RESIDUALS

I feel quite a bit of sympathy for the people involved with Cold Case. They had a good show, a good series, a good run and nobody will reap the benefit of residuals because of the music they used when they made the original shows. The person in charge of the rights was the artist of cheap and didn't nail down things properly. Which, as I said, is too bad.

The music made the show and there's no question that the musicians need to make their fair share. I saw this with House a few  years in as it was the music, oft times, that made the episode.

Both the video and the music disappears faster than one likes.

The importance of getting the contract right.

THE CORRIDOR OF FIRE

Does Baltimore look a little dark to you?

DID YOUR EVER ARM YOURSELF

And step outside to confront somebody who was eliciting sounds of distress from a girl only to find that she was willing and you were an embarrassment?

 I'll still be there, somewhat embarrassed, shoving the gun back into my pocket and more and more certain that I am missing out on something. I find that I can live with that.

I want you to envision it. I would not have showed up save for the loud nononononono. And I'm not going away until the hands are off and there is physical separation and I can tell that there is no duress.

Having doubled any embarrassment, I go back inside. I remember once on Grape Street. Girlish screams. 12 guys in the street a minute later with bats, shotguns, a .45 and it was just an, "oops, did we bother you?"

'Making things harder than they have to be.'

COL FRED CHERRY

They fall fast the generation that survived a brutal interregnum in their lives. Another 7 years in the wasteland of North Vietnam, but came safely to the clearing at the end of the path,

Colonel Fred V. Cherry, an Air Force fighter pilot, was downed by enemy fire over North Vietnam in 1965, and he spent more than seven years as a prisoner of war. He made it home. For certain values of home. 

He was a man who survived the worst sort of demons. I could describe the betrayal he suffered at the hands of the Air Force, but won't. I have enough belief, there is a clearing at the end of the path.

COLONEL JERRY DRISCOLL

Stepped into the clearing at the end of the path. He was an Air Force officer who was shot down on his 112th mission over Vietnam. He endured over 2000 days of captivity. Of course, it was never ever over 2000 days, it was 2,487 days of captivity. 7 years. It wasn't really 7 years. It was 2,487 days. One doesn't count the days until they really count.

JERRY D. DRISCOLL
Captain - United States Air Force
Shot Down: April 24, 1966
Released: February 12, 1973
                                     
My military service started when I entered the United States Air Force Academy
in June 1959, graduating on June 5, 1963. In October 1965 I volunteered to go
to Southeast Asia. On April 24, 1966, on my 11 2th combat mission, my F-105
jet fighter bomber was shot down. When I was on the ground my helmet was
ripped off and I had cuts all over. Twenty people surrounded me, some with
guns and some with bamboo sticks. You know, a sharpened bamboo stock will kill
you as fast as a gun. I had a sprained ankle and a twisted knee. I never once
saw a doctor, but the body has great recuperative powers when given a chance.
On July 6, 1966 I was the head of the second group of the infamous "street
march". It got out of hand. They were a raging mob, throwing sticks at us. I
was punched and kicked; it got so bad it was even a matter of survival for our
guards.
There are still circular scars on my wrists which will serve as a life-long
reminder of the torture endured in the ancient French walled prison in the
center of Hanoi. This was the one dubbed the Hanoi Hilton.
I had learned at the Air Force Academy never to make a harmful statement about
your country, but I was also told "Don't let them do any permanent damage to
you." When I kept telling my captors I would never sign their statements, they
forced me to sit on a pile of bricks for 24 and 48 hour periods, hands
handcuffed behind my back and then hoisted up to the shoulder blades. They
would then twist the handcuff chains as tight as they could. Then they would
make me lie on my stomach while they pounded the handcuffs tighter with their
feet. If you brought your hands down at all, the handcuffs would cut deep into
your wrists.
Once I sat like that for 90 hours, with no sleep. I passed out. I still would
not sign, so they used ropes to bring the elbows together behind my back and
cut off the circulation. I lasted six days like that, with the cuffs and
ropes. That's when I thought I would go crazy-I signed an apology for dropping
bombs over their land.
I kept in shape with push-ups and lifting weights made by rolling a bunch of
our bed mats (made of elephant grass) together. We were given three cigarets a
day, and later, six. That was the only warmth in the place. There was no heat
even in the winter. It got very cold.
When one is placed in the situation we experienced in North Vietnam, there
comes the great, painful realization that what we all take so much for granted
is no longer available. In such a situation you can't help but appreciate what
we have in this great country of ours. That appreciation became even greater
when, after seven years of living under Communism, I returned to find a very
grateful nation welcoming us as we stepped off the airplane. 

There is but one word which best describes the United States of
America-FREEDOM! 

Jerry Driscoll retired from the United States Air Force as a Colonel. He and
his wife Sharon reside in Minnesota.

I think there is shade over there under those trees and, if you should pause for just a bit, a beer fairy will be along in her golf cart and offer you something fit for heroes.

