THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM

What a terrific wedding picture.

Stolen lock, stock and barrel from The Mellow Jihadi.

SILVER CARS ARE SMARTER

We headed up the coast road a bit last week and ran across this guy while we were getting gas.

At least.

FIRMING YOUR GRIP ON SLIME

An item that flew over the transom today from the east interested the old strategist in me. It was an article by Robert D. Kaplan at STRATFOR titled "The Virtues of Hard Power". It does the usual job of the POLMIL analyst and urges us to take counsel of our fears with regard to China. It suggests that the Chinese are growing their defense budget and buying ships and aircraft that could whip ours with one hand tied behind their back. It paints a grim picture of a pitiless and immediate Chinese advance into Southern Asia at the expense of all our friends in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam and suggests we arm ourselves appropriately to save these long-standing friends and allies of ours.

Oh, and it also suggests that NATO is a complete paper tiger now and Russia is going to do the same exact thing and advance on all our very good friends and allies in Romania, France, Poland, Estonia and so on and that we should be prepared to die in every field in Europe alongside our fighting allies to keep the Russians or Germans out of where they've spent the last 60 years. 

 It's all terribly enervating.

I wonder. Are we like Britain and doomed to fight always to maintain the balance of power? 

1. If I shared a land border with China I'd suck up hard to be friends with someone I thought I could trust. 
2. I'd arm myself. I'd buy weapons from my new very good friend who sells the most expensive weapons in the world and make my own and my own ammunition and damn comparative advantage. 
3. I'd engage real hard with regional allies to form a stable power block with mutual interests designed to keep the Chinese down, the Americans in and the oil flowing. 
4. I would ask myself, very secretly, what is worth fighting for? Is that rock worth it? 
5. I'd get the Cynics of History to sit down with me and go over just what it would take to destabilize all of the above and poison those wells so thoroughly that none would hold water when most needed in the face of a rising Chinese power. 

Obviously the first Chinese step would be to divide and conquer.  
  - spoiling fights over pointless rocks claimed by all countries 
  - trade agreements that exclude any possibility of joint shared economic self-interest among a coalition 
   - massive investment in industries critical to the growth of 21st century manufacturing to take it away from the smaller countries around China 
   - suck up to America and join the bilateral and multilateral exercises just like Russia is with NATO 
   - invest to own small countries around the world in order to lock up the UN General Assembly when I do draw blood 
   - Do whatever I want to set SOKOR against Japan and all the rest against Japan 
   - Fake tensions with major power India and use to 'justify' increases in military and defense spending 

I suppose the really interesting question is, do they take whole bites or just little nibbles? 

My take? I think they'll continue to destabilize the region in their interests and because it is so easy to do. They'll seize the ocean areas and bottoms that they think are economically viable. They won't engage in a land war with Asians since there is no benefit of any kind in it. If I was a Russian though, I'd be very concerned about how appealingly empty Siberia is. 

Be a little interesting to see their SIOPs written for a major war with each other over Siberia. If I was Russia I would keep a keen eye on where all the major Chinese apparatchiks relocate to if it looks like they are leaving Peking. From a cold blooded point of view, the loss of Peking means very little to a country of more than one billion souls. Does it contain any essential industries?

And don't we love the idea that anybody is so stupid they'd want to invade Europe? Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. What does Europe have that Russia would want? Oil? Gas? Industry? Wine? Women? Music? Teaming masses of corrupt ignorant vicious murdering muslims? And while the Russians are getting acquainted with their new impoverished proletariat, the Chinese are stealing Siberia. 

Sounds very exciting.

I have a counter-proposal. Let's team with China! We each take what we want and are happy. Peace In Our Time! Nothing is worth fighting for! Free Tibet! Can't we all just get along? SAY NO TO WAR!

STEALTH FIGHTER CLOSEUP

The first decommissioned F-117 Stealth Fighter is now at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. For national security reasons photos are not permitted in the cockpit.

 Damn they're good!

THE MEANING OF WORDS

The West is hellbent on getting its people to totally completely utterly forget that words have meanings and that one's reaction to certain word usage alone can reveal truths that the liberal mind would prefer nobody ever be permitted to say aloud. Such a case happened when a Spanish teacher was fired for teaching the little blighters to say and understand the word 'negro.' The same absolute imbeciles and jackasses that run our institutions of education in America decreed that this was a damning failure on her part and fired her. I suppose one can get by without using the word noir but calling it a film black seems so odd.

I enjoy it though when the weasels run over themselves and forget for a moment, in print, that equating rather horrible behavior exclusively to one race based on the words, 'food stamps' is risible in and of itself. (Strictly by their pallid lights though, not mine.) Mother Jones is in a flap of its own making and I'm sure they're damning any and all who try to equate their reporting the news as anything other than a benign effort to get to the bottom of the predictably racist losers at the non-partisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP).

This bit from wikipedia about the CBPP is hilarious, "while the CBPP claims to be non-partisan, journalists have characterized it as liberal or left of center. Indeed, Robert Greenstein, founder and executive director of CBPP, exclusively donates to Democratic Party candidates and PACS." Truly, it says a great deal about how communist this thing must be if even journalists refer to it as liberal and left of center.

I am willing to accept that the meaning and connotation of words may change over time since indeed they do, but there are very few words that I would hesitate to use in society. I was raised to eschew the vulgar words and so I mostly reserve them for swearing where others hardly ever hear me. But I am still willing to use all the words that Mark Twain ever used or that found their way into any book ever written in my own writing.

The intent of the West in its efforts to get people to forget the words that have meanings that hurt, lost sight of the fact that the words themselves describe what is plainly and painfully apparent to those with eyes that can see the world as it really is. I piss on the idea of hate speech and accept that some people are offended when they hear the truth just as readily as some people are offended at hearing lies conveyed as truth.  The words themselves do no harm. It is the painful fact that associations have formed around the words that give them meaning of and by themselves that offends people.

The losers waving the signs ordering the instant beheading of those that offend islam are a case-in-point of the harm that truth does to the stupid who believe that nobody has the right to free speech.  I think most of the retards on the left see those losers as extremists, but from where I stand? Those that would fire a Spanish teacher for teaching kids how to say 'black' in Spanish are indistinguishable from the muslim scumbags.

