Tag Archives: NORAD

International news

NORAD’s Santa Tracker still on duty . . . despite the shutdown

This is good news for children around the world.

The Santa Tracker who works for the North American Aerospace Defense Command will be on duty Christmas Eve, despite the partial shuttering of the federal government.

Yep, NORAD will continue to track Santa Claus’ progress as he makes his way south from the North Pole to deliver his gifts to anxious children everywhere.

You have no idea how happy this makes a lot of little ones, even if they don’t quite grasp the circumstances surrounding Santa’s annual worldwide trek this year.

We have a little one in our family who’s expecting Santa Claus to visit in the next little while. Emma, our granddaughter, isn’t up to speed on the government shutdown kerfuffle. It doesn’t matter to us. Her parents won’t tell her; nor will her brothers; you can rest assured that her grandmothers and grandfathers — all four of us — will remain mum on the subject of shutting down the government while we are in her presence.

As National Public Radio reports: Despite gridlock in Washington, more than 1,500 military personnel and volunteers in an air force base in Colorado will be hard at work Christmas Eve, tracking Santa Claus and answering children’s calls.

We can all breathe a little more easily over the next day or so while we await the Jolly Old Man’s arrival. NORAD is on top of the situation.

Donald Trump, national news

Space Force: Its relevance is diminishing

The more I think about the idea creating a Space Force — the less I think about it … if you know what I mean.

Donald Trump wants to create a new military branch devoted exclusively to fighting enemies in outer space.

As I ponder it, I think: Huh? Doesn’t NASA have that responsibility already? And doesn’t the U.S. Air Force have a Space Command that devotes its considerable intellectual power, know-how and technology to defending us from attacks that might come from beyond our atmosphere?

We’ve got the North American Aerospace Defense Command — a joint U.S.-Canadian operation. There’s also the Strategic Air Command. The Navy has its own capabilities as well.

Yet the president wants to commit $8 billion more in defense spending to create a Space Force? Where’s he going to get the money? Don’t anyone even think of suggesting he should take the funds from domestic programs the Trump administration wants to gut anyway.

The notion of a Space Force has given late-night comics plenty of grist for their joke writers. I won’t go there, although I was amused to hear Vice President Mike Pence extend “greetings from the president of the United States” in a tone of voice suggesting he was talking to a roomful of extraterrestrials.

national news

What took so long to call off the panic?

I want to concur with much of the analysis offered in the wake of the “false alarm” caused by an inadvertent alert of a bogus missile strike that was heading toward one of our United States.

A lot of folks are asking a simple question: It’s bad enough that someone supposedly “pushed the wrong button” during a shift change at a security post, but why did it take 38 whole minutes to tell Hawaii residents that what they thought was impending doom was in fact a mistake?

Thirty-eight minutes! For more than a half-hour, Hawaii residents were left to wonder if someone had launched an intercontinental ballistic missile at them. Was it, oh, North Korea? Was it the Russians? Did the Chinese do it?

For 38 minutes, 1.5 million Americans were scrambling to find a way to cope with a potential nuclear holocaust.

How in the name of Mutually Assured Destruction does that occur?

And what in MAD’s name can we do to prevent it from ever happening again?

We’re waiting for some answers. Anyone?

Uncategorized

See? NORAD is still a viable agency

To those who think the end of the Cold War and the demise of the Soviet Union rendered the North American Air Defense Command irrelevant … I’ve got a flash for you.

It’s tracking Santa Claus as I write these words.

The time is about 10:15 p.m. Central Standard Time and Santa is somewhere en route to wherever he intends to go. NORAD is on him.

A Facebook friend noted — incorrectly, I must stipulate — that the now-infamous National Security Agency is tracking. However, a FB friend of his set him straight, that it’s NORAD doing the tracking. My friend’s watchdog said the NSA is checking off Santa’s “naughty list.”

The NORAD tracking is an annual rite of Christmas. The agency puts out “intelligence reports” on Santa’s flight plan from the North Pole. These are highly declassified, as NORAD tends to give up Santa’s location at almost any given moment.

He gets to his destination — wherever it is — right on time every Christmas. That makes it one of humankind’s most enduring mysteries. How does the Jolly Old Man do it?

Bigfoot? The Loch Ness monster? Area 51? Who shot JR? Forget about them.

Santa’s on-time record is spotless. He might not grant every single child on Earth his or her Christmas wish, but he cannot be faulted for trying.

And NORAD is on his tail every mile of his journey.

I’m glad these folks are still on the job.