TANJ

Life in America

THE WORLD IN SLOW TIME

Rimini
by Rudyard Kipling

Marching Song of a Roman Legion of the Later Empire

When I left Rome for Lalage's sake,
By the Legions' Road to Rimini,
She vowed her heart was mine to take
With me and my shield to Rimini--
(Till the Eagles flew from Rimini--)
And I've tramped Britain, and I've tramped Gaul
And the Pontic shore where the snow-flakes fall
As white as the neck of Lalage--
(As cold as the heart of Lalage!)
And I've lost Britain, and I've lost Gaul,
And I've lost Rome and, worst of all,
I've lost Lalage!                      -

When you go by the Via Aurelia
As thousands have traveled before
Remember the Luck of the Soldier
Who never saw Rome any more!
Oh, dear was the sweetheart that kissed him,
And dear was the mother that bore;
But his shield was picked up in the heather,
And he never saw Rome any more!

And he left Rome,

When you go by the Via Aurelia
That runs from the City to Gaul,
Remember the Luck of the Soldier
Who rose to be master of all!
He carried the sword and the buckler,
He mounted his guard on the Wall,
Till the Legions elected him Caesar,
And he rose to be master of all!

And he left Rome,

It's twenty-five marches to Narbo,
It's forty-five more up the Rhone,
And the end may be death in the heather
Or life on an Emperor's throne.
But whether the Eagles obey us,
Or we go to the Ravens--alone,
I'd sooner be Lalage's lover
Than sit on an Emperor's throne!

We've all left Rome for Lalage's sake

LOATHSOME AND STUPID AND LED BY THE NOSERING

As we watch the democrats fray democracy we are amused by them voting between a fascist criminal elite whossname and an out and out communist. So anyway, we thought this picture was revealing.

Sieg Heil

What does it say about an American that they would choose one over the other?

A 20TH CENTURY REGRET

I am probably alone in thinking that Greece could have spent a few drachma in the last century building a new Parthenon and then use that edifice to demand the return of the Parthenon's original carvings carried off long ago by Lord Elgin. Sadly, while others could build a Parthenon in the 19th or 20th centuries, Greece would not.

Like Egypt, Greece decided to fixate on ruin rather than spending a few shekels to rebuild something ancient and majestic. That's OK. A modern Public Servant turning his hand to 'rebuilding' beauty would give us something like a giant rubber stamp or a hideous lakefront stadium used 6 times per year.

They could have built it anywhere.

I would have done it, but then, I like all that remains of many of the Expositions that used to happen when the West was shaping the world so that people who never left the country could see it. They used to know art.

A LESSON EVERY DAY

I saw this tonight and was struck, not by the violence which it purports to show via red dots in each state, but by the interesting note at the top of the map. It reads that, "Delaware, Maine, Vermont, West Virginia and Wyoming were excluded from the FBI data because these states do not have cities with populations of 100,000 or more."

Isn't that a remarkable thing? One in ten states don't have a single city with a population of 100,000 people living there.

You all are much to young to remember the old Club of Rome and the doomsayers of the '60s who pretended that the world was doomed to end before the 21st century because too many people, too little food, oh doom. Almost 50 years on and we have way more people; over 121 million more than were living in America back when the Club got rolling in 1968 and we still have five states without more than a big town among them.

A HINT OF SCHADENFREUDE

The Dark Tower of Ban laments it's imminent Facebook banning under the rules forbidding faceless trolls. We wanted to convey our congratulations there but we were banned.

That's OK. To be honest, we find anonymous trolls like Salamander amusing. It must be a terrible burden to fear one's own face. We wouldn't know.

Lex, Chaplain Harvey, Your Humble Scribe

CHANGED THE WORLD

As surely as Vasco da Gama or PQ-17 changed the history of the world, this lone ship made history when she took the first cargo of crude American fracked oil overseas to a foreign refinery on the last day of 2015.

The “Theo T” tanker left Corpus Christi Thursday afternoon with the first known crude oil cargo sold internationally since Congress lifted the 40-year-old ban on crude exports earlier this month. 

San Antonio-based NuStar Energy loaded the oil cargo on New Year’s Eve at its dock at the Port of Christi. While NuStar handled the loading, Houston-based ConocoPhillips sold the crude oil from the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas to Switzerland-based Vitol, an international trading company that will market the oil globally. 

The Bahamas-flagged Theo T tanker set sail shortly after 3 p.m. Thursday, according to NuStar. The vessel arrived Tuesday in Corpus Christi and is operated by Greece-based Ionia Management. The companies are not yet revealing the tanker’s destination.

To discover whole new worlds right here at home on Earth

SOCIAL JUSTICE WORRIERS

I have to admit, that if some girl who was confused about her sexuality wandered into my locker room when I was in junior high school and took off all of her clothes, I would be fascinated. However, because there is no God, this never happened to me.

It's a funny old world when the State that heretofore had ruled full frontal nudity in films a service that required a parent along for those under 17, now rules that your 12 year old daughter gets to see a confused and naked young man up close in her school locker room because nothing ever happens in locker rooms that disturbs young girls. They are an unflappable and remarkably tolerant bunch.

On the gripping hand,

When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
   An' go to your Gawd like a soldier 

UPDATED to genuflect to "never" above.