We will know them when we see them.

THIS EVIL IS!

Carried ashore from Instapundit but brought to us by the Evil Genius

Klingon Parenting Tips and Tricks for Toddlers

May 24, 2013 By Athol Kay 9 Comments

"@lil_spitfire:  As I arrived at the playground with my daughter, the truck parked at the curb roared to life. Immediately I saw three kids running and jumping off of the play equipment, heading over to the truck. They climbed in, the dad behind the wheel helped them buckle up and drove away. There wasn’t a moment’s hesitation once they heard that truck start up.

All I can say is Wow.

Athol:  When the girls were little we had a very simple rule for taking them out somewhere fun like the park.

“If you cannot leave happy, I’m not bringing you back here.”

The rationale is quite simple, if this places make you cry, I’m a monster for bringing you here and making you cry. I’m not going to be a monster.

Some other parental tips and tricks….

(1)  Copious trips to the park and playgrounds, i.e. we really will be back. (It’s free entertainment, but you don’t know that lolz.)

(2)  “There is no X until Y”, i.e.  Please clean up the toys and then we can go to the park.

(3) Catching them when they are being good, i.e.  Thank you for being good girls, yes we can have an ice cream from the truck. 

(4)  The Faux Sense of Control Choice, i.e.  You can be mad and we stay home, OR you can be a good girl and we can go to the park.   Either way I win, so I don’t care which you choose. The kid gets a sense of self-control mattering.

(5)  Speak like a Klingon to toddlers. Alpha dominance, coupled with stripping away all the excess verbiage. Toddlers have limited language skills and you can overwhelm the message by too many words. Just limit the words to directives firmly spoken. Anglo-Saxon words are best.

Nap. Now. Quiet.

Dinner. Go. Table.

Shoes. Coat. Get Ready.

Carry to Car.

(6) Invent a older sibling that you killed shortly before they were born for their insubordination.  i.e. “That’s how your brother died.” 

It’s important to smile bigger and bigger and finally laugh with that last one and get them to know for sure it’s a joke. If they start to cry though, tell them their mother dropped them when they were a baby, so you’re actually the #1 parental option."

OK, I laughed out loud at the last line. I suspect I pegged my evilometer.

A GLORIOUS SUNSET

We watched the sun set over the west end of Lake Erie last night. It was a glorious sunset. We went to watch this:

but clouds and planetary alignments make for memorable sunsets with nary a planet in sight.

MEMORIAL DAY

To all who served and to all who sacrificed. It is not ours but I find that it resonates.

This is the monument raised by the inhabitants of a small island off the coast of America to their war dead. It's a little crooked and I missed getting the whole of it but look at the numbers that served in each war from a place that is just 4 square miles of America.

Here's a list of all Ohioans killed in action in Iraq and Afghanistan, provided by the Department of Defense:

• Marine Maj. Ramon J. "Ray" Mendoza, 37, of Columbus, died in a combat operation along the Syrian border.  He was assigned to Echo Company, Second Battalion, First Marine Division.
• Marine Capt. Tyler B. Swisher, 35, of Cincinnati, died along with another Marine when a bomb exploded near their vehicle in Amariyah, Iraq. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, based at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
• Army Spc. Richard Hardy, 24, of Bolivar, died in Ramadi, Iraq, with four other soldiers when a rocket-propelled grenade got inside their tank and exploded. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, based at Fort Benning, Ga.
• Staff Sgt. Richard T. Pummill, 27, of Cincinnati, was killed when a bomb exploded during combat operations near Nasser Wa Salaam, Iraq. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, based at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
• Army Spc. Jeremy Hodge, 20, of Ridgeway, was killed in Iraq when a bomb struck his convoy. He was with the Ohio Army National Guard's 612th Engineers Battalion, based in Tiffin.
• Marine Lance Cpl. Daniel McVicker, 20, of Alliance, was killed in Iraq while driving an armored vehicle that was hit by a roadside bomb. He was assigned to Regimental Combat Team 2, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), based at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
• Army Sgt. Bryan W. Large, 31, of Cuyahoga Falls, was killed in Iraq when a bomb exploded near his Humvee. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, based at Fort Bragg, N.C.
• Army Staff Sgt. Jason Benford, 30, a Toledo native, was killed in Iraq when a sniper shot him while he was on patrol. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 69th Infantry Regiment, based in Fort Benning, Ga.
• Army Spec. David Ford, 20, of Ironton, died in Baghdad when a bomb exploded near the tank he was riding in. He was assigned to the 4th Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division based in Fort Stewart, Ga.
• Marine Sgt. Bradley J. Harper, 25, Dresden, Ohio; assigned to the Reserve's 4th Assault Amphibian Battalion, 4th Marine Division, Norfolk, Va.  Harper was a crew member on an amphibious assault vehicle that was hit by an explosive during combat operations south of Haditha, Iraq.
• Marine Lance Cpl. Timothy M. Bell Jr., 22, West Chester, Ohio; assigned to the Reserve's 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, Columbus, Ohio.  Bell and the next eight Marines were all aboard an amphibious assault vehicle that was hit by an explosive during combat operations south of Haditha, Iraq.
• Marine Lance Cpl. Eric J. Bernholtz, 23, Grove City, Ohio; assigned to the Reserve's 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, Columbus, Ohio.
• Marine Sgt. Justin F. Hoffman, 27, Delaware, Ohio; assigned to the Reserve's 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, Columbus, Ohio.
• Marine Cpl. David Kenneth J. Kreuter, 26, Cincinnati; assigned to the Reserve's 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, Columbus, Ohio.
• Marine Lance Cpl. Michael J. Cifuentes, 25, Oxford, Ohio; assigned to the Reserve's 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, Columbus, Ohio.
• Marine Lance Cpl. Aaron H. Reed, 21, Chillicothe, Ohio; assigned to the Reserve's 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, Columbus, Ohio.
• Marine Lance Cpl. Edward A. Schroeder II, 23, Columbus, Ohio; assigned to the Reserve's 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, Columbus, Ohio.
• Marine Lance Cpl. William B. Wightman, 22, Sabina, Ohio; assigned to the Reserve's 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, Columbus, Ohio.
• Marine Lance Cpl. Christopher Dyer, 19, Evendale, Ohio; assigned to the Reserve's 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, Columbus, Ohio.
• Marine Lance Cpl. Brian Montgomery, 26, of Willoughby, died in action with his sniper unit in western Iraq. He was assigned to the Headquarters and Service Company 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines based in Brook Park.
• Marine Lance Cpl. Jeff Boskovitch, 25, of North Royalton, died in action with his sniper unit in western Iraq. He was assigned to the Headquarters and Service Company 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines based in Brook Park.
• Marine Sgt. Nathaniel Rock, 26, of Toronto, died in action with his sniper unit in western Iraq. He was assigned to the Headquarters and Service Company 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines based in Brook Park.
• Army Pfc. Robert Swaney, 21, of Columbus, died when his Humvee was struck by a roadside bomb southeast of Baghdad, Iraq. He was assigned to the 3rd U.S. Armored Calvary Regiment, Thunder Squadron based at Fort Carson, Colo.
• Marine Lance Cpl. Christopher P. Lyons, 24, of Mansfield, died when his company came under attack by small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades in western Iraq. He was assigned to the Marine Forces Reserve's Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Regiment.
• Marine Cpl. Andre L. Williams, 23, of Galloway, died when his company came under attack by small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades in western Iraq. He was assigned to the Marine Forces Reserve's Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Regiment.
• Army Pfc. Tim Hines, 21, of Fairfield, died in a Washington hospital of injuries from a bomb detonated while he was in a convoy traveling in Baghdad, Iraq. He was assigned to the 720th Battalion, 89th Military Police Brigade, 64th Military Police Unit.
• Army Spc. Anthony D. Kinslow, 21, of Westerville, died when his military vehicle came under a grenade attack in Ramadi, Iraq. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 17th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division.
• Army Sgt. Larry R. Kuhns Jr., 24, of Austintown, died when his military vehicle came under a grenade attack in Ramadi, Iraq. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 17th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division.
• Marine Lance Cpl. Thomas O. Keeling, 23, of Strongsville, died in an explosion in Haqlaniyah, Iraq. He was assigned to the Marine Forces Reserve, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division.
• Marine Lance Cpl. Devon P. Seymour, 21, of St. Louisville, died in an explosion in Haqlaniyah, Iraq. He was assigned to the Marine Forces Reserve, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division.
• Marine Cpl. Brad D. Squires, 26, Middleburg Heights, died in an explosion in Haqlaniyah, Iraq. He was assigned to the Marine Forces Reserve, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division.
• Army 1st Lt. Aaron Seesan, 24, of Massillon, died when a bomb struck his vehicle in Iraq. He was assigned to the 73rd Engineering Company based at Fort Lewis, Wash.
• Army Sgt. Kurt Schamberg, 26, of Orwell, died from a roadside blast near Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad. He was assigned to 10th Mountain Division, based at Fort Drum, N.Y.
• Marine Lance Cpl. Nick Erdy, 21, of Owensville, died from an explosion near his vehicle transport in Iraq. He was assigned to the Marine Forces Reserve's 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, 4th Marine Division based in Columbus.
• Marine Pfc. Christopher Dixon, 18, of Obetz, died from an explosion near his vehicle transport in Iraq. He was assigned to the Marine Forces Reserve's 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, 4th Marine Division based in Columbus.
• Marine Lance Cpl. Wesley G. Davids, 20, of Dublin, died from an explosion while conducting combat operations in Karabilah, Iraq. He was assigned to Marine Forces Reserve's 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, 4th Marine Division based in Columbus.
• Marine Staff Sgt. Kendall Ivy II, 29, of Galion, died after suffering a severe leg wound when the vehicle he was riding in struck a roadside bomb in Iraq.
• Marine Lance Cpl. Taylor Prazynski, 20, of Fairfield, died after suffering shrapnel wounds in an explosion during combat in Iraq. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Division based at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
• Army Pfc. Nick Messmer, 20, of Gahanna, and another soldier died in Iraq when a bomb blew up near their Humvee in Khalidiyah. He was assigned to the Army's 506th Infantry Regiment.
• Marine Cpl. Dustin Derga, 24, of Columbus, died when he was caught in enemy small arms fire during combat near Ubaydi, Iraq. Derga was assigned to the Marine Reserve's 3rd Battalion, 25th Regiment, 4th Division in Columbus.
• Army Sgt. Andy Eckert, 24, of Whitehouse, was killed when an explosive device went off near his convoy in Iraq. He was assigned to the 983rd Engineer Battalion, a reserve unit based in Monclova.
• Army Spc. Kevin William Prince, 22, of Mount Gilead, was killed by a roadside bomb while on patrol in Al Haswah, Iraq.
• Army Pfc. Gavin Colburn, 20, of Frankfort, was killed when an improvised device detonated near his convoy vehicle. He was assigned to the Army Reserve's 542nd Transportation Company from Kingsbury, Ind.
• Army Spc. Daniel J. Freeman, 20, of Cincinnati, was one of 15 military members who died in a helicopter crash near Ghazni in Afghanistan, 80 miles south of the Afghan capital, Kabul.
• Marine Lance Cpl. Kevin S. Smith, 20, of Springfield, was killed in hostile action in Al Anbar Province. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, based at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
• Marine Lance Cpl. Andrew W. Nowacki, 24, of South Euclid, was killed by a roadside bomb while serving as a gunner on a Humvee that was protecting a truck convoy south of Baghdad. He was assigned to Marine Forces Reserve's 2nd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, based in Erie, Pa.
• Army Sgt. Zachary Wobler, 24, of Ottawa, died when he was shot by insurgents during a firefight in Mosul. He was assigned to the Army's 82nd Airborne Division.
