I might scan the booklet and put the whole thing in here later this weekend.
Saturday, March 30, 2019
OUT OF THE PAST
I found a couple of boxes the other day on my porch. They were sent by an old friend. His picture is even in the blog! The boxes held a bunch of my old awards and medals and photographs and journals and old insignia and patches from a number of ships, places and other commands and my First Day Cover of the launching of USS Nimitz. I had just mentioned the last item the day before and how back when I was in the 7th grade in Newport Rhode Island, I was a library assistant for a lady named Catherine Nimitz Lay. It turns out that the school librarian was the daughter of Admiral Nimitz and she was the lady who christened the ship at the launching. At the end of the school year she gave me this.
I might scan the booklet and put the whole thing in here later this weekend.
I might scan the booklet and put the whole thing in here later this weekend.
Thursday, March 28, 2019
THE MEDIA FOOLS RUSH IN
Interesting list of some of the many mistakes that the media made about President and Mrs. Trump, although it might be more accurate to say, 78 lies the media pedaled about the Trumps. I don't remember ever seeing anything like it before. On the other hand, this is the same media pack of fools, liars and knaves who simply adored Stalin and the communist revolutions in Russia, Cuba and Vietnam and who paid lip service to the truth in their reporting on Iraq under Saddam just so they could claim to still have their trusted organs of truth (Arnett and the other loser) in Baghdad right up to the outset of the First Gulf War.
I'm certainly glad I never waste my time with the television news or chat shows such as Washington Week.
I'm certainly glad I never waste my time with the television news or chat shows such as Washington Week.
Wednesday, March 27, 2019
TWO SHIPLOADS OF STUPID
It is sometimes hard to believe how stupid deck officers can be. The article at gCaptain says this collision happened at 2000 UTC which means it was midnight in Fujairah. Both ships were maneuvering and both repeatedly had and briefly maintained headings that kept them well clear of each other. And then it was like someone shouted "Fight's ON!" and they went at each other like two bighorn sheep.
The results were pretty spectacular.
The last time I was at Fujairah I stayed in a beach hotel and made the mistake of actually walking on the beach in my bare feet. It took an hour to get all the oily tarballs off my feet and out from between my toes. There were scores of tankers anchored off the beach and all of them were purging their tanks when they didn't think anybody was watching. It would be hard to pollute the beach anymore than it already is.
The results were pretty spectacular.
The last time I was at Fujairah I stayed in a beach hotel and made the mistake of actually walking on the beach in my bare feet. It took an hour to get all the oily tarballs off my feet and out from between my toes. There were scores of tankers anchored off the beach and all of them were purging their tanks when they didn't think anybody was watching. It would be hard to pollute the beach anymore than it already is.
HATING THE HOAXERS AND LIARS
I find that I'm no longer willing to give any credence to any claim by anybody that they are/were the victim of any kind of racial hate crime. It's become apparent over the last decade that most of the so-called hate-crimes are nothing but hoaxes perpetuated on the so-called victim by the victim. In other words it's all a big scam.
What the State's Attorney in Chicago did yesterday was simply pave the path leading all of us to the conclusion that so-called hate crimes are utterly meaningless and far too trivial to prosecute. OK. I can live with that from now on. I just don't want to hear about these so-called crimes anymore.
One of the things those twits in Chicago seem to have forgotten though is that when it becomes clear that there is different law or no law then the vigilantes start to crop up. It is ALWAYS a bad idea to poison the notion that we are a nation of laws that apply to all and that some people are above the law. We've already gone pretty far down that route with the failure to hold Hillary Clinton to the same standards or even the same appearance of standards which all other holders of a security clearance are held. She got away with all kinds of crimes and so did Cheryl Mills her chief of staff and every single person whose name appeared as a sender to her account of any email containing classified material.
Somebody in her office took those email off the secret or top secret networks, recorded it to a portable memory, connected it to an unclassified computer and transmitted it in the clear to an unprotected server. All those people should still be in jail now.
The FBI and CIA have just about ruined themselves in their pursuit of a coup attempt aimed at overthrowing President Trump and all of those people belong in jail too.
Justice is really beginning to look very 3rd World around these parts and that's a shame.
What the State's Attorney in Chicago did yesterday was simply pave the path leading all of us to the conclusion that so-called hate crimes are utterly meaningless and far too trivial to prosecute. OK. I can live with that from now on. I just don't want to hear about these so-called crimes anymore.
One of the things those twits in Chicago seem to have forgotten though is that when it becomes clear that there is different law or no law then the vigilantes start to crop up. It is ALWAYS a bad idea to poison the notion that we are a nation of laws that apply to all and that some people are above the law. We've already gone pretty far down that route with the failure to hold Hillary Clinton to the same standards or even the same appearance of standards which all other holders of a security clearance are held. She got away with all kinds of crimes and so did Cheryl Mills her chief of staff and every single person whose name appeared as a sender to her account of any email containing classified material.
