Thursday, April 30, 2015

CLOSE YOUR EYES AND IMAGINE

Just imagine how stupid you would have to be to accept that the city of Baltimore Police had fully and thoroughly investigated the death by spine ripping of a prisoner in their custody and could find no explanation for how he was brutally kicked to death in a van that stopped for nachos, a tequila and a barista on the way to the clink.

What happened to that man was an egregious crime. Police need to be jailed for life for doing that. All of those in the "van" with that man are murderous scum. I'll leave it to a court to decide if they are guilty but the verdict about what "suddenly happened to kill that man?"

We know. It was cops kicking him over and over and over. They got a little carried away.

I really don't understand how cops can do that.

NUCLEAR WARFARE

Some among us used to plan it.


We were all willing to wage it. Ibn Said said we needed more music so I'll give Buck the better half.

See?


Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

LOST BALTIMORE

Thank you thugs.


Let us play ball. Alone, in the park, in the dark, while nobody who wants to may watch.

One Ring to rule them all,
One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all
and in the darkness bind them.

What do you think? Orcs?

I WOULD HOPE TO SAY

But I don't

Her is what I would like to say. The world is getting ugly again. For me


Foo.

HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL

I will never again go into Baltimore without a gun. It's worth killing. I'm going to carry a couple hundred rounds and might use two guns.
"And so am I, very dangerous: more dangerous than anything you will ever meet, unless you are brought alive before the seat of the Dark Lord.
OK, I'm not going again to Baltimore without a flamethrower, grenades, and a rocket launcher.

Hi Baltimore? How do you feel now?

It's mostly why I skip LA. I don't need anything on Rodeo drive. Neither does anybody else except a poor southern boy who needs a visa from the French consulate there.

As a student of civilization it was interesting, watching all the video and observing the negligible differences between civil and the other.

"Going to an Orioles game?" Here's a broad sword. You might need it to fight your way out of Camden Yard to your car. Thank you for coming to Baltimore, you loser!"

The Mayor of Baltimore announced that people needed a place to go all uncivilized and act like apes.

I'm not convinced.

Monday, April 27, 2015

THE TRUE THING

It's like fight club.

I FELL THROUGH ALL THE CRACKS

I don't mind at all but as I read Larry Correia's blog it becomes clear that I missed the third wave of gaming just as I missed the first one and the second one. I missed them all by just a tiny bit. When I was young I would marshall some of my father's little soldiers but didn't have any real enjoyment in it. I do regret that one of his little cannon went west with the rest of my stuff and will never return but he never missed it. He had a lot of them and hadn't seen any of them at that point in over 30 years. Painted soldiers from the Napoleonic Wars up to WWII with horses and trains and everything you can imagine. It was his hobby before he had us and took up sailing with us.

So, up to a point, I had the opportunity and the materials to wargame and let it slide because I preferred girls and sailing. It turns out one can combine the two very easily. I kind of made it a habit from Newport to Huntsville to State College and then San Diego... and some other places.

I played 2 or 3 box games from Avalon Hill or others and they lacked an essential element over time: an opponent. I preferred the straight up strategy games to Kingmaker which, sucked. If there is too much of the random through simple card play, the hell with it.

My room mate in college had one of the first computers. He and friends would play Star Trek. To give you an idea what I'm talking about, his computer had a tape drive. Yes, a cassette tape drive. I didn't see the point in it.

On the other side of the tenement there was a two story Rec room where I would drop in on 5 or 6 guys playing Dungeons and Dragons. They would play marathon sessions all weekend without rest. We were all college freshman and screw the grades/classes/learning etc. I never played. I could perceive that they enjoyed it but to me it was kind of pointless.

My next college room mate used to return from the architecture lab really early in the morning after spending the night playing one of those really early computer games which involves nothing but typing and reading script. No animated warriors in scanty clothes. No berserkers just question? What do I see in the room? Pick up? Drop?

Then there was an explosion as the 1.5 ton computers became available to us all. There were computer games. I am going to list all of the computer games I played. It might take some time.

Doom
Duke Nukem
Starcraft

OK, so that didn't take as long as I thought it would. I'll type slower next time.

I enjoyed the model soldiers and the wonderful magazines the gamers of that era wrote but never did model soldiers. I used to visit family friends with whole armies. (thousands). I missed the board game phenomena because scaring up players is harder to do than one thinks. I missed out on the computer games because of life and family. My nephews play games online with red hot computers that don't work in the absence of serious air conditioning and drew up with PS/2 grafted to their hands.

I spent some of my off hours at home with USNET@SCI.MIL.NAVY and reading. I enjoyed life and walking on the beach and going out to dinner with friends. It was all good. Didn't really have any need for alt.reality.

Saturday, April 25, 2015

LOST IN DIVERSITY AT UNIVERSITY

I quite admire the people that put this gem up all over Youngstown University campus. Good job dudes and dudettes! Roll on Kufra!