LOOK A SHINY BUG!

As twitter follows the demon clan down the rathole in the mountain of fascism, its trolls gleefully point out that shutting down the bad fairies is a feature, not a bug. The darling little fascists don't hear you calling them and won't listen if you tell them they're the worst kind of enemy to humanity.

Twitter has a new Department

A GROTESQUE AT COURT

This should be mandatory reading. It is essentially about the destruction of the rule of law in this country not just by the lawyers and litigants but by the actual Department of Justice and the Obama administration. Read it and weep for America.

The new President's Attorney General should fire every single appointee at Justice and send all the remaining legal staff to Kodiak Alaska for the duration of the next administration. They can shift their useless asses there or quit but its one or the other. These people are deliberately destroying this Republic.

COMPELLED TO ATTACK

The Hoover Institute has an interesting article that nails the spirit of the War on People the government is waging on us in our name.

The difficulty here is that the information that was sought from Farook’s iPhone had not been backed up, so that the government could not conduct a simple search on its own to get it. Instead, it had to attack the encryption systems built into the phone itself.

The United States has a vast agency whose only purpose is to attack the encryption systems and communications of other countries and terrorists everywhere. It's called the National Security Agency and if the government feels compelled to crack Apple's encryption, that's who they should turn to, not the Courts and not to Apple.*

Apple, as the article goes on to state, freely complied with turning over all the data that it had on the phone belonging to the California State agency that owned it, but that isn't enough according to the FBI. They want Apple to create an entryway into their own encryption system that the government can then exploit whenever it feels like. I'll bet they don't feel compelled to pay Apple to do the necessary work either.

Still, I suppose if I was running Apple, I'd do just as the State Department does in complying with the Court and put my best Hillary Clinton type Apple software engineer (Smedley Dewlap) to work on developing a hack into the Apply encryption. I'd have to tell the Court that it might take some time before we can get back to them with the results ordered since Smedley thinks 'wiping a computer' involves using a cloth of some kind. I'd also send them the bill. Smedley's don't work cheap and they eat up a lot of other people's resources.

*I'll bet a donut that the NSA already has an entrance to Apple's encryption and I'll bet another donut, Apple quietly sold it to them last year. I'll bet a third donut that Apple's attorneys are already telling the FBI this.

TURD TO HIS NATURE

I just listened as Obama declared that Article 3 courts could try all terrorists detained in Guantanamo except for a handful who would now be dealt with via the Military Commissions that they were all originally slated for but which was derailed because "unconstitutional screeched the justice league of evil."

I'm not sure how this will play out here in America.

Judge, "who are you?"

Terrorist, "a poor little boy kidnapped by terrorists and kept captive in an illegal prison offshore for many years of misery and constant terror and then illegally brought to this court to face charges for doing something that is perfectly legal in my country."

Judge, "tell me prosecutor about the illegal and extraordinary means used to snag the defendant and bring him to this point."

Prosecutor, "well your honor, it's all very classified and nobody at CIA is willing to talk about any of it."

Judge, "well this is no mockery of a court and I will not be mocked. Case Dismissed!"

Obviously, now that Obama has decided to give back Guantanamo as part of the deal he secretly negotiated all by himself with Castro, it has to be emptied out and made ready for the former owners and new tenants. All of this will take time. I estimate that the first trial in America won't start until 21 January 2017. At that point, it will all be a SEP, somebody else's problem.

Who didn't see this one coming?

HE JUST GOT MY VOTE

EVOLUTION

If you think about it as a theory in practice, soon we'll evolve an organ to directly sense and interact with radio waves and wi-fi. We'll all be connected! Start brushing up on your IPv12 protocols!

SO NOW YOU'RE ON YOUR OWN

We took this picture at a place called Rivendell Books in Montpelier, VT. Sadly, as we passed through town last year, we saw that the bookstore was in the process of shutting down and going out of business. Still, it was an interesting place. It had a turtle in back.

ARMED TO DETECT METAL

As I was reading this today, I wondered, does anybody ever park at the border with Festung New Jersey and search around along the side of the road leading into Mordor to see if they can turn up a pistol or rifle that some traveler decided to simply ditch before heading into the darkness that is Trenton's Hell on earth?

Do you think you'd need a metal detector or would a visual sweep alone be good enough? I'm thinking some people might actually stop and bury their guns under a conveniently marked location so they can return some day and retrieve their 2nd Amendment. We should probably leave those for the owner.

One of the more findable 'lost guns'

THE ACTUAL COLOR OF RACISM

This was funny. It turns out to be against Library policy to have racist only meetings.

I suspect I know how they handle people who self-identify with loathing-for-white.

THE FED'S APPLE OFFSHORE FUNDS

U.S. Companies Are Stashing $2.1 Trillion Overseas to Avoid Taxes.

The government is going to get their money by hook or by crook. Apple will be forced to spend tens of millions of dollars on lawyers to keep alive the dream that this is not a total police state; which is one way of forcing Apple to bring it's ill gotten revenues back to this country where they can be used by the EPA to poison rivers, shut down electrical generation and slash jobs in a single minded effort to gut the economy.