Somebody in her office took those email off the secret or top secret networks, recorded it to a portable memory, connected it to an unclassified computer and transmitted it in the clear to an unprotected server. All those people should still be in jail now.
The FBI and CIA have just about ruined themselves in their pursuit of a coup attempt aimed at overthrowing President Trump and all of those people belong in jail too.
Justice is really beginning to look very 3rd World around these parts and that's a shame.
NEVER GIVE UP
It's true. Some people can't wrap their minds around any concept larger than a q-tip. They aren't ever going to stop. Still, it can be amusing to watch people run full tilt into a wall again and again and one does try to not laugh too loud in the hope that they will keep bashing their heads against the wall really really hard.
Saturday, March 23, 2019
RETURN OF THE DISSIDENT FROGMAN
I was reading about the Vendee massacres during the Revolution and wondered what the Dissident Frogman might have to say about the topic so I went to his site even though it has been dormant for years. As of today it appears he is reactivating it and starting again.
That would be nice. He had an interesting view of the world.
UPDATE: Here. I forgot to put in the the link to the dissident frogman's blog.
That would be nice. He had an interesting view of the world.
UPDATE: Here. I forgot to put in the the link to the dissident frogman's blog.
AN INTERESTING SIDE EFFECT
It is 1300 Eastern Time and some 18 hours since the Witchfinder General turned in the report of his witchfinders to the Attorney General and yet, for some reason, El Jefe (bottom of my blog roll over there on the right side) has not peeped up to say anything about it on twitter. For a man accused so often of being graceless I find it fascinating that he hasn't pounced on the news that the Witchfinder General seeks no further indictments. Of course, that may be because as with so many things, the media doesn't know what they're talking about and President Trump is going to wait until all the facts are known before he comments.
Having written that, I'll bet he posted something while I was writing this.
Having written that, I'll bet he posted something while I was writing this.
Thursday, March 21, 2019
THE NATURE OF THIS GOVERNMENT
I found this at American Thinker. These things that President Trump doesn't do strike me as profoundly different from just about every President prior to him in the last 100 years. Most of them veered along the lines of the imperial presidency and one of them darted to the humble john corner for his brief tenure of unbearable shame. In fact, President Trump comes closest to President Eisenhower for his approach to the presidency which doesn't come as much of a surprise. Ike wasn't a politician either.
Which gets me to wonder about the men who were sent by the various colonies to the Constitutional Convention over 200 years ago and who labored long and hard and communicated their thinking on the nature and the type of government they meant to form in well thought out and reasoned discussion not only amongst themselves but with the citizens of the new nation. Today these discussions are called the Federalist Papers and oddly enough, The Anti-Federalist Papers.
I doubt one in a hundred Americans have even heard of them and fewer than one in a thousand have read them. The Federalist Papers are the keystone supporting the Constitution and define what each Article and Clause was meant to accomplish. Both are available online and you can, of course, buy them from Amazon or practically anywhere. I bought my last copy at the little shop under the Jefferson Memorial.
Thomas Jefferson Memorial Inscriptions:
It strikes me that we have been letting down our side on the religious, education and tyranny fronts. We don't even teach this sort of thing anymore.
To demonstrate this fact, I will provide examples of what Trump has not done and what King Barack H. Obama and King George W. Bush did. Here is a list:
1. Trump does not invite singers and performers to the White House to sing and perform for him and his family, while Obama and Bush did. They sat like kings and used our tax money to be entertained.
2. Trump does not go to Kennedy Center honors or Mark Twain prize ceremonies to sit in a special place and be watched by the crowd as a king.
3. Trump does not perform at the White House Correspondents' dinner as the chief of the country. He does not care about entertaining the media and being praised by them.
4. Trump calls media as they are (biased and unprofessional) without violating their rights. He does not need them to praise him as King Obama and King Bush did. All dictators love to be praised.
5. Trump does not care about the elite's expectations. Trump is focused on results and delivering his promises. He does not keep people in office who do not deliver.
6. Against all leftists' propaganda, Trump has not gained any personal benefit from being in power. All reports show that his business is not as good as before 2016.
7. Trump did not bow to the king of Saudi Arabia as Obama did. He did not praise Putin as Bush did. He did not try to normalize a relationship with Cuban dictators and did not write personal nice letters to the dictator of Iran, as Obama did.
8. Trump is not writing fat checks to people who chant "death to America" (like Hamas).
9. Trump did not need any praise from Europeans and pushed them to pay their fair share in NATO.
10. Trump did not budge to socialists, Islamists, and fascists, while both Obama and Bush were lenient toward them. Their failures were effective in giving a boost to those groups.