The diversity troops took it like an impi taking a British column in the Zulu Wars. Of course, after that was the defense of Roark's Drift. If you've never seen that little book on infantry in defense, it's a gem.

I forget, it might be Red Dwarf or something from Gerald Durrell. "I quite like shouting!"

Most of us would just like you to sit down, shut up or go away. We really don't care. Unless you're a nubile girl and plan to take your clothes off to make your point about some ism in which case, you have my full attention.

To the crew that put up these posters, Bravo Zulu!

Friday, April 24, 2015

SPEAK WITH DEFIANCE

There have been thousands of protests on campus where activists leap to their feet and scream defiance. Good for them. Other people in the audience came to hear the speaker but their right to hear is overwhelmed by liberals and progressives.

There's an easy answer. There always is.

I remember flying on a Southwest Airlines flight once out of Sky Harbor. The flight attendants said that there would be free drinks for the first aisle to send/unrolling as it went, a roll of toilet paper from the first row to the back of the cabin and back to the front. My aisle won. Free drinks. I remembered that the Blue Man Group did this the last time I saw them in Las Vegas....well, except for the free drinks, those were on the house. I don't even know if casinos still offer free drinks to gamblers. They used to.

Every college event should feature a similar game. Each person in the front row given a roll of duct tape and it only moves to the rear when an 'activist' gets up to scream. The nearest person has to gag that one with duct tape.

Think Lena Dunham or mattress girl or all college feminists or LGBTQ whatevers

As it happens, I blame the 60s for giving us college petulance. I know one cannot, by law, shoot them but if a girl can voice her dissent by carrying a mattress to class, why can't the rest of us voice our dissent by carrying a 3 iron or a driver and using them as God intended?

The nicest thing about being a so/so golfer is that I can, to this day, top a drive off the tee and hit a mulligan or just play it as it lies without walking over to the nearest tree while shouting mighty oaths and wrapping the club around the tree. That's what the 'good' golfers do. I'm happy enough with a birdie or two and a half dozen par and don't mind bogying the rest of them although.....I hate to 3 putt and sometimes the putter slips out of my hand as I walk back to the cart.

When I started playing the game long ago I counted every stroke. Getting tired of recording my scores in exponential notation I soon stopped counting and just tried to play ready golf. That meant no 30 minute sojourns into the woods (on my own) looking for a ball that had gone astray and just playing on. Sure, me and my brother would come back later, after dark and look in those dark and evil places sacred to ball stealing goblins and leave with hundreds of golf balls. We didn't much care if they were slightly damp. We figured they'd dry out at some point and it's not like we needed the very best golf ball to improve our game. Yeah, I've heard that lost balls belong to the Pro and he might use them as range balls but, the way we golfed, we gave them all back.

CIRCLING THE DRAIN

It looks like Top Gear is circling the drain. May bows out without Clarkson. OK, did it twice. Why are non-profits who get your money entitled to make stupid decisions on steroids? Who empowered these weasels?

The State has no business in the media except in tyrannies and communist collectives.

Thursday, April 23, 2015

DAMMIT JIM! THERE'S A WAR ON

From the home of Brad Torgersen

I like what James May writes. He has a blog somewhere but I find it impossible to access his essays there. One has to delve.


THERAPY CAT

Another good one from the instapundit.

A DUE PROCESS WIN: Ashe Schow: North Dakota Students Now Have Right To An Attorney.What seems like an obvious right is sadly not so obvious for today’s college students. But a new law in North Dakota is reaffirming one of the basic elements of due process — the right to legal representation — for college students.
The bill, SB 2150, unanimously passed the state’s House of Representatives on April 8 and passed the Senate on April 17 with just one senator voting against. Gov. Jack Dalrymple signed the bill into law on Wednesday.
By signing this bill, Dalrymple, a Republican, has made North Dakota the third state in the nation to allow students facing non-academic disciplinary charges the ability to hire an attorney. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education credits part of the decision to enact the law on the case of Caleb Warner, who was expelled from the University of North Dakota for sexual assault despite evidence of innocence. His accuser was later charged with filing a false police report.
Because of the injustice done to her son, Warner’s mother, Sherry Warner-Seefeld, helped found the Families Advocating for Campus Equality, a group dedicated to due process for college students.
“It is so gratifying to know that parents of students enrolled in North Dakota’s public colleges will no longer have to worry that their children might be railroaded the way my son was at UND,” Warner-Seefeld told FIRE. “Basic fairness necessitates that colleges determining young people’s futures provide the kind of procedural protections now required by SB 2150.”
North Carolina and Arkansas are the only two other states with laws that allow some kind of legal representation during campus hearings. 
If I had a hearing in one of the other states, I’d be tempted to bring a kangaroo.

I can visualize it now.

"No Ms Campus Thug, that isn't a lawyer. See the collar and the little bell on it? He's my therapy cat." 

Who wouldn't want to bell a lawyer even if he represents you? 


