Senator Cooper?

Bob Geary weighed in today on Attorney General Roy Cooper’s chances of taking Richard Burr’s Senate seat. While I agree with most of what Geary says, calling the three-time attorney general’s campaign skills “unproven” isn’t true in my view.

I’ve seen Cooper work a room. He seems so genuine – there is no hint of guile. He seems in all ways to be just who he is: a sharp, warm, friendly guy who is happy to serve our state.

Burr may be a formidable opponent or he may be a pushover, but my money will be on Roy Cooper. Cooper can win any race he chooses to enter.

Shooting pirates

I ran into an Army friend today who, knowing I’m a Navy vet, praised the Navy for freeing Capt. Richard Phillips, skipper of the Maersk Alabama, from Somali pirates.

“It’s just a drop in the bucket,” I told him.

And it’s true. It would take a fleet much larger than the U.S. Navy has to prevent pirate attacks. It’s a huge area and there are hundreds of ships that travel through it. What’s more, these ships are practically defenseless. They cannot maneuver easily, they are easily ambushed due to the limited visibility around their hulls, and they have small, unarmed crews that can be easily overpowered. They are essentially sitting ducks, there for the plundering.

Picking off three pirates might have won one battle but the war continues unabated. Clearly we need a bigger solution.

LED lighting

On a pass through Costco Monday I saw my first pack of consumer-packaged LED lightbulbs. The bulbs were Lights of America Decor LED Accent bulbs in a three-pack package. I didn’t see what price Costco had them but Amazon sells the three-pack for $24.

One review of LED bulbs pans them completely, saying they don’t hold a candle (ha!) to incandescent bulbs. While that’s true, I recall it taking a while before the CFL bulbs could be mistaken for incandescents.

LED bulbs still have some niche uses. The accent lighting role, for instance, is a good one for LEDs until they get good enough to read by. I may have to buy one of these accent bulbs just to give them a closer look.