• Army Pfc. James H. Miller IV, 22, of suburban Cincinnati, died in an explosion while he was guarding a polling place in Ramadi for Iraq's elections.
• Marine Cpl. Richard Gilbert Jr., 28, of Dayton, died when his helicopter crashed in a desert sandstorm.
• Marine Lance Cpl. Jonathan Edward Etterling, 22, of Wheelersburg, died when his helicopter crashed in a desert sandstorm.
• Marine Sgt. Michael Finke Jr., 28, of Wadsworth, died when his helicopter crashed in a desert sandstorm.
• Marine Cpl. Timothy A. Knight, 22, of Brooklyn (Ohio) was killed when his helicopter crashed in a desert sandstorm.
• Army Pfc. Josh Ramsey, 19, of Defiance, died of non-combat injuries. He was assigned to the 95th Military Police Battalion based at Mannheim, Germany.
• Army Pfc. Harrison J. Meyer, 20, of Worthington, died when his unit was hit with small arms fire in Ramadi. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team at Camp Howze, Korea.
• Army Sgt. Michael C. O'Neill, 22, of Mansfield, died of injuries received while preparing at Bagram Air Field for combat operations in Afghanistan. He was assigned to the Army's 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, based at Fort Benning, Ga.
• Marine Cpl. Nathan R. Anderson, 22, of Howard, died during fighting in the Al Anbar Province, Iraq. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force based at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
• Army Sgt. Charles Joseph Webb, 22, of Hamilton, died when he was struck in the face by shrapnel from a bomb. He was assigned to the 82nd Engineering Battalion.
• Army Staff Sgt. Omer T. Hawkins II, 31, of Cherry Fork, was killed when an improvised bomb exploded near his convoy in Ar Ramadi, Iraq. He was assigned to the 44th Engineer Battalion based at Camp Howze, Korea.
• Army Capt. Dennis Pintor, 30, who went to high school in Elida, was killed when an explosive device detonated near his patrol vehicle. Pinton was a member of the 20th Engineer Battalion from Fort Hood, Texas
• National Guard Sgt. Michael Barkey, 22, of Canal Fulton, was killed in a vehicle crash caused by hostile action. Barkey was a member of the 1484th Transportation Company based in Akron.
• Army Reserve Staff Sgt. Richard L. Morgan, 38, of Maynard, was killed when he drove a Humvee over a land mine. He was a member of the 660th Transportation Company based in Cadiz.
• Army Reserve Spc. Allen Nolan, 38, of Marietta, died after suffering severe burns in a missile attack. He was a member of the 660th Transportation Company based in Zanesville.
• Army Staff Sgt. Elvis Bourdon, 36, of Youngstown, died during a patrol when his military vehicle came under attack by enemy forces using small-arms fire and grenades. He was assigned to Company C, 1st Battalion, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division from Fort Hood, Texas.
• Army Pfc. Jason L. Sparks, 19, of Monroeville, died when his platoon was engaged in direct fire. He was assigned to Company C, 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, Camp Casey, Korea.
• Army Reserve Pfc. Devin J. Grella, 21, of Medina, was killed when his convoy was struck by a homemade explosive device. He was a member of the 706th Transportation Company in Mansfield.
• Army Pfc. Ryan Martin, 22, of Mount Vernon, died when a homemade bomb went off near the Humvee he was riding in. He was assigned to the 216th Engineering Battalion of the Ohio National Guard.
• Army Lt. Charles L. Wilkins III, 38, of Columbus, died when a homemade bomb went off near the Humvee he was riding in. He was assigned to the 216th Engineering Battalion of the Ohio National Guard.
• Marine Lance Cpl. Dustin Fitzgerald, 22, of Huber Heights, died in a noncombat-related vehicle incident. He was assigned to the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit out of Camp Lejeune, N.C.
• Army Sgt. Daniel Michael Shepherd, 23, of Elyria, was killed when his M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle hit a homemade bomb. He was assigned to the Army's 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment.
• Marine Cpl. Todd J. Godwin, 21, of Zanesville, was killed when a bomb exploded near him during combat. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, 2nd Marine Division.
• Army Spc. Joseph M. Garmback Jr., 24, of Cleveland, was killed along with four members of his unit during a mortar attack on Iraqi National Guard headquarters in Baghdad. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, Schweinfurt, Germany.
• Army Pfc. Samuel Bowen, 38, of Cleveland, with the 216th Engineer Battalion from Brook Park, was killed in Samarra, Iraq, when a rocket-propelled grenade exploded near his vehicle.
• Army Sgt. Charles Kiser, 37, who grew up in Amelia, was killed outside Mosul by a car bomb. Kiser was with the 330th Military Police Division, a reserve unit based in Sheboygan, Wis.
• Army Pfc. Nicholaus E. Zimmer, 20, of Columbus, died in Kufa when his vehicle was hit by rocket propelled grenades. He had been assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 37th Armored Regiment, 1st Armored Division, Friedburg Germany.
• Army Spc. Charles E. Odums II, 22, of Sandusky, with Headquarters and Headquarters Company of the 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, Texas. He was killed in Baghdad when a bomb exploded near the patrol.
• Army Pfc. Jesse Buryj, 21, of Canton, died of injuries he suffered while trying to stop an attack on a checkpoint.
• Marine Lance Cpl. Michael J. Smith Jr., 21, of Wintersville, died of injuries suffered from enemy action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. The government did not release more details on how he died.
• Army Spc. Allen "A.J." Vandayburg, 20, of Mansfield, was killed when his 1st Infantry Division convoy was attacked by insurgents.
• Marine Cpl. Andrew D. Brownfield, 24, of Akron. Brownfield, assigned to the Marine Wing Support Sqaudron 374, Twentynine Palms, Calif., died of injuries suffered in a mortar attack on Al Asad Air Base.
• Army Staff Sgt. Richard P. Ramey, 27, of Canton. Ramey, assigned to the 703rd Ordnance Company, Fort Knox, Ky., was killed when insurgents attacked Army convoys with explosives in Mahmudiyah.
• Army Staff Sgt. Roger C. Turner Jr., 37, who grew up in Pomeroy in Meigs County. A vehicle mechanic assigned to the 10th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, Turner died of injuries suffered in a mortar attack on his base near Balad.
• Army Staff Sgt. Sean Landrus, 31, of Thompson Township in Geauga County. Assigned to the 1st Engineer Battalion of the 1st Infantry Division, Landrus was killed when a roadside bomb exploded as he was driving a truck near Khalidiyah.
• Army Staff Sgt. Lester O. Kinney II, 27, of Zanesville. A paratrooper with the 2nd Battalion of the 505th Infantry, Kinney was killed when a roadside bomb exploded west of Baghdad.
• Army Spc. Todd M. Bates, 20, of Bellaire. He was on a river patrol on the Tigris River south of Baghdad when his squad leader fell overboard. Bates dived into the water and did not surface. Bates' body later was recovered and his status changed to deceased. He was assigned to the 135th Military Police Company, Army National Guard in Brook Park.
• Army Pfc. Kenneth C. Souslin, 21, of Mansfield. He died of non-combat related injuries at Baghdad International Airport. He was assigned to the 440th Signal Company, 22nd Signal Brigade, V Corps, Darmstadt, Germany.
• Army National Guardsman Staff Sgt. Aaron Reese, 31, of Reynoldsburg. He died after falling from a patrol boat into the Tigris River. He was the first Ohio Guardsman to die in Iraq.
• Army Sgt. Steven D. Conover, 21, of Wilmington. He was among 16 Americans killed in a missile attack on a helicopter near Fallujah, Iraq, as it carried troops bound for two weeks' leave.
• Army Spc. James E. Powell II, 26, of Columbus. He was killed when his Bradley armored vehicle struck a land mine near Beiji, 30 miles north of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown.
• James C. Wright, 27, of Delhi Township in suburban Cincinnati, with the Fourth Infantry. He was killed in an ambush near Tikrit when his vehicle was hit with rocket-propelled grenades.
• Army Spc. Brett T. Christian of North Royalton, with the 101st Airborne Division. He was killed in Mosul when his convoy came under attack by rocket propelled grenades.
• Army Pfc. Kevin C. Ott, 27, of Orient, with the 18th Field Artillery Regiment. The bodies of Ott and another soldier were found 20 miles northwest of Baghdad three days after they failed to respond to a radio check.
• Army Pfc. Gavin L. Neighbor, 20, of Somerset, with the 82nd Airborne Division. He was off work from guard duty in Baghdad and had been resting on a bus when a rocket propelled grenade round was fired from a nearby house.
• Army Pfc. Branden F. Oberleitner, 20, of Worthington, with the 101st Airborne Division. He was killed in Fallujah, Iraq, after his unit was fired upon by a rifle-propelled grenade.
• Army Lt. Col. Dominic R. Baragona, 42, of Niles, with 19th Maintenance Battalion. He was killed in a multi-vehicle traffic accident near Safwan, Iraq.
• Army Chief Warrant Officer Brian K. Van Dusen, of Columbus, with the 571st Air Medical Company. During the rescue of a wounded Iraqi child, his Black Hawk medical helicopter snagged a power wire during takeoff and flipped over into the Tigris River. The child was in another helicopter.
• Army Pfc. Marlin Rockhold, 23, of Hamilton, with the 3rd Infantry Division. He was shot by a sniper while directing traffic at a bridge in Baghdad.
• Marine Pfc. Christian Daniel Gurtner, 19, of Ohio City, with the 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion. He was killed when his gun accidentally went off.
• Army Pvt. Brandon Sloan, 19, of Bedford Heights, with the 507th Maintenance Company. He was killed after Iraqi forces ambushed a supply convoy near Nasiriyah. Originally listed as missing until eight bodies were found in the rescue of an American POW.
• Army Master Sgt. Robert J. Dowdy, 38, of Cleveland, with the 507th Maintenance Company. He was killed in the same ambush as Sloan.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