A GIRL AND HER DUENNA

Once there was a place that had this picture hanging in the Men's Room where it could be observed in fine detail for just as long as it took.  I always think that it is a true piece of art....to put it there, PRICELESS.


YET ANOTHER MODEST PROPOSAL

I think it would be marvelous if Sarah Palin entered the lists for the Democratic Nomination for President.  All she has to do at this point is announce, file the requisite forms and be as true to her convictions as any democrat is and she could probably shred the Democratic Party in a fortnight.

She has convictions, morals, honesty, ethics, morality, nice kids, a far better husband, a solid background as a governor of the largest state in the United States, a record anybody would be proud of and I don't see why she shouldn't run on the Democratic Ticket.

I hereby announce the, DRAFT PALIN FOR THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY!

She'd leave foot marks, snowshoe marks, snow machine marks, SUV marks and possibly fishhook injuries on shrillary as she leapt to the front of the polls in the race for whatever.

We must all remember. It's not fun until somebody loses an eye.

I MOWED THE GRASS

I came here for weather because in my soul I missed it. It has been snowing all day dammit~!

There is snow accumulation out there! My car is totally covered in snow. I could stealth hunt polar bears dammit!

I mowed the damned grass yesterday!

This is so wrong.

ANOTHER MODEST PROPOSAL

In view of this, I would like to put forward another modest proposal. Ordinarily I would say it might require a Constitutional Amendment but with all the powers that we seem to have encumbered our various Executive Branch agencies, Legislative Branch non-watchdogs and Judicial Branch ignorers of the actual law, it shouldn't take more than a Memo for the Record:

The losing political party's Vice Presidential nominee must be appointed Attorney General and no power on earth can shift him out of that office unless the President is impeached or resigns.

Wouldn't something like that clean up the corruption that masquerades as the Justice Department?

I think so.


Wednesday, April 22, 2015

I RARELY DO THIS BUT THE SNARK IS POWERFUL TODAY

I suppose the thing I like best about the instapundit is the way he encapsulates the news and can cross the stern of the enemy and rake them with broadside fire with such utter ease. Navy captains had to work very hard to accomplish that feat and he does it every single day.




IT ISN'T ALL THAT HARD

It's not hard to keep up with posts here but it is getting harder and harder to not reference the cynical and diabolical. It might take me a couple of days to refind the humor in life.

You could look at my neighbors on the right column. They still get the humor.

Saturday, April 18, 2015

OH THEY SAID

Office of the Recording Angel - Mark Twain

To show how little life changes.......