The development comes as the Justice Department pushes its legal fight against Apple, urging a federal judge to compel the tech giant to help the FBI crack open an iPhone left behind by yet another muslim terrorist freely imported by the government.

I wonder if Apple is looking at what it would take to "offshore" itself like so many other formerly American companies tired of the overreaching Federal bureaucrats and their incessant demands.

Imagine how great this country would be if the federal government stopped having an agenda and left that to the people.

TWO THOUSAND YEARS

Roman Campagna - Thomas Cole, 1843

OBAMA SPURNED BY BLACK CHICAGO COMMUNITY ORGANIZER

From the good comrades at Time, a great story of oppression, repression, organizing and dissent as can only happen in America. One of the millions of activists in America, just happens to be a Community Organizer (racist) in Chicago. She was invited by President Obama to drop in for a beer and an open and free wheeling discussion about BLM. She was, quite naturally, appalled at the idea.

On Thursday, the activist‚ who has led protests against police brutality and other issues through Black Lives Matter Chicago, declared the meeting would be little more than a photo boondoggle for the President. She wrote:

I was under the impression that a meeting was being organized to facilitate a genuine exchange on the matters facing millions of Black and Brown people in the United States. Instead, what was arranged was basically a photo opportunity and a 90-second sound bite for the president. I could not, with any integrity, participate in such a sham that would only serve to legitimize the false narrative that the government is working to end police brutality and the institutional racism that fuels it. For the increasing number of families fighting for justice and dignity for their kin slain by police, I refuse to give its perpetrators and enablers political cover by making an appearance among them.

She couldn't stop and continued by writing that the federal government cannot be counted on to bring about the change she’s calling for in America. “We assert that true revolutionary and systemic change will ultimately only be brought forth by ordinary working people, students and youth – organizing, marching and taking power from the corrupt elites.”

The black Chicago community organizer who is running the country and the black Attorney General who just happens to be black, have not yet responded to Pulley’s letter.

Mutatis mutandis, I guess black is the new black and we don't use African-American anymore. You never see anybody demanding that AALM.

I CANNOT HEAR THE MUSIC

The headlines below are from today's Early Bird. Remember that the war in Syria was started by Obama because he didn't like the Syrian head of state and tried to oust him with the same sort of tactics he used in Libya to kill Kadaffi except, in Syria, Congress said no to an air campaign against a non-hostile State that had not attacked us in any way. What is going on now is just insane. Reading it is like reading those hopelessly insane histories about how all of Europe slid into World War I.

Kurds' advance in Syria divides U.S. and Turkey as Russia bombs (Reuters) The rapid advance of U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters in northern Syria, taking advantage of Russian air strikes to seize territory near the Turkish border, has infuriated Ankara and threatened to drive a wedge between NATO allies.

US-Backed Groups Now Fighting Each Other in Syrian Civil War (Military.com) U.S. proxy rebel groups in northwestern Syria have begun fighting each other as well as forces of the Damascus regime, further complicating United Nations efforts to halt the fighting, ease the refugee crisis and bring relief to starving civilians, a U.S. military spokesman said Wednesday.

UN Chief Warns Military Action Risks Derailing Syria Talks (Associated Press) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned that escalating military activity in Syria and threats of further use of force risk derailing efforts to reconvene peace talks and finding a political solution to the five-year-old war.

German Leader Renews Call for Syria No-Fly Zone (Associated Press) German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday renewed her proposal for a no-fly zone in Syria where civilians would be protected, a suggestion that was promptly rebuffed by Moscow that said it can only be done with the Syrian government's consent.

Turkey's Erdogan: No intent to stop retaliatory shelling against Syrian Kurdish YPG (Reuters) Turkey does not intend to stop shelling Syrian Kurdish YPG militia in response to cross-border fire, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday, adding the United State should decide whether it wants to back Turkey or the Kurdish insurgents.

Aid Deliveries Begin to 5 Besieged Syrian Towns (New York Times) More than 100 trucks laden with emergency food and medicine began deliveries on Wednesday to tens of thousands of desperate Syrians in five locations besieged for months by the civil war, United Nations officials and relief workers reported.

Russian fighters often shadow German Tornados over Syria but "they do it professionally" Luftwaffe says (The Aviationist) As reported by several media outlets on Feb. 16, Russian Air Force (RuAF) fighter jets often shadow German Air Force (GAF) Tornados performing reconnaissance missions in Syrian airspace.

PRESIDENTIAL SEX AIDE

A noted purveyor of words asked, "What about a president taking advantage of a gargantuan power imbalance with a 22-year-old intern?"

That's an interesting question, Maureen. Does you mean that Presidents may only have sex with each other? Does the law mandate (sexist!) that the sex partner can only be a president, or can they get it on with Kings and Queens too? What if one partner is a Prime Minister? Do they have to lead nuclear armed countries, or is the title and ability to do massive harm all that is needful?

Salon describes this as perfectly natural resting bitch face

Who knew it was so hard to be president?