SWATting

Some people find it amusing to call the police and report a shooting or hostage incident at a celebrity's house and don't mind if they die at the hands of the Forces of Order. This is called SWATting. Here is a list from Patterico of people who have had the Assault Forces of Order dispatched to their homes as a joke:

"The roll call of the SWATted: Paris Hilton (again); Miley Cyrus (again); Khloe Kardashian and Lamar Odom; Anderson Cooper; Magic Johnson; Mike Rogers; Wolf Blitzer; Ted Lieu; Erik Rush; Ryan Seacrest; Russell Brand; Selena Gomez; Justin Timberlake; Rihanna; Sean Combs; Paris Hilton; Brian Krebs; Clint Eastwood; Chris Brown; the Jenners and Kardashians; Tom Cruise; Simon Cowell; Justin Bieber; Ashton Kutcher; Miley Cyrus; Aaron Walker; Erick Erickson; Mike Stack; and me.

I wonder if it will still seem funny when they assault a school because somebody thought it was amusing to send the tactical assault forces charging into an elementary school. I would have asked the Police in my neighborhood today if they had given any thought to what they would do when the call does come in to go full tactical but I think I know the answer already and I don't want my own ears to hear it confirmed. I don't think they'll sound boots and saddles and while that is happening make contact with the school principal or admin office. Nope. They'll deploy and treat every single person in the school as a confirmed killer because Beslan happened once and the people that did that are loose in our country and so are too many other killers of children. There is always hope though. That one did not get away when the box was opened.

YOUR AVERAGE MUSLIM STORY

A tragic story about a young man hacked to death by 2 muslims in London today. It only took the police 20 or 30 minutes to arrive at the scene of the crime to find the two killers running up and down the street demanding that people take pictures of them.

Ralph Peters has an interesting article today in the New York Post about the collapse of Arab civilization as the Arab spring turns the Arab world into a muslim paradise. There were several reasons put forward over the last 50 years for the refusal of ANY Arab government to accept refugees from Palestine and make them citizens. Only one muslim country really tried to absorb the Palestinians who fled Israel and that was Jordan. As thanks, the refugees in Jordan attempted to overthrow the State leading to Black September. The Jordanian monarchy and people exterminated the ones responsible. None of the other frontline states would have anything to do with Palestinians which is why, to this day, they are cooped up in refugee camps and forbidden to assimilate.