OFFICE OF THE RECORDING ANGEL
Department of Petitions, Jan. 20
Abner Scofield
Coal Dealer
Buffalo, New York
I have the honor, as per command, to inform you that your recent act of benevolence and self-sacrifice has been recorded upon a page of the Book called Golden Deeds of Men; a distinction, I am permitted to remark, which is not merely extraordinary, it is unique.
As regards your prayers, for the week ending the 19th, I have the honor to report as follows:
1. For weather to advance hard coal 15 cents a ton. Granted.
2. For influx of laborers to reduce wages 10 percent. Granted.
3. For a break in rival soft-coal prices. Granted.
4. For a visitation upon the man, or upon the family of the man, who has set up a competing retail coal-yard in Rochester. Granted, as follows: diphtheria, 2, 1 fatal; scarlet fever, 1, to result in deafness and imbecility, Note. This prayer should have been directed against this subordinate's principals, the N. Y. Central R. R. Co.
5. For deportation to Sheol of annoying swarms of persons who apply daily for work, or for favors of one sort or another. Taken under advisement for later decision and compromise, this petition appearing to conflict with another one of same date, which will be cited further along.
6. For application of some form of violent death to neighbor who threw brick at family cat, whilst the same was serenading. Reserved for consideration and compromise because of conflict with a prayer of even date to be cited further along.
7. To "damn the missionary cause." Reserved also -- as above.
8. To increase December profits of $22,230 to $45,000 for January, and perpetuate a proportionate monthly increase thereafter -- "which will satisfy you." The prayer granted, the added remark accepted with reservations.
9. For cyclone, to destroy the works and fill up the mine of the North Pennsylvania Co. NOTE: Cyclones are not kept in stock in the winter season. A reliable article of firedamp can be furnished upon application.
Especial note is made of the above list, they being of particular moment. The 298 remaining supplications classifiable under the head of Special Providences, Schedule A, for week ending 19th, are granted in a body, except that 3 of the 32 cases requiring immediate death have been modified to incurable disease.
This completes the week's invoice of petitions known to this office under the technical designation of Secret Supplications of the Heart, and which, for a reason which may suggest itself, always receive our first and especial attention.
The remainder of the week's invoice falls under the head of what we term Public Prayers, in which classification we place prayers uttered in Prayer Meeting, Sunday School, Class Meeting, Family Worship, etc. These kinds of prayers have value according to classification of Christian uttering them. By rule of this office, Christians are divided into two grand classes, to wit; (1) Professing Christians; (2) Professional Christians. These, in turn, are minutely subdivided and classified by Size, Species, and Family; and finally, Standing is determined by carats, the minimum being 1, the maximum 1,000.
As per balance sheet for quarter ending Dec. 31st, 1847, you stood classified as follows:
Grand Classification: Professing Christian.
Size: one-fourth of maximum.
Species: Human-Spiritual.
Family: A of the Elect, Division 16.
Standing: 322 carats fine.
As per balance sheet for quarter just ended -- that is to say, forty years later -- you stand classified as follows:
Grand Classification: Professional Christian.
Size: six one-hundredths of maximum.
Species: Human-Animal.
Family: W of the Elect, Division 1547.
Standing: 3 carats fine.
I have the honor to call your attention to the fact that you seem to have deteriorated.
To resume report upon your Public Prayers -- with the side remark, that in order to encourage Christians of your grade and of approximate grades, it is the custom of this office to grant many things to them which would not be granted to Christians of a higher grade -- partly because they would not be asked for:
Prayer for weather mercifully tempered to the needs of the poor and the naked. Denied. This was a Prayer-Meeting prayer. It conflicts with Item 1 of this report, which was a Secret Supplication of the Heart. By a rigid rule of this office, certain sorts of Public Prayer of Professional Christians are forbidden to take precedence of Secret Supplications of the Heart.
Prayer for better times and plentier food "for the hard-handed son of toil whose patient and exhausting labors make comfortable the homes, and pleasant the ways, of the more fortunate, and entitle him to our vigilant and effective protection from the wrongs and injustices which grasping avarice would do him, and to the ten dearest offices of our grateful hearts." Prayer-Meeting prayer. Refused. Conflicts with Secret Supplication of the Heart No. 2.
Prayer "that such as in any way obstruct our preferences may be generously blessed, both themselves and their families, we here calling our hearts to witness that in their worldly prosperity we are spiritually blessed, and our joys made perfect." Prayer-Meeting prayer. Refused. Conflicts with Secret Supplications of the Heart Nos. 3 and 4.
"Oh, let none fall heir to the pains of perdition through words or acts of ours." Family Worship. Received fifteen minutes in advance of Secret Supplication of the Heart No. 5, with which it distinctly conflicts. It is suggested that one or the other of these prayers be withdrawn, or both of them modified.
"Be mercifully inclined toward all who would do us offense in our persons or our property." Includes man who threw brick at cat. Family Prayer. Received some minutes in advance of No. 6, Secret Supplications of the Heart. Modification suggested, to reconcile discrepancy.
"Grant that the noble missionary cause, the most precious labor entrusted to the hands of men, may spread and prosper without let or limit in all heathen lands that do as yet reproach us with their spiritual darkness." Uninvited prayer shoved in at meeting of American Board. Received nearly half a day in advance of No. 7 Secret Supplications of the Heart. This office takes no stock in missionaries, and is not connected in any way with the American Board. We should like to grant one of these prayers, but cannot grant both. It is suggested that the American Board one be withdrawn.
This office desires for the twentieth time to call urgent attention to your remark appended to No. 8. It is a chestnut.
Of the 464 specifications contained in your Public Prayers for the week, and not previously noted in this report, we grant 2, and deny the rest. To wit; Granted, (1) "that the clouds may continue to perform their office; (2) and the sun his." It was the divine purpose anyhow; it will gratify you to know that you have not disturbed it. Of the 462 details refused, 61 were uttered in Sunday School. In this connection I must once more remind you that we grant no Sunday School Prayers of Professional Christians of the classification technically known in this office as the John Wanamaker grade. We merely enter them as "words," and they count to his credit according to number uttered within certain limits of time; 3,000 per quarter-minute required, or no score; 4,200 in a possible 5,000 is a quite common Sunday School score, among experts, and counts the same as two hymns and a bouquet furnished by young ladies in the assassin's cell, execution morning. Your remaining 401 details count for wind only. We bunch them and use them for head winds in retarding the ships of improper people, but it takes so many of them to make an impression that we cannot allow anything for their use.
I desire to add a word of my own to this report. When certain sorts of people do a sizable good deed, we credit them up a thousand-fold more for it than we would in the case of a better man -- on account of the strain. You stand far away above your classification record here, because of certain self-sacrifices of yours which greatly exceed what could have been expected of you.
Years ago, when you were worth only $100,000, and sent $2 to your impoverished cousin the widow when she appealed to you for help, there were many in heaven who were not able to believe it, and many more who believed that the money was counterfeit.
Your character went up many degrees when it was shown that these suspicions were unfounded. A year or two later, when you sent the poor girl $4 in answer to another appeal, everybody believed it, and you were all the talk here for days together. Two years later you sent $6, upon supplication, when the widow's youngest child died, and that act made perfect your good fame. Everybody in heaven said, "Have you heard about Abner?" -- for you are now affectionately called Abner here. Your increasing donation, every two or three years, has kept your name on all lips, and warm in all hearts. All heaven watches you Sundays, as you drive to church in your handsome carriage; and when your hand retires from the contribution plate, the glad shout is heard even to the ruddy walls of remote Sheol, "Another nickel from Abner!"
But the climax came a few days ago, when the widow wrote and said she could get a school in a far village to teach if she had $50 to get herself and her two surviving children over the long journey; and you counted up last month's clear profit from your three coal mines -- $22,230 -- and added to it the certain profit for the current month -- $45,000 and a possible fifty -- and then got down your pen and your checkbook and mailed her fifteen whole dollars!
Ah, heaven bless and keep you forever and ever, generous heart! There was not a dry eye in the realms of bliss; and amidst the hand-shakings, and embracings, and praisinqs, the decree was thundered forth from the shining mount, that this deed should outhonor all the historic self-sacrifices of men and angels, and be recorded by itself upon a page of its own, for that the Strain of it upon you had been heavier and bitterer than the strain it costs ten thousand martyrs to yield up their lives at the fiery stake; and all said, "What is the giving up of life, to a noble soul, or to ten thousand noble souls, compared with the giving up of fifteen dollars out of the greedy grip of the meanest white man that ever lived on the face of the earth?"
And it was a true word. And Abraham, weeping, shook out the contents of his bosom and pasted the eloquent label there, "RESERVED": and Peter, weeping, said, "He shall be received with a torchlight procession when he comes"; and then all heaven boomed, and was glad you were going there. And so was hell.
[Signed]
THE RECORDING ANGEL [SEAL]
By command
 