DASHED

New World Order Times

Dateline: Albuquerque, NM

1/21/2017

Democrats hopes and prayers for a sudden flowering of galactic goodwill and wellbeing after the new President took office yesterday were slightly dashed by the festive heavenly show that brought about near complete global extinction. Right wing white cis male thugs to blame for the disaster.

OBTUSITY THY NAME IS APPLE

Apple's CEO claims he never heard of a case where the government demanded a company aid its investigators in defeating it's own encryption software.

In a message to customers published on Apple's website, the CEO said: "We can find no precedent for an American company being forced to expose its customers to a greater risk of attack. For years, cryptologists and national security experts have been warning against weakening encryption. Doing so would hurt only the well-meaning and law-abiding citizens who rely on companies like Apple to protect their data."

How odd. I found this case memorable. This is what Lavabit's founder and CEO posted after he was pounded flat by the law and law enforcement:

What’s going to happen now? We’ve already started preparing the paperwork needed to continue to fight for the Constitution in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. A favorable decision would allow me resurrect Lavabit as an American company.

This experience has taught me one very important lesson: without congressional action or a strong judicial precedent, I would _strongly_ recommend against anyone trusting their private data to a company with physical ties to the United States.

That's pretty damning. On the gripping hand:

Even though Levison shut down the site, it is possible the U.S. got what it was after. Some of the NSA documents leaked by Snowden show that the NSA collects SSL-encrypted data in bulk, in the hope of later obtaining the private key so it can go back and decrypt everything. 

Gives a new meaning to backwards compatible.

SHE WAS THIRD RATE

I found the story of HMS LONDON fascinating. She was recently found in the Thames Estuary after a sudden bout of spontaneous combustion that occurred 350 years ago as she prepared for a war with Holland. At that time of century, she would have been a good solid Third Rate Ship of the Line.

It's interesting that some scientists have determined that she probably met her fate because the Royal Navy was reusing old cartridges and they had a tendency to deteriorate and explode, unexpectedly. Scientists figure something like that was what caused one of USS IOWA's turrets to explode during a gun drill. She still showed the effects of the explosion when I came across her in Portsmouth, England on my way to London. My ship pulled in as darkness fell on the 4th of July and I had a good view of the tremendous fireworks show laid on by the English for the sailors on the Iowa.

I remember walking around the Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek before I was commissioned and finding that many of the buildings appeared to be named for people who were blown up by unexpected turret and gun mount explosions. I decided, perhaps hastily, that I didn't want any buildings or ships named after me, thank you, and made it my business to be elsewhere when the spark and flame were summoned to propel ordnance of any sort downrange. As it happens, the Navy has many billets that meet that sort of description. I found the best billet was to fire the guns remotely from the Gun Control Consoles in the Combat Information Center. I did a little of that as Fire Control Officer; nowhere near as many rounds as my predecessors had fired, but enough.

Drawing, c 1660, of the London by Willem Van de Velde National Maritime Museum, London

AFTER THE LIFELESS SPRING

This is a link to an article at The New Atlantis about DDT. It's a rather powerful and reasoned history on the deployment and employment of DDT around the world and how its use was terminated by hysterics here and everywhere. As you get to the end of the brief article, it might strike you who we are talking about when we say hysterics. Here's a hint:

My own doubts came when DDT was introduced for civilian use. In Guyana, within two years it had almost eliminated malaria, but at the same time the birth rate had doubled. So my chief quarrel with DDT in hindsight is that it has greatly added to the population problem.

—Alexander King, cofounder of the Club of Rome, 1990

The most merciful thing that a family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.
A free race cannot be born of slave mothers.
Diplomats make it their business to conceal the facts 

                                                        —Margaret Sanger       

The The World Health Organization sees no option to combating mosquitos except manmade genetic mutations and enhanced radiation weapons. Which is kind of funny, in a grim macabre sort of funny.

They sail under false flags, but at the core of their being is a desire to limit your being. For them, people will always be the problem.

They're making a better world

SOME KIND OF A JOKE

I was intrigued at the idea so I went here to listen to her tell a joke.  The downside is that one has to listen to Hillary tell a joke. I am incompatible with her audio format and it doesn't run well here but as a service to my readers (both of you), we put it on offer.

You can hear Hillary Murder a Dog joke

As you attend your daily business, imagine what the world would be like if the presidential candidates ALL pandered to their own unique constituencies. You know, vote for me because I'm a woman, or vote for me because I'm black, or vote for me because I'm white. I'm just glad we've put all that nonsense behind us in the dark old days of the 20th century.

WASHINGTON—Moving quickly to begin the process of filling the unexpected vacancy on the Supreme Court bench, President Obama spent much of the weekend compiling a shortlist of gay, transsexual abortion doctors to replace the late Antonin Scalia, White House sources confirmed Monday. “These are all exemplary candidates with strong homosexual values and proven records of performing partial-birth abortions, but am I missing anyone?” Obama reportedly asked himself while reviewing his list of queer, gender-nonconforming, feminist Planned Parenthood employees, all of whom were also said to be black immigrants. “I definitely have enough post-op transsexuals on the list, but it is a little light on pre-op candidates. And I should probably add a cop killer or two on here just to round out my options.” Sources later confirmed that Obama was attempting to rapidly narrow the list down to the single best nominee to submit to the Senate in hopes of wrapping up confirmation hearings before his choice had to leave to attend the Hajj pilgrimage.