Two countries accepted loose Palestinians for awhile. They overwhelmed Lebanon and caused a decades long civil war and occupation by Syria until they were driven into exile by the Israeli army. Those that fled were settled in Tunisia where they thrived (not) until the PLO was allowed to return to Gaza.

In countries that permitted Palestinian refugees to work such as Kuwait, it came as a terrible surprise to the Kuwaitis that the vast majority of Palestinians in Kuwait rejoiced when the Iraqi army captured the Emirate. We saw some of the same joy expressed by Palestinians who laughed and danced with glee while watching the World Trade Center collapse under the hands of ruthless muslim killers. The Kuwaitis drove out all of the Palestinians after the Iraqis were driven out of Kuwait. Our response was much more muted. We gave even more money to the Palestinians and insist that Israel be forced to take in all the descendants of those who left Israel.

As Ralph Peters points out now, Syria is collapsing under the weight of muslim hatred. I suppose some would find it acceptable that at least the muslim killers in Syria eat what they kill but we have to draw the line somewhere. Everywhere in the world where these muslim refugees have gone they have brought with them extreme terror, violence, rape and death. So I just want to know,

What do we get out of it?

THIS IS STAR WARS

USS Lake Erie firing an anti-ballistic missile. It's designed to hit things moving at damn near orbital speed. It's a kinetic kill vehicle. That means that the last 23 times these have been fired, there's been a tremendous release of energy as warheads hit each other at thousands of miles per hour. None missed.

 I don't know how well they would do against the current crop of these:

 

That is the USS Michigan. She carries more than a 150 Tomahawk missiles. They fly much slower and lower than ballistic missiles. USS Lake Erie's missiles could hit them but she would run out of ammunition long before she shot down that submarines entire payload. 

USS Michigan is a recycled warship. She was actually built in 1982 and armed with 24 Trident ballistic missiles each with 8 independently targeted reentry warheads. That would be 8 city killing warheads x 24 missiles = a series of unfortunate events. 

 

USS Michigan at the turn of the century was a battleship of the Great War which could almost hit enemy ships maneuvering up to 20,000 yards away. The fire control system could not really overcome the optical/time dimension in play though so it was thought that the ships couldn't really successfully hit anything beyond 10,000 yards. The nearly insurmountable problem inherent in the system was that the fall of shot needed to be witnessed in order to adjust the next broadside to get closer to the target. The time of flight of the shell flying through the air over 5 nautical miles meant it was a long iterative process and then the other blasted ship would maneuver, throwing off all the laborious calculations. Bastards!

Some pondering points:
That old battleship's guns could only fire about 175 shells before they burnt out the barrels. That was a badness.
For almost 50 years there was NO way to shoot down incoming ballistic missiles. Wild eyed optimists came up with technical solutions each scary enough to qualify as insane. I don't recall any atmospheric tests involving anybody, navy, army or air force attempting to test a nuclear tipped Terrier, Nike-Hercules or Bomarc against aerial or ballistic missile targets. OTOH, they were pretty insane.
Why did we opt to put a thoroughly tested working anti-ballistic missile on warships instead of somewhere useful? It was a MAD world after all.

One of the gun barrels blown apart on a battleship turret when the barrel failed catastrophically. You can see one of the holes it made in the ship right in the middle of the picture.

GET AWAY

Why do none of the vicious mouth breathing man-made global warming scarifiers ever

Leave?Obviously we don't want them to check out in the approved Buddhist ritualistic way of making-other-people-feel-guilty because of the warming and carbon in it but still, why don't they just leave if they feel so strongly about global warming?

DESPERATE TIMES, DESPERATE MEASURES

As strange as it may appear, McDonalds announces that they will drop the Angus burger from their menu. I'm sure that they'd like to think it is because they have such a large variety of much tastier and cheaper foods that are flying off the counters but I don't think so. Whatever little change they did several years ago that turned the BigMac from a tasty treat of a cheap burger into a foul tasting piece of offal they probably did to the Angus. I wouldn't know though. After finding one horrible BigMac after another was not a mistake but the new taste, I pretty much stopped sampling their food.

The other shoe they believe may have finally dropped is one that sounds an awful lot like, people can not afford to spend $5.00 on a hamburger anymore. That's not true of course. If I can't find one of these:

I'll have one of these instead.

LIBRARIES

I have always liked books

for one reason or another.

This is an interesting article about a newly re-opened library in Liverpool, England. It appears to be a magnificent place for books. The pictures in the article show a fine looking library but there are a couple of concerns that I have about what libraries have become now that the bottomless pockets of government are building replacements for the simple libraries built with the generosity of Andrew Carnegie and others like him who believe in the power of reading to raise us up. The council of the city have elected to fund this library using something they point blank refer to as a Private Finance Initiative scheme. It is, in short, yet another scheme where those elected to look after the Public's interest delude themselves with the idea that they can achieve something worthy and valuable for "FREE".

That's a view looking up toward the skylight dome in the ceiling.
This plaque commemorates how libraries used to be financed. I think it a much more worthy means to achieve the desired end.

In Akron, Ohio, this is the library that Carnegie paid for, still there:

Above that door in the middle of the building, chiseled into the stone, it says, OPEN TO ALL

My experience with the central library mania that bites cities all over the world is the crushing compulsion to build bigger, higher, wider, with more open space and a very important architect. Of course to get there they are forced to shutter the main building for years while rebuilding and close down branch libraries in the outer parts of town and to scale way back on library hours and subscriptions. I remember dropping in on my City Hall in Solana Beach one night (I lived across the street) and listened to almost an hour of debate from a twit in the audience demanding to know how they could justify $2,000 for new books and magazines at the town library. But perhaps that's what's needed. A nickle and dime mentality on the building committee and somebody smart enough to know that taking out a loan for $105 million now, not paying any interest on it for 20 years and then starting to pay it back over 20 years means that those folks left behind will be paying almost a billion dollars for that "FREE" loan.