Mr. Twain had a way with the words. Twisty little devils.

Friday, April 17, 2015

APRES LAUNCH

One of the things I enjoy about the meltdown is the overt and social in it.

At this point in the race to president, democrats have shrillary. There are no other tru dems walking out there in the polity of the electorate. The rethuglicans have 20 men wandering around in those shrubs beating the bushes for your vote. Unlike McCain, I'd vote for any of them.

I am not a DEM but can't you feel their little hearts beating aloud as they face the rest of us with just a shrillary?

I don't tell them this of course but it's like the bloke standing there in the trench at the Marne with a rubber bayonet and nothing else.

How did the democratic party get to be the party of loser leaders like Obama who did nothing, shrillary, Al Gore, Biden. One can hate McCain but at least that man lived a life and if we wanted to we could see his college transcript. Everything we see about any democrat is scrubbed, wiped out, or made up or massively concealed and hidden.

Did I mention that I quite like Ms. Palin? She too was one with solid, observable, meaningful credits in her resume. Obviously, not a democrat. 

DID THEY ASK FOR SWORDS, KNIVES OR GUNS

Well I suppose not. This is putative democratic denominee.  Srsly, anybody who votes for her should be hauled off to the Sargasso Sea and dumped.
"Pottawattamie County Democratic Chairwoman Linda Nelson said the meeting was so private that everyone invited was asked to hand over their cellphones and cameras before taking part."
The Clinton campaign has been trying to control Hillary's campaign events as much as possible.
Taking the cellphones and cameras of possible voters, however, is usually reserved for high-level national security events, not campaign stops.
Well, she has much to conceal and needs all the help she can get to do it.

FOR MY LOVE

I laughed when Top Gear mocked them but now and however, I like them. Always have. This is for you Buck. I'm going to send my music your way.




Thursday, April 16, 2015

THOSE IDIOTS PLAYED WITH FIRE

I thought he would do this when his neighbors invited him to the world when he proposed expanding his studio.

Make no mistake. I am glad. 

I lived there. That was my backyard. All those mean bitches getting the backhand? Ha!


with this one I will simply say, elliptical and leave it at that. You had to be there.

IT LOOKED LIKE WAR

They were going downtown to kill.



Strategic bombardment. I don't think I could do it. Wiping out cities. No No.

I had an image here of a pretty girl but that just skews the point. Every single man in every single plane had a girl or two to go home to but they did this, day after day.

When you look at the flak and consider it was launched by people desperate to keep the bombs from falling on their loved ones...

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

THE DAY OF IMAGES AND THUNDER

It's coming up on Monday. They are going to use radio tomography to peer into things beyond the sight of mere mortals. Still, and for all that, that album by Paul Simon rules. That man came out of Africa with a legendary music trove.

One needn't stir to correct me on any of this. It is part of who I am. I made up most of the lyrics to just about any song you ever heard.

THE SF FLAME WAR

I have read science fiction my entire life starting when I was 5. The gulf between fans has been widened, deepened, seeded with mines and punji sticks and slathered in napalm. It makes for fun reading.