CHEEKY

Butt Bar Stools-- you can find them practically anywehre

DENIAL

It isn't just a river in Egypt. The map shows what Turkey wrought when it shot down a Russian fighter bomber over Syria. It is something to keep in mind when you read about people bleating for somebody to do something in Syria. What Russia still has in spades is the power to destroy and they are the last ruthless major power on the planet. These are the people who shoot down air liners in cold blood without hesitation or reservation and make no apologies.

Red denied air space in the S400 Air Defense System Envelope

NATO doesn't have any tanks. It doesn't have the British Army of the Rhine. The German Army is now a complete joke. None of the rest of NATO added together ever amounted to a modern American Brigade Combat Team. There is almost nothing left of NATO. In fact, in their stupid and pointless attack on Libya, NATO ran out of bombs and probably hasn't gotten around to replacing them yet. Here is the entire war-fighting structure of NATO ashore in Europe.* Seriously, this is all that remains of 7th Army, United States Army Europe, Supreme Headquarters European Theater.

US ARMY in EUROPE 2016. All that remains

Whenever you hear anybody 'threaten' to "kick Russia's ass", you really must ask them how they aim to do that thing. We used to have a near monopoly on airpower, but not anymore. As we hear talk of war and suggestions that maybe somebody ought to show those damned Russians the door, I trust they'll take it well if you counter by setting up a skype call on the spot with the Russians and showing them the door to their house.

It is interesting to hear of talk about how Turkey and some coalition is going to deal with the Russians if they get swamped by arabs fleeing other muslim terrorists in Syria. Turkey used to have a very fine early 20th century army. It has been unable to deal with the handful of turbulent Kurds in the east. I doubt it could handle any Russians at all and in the meantime, the hi-tech infrastructure of Turkey would start to vanish in puffs of smoke as long range cruise missiles slashed in unopposed from every compass direction.

Turkey created a situation that largely negated all air power over Syria and much of the region. In my world, we called this airspace denial. WE may not control the air but we can deny its use by others. This is what Turkey gave the Russians when they shot down that Russian plane bombing terrorists on the ground in Syria. Way to go, you Turkey.

*There are precisely two modern war fighting member countries in NATO and neither of them is currently ashore in Europe.

I WONDER IF THE IRANIANS STAMPED THEIR PASSPORTS

I see from the Daily Mail that Senator McCain is not happy at getting blown off by the Navy and is reacting as is his wont. I don't expect anything will come of it since the Navy will simply refuse to furnish the sailors even if they are subpoenaed to testify, as is their wont. Still, it would be nice to know how exactly two fully armed Navy patrol boats crewed by Riverine sailors managed to gaff off all the navigation information that showed them to be near Iranian territorial seas.

There were at least two, and more likely four, global positioning systems on those two boats. Two military GPS units because the boats constitute a weapon system and need to have MILSPEC GPS and two regular commercial systems because the boats are almost certainly fitted with a Blue Force Tracker that makes use of the friendlier and easier to work with commercial GPS units. And besides, all that navigation equipment they so busily ignored while attending to their grooming really only works with input from commercial spec GPS units that are built to be integrated into the Navigation Plot and the Radar Plot and right there in front of the coxswain and the boat commanders.

A bunch of left handed rubber swabhandles having a bite in Farsi

I get a kick out of the sailor eating with his left hand. Surely he had long enough in-country to know that arabs and their friends the Persians eat only with the right hands because they consider the left hand, 'unclean.' I don't know if he's ignorant or making a point. It is a special point with me that not one of the Riverine sailors could muster up a uniform to surrender in. I wonder if they even had full uniforms onboard anywhere. In my times over there it was unlikely that the Special Boat guys working with us had real uniforms onboard, but they, like us, were permitted to dress pirate while on task in the Gulf. It's not like we were going to surrender to anybody.

ANTONIN SCALIA

Another good man has stepped into the clearing at the end of the path. He was an originalist and my kind of jurist. I had a great deal of respect for the man. His dissents were always gleaming towers infused with the shiny majesty of the Constitution and the written meaning of the words that were used in its creation. He did not skulk around in the shadows hiding in the penumbras of an unwritten constantly evolving document. He upheld the basic law of the United States.

He was a man of the middle America. His most diseased enemies often referred to him as 'right wing' as if somehow any jurist or American who clearly stood by the actual Constitution was somehow on a "wing" of extremism. He recognized that America has just one extremist wing which makes it a rather lopsided but no less dangerous beast. The only extremist we have to fear here is tyranny and there is only one wing of tyranny left over the mind of man that satisfies those who believe that they alone have the power to compel their fellow citizens to bend to their will. People who support and defend the Constitution are not extremists anymore, they are Americans. They stopped being extremists when America shed its King and created its own nation.

Hail and farewell.