The reasons Trump does not do these things are less important than the not doing them itself. Trump, whatever he is, is the elected leader of American people and has behaved as an elected leader.
Nobody is perfect. Democratically elected leaders are supposed to be average — average government by average people. Our founding fathers never wanted (fake) philosopher-kings as our leaders.Sitting here today and mulling things like this over I was struck by the first article of the day. One of the things people nowadays are talking about is the vestiges of slavery. I would argue that it isn't so vestigial in places like Africa or the middle east. Thanks to Hillary and Obama, arab slave markets opened again in Libya and openly trade in African slaves. The thing is though, there has been no slavery in America for way more than a hundred years and the nation convulsed and tore apart fighting for and against it. The losers lost. The only slaves in this country are covert slaves kept by pimps and various muslim dignitaries who bring their slaves with them when they come here to visit or work.
Which gets me to wonder about the men who were sent by the various colonies to the Constitutional Convention over 200 years ago and who labored long and hard and communicated their thinking on the nature and the type of government they meant to form in well thought out and reasoned discussion not only amongst themselves but with the citizens of the new nation. Today these discussions are called the Federalist Papers and oddly enough, The Anti-Federalist Papers.
I doubt one in a hundred Americans have even heard of them and fewer than one in a thousand have read them. The Federalist Papers are the keystone supporting the Constitution and define what each Article and Clause was meant to accomplish. Both are available online and you can, of course, buy them from Amazon or practically anywhere. I bought my last copy at the little shop under the Jefferson Memorial.
Thomas Jefferson Memorial Inscriptions:
Rotunda
"I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
Southwest Portico
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men. We...solemnly publish and declare, that these colonies are and of a right ought to be free and independent states...and for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honour."
-Excerpted from the Declaration of Independence, 1776.
Northwest Portico
"Almighty God hath created the mind free. All attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens...are a departure from the plan of the holy Author of our religion...No man shall be compelled to frequent or support religious worship or ministry or shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief, but all men shall be free to profess and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion. I know but one code of morality for men whether acting singly or collectively."
-Excerpted from A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom, drafted in 1777. First introduced in the Virginia General Assembly in 1779, after he had become Governor. Passed by the Virginia Assembly in 1786, while Jefferson was serving as Minister to France. The last sentence is excerpted from a letter to James Madison, August 28, 1789, as he was returning to America to assume his position as Secretary of State.
Northeast Portico
"God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever. Commerce between master and slave is despotism. Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free. Establish the law for educating the common people. This it is the business of the state to effect and on a general plan."
-Excerpted from multiple sources: "A Summary View of the Rights of British America," "Notes on the State of Virginia," "The Autobiography," letter to George Wythe (1790), letter to George Washington (1786).
Southeast Portico:
"I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as a civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors."The men that gathered in Philadelphia were of similar mind, education and background. I shudder to think what a modern Constitutional Convention would look or sound like and I suspect most of what it put out to the people would be lies and damned near unreadable.
It strikes me that we have been letting down our side on the religious, education and tyranny fronts. We don't even teach this sort of thing anymore.
Wednesday, March 20, 2019
ON BREXIT AND OUR IMMIGRATION DILEMMA
Samizdata put together an image that pretty much describes exactly the dilemma that Britain finds itself in as it attempts to wrestle away from the dead grip of the European Union. It makes it very clear why it is proving so hard to enforce the will of the people.
The problem is not that the people don't want to leave or that the regions don't want to leave or that the various constituencies don't want to leave, it is that the damned legislators don't want to leave and are doing everything in their power to frustrate the will of the people. Kind of like what our legislators are doing now in trying to frustrate the will of the people most of whom want to end illegal immigration by building a wall and actually enforcing this country's laws.
Somebody with the inclination could probably produce a schematic much like the one above and show that most Americans, most of America and most of the States want this flood of illegals with no visible skills to end and end now. Then we could just look at who keeps voting to frustrate that policy in Congress which is where year after year the will of the people in this regard has been tossed out on its ear or ignored altogether.
One of Samizdata's commenters mentioned a phrase that became quite popular a few years back.
The problem is not that the people don't want to leave or that the regions don't want to leave or that the various constituencies don't want to leave, it is that the damned legislators don't want to leave and are doing everything in their power to frustrate the will of the people. Kind of like what our legislators are doing now in trying to frustrate the will of the people most of whom want to end illegal immigration by building a wall and actually enforcing this country's laws.
Somebody with the inclination could probably produce a schematic much like the one above and show that most Americans, most of America and most of the States want this flood of illegals with no visible skills to end and end now. Then we could just look at who keeps voting to frustrate that policy in Congress which is where year after year the will of the people in this regard has been tossed out on its ear or ignored altogether.