I'm OK with vanity projects but if we stick the next 3 generations with the bills for them,

they're bound to be a little grumpy paying for this.

SERENITY

With the Ship of State beset on all sides it looks like the Obama Administration is frantically seeking to find scapegoats to toss overboard as the raptors of the Press tear into the background of the various scandals sweeping the White House. The IRS used as a partisan tool of intimidation, the ridiculous stories floated by the Administration, Secretary of State, CIA and Department of Defense on their response to the al Queada attack on our Consulate in Benghazi. The imbecility of tapping the Associate Press. An Attorney General of the United States held in contempt by Congress. Selling guns to the Mexican drug cartels for no good reason at all.. Blood. In. The. Water.

Just kidding.

CARS SMART AS THEIR OWNERS

I realize that sometimes I take a few more pictures of the day than most people but I find some of them irresistibly amusing. I could write about the things that make me wonder how tight our grasp on civilization is and harsh the mellow or go for a walk instead.
Where I live now is a lot like Berkeley with a lot more trees. It is a college town and the citizenry are reliably against all the things that Berkeleyites are militantly opposed to: low income housing, school choice, guns, etc.
These pictures were off a pair of cars parked one behind the other in front of a very nice local bookstore I walked over to yesterday.

I'm not sure this person fully understands how evolution is reputed to work.

In the space in front of this blue car was another blue car

This owner is probably unaware that evolution happens. He should have parked behind the first car.

Sure, it's a billion years from now but we have to be proactive and think ahead in order to  keep the planet from melting.

A DEFIANT WON

me rude, but I like this guy.

WRITTEN INVITATIONS

I walked up on this today on my way to look at a movie crew that is filming a movie in the neighborhood. Its chalked on the sidewalk and asks PROM? I am standing in the box for her RSVP.

The YES box had a check mark in it.

SICK AND TWISTED

Watching Obamacare collapse under the weight of lies and deceit only now surfacing after the idiots voted to approve the bill in order to find out what was in it....wonderful. How Conservatives could fail to win elections with this kind of red meat boggles the mind.
The old Ponzi scheme known as Social Security has morphed out of all recognition. All our working lives we paid into the Social Security Trust fund and expected that we would recoup that money and maybe even more. Now the brain-dead total idiots that voted for Obama and the Care that he promised are finding out that  ALL OF THE BILLS are arriving at their mailboxes.
They are ordered to join a mandatory confiscatory act of crony/insider trading and
PAY THE MEDICAL BILLS of ALL of the sick and elderly FOREVER with no discretion and no wondering if the money could not be better spent on something else.

...and it worked so well in Detroit.

UPDATE TO GENOA PORT CONTROL TOWER

Gcaptain has the video of the ship ramming the tower and its collapse.

http://gcaptain.com/jolly-nero-backs-genoa-port-control/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Gcaptain+%28gCaptain.com%29

You'll need to paste the link above into your browser.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

From the old man today

President George W. Bush invited his friend, this wounded warrior, to say the Pledge of Allegiance at his library dedication last week.

George W. Bush and First Lieutenant Melissa Stockwell, U.S. Army Retired, with Barack Obama looking on.  She is the same hero who danced with W after the Warrior 100 kilometer Ride in 2012. You can google her name.

I used to be amazed at the venomous hate spewed by the left about this man. I know which President I prefer. I'll take the honest, ethical, smart, articulate one.

THE RUINERS

There is nothing so lovely that it will not escape the attentions of the ruiners. The news is filled today with stories about the destruction of a 2,000 year old Mayan pyramid. It's of interest to me that the date for its creation varies between 2300 years and 3200 years ago. It could be a transposition error but imagine the gulf of time that is a thousand years. 1000 BC is the beginning of the Iron Age and saw the passing of the 20th Dynasty in Egypt. It was, from then until the time of Christ, littered with the wreckage of empires succeeding empires from Egypt, Assyria, Persia, Greece, Macedonia and Rome.
The interesting thing to me though, is not that a construction crew destroyed an ancient pyramid for the stone in it to make a road, but the greater destruction that we never think about today.

These are Chichen Itsa and Tikal. Nobody really knows what caused these ancient cities to collapse even before the greatest ruiners of the New World civilizations arrived with Cortez. Some say it was war. Others say it was due to epidemics unleashed on an unprepared population and many say it was global warming.

But when I think about ruin and destruction, I now see it perched on the shoulders of a chipper young lass name Luna or Moonbeam who dedicates her life to climbing old trees and searching out signs of inhabitants from the endangered species list so that whole tracts of land can be ordered to lie fallow forever in the name of the Spotted Owl, the Desert Tortoise or the Snail Darter, in accordance with the law. You see, people notice the adventuresome young Green Luddites who would order the world to stand and the sun to remain still for the length of time it takes for a species to evolve into a thinking being and rival to mankind. They see them coming a mile away and nowadays the landowner, in his haste to make good on his investment or to hand down his property to his heirs will poison the very earth itself to keep the greens from finding hide or hair of any endangered species on his land or a puddle that could be construed by some EPA fanatic to be a navigable waterway or protected wetland.  So now, those that would keep all things exactly as they are now and forever, have brought about the ruthless vandalism and destruction of the very things they cherish more than mankind.

I was talking the other day and the subject came up of what survives from antiquity and what does not. Almost all of the worked gold and silver and gems from the New World were stolen and transported to the Old World where they were smelted and turned into coins. That means that most of what we know of the ancient artisans here is from what was gleaned from ancient ship wrecks of Spanish galleons that sank on the voyage to Spain. There are a million other laws concerning the relics of an earlier era. You wonder what kind of fool would let anyone know that dinosaur bones, fossils, pot sherds, ancient temples, wrecked UFOs, etc were found on the land. All of these things and everything else is now claimed by the state. Moving, disturbing, or selling such things is forbidden. So now they are never found...

I toured a number of fine museums in Seoul and many of the display cases were filled with empty shelves with little placards that indicated that this had been a particularly beautiful piece from the Joseon Dynasty or the Goryeo Dynasty. The card briefly stated what it was and that it was stolen by the Japanese.