LIKE MEMORIES OF ANOTHER TIME

Me and the one share the same fine barber here in MetroParkCentralis. We talk, not often, once. He has a protege of sorts from out in the land of make believe. Where else would a talent like this show his mark?

Nice work if you can draw it.

NUMB TO THE DUMB OF DEMOCRATS

How the glorious revolutionary debate team failed last night.

Of the 16,000 words uttered by Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and moderators Gwen Ifil and Judy Woodruff, not one of them concerned Clinton’s deepening email scandal. Not one mention of the words email, e-mail, private server or FBI. 

Not a single media question or opponent mention of the huge legal cloud hanging over the party’s presumptive nominee. Nor of the ongoing FBI investigation into unauthorized use of her unsecured private email server for government business, including loose handling of Top Secret documents endangering national security intelligence-gathering and covert operations. 

Not any reference to the State Department Inspector General’s subpoena to the Clinton Foundation exploring possible connections between foreign government donations possibly trying to curry favor during Clinton’s four-year tenure as Obama’s secretary of State. 

Oh, and not a single word either about Benghazi, the murder of four Americans there, the phony video excuse, the lack of rescue or reinforcement attempts and any Clinton responsibility for the well-documented poor consulate security. Nothing on tax or entitlement reforms. National debt. 

A complete pass for Hillary Clinton. Whoosh! Home free. Other than that, it was a serious grilling about being female, admiring Obama, taxing the rich more, free stuff and other liberal issues.

AMAZON TIME

Obviously an Amazon day lasts much longer than a calendar day.

PONTIFICATING IS A VICE

NAVY BOUNCES OFF REALITY, DENIES COLLISION

It's been a month now since two boat loads of incompetent Navy boobs cravenly got down on their knees and surrendered their heavily armed and instrumented patrol boats to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Navy (IRGN). I thought for sure that by now we'd hear the real truth about what happened and also learn that the Commanding Officer and several others had been relieved for, "loss of confidence" in their ability to command. Imagine my surprise to find that the Navy still doesn't have a problem with the disgraceful events of that day and has fired nobody.

Navy Expeditionary Combat Command has fired almost 20 Commanders and Commanding Officers since it sprang into existence under Rear Admiral Bullard on 14 January 2006, but in this case it cannot seem to find any fault with anybody's behavior on the boats, at their parent command in Kuwait or the Task Force Headquarters in Bahrain or with their home station command in San Diego. That is awesome! Over 20 officers sacked for loss of confidence because of personal foibles but people who bring great shame and disgrace are here to stay.

The Navy's failure to take any action publicly means that: Coastal Riverine Squadron THREE, Coastal Riverine Group ONE, Commander, Task Force 56, Navy Expeditionary Combat Command and Commander, FIFTH Fleet find that the training, preparation, readiness, material condition and navigational abilities of those two crews were up to snuff and in no way departed from the standards expected by the United States Navy.

That means that the United States Navy tacitly approves of the actions of the sailors pictured below and approves the methods used to train them for their responsibilities.

UNITED STATES NAVY SURRENDERS TO IRAN

This is Iranian Navy Ship Sahand in the Persian Gulf on my second deployment to the Arabian Gulf.

 Note what the Iranian patrol boat did when it was challenged by a US Navy cruiser and two frigates:

The Iranian patrol boat Joshan ignores radio warnings and approaches SAG Charlie. About 45 minutes later, Joshan fires a U.S.-made Harpoon missile — the remnant of a pre-Revolutionary arms purchase by the Iranian shah. Some 13 miles away, the U.S. ships fire chaff and dodge the incoming weapon. They return fire with Harpoons and Standard missiles, sinking Joshan in the world’s first missile duel between warships.

Joshan never hesitated, nor did the frigate Sahand. He got warned off three times and pressed in to launch an attack he knew would doom his ship. The thought of surrender never entered their minds and they never did.

I was sure that by now we would know what really happened at Farsi and learn that those involved had been fired. I really don't know this navy anymore that will remove all access to classified material from the top two Navy Intelligence admirals for two years while incompetent idiots investigate their involvement in a bribery scheme that happened 5 years ago and in which the defendant is cooperating with the government. How could it take two years without resolution, I wondered. Well, now we know. In the absence of an existential threat we have let the admirals select only officers like Dorsey for promotion to Admiral. What other explanation can there be for things like Littoral Combat Ships, the ongoing Intelligence Fiasco and this craven surrender?

In September of 1987, while US Navy forces were boarding and capturing an Iranian minelayer in the Persian Gulf, Dorsey was flying a training mission above the Mediterranean Sea and used the opportunity to deliberately shoot down a United States Air Force RF-4C Phantom. In 2012, a board consisting of Navy Admirals decided that Dorsey was made of the right stuff and selected him for promotion to Admiral. They have been doing a very poor job for a long time of selecting navy officers with integrity and competence for promotion to admiral.

In the words of another U.S. Navy patrol boat sailor:

"I can imagine a no more rewarding career. And any man who may be asked in this century what he did to make his life worth while, I think can respond with a good deal of pride and satisfaction: 'I served in the United States Navy.'"   