One of Samizdata's commenters mentioned a phrase that became quite popular a few years back.
“You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go.”Free month of reading this blog for anybody who knows who spoke the words quoted. I was going to say the same for the origin of samizdata but it's a little obvious.
I AM NOT AFRAID
Bring it.
The actual wording of Article V is: “The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.”
The Constitution spells out how one can, for instance, 'get rid' of the Electoral College. I don't see three fourths of the states voting to commit suicide and turn the governance of the nation over to the idiots that live in California, New York and the dumb states.
The actual wording of Article V is: “The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.”
The Constitution spells out how one can, for instance, 'get rid' of the Electoral College. I don't see three fourths of the states voting to commit suicide and turn the governance of the nation over to the idiots that live in California, New York and the dumb states.
FUN WITH THE CONSTITUTION
I understand that the various concerned people in California are considering letting anybody vote there as often as they want and I don't care. They can join the other rock solid bastions of voter fraud like Chicago and Cook County and vote every cemetery in the state and it won't matter.
Who cares?
Not me!
It will drive them further insane to have all the illegals voting the straight Democratic ticket and won't the citizens be happy when the Democrats win all the elective offices? Why no. No they won't.
If 100% of the vote recorded in Californiastan in the next Presidential election is won by Democrats they still don't get a single extra vote in the Electoral College. All those millions of destitute impoverished illegals living in tents or caves and now voting in their elections will result in Californiastan voters who start to demand way more social services, better schools, better housing, better medical care, better everything and unfortunately, it's the state ofVenezuela California who has to pay for all that and take it out of everything else they used to provide to legitimate citizens.
Hahahahahahahahaha!
Dumbshits.
Who cares?
Not me!
It will drive them further insane to have all the illegals voting the straight Democratic ticket and won't the citizens be happy when the Democrats win all the elective offices? Why no. No they won't.
If 100% of the vote recorded in Californiastan in the next Presidential election is won by Democrats they still don't get a single extra vote in the Electoral College. All those millions of destitute impoverished illegals living in tents or caves and now voting in their elections will result in Californiastan voters who start to demand way more social services, better schools, better housing, better medical care, better everything and unfortunately, it's the state of
Hahahahahahahahaha!
Dumbshits.
Tuesday, March 19, 2019
PAINT THEM BLACK
I'm kind of surprised this hasn't occurred to a wily old diplomat like Emmanuel Macron. The simplest way to end the "yellow vest" protests is to change the law that requires motorists to always have yellow safety vests in their cars and instead make the new requirement require "black vests". Play around in one of those by the side of the road at night and pretty soon the crazy drivers will take care of the problem. Alternatively, the law should say that the safety vests must be of approved night camouflage.
No, don't worry Macron, you can send me a check later for this brilliant idea. I have plenty more.
No, don't worry Macron, you can send me a check later for this brilliant idea. I have plenty more.
Monday, March 18, 2019
LAUGHABLE IF TRUE
It would be laughable if true but Biden hasn't spoken a true word in this century. I suppose that the quote below came from the speech Biden gave to some bunch of self-styled elites who paid $45.00 a plate to hear him bloviate while they ate. He was sort of the dancing monkey of entertainment until the strippers came on.
I doubt Joe Biden has had anything in his hands but his pockets for over 20 years. I doubt he even carries a wallet. It's what happens when you're a powerful servant of the people and the people pay to surround you with flunkies and drivers. The idea of him having any kind of money on his own person is ridiculous and the idea that he drove anywhere near a homeless person is equally unbelievable.
I doubt Joe Biden has had anything in his hands but his pockets for over 20 years. I doubt he even carries a wallet. It's what happens when you're a powerful servant of the people and the people pay to surround you with flunkies and drivers. The idea of him having any kind of money on his own person is ridiculous and the idea that he drove anywhere near a homeless person is equally unbelievable.
Wednesday, March 13, 2019
THE CRAZY YEARS
It was Heinlein but still the fact that the utter boobs at DOJ and FBI tracked down some non-criminals at the heart of their latest scatter of idiocy is profoundly troubling. They treat it as the crime of the century, just as they have treated the entirely bogus investigation into President Trump's so called collusion, which, again, is not a crime and never happened anyway. Yet they pervasively failed to investigate the real crimes of Hillary Clinton, Cheryl Mills and all the other dirtbags that left their names, calling cards and fingerprints on every single classified email that Hillary Clinton got on her private non-SIPR, not NSAnet account.
Tuesday, March 12, 2019
ABIDE WITH GOD
In some of Wilbur Smith's books that was a phrase used often. I thought it sounded good when I read them back in 1981.
The response always was, "Stay, with God."
