like the guy, but I find these exaggerations unattractive. If anyone knows of a reputable source that gives more detail about President Carter's education, I'd be happy to look it over.

...And (Gerald) I don't care what dumbass editor of a lame descriptive dictionary lists it, "nucular" is worthy only of babies, dislexics, and those who don't care about language. Misdemeanor, not a felony, but still a crime.

My 2¢ H ..who still cringes when "impact" is used as a transitive verb, probably a losing battle....

[LRod]

You probably love "task" in the same capacity, then. How about "what's your take on...?"

The latest one that's been sweeping the media is the word grow as a verb. Not that it has been used before; e.g. I'm going to grow corn this summer. But that's the only context I've ever heard it used as a verb. Now we're hearing about how to grow your business, or the book I'm currently reading in all to frequent trips to the bathroom, "The Dogs Who Grew Me." (actually, the lady author is a good writer; I just have serious problems with that use of the word "grow").

- - LRod

Master Woodbutcher and seasoned termite

Shamelessly whoring my website since 1999

[Doug Miller]

Those usages strike me as a bit odd, but do not grate nearly so hard upon my ear as "gift", "parent", and "author" used as verbs.

-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)

Get a copy of my NEW AND IMPROVED TrollFilter for NewsProxy/Nfilter by sending email to autoresponder at filterinfo-at-milmac-dot-com You must use your REAL email address to get a response.

[Ed Clarke]

To change the topic - which living president or ex-president would you like for a neighbor? I'll take Carter...

[J. Clarke]

Hylourgos wrote:

I think you're going out of your way to be critical here. I find it odd to be in the position of defending Jimmy Carter, but . . .

In 1946, when Jimmy Carter graduated from the Naval Academy, there _was_ no such thing as "nuclear engineering" as an academic discipline. What you learned you learned on the job from mentors. Remember, the first demonstration of a controlled chain reaction took place in December, 1942, less than 4 years before Carter graduated, and the whole field was on a "need to know" basis--most of the US didn't even know that there was such a thing as nuclear energy outside of science fiction until the sky lit up over most of the Southwest on July 16, 1945, less than a year before.

The Navy doesn't issue engineering degrees. Anybody who Rickover turns loose with a nuclear plant knows his stuff though.

You have a misconception concerning "nuclear physics". First, there is no academic discipline by that name. Second, Enrico Fermi, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and the others who made the aforementioned flash in the Southwest, built the first reactors, separated the first weapons-grade uranium, bred the first plutonium, etc did not have degrees in "nuclear physics" or in "nuclear engineering" or in "nuclear" anything else. If you check the MIT, Caltech, and University of Chicago (the place where Enric Fermi built the first nuclear reactor) you will find that none of them offer a degree in "nuclear physics". It was and still is just "physics", with coursework concentrated on the physics of atomic nuclei rather than, say, optics. Whether he got a degree from Union I have no idea, but if he was doing graduate study and passing the courses again he's no ignoramus and if he took courses in reactor theory (GAHHHHH--calculating neutron-diffusion by _hand_--I'm impressed--it's bad enough with a mainframe but there were precious few computers of _any_ kind then) and the physics of atomic nuclei, that's all that any nuclear engineer gets that's different from what any other kind of engineer gets.

Further, at the time there was no real distinction between physics and engineering when it came to nuclear power--in the 1946-1953 timeframe nuclear energy was still very much cutting edge physics--the people who designed and operated reactors were by training physicists even though what they were doing was engineering. Further, no school had the facilities to teach reactor operations--the first college to have a working nuclear reactor on campus other than Chicago (which built _one_, unshielded, ran it long enough to get the data they needed--now _that_ is _scary_--and tore it down--it most assuredly wasn't usable for teaching operations) was North Carolina State College, and theirs went into operation in 1953, the same year that Carter left the Navy. On the other hand, the Navy _did_ have a reactor running in 1953 and people who worked on that program can be expected to have more real expertise than anyone coming out of a university program (other than the ones who worked with Fermi at Chicago) of the same era. Complicating the whole issue, a great deal of the Navy nuclear power program was and still is highly classified. So the whole notion of academic credentials related to the design, construction, and operation of nuclear reactors in that timeframe is pretty fuzzy. If he was one of Rickover's boys and he wants to call himself a nuclear engineer and Rickover doesn't object then I'm sure not going to--Rickover knew _everything_ Carter had done and one thing you did _not_ do was lie around Rickover.

I suspect that some of it comes under the heading of "I could tell you but then I'd have to kill you".

I say nu_cul_ar and you say nu_cle_ar, nucular, nuclear, let's call the whole thing off . . .

Personally I suspect he was doing it to further his folksy peanut-farmer image and that doing so was a tactical error, one of many, but what do I know?

A long lost battle. It's in the Oxford as a transitive verb, with first use in 1601.

[J. Clarke]

[LRod]

Someday, when you reread the post to which you responded, you're going to bitchslap yourself silly for not getting the joke.

- - LRod

Master Woodbutcher and seasoned termite

Shamelessly whoring my website since 1999

[Mark L.]

[Dan Cullimore]

Someone (FDR?) once said one could not be the Pres. of the U.S. and follow the Ten Commandments. If anything, I suspect the Carter presidency may be proof positive of that statement (apocryphal as it may be). I have never been convinced that he was in fact a poor president. I believe he told the truth and very few people wanted to hear it, and that in practice he discovered the compromising and difficult choices open to him. How he must have struggled to reconcile his faith and the realpolitics of the world. I am not a religious man, but I have the utmost respect and admiration for his example.

Mister Carter, if you're here--thank you; I wish you were on the ticket now! I could even live with philandering willie, but this bald faced liar...oh, there I go again...

Dan

[Mark & Juanita]

So you don't see any problem with a former president visiting Cuba, praising their socialized health system and criticizing the sitting administration of his own county while a guest of a country ruled by a communist dictator?

[charlie b]

It's interesting that "communist dictator" is bad and nothing good done by same is good while "democratic dictator" is good and nothing bad done by same is bad? Compare and contrast Castro with Pinochet, the Death Squads of Nicaragua's "conservatives" with the "socialist/ reformer" Mary Knoll nuns they murdered. What if the reunification and free elections that Viet Nam was suppose to have in '54 had occured and Ho Chi Mihn (sp?) had been democratically elected as he surely would have been.

Any health system is better than no health system. Having the highest literacy rate in Latin America is a good thing.

And doesn't a good citizen of this country have the right and maybe the obligation, to speak out against things he or she believes is/are wrong with our government?

Our government never understands/understood that in most countries, nationalism was the goal and colonialism, be it obvious or not, was to be escaped from. Communism/socialism/fascism/religious fundamentalism all were/are a means to an end. Look beyond the symptom and try to discover the cause.

And President Carter left office with about the same net worth as he had when he entered the White House. With the exception of Harry Truman, can you name another president in the last 50 years who did? Recall that President Reagan (sp?) took a 2 million dollar speaking engagement in Japan shortly after leaving office? You think he got that kind of pay(off) because Japanese industrialists really, really, really like the man and felt he could teach them something?

Carter is a good man who has tried to make the world a better place. Politics is seldom the place to go if you want to make things better.

If you get down to the basics of all the major religions "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." and "Try and leave the place a little better, or at least no worse, than you found it." are at their core. It's what "politicians" have added that get us in trouble most of the time.

Mr. Carter - thanks for setting a good example of what a good man should be like.

charlie b