Typo

It should read "Why are they so bellicose?"

          | The heart of the Iran's arsenal is its 200 small potential-suicide boats ...

Back when I was in the Army, that is what we would have referred to as a target-rich environment. Swarming is possible, but I doubt that the U. S. Navy would allow itself to be blindsided by the Iranians. Considering the threats that have been made, I expect that Iranian ports and sea traffic are under surveillance, and any potential threats are being tracked.

The more significant threat comes from Iran's 23 submarines, but they aren't particularly quiet, and the Navy is petty good at Anti-Submarine Warfare.

Other posters have commented on the ability of the U. S. to retaliate via air power. The Iranian Air Force would not last long going toe-to-toe with the USAF/Navy/Marine air power that could be brought to bear. Iran's naval and nuclear infrastructure would be eradicated. Iran could respond asymmetrically through terrorist attacks, but they would be fighting outside their weight class. And remembering the U. S. response to 9/11, one should expect such attacks to result in an even more devastating blow on Iran.

The Iranians know all this. Why are they some bellicose?

One possibility is that the regime is under enough pressure that it is trying to look powerful for internal reasons. Another possibility is that they are trying to create the world crisis that would lead to the return of the 12th Imam. If it's the first, all is bluster, and we will have no war. If it's something like the second, ouch!

          User starts using personal device.
          User develops key business practice on device.
          User leaves.

Yep, and I'm often that User. It seems to be a chronic problem that most corporate IT is unwilling to move as fast as the market demands the company respond. Whether it was developing applications software for the Apple II and the IBM PC to allow dealers to engineer solutions with company products ("Sorry, we only support the main frame and its applications.") or using mobile devices such as iPads ("Sorry, we're a Windows shop."), most IT shops have been an anchor trying to drag the business into the past.

If IT supported doing business efficiently, we Users wouldn't get frustrated and leave you to support the work that we did that you should have done.

STORY ONE: One day, the CEO was in my office talking about his pet project when a coworker brought me a file on a floppy to print. I sent it to one of the network printers for him as I talked with the boss. A few minutes later, another guy walked in with another floppy with a file that need printing. After a third interruption for file printing, the boss asked what was going on.

"Well, none of the PC in this building can get to any of the network printers, but those of us with Macs can."

"How long has this been going on?"

"About 3 months. IT says it isn't a priority."

About an hour later, I got an email telling from the CEO telling me that he had told the Director of IT to solve the problem of only Macs being able to print in the engineering building. When I got to work the next morning, I found that printing from Macs had been disabled too.

We had a new Director of IT the next Monday.

STORY TWO: The charge number system at one company where I worked had the last character reserved for the project manager's use for internal tracking. I assigned 0 through 6 for various subtasks and 9 as "waiting for IT." I had some very interesting cost data on the true cost of IT "support" during project financial reviews.

(is there KDE for Mac?)

Yes. http://community.kde.org/Mac

Open the pod bay doors, HAL.

Actually, his program might get better funding. The House version that kills JWST restores the funding to be used on other missions.

The Senate didn't specify where the money will actual come from. Maybe they can recover the 535 million buck from the Solyndra loan.