From Monster Hunter Nation

Take this “Wrongfan” moniker I now see popping up on Puppy sites. Neither I nor any of the other SMOFs or trufans or worldconners that I know have ever called you or your friends “wrongfans.” You guys made that up and applied it to yourself.
Damn right we did. I’m pretty sure I invented the word Wrongfun to describe how the perpetually outraged crowd on Twitter was perpetually offended that somebody somewhere was having fun wrong.
Let me give you an example of wrongfun. After my last letter to you went public I had three or four people concern trolling me on Twitter because I used the term “Twitter Lynch Mob” to describe a well-known type of behavior. They’re perched like falcons, waiting for somebody to transgress, so that they can swoop in and feel superior. If you use the wrong words, play the wrong games, read the wrong books, wear the wrong shirt, they’ll be there. These people are always looking for an excuse to shake their fingers at you for having fun wrong, hence the term, Wrongfun.
I am happy to be on the side that doesn't vilify and crucify. I have never, in my life, called anybody a racist or a sexist or a homophobe or a misogynist or a Jesus botherer. I'm 54 and it never occurred to me in all that time to invoke the language of true hate. I find it odd though how the liberals invoke the new Gods at every controversy to smear their opposition with the language of hate and contempt. It must be a precious thing to be a modern American liberal and use the terms they like to condemn the prisoners at the bar before they are ever allowed to confront their accuser or seek the light of justice.
It's like we have Bush Derangement Syndrome all over again. ...Long after the last Bush has gone. 

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

SALAAM ALAIKAM

HAWK CARLISLE

What other name would be more appropriate for the Commanding General of Air Combat Command. He just fired his vice commander.
The Air Force has been criticized over the last few months in its handling of the A-10 in its quest to divest the close air support airframe, particularly in how it has previously reported the attack aircraft's role in combat compared to the Air Force's other bombers and attack planes.
Gen. Hawk Carlisle, commander of Air Combat Command where Post was assigned, issued a letter of reprimand and had Post moved from his position as vice commander at the command.
I can't recall. Did the Air Force fire everybody involved in loading nukes on a bomber and sending it away, all oblivious of the fact that they somehow made it into a nuclear weapons magazine and mistakenly loaded nuclear weapons on a bomber? I mean, a good thorough top to bottom scrubbing of all involved in that fiasco?  I think they took the same approach the navy did with this idiot. They recommended that idiot for promotion to admiral despite his idiocy.
In 1987, while flying off the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga, a Lt. j.g. Timothy W. Dorsey fired a missile at an Air Force F-4 reconnaissance jet piloted by then-Lt. Ross. Lt. Ross. He and his backseat officer ejected as the F-4 plunged into the sea. 
A Navy investigation called Lt. Dorsey’s decision an “illogical act” that “raises substantial doubt as to his capacity for good, sound judgment.” 
“The September 22, 1987, destruction of USAF RF-4C was not the result of an accident, but the consequence of a deliberate act,” the investigator wrote. “His subsequent reaction [to the radio command] demonstrated an absolute disregard of the known facts and circumstances.” 
The Navy banned him from flying for life.
....and yet found him suitable for promotion to admiral.

I think Inspector Generals should carry sharp swords when they investigate and have carte blanche to swing them vigorously.

If you have nothing to do on a rainy weekend, read, Once an Eagle by Anton Myrer.

Monday, April 13, 2015

ON HILLARY

Victor Davis Hanson does a point by point deconstruction of Hillary Clinton in in his piece today about her ambition to be president. It reminds me of the insightful book: by Harry G. Summers, On Strategy: The Vietnam War in Context. 

I highly recommend reading the article because it pretty fairly and accurately describes the motivations and flaws of Hillary and her ambition to control the nation.

That is Hillary Clinton’s past, present, and future. There is nothing more. No record — ever — of success, no innate charm, eloquence, brilliance,  or campaign savviness. And given her iconic female candidacy, her turn, her money — and the lack of an alternative — Hillary Clinton needs no agenda, whether a past one to defend or a future one to rally to. 
The agenda is simply that Americans are not doing well because of all sorts of illiberal enemies who conspire to thwart them due to their class, race, and gender — and the nation’s first woman president will make it all nice. 
Don’t laugh. It may well be a winning formula in the present-day United States.
I think one lying, vicious, unprincipled President per century ought to be the limit. We've reached that limit already for this Century. Two in a row would be incredibly destructive and this place would take on most of the aspects of imperial Soviet and Chinese Communist Party run latifundia.

Friday, April 10, 2015

A NOT UNUSUAL OCCURRENCE

I was at a dinner last night here in MetroParkCentralis and one of the comments heard across the table was that the NRA were a bunch of hypocrites which is just exactly what one would expect of rethuglican mouth breathers and wife beaters. The claim was asserted that the annual NRA convention forbade the possession, in their convention, of operational firearms because snarly despicable hypocrites.

I followed up this morning and see that yes, the NRA is having its annual convention and it is in Nashville and yes, one of the venues does not allow firearms. That's because it is a fire arms free place and always has been. The actual convention venue says, no no, just bring your guns and please don't shoot anybody. Just obey the laws of the State and the city and have a valid Tennessee permit if you carry.