--"Remarks at the U.S. Naval Academy (321)," August 1, 1963, Public Papers of the Presidents, John F. Kennedy, 1963.

It will take decades to repair the damage Admiral Vern Clark and his followers did to the Navy.

OVER AND OVER AGAIN

Once again a CIA Director appointed by a Democratic President and enthusiastically endorsed by the Democratic Senate, is bleating about how a bunch of lowlife pond scum dwelling in the Middle East can make weapons of mass destruction. The last time we heard this from the CIA it was Clinton's CIA Director, George Tenet. Naturally, all the social warriors and democrats decided that he was lying. Oh wait. No, no. Last time they assumed that the President he worked for was lying.

I think code pink should race to the bottom of this and get back to us with an appropriate slogan.

ROUGHLY WHERE I STAND

Skippy-san thinks I'm a fascist, Jane would agree but she might be nicer about it

TRUMP APPEAL

It still strikes me as damned funny that Trump enjoys so much support from people like me and that the hapless stupids of the GOPe cannot figure out why he has such massive support over such obviously born-to-the-purple louts like Rubio and Bush. The GOPe still doesn't understand that we are all delighted to finally have a candidate who espouses the kind of policies that we can support. Not all of them mind you, and not all the way, but that is the very essence of politics. You give a little and you compromise but the GOPe morons have continuously defaulted to the democrat position on every single issue and then bargained away our birthright wholesale from that starting point.

Trump at least, has announced that he is prepared to take Paris by making clear his intent to seize the English Channel and overrun the low countries on his way to take London. The dimwits like Boehner, Mitchell, Ryan and McCain made it clear that they were going to stop when they got to the Rhine and maybe, just maybe, Strasbourg.

I think it's gratifying to see the stir this approach has created on the Marxist and Socialist Fronts, the Wall Street Front and even the vile Fifth Column made up of the foul material of the Fourth Estate. There is plenty of time for Cruz to pull out a convincing win but he still has the same problem that Trump has. The party they aim to be the standard bearer for, hates them even more viscerally than democrats hate them.

Good times! :) It is so much nicer to be at the front end of the nomination process and not dragging up the rear with California where you only get to vote for the pathetic idiot left standing after all the other states have winnowed out the decent candidates. If I'm going to be represented by a mean, petty, ignoramus, I'd like to at least get a chance to vote for one who knows how to rend and tear apart my enemies.

I DON'T THINK SO

The school administrators made students watch a bullying, racist attack on white people. All of them. Henrico School leaders (unnamed sources) released the following statement:

"The students participated in a presentation that involved American history and racial discourse. A segment of the video was one component of a thoughtful discussion in which all viewpoints were encouraged. As always, we are welcoming of feedback from students and their families, and we address concerns directly as they come forward."

 revised to simply say, how amusing. And leave it at that.

THE WALKING DEAD

70 million registered democrats in this country. Easily the largest political party in North America and it came up with just one candidate, one shoefly and a Marxist from central casting. Are there any democrats out there wondering how they came down to Hillary Clinton, the most toxic candidate in history as their standard bearer? Do they recall that Bernie isn't even a Democrat? There's probably a couple of democrats somewhere in Boca Chica muttering that they could have eaten a handful of alligator crap and puked a better candidate.

Hillary atop her pile of loot slashes at the hapless Mr. Baggins.

It didn't turn out well for the massive reptilian monster and it didn't end well for Smaug either.

LITTLE WANKERS

As you get older you notice that change and the rate of change seems to have picked up since you were young. You also revert to the thing you used to be and you tend to generalize about people. See that? I just did it there.

This is about the possible trend of young minds deep diving in the muck and mire of college life. A lot of the sphere appears upset that so many of the little darlings seem to be wanting their nannies and blankies and perhaps binkies because it's too rough out there for proper little tools of the progressive state. I have one relative who is quite angry about it. She's almost in a position to know but I asked her the other day, "how many of these trogs and simpering gits have you heard of or seen on this campus?"

The answer, surprisingly, is none. If they're here they're very quiet and keep to themselves. I'm starting to believe that a lot of it is the professoriate at the College of Arts and Sciences who, unable to find proper little revolutionaries, are winding up some of their own just to make noise and raise a ruckus. At this place they all still happily play Zombie vs Human with gunnish looking things. The suggestible ones have been turned over to the Sierra Club and the COMINTERN.

I don't like the reports I read about how justice is less than just but I suspect we all know that it was always suspect. Double secret probation is not a myth out of the dark ages. It happened. It happened a lot. It's just that nobody ever talked about it. And, if the truth were told, most of the problems went away quietly, almost furtively and were hardly ever talked about. That can't happen when you have people dedicated to consciousness raising using clubs, lawyers, lying media investigators and the Commissars of Diversity and Gender Bending. All in all, I prefer Timothy Leary.

-Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition.
-You're only as young as the last time you changed your mind.
-The universe is an intelligence test.
-Each religion has got their own way of making you feel like a victim. 

The "victims" aren't always pitied and sheltered. I don't know where the current crop got the idea that playing the victim was a good thing, but the secret wisdom suggests that mostly they're going to learn and we can't ask for more than that.