It's important to keep in mind,

nothing lasts forever.

SEMPER GUMBI

The German and French ministers put me in mind of this picture.

Germany's Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble (l.) and his French counterpart Pierre Moscovici shake hands during a news conference after a meeting in Berlin Tuesday. Mr. Moscovici called on Germany Tuesday to be flexible and respect Europe's diversity and not just focus on rules and discipline, in comments that signal the differences between the eurozone's two largest countries on how to solve the debt crisis.

Tobias Schwarz/Reuters

BIAS -- BOTH LEFT AND RIGHT

The picture below is from an article at Amazing Planet. Courtesy of Goodstuffs Cyber World.

Bush!

NO PRESSURE

Who doubted that the progressives left in total charge of the organs of the state would use all of the power their office gave them to destroy their opponents? The ATF sells guns to the Mexican drug cartels in a years long sting operation that had everything but any hint of a sting or purpose that justified the operation. The FBI announces that it sees absolutely no requirement to obtain a search warrant before reading all of our email. The DHS/Courts find no difficulty with demanding that travelers crossing our borders furnish the passwords to their electronic memory devices so that they can be vacuumed up and then analyzed for years in government computer labs for evidence to be used against you in court. The police see no problem with using the United States Post Office to mail drugs to you and then sending around a SWAT force to shoot your dog, throw you to the ground and tie up your kids and mother for 6 hours while demanding that you TELL them who sent you the drugs. Bans Big Gulps.  And now the IRS comes forward and ruefully confesses that yeah, they did audit an enemies list of all conservatives.
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive." C.S. Lewis  
You know who does this sort of thing right?

No pressure.

WHEN DARKNESS FALLS

Guided missiles now in the hands of Omar Mohammed Osama. The video is movie imagery taken from a drone flown around the Golden Gate by some radical enthusiasts of first person flying without leaving the ground. I wrote a few months ago about the day coming soon when the public wakes up to the idea that these things can be bought just about anywhere or made even more easily than printing a gun. What would you do with a guided missile or two?

Back in 1914 when the first knights of the air took to the skies over Europe in their flimsy little planes they were strictly observers. They flew over the terrain and reported back on enemy dispositions and weaknesses. Then some clever little bastard thought it would be cool to bring along a gun and maybe a few hand grenades to make the other fellows afraid. That's what we can expect to see again as private hands obtain and weaponize remote controlled aircraft. The models today are usually small and made of lightweight radar transparent materials in order to carry the largest payload of fuel and optics. But what if you trade range and optics for lethal payloads?

A lot of people who ought to know better always assume that the people that hate us are stupid ignorant peasants. Ahmad Shah Massoud, the Lion of the North, was blown up by bombs delivered by a couple of muslims claiming they were a European TV crew. The camera power supply was replaced by high explosives. The date of the attack was 9/9/01. Vicious, merciless, fanatical yes. Ignorant? Not all of them.

Watching this film and the others brought to mind again what it takes to stop a determined enemy who could make such devices on an assembly line in a garage in Alexandria and fly them across the river one night after dark. One doesn't have to be a Mitchell, de Seversky or a Douhet to see the power that is in these little things to do harm. Oh sure you say, they're tiny. But what if 20 of them came at the same time? And how do you stop them?

I don't think we'll invest in too many Iron Domes or CRAMS for INCONUS use. Wouldn't that be a sight and sound though to see and watch from the Reflecting Pool or Tide Basin. The CRAM fires 3000-4500 bullets per minute. Watching the tracers is like seeing a laser beam at night. There is a downside to blowing holes in the air in defense of infrastructure. It's called impact. What goes up will come down.

Hopefully the hideously expensive version of these

are already in place, tested, ready, mated with a radar fire control system that can detect the feint traces of such stealthy adversaries. (Note: I inserted a picture of a crummy deathray because there are no cool pictures of laser cannons yet. They're still too highly classified for blogs.)

I expect that countermeasures are already being whipped up to defeat these threats. The first one that springs to mind is to jam the radio spectrum in the vicinity of all likely venues. Perhaps. Of course the drone could be controlled over IP which means actively jamming the 802.11 spectrum too. Back in the day we knew an attack was imminent when a ship maneuvered to unmask its missile battery and started throwing missiles up out of the magazine onto the missile rails. I expect in the future it will look an awful lot like an internet denial of service.

IT WAS LOADED?

This story about a man who shot his wife in the mouth while cleaning a harpoon gun lacks a certain credibility. Only the most credulous moron might believe that he didn't know that it was loaded when he was cleaning it. I mean, crap! It's a HARPOON.

MANAGEMENT IN THE DARK AGE

Near the end of the last century I was given some tips for managing people. I wonder if they are still taught anymore today or even if they apply. The biggest tip for a young people manager was to find and weed out the 10% of the people that are 90% of the problem. Obviously, this is not an infinitely repeatable process. At some point you run out of people or you get fired. I'm talking about these guys.

I got rid of them as fast as humanly possible. Back then the program we used was called Bottom Blow. That's a process in steam fired propulsion plants performed in order to remove two types of impurities – scum and bottom deposits and was sanctioned by the high command. Those shopped found themselves punted to the curb with an Administrative Discharge. There was no retraining scheme or proposal to have them teach somewhere; they were simply sent home. We still had a people rich environment back then.
We purged the stupid and useless drones from the fleet. I noticed awhile ago that the high command shifted targets and kept the stupid and useless and decided that it would be better to just get rid of the fat ones. As a young Repair Three Leader, I sent out the overweight guys wearing Oxygen Breathing Apparatus as investigators during General Quarters. Their job was to rove the ship looking for fires, flooding and other damage and report back. With all the hatches shut it was clambering through scuttles and climbing and descending ladders for an hour or so.

I was also taught to take an even strain on the division. Not as a simple matter of playing favorites but to avoid giving all the tough jobs to the guy you knew could do them right. 

Spread the work load fairly.

About the photo selection:
i once had 12 forklifts on a ship
ii once was Repair 3 before moving to 5A
iii everybody has a niche, sometimes it's just to motivate others with a whip.