I'm guilty of inductive reasoning. I try very hard not to be but sometimes one leaps to conclusions because they're the obvious thing one expects of 'those guys'. I admit that these days I mostly do that with arabs and muslims. Yes, I am inclined to expect the worst from both of those groups. I don't know why. I just wonder at people who leap to those conclusions in areas where the history has never supported any basis for electrocuting the 'other' guy. 

I get a real kick out of people who slang at the rethuglicans. I don't like them myself but at least I recall who they are. They are the party of Lincoln and they were the ones that fought slavery to a near standstill here in America. What did the NRA ever do to them, theirs or them like them? It's an organization, like the ACLU, dedicated to supporting one of the amendments in our Bill of Rights. How could that possibly be bad? Yes, I've seen all the movies over the years where Hollywood actors spew passionately about 'taking the guns.' That's OK. That's another one of those amendments in the Bill of Rights, free speech.

Hypocrites in that crowd who denounce your right to own or carry a weapon also have armed body guards who go everywhere with them. It's OK for them, but not for you. 

I dig guns. I have since I was 10 years old and we could go to the indoor firing range at Fort Riley as Boy Scouts, sign for a 22 cal rifle and shoot a box of bullets at targets before returning the guns to the small in-house armory. It wasn't like later when every time I shot an M16 there was some jerk demanding that I not only clean it but polish it and wax it and shine it before returning it to the Marine armory we borrowed them from.

I have never really understood the animus against guns. It's stupid, liberal, progressive and reflexive. If everybody carried a gun you would never again see a massacre because the rest of us would pull out our gun aim and fire. It's only when a 'lone gunman' has a gun that we see tragedies beyond grief. Those without weapons are massacred and idiots fools and progressives blame the gun.

All that said and I have never really even considered getting a license to carry. I don't carry. Girls can do it pretty easily. Put it in a purse and keep on walking. When I did carry weapons while in uniform it was a pain in the ass. I did counter-terrorism and counter-surveillance and security. I'm going to stick with situational awareness and head on a swivel and absolutely not going where the thugs are. No real need to carry a gun.

I heard this morning on the way to Case that those who were killed and wounded by Major Nidal Hassan have been legally awarded the purple hearts that they deserved. That's the thing about legal carry. Even if every victim had a Texas permit, they still would have been compelled, by law, to leave their guns at home because guns are not allowed on any military installation. You can't even, legally, have them in your car out in the parking lot.

I drove to a place well south of here a few years ago with a pair of WWI rifles and a Boer War era rifle in the back. No ammo at all but still, fire arms. I dutifully and damned carefully checked the laws of all the states I drove through to ensure I didn't go to jail for the rest of my life for transporting weapons. I would not, for instance have driven them to Maine because the only way to get there from here is through New York and I'm not stupid enough to expose myself to New York's laws on weapons. Frankly, I'd rather drive one over the border into Mexico than tangle with the morass of New York. The rifles were a legacy that were being passed to their new custodian. He treasures antiques like that. 

It's an odd sort of rainy day here in MetroParkCentralis. I was hoping for weather.

SORRY TO SEE HIM GO

Cecil Rhodes has been torn from his plinth in South Africa. Evidently the haters out-hated the non-haters and the University removed his statue. I have to wonder if the haters have any appreciation for history. If unregulated hate gets free to make all the grown up decisions it isn't going to turn out well in the long run. I can say that both as Dictator of Patagonia but also as one familiar with the broad sweep of history. I first read about Rhodes in the books by Wilbur Smith. I was intrigued enough to read a biography of the man. He was one of the giants in our history.

People are still privileged to be on the receiving end of a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford.

Thursday, April 9, 2015

AWAY

Regret is more powerful than anything I know. It takes a little while to shove that door closed.


I think that he wrote well. YMMD.  I beat up an author yesterday telling her to try to be more prolific. Authors are pretty tough. She would hate this writer with passion. I would that David Palmer wrote more but I suspect that's a closed door. The image is the thing in this case. It reminds me of another young lady boldly heading into the world. Yeah, I keep posting it because I can but if you wonder why, this came out a lifetime before my young lady appeared. I was still sweeping mines in the Persian Gulf when he wrote this and his second book.

he did write more but you have to put on digital footpads and trace it across the webs because it was never published.....but it is out there.

And now we have the thunder and lightning of Spring which, Oh God, I missed all those years in the Middle East and southern California.

I'll do this from time to time when the climate strikes me. Unlike the other thing, I enjoyed reading it.

WORTH READING

I sometimes debate with myself so I always win, such as putting news stories on the blog like this one. This one raised an old fear because I could not believe how this country allowed it to happen. When my wife left and took away our child, it hurt.  Knowing that she could, at any time, fabricate a story of child abuse and land me in prison was really scary. I mean terrifying. The law isn't pretty.


Wednesday, April 8, 2015

FAIR GAME, OPEN SEASON

I spent 3 hours today with one of the most liberal and progressive people I know. We always agree on things because I enjoy and treasure my little sister's company. It was the most amazing thing to sit there in her kitchen in my slippers, black shorts and pink Maine Maritime t-shirt and hear her, who has no guns, agree that we've reached the point where no citizen who shoots a cop breaking into a house can be branded a murderer.

I tend to think of her as unworldly but she isn't. We referenced the killing above and several other incidents where the cops did the full judicial murder.

The cops themselves have made themselves victims of justifiable homicide.

When both she and I are done with the law, the nation is done with the law.  I don't think the police are going to like it.

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

I HEAR THE RAIN

At last, spring.  The birds sound happy in the rain.

A DAMNED GOOD UNIVERSE

If one is lucky beyond belief, one has the outer gate held by super competent warriors. To be honest, this is the way it works for any successful enterprise.

I think this is the very first time I stopped after mature reflection on this topic. I was going to address how essential they are to business and success and mention A Message to Garcia.

Without HELP nothing gets done. You really want good help. You can pick and choose. Long before I went with incompetent 'entitled' help, I'd pick the other one that knew how to add and subtract, could read and write and help me every day.

WINGS OF THE MORNING

Who knew it came from a chant religious? "I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;" psalm.

To be honest, I take the wings of evening and still dwell in memory of the sea. I put up a post long ago talking about the Wings of Morning. As metaphor I thought it did very well.

I'll tell you how it now goes. There is no Federal Law Enforcement agency that actually bothers to enforce the law. In many ways, that is a good thing but in other ways, we just kicked the bucket as a society. C'est domage.

Monday, April 6, 2015

DISAGREEMENT AND REFUTATION

Interesting article at What's Up With That. Bring the guns, knives and artillery to any debate. One shouldn't have to fall back on the lower pyramids to support an 'argument.'

TROUBLE AT THE PUPPY MILL

It's a classic and there's a reason.


There has been quite the dustup in the Hugo Awards this year and this video somehow struck me as apropos. I have to admit, I'm one of those who expected the Sappish Inquisition. They moan endlessly about hate and eating babies for breakfast and oddly enough, never note the true spewers of hate and vile. You can tell those guys pretty easily, it's all bigot that and bigot this and pervert and racist and pedaphobe, something about glabecquits or some such acronym.

If you're into watching Saruman take down Barad-Dur, it's all good. :) Those of us left in Gondor just laugh as they destroy each other in a complex weave of hate and contempt.

I've been reading speculative fiction since I was 8 but at least these clowns never ever mention Perry Rhodan. As a young lad traveling to Newfoundland by car and ferry there was just one type/kind of book available in the book stores and book racks along the way from Newport to Saint John's and Halifax and all the way back and it sucked. Perry damned Rhodan. Experience the thrill of finding episodes 11, 45, 73 and 209 in the rack at the store. It made Dumarest of Terra look thrilling and sequential.

I side with the Revolutionaries in the dustup. Books go better with a bit of tea and it's not like they dumped it all into the Bay. I bet they took a lot home with them. Damned tea drinking book partiers.

Friday, April 3, 2015

PERHAPS YOU GOT OFF LIGHTLY


Yeah, we were going to sing  together when you were in first grade. My uncle Jobie, who retired as a navy captain and commanded a destroyer in the Pacific during World War II, named his house in Norfolk, Honah Lee. He had a sign out front. He also, cheerfully, drove an 'unsafe at any speed' convertible because he liked it and screw that Ralph Nader loser.

He was a  cousin, so unlike all those aunts that show up at inconvenient times, he never did. He wore a beret which was unusual and he wore his command pin on it. He wintered over five or six times in our Polar base. You know how it works. He wanted the certificates on the wall, but the mistress runs the house so he kept the certificates where they belonged, in the downstairs bathroom. He had two boys, Marko and Tim. They were minor gods to us and we didn't know that they didn't live on a little lake until they put the outboard motor on the rowboat we used to paddle around their pond and motored 10 miles up to Norfolk Navy Base. I have no doubt that you would have liked Uncle Jobie and you'll like Tim. He used to be our Ambassador at someplace. Nowadays he raises grapes and race horses in the Shenandoah Valley.

Thursday, April 2, 2015

A THING SOWELL DOESN'T KNOW

I enjoy reading Thomas Sowell on any topic. In this area he doesn't appear to understand one of the basic facts of the Red States.
It is amazing -- indeed, staggering -- that so few Americans are talking about what it would mean for the world's biggest sponsor of international terrorism, Iran, to have nuclear bombs, and to be developing intercontinental missiles that can deliver them far beyond the Middle East.
It's going to be hard on Israel when the first nuke goes off over Tel Aviv. It will be much worse when Israeli nukes flatten every single city in Iran. Many of us Americans who are concerned that Iran is going to join the nuclear fraternity of international peace and brotherhood are kind of cold-bloodedly sanguine about it because we don't live where the muslim nukes will detonate. You know, those cities that are unabashedly liberal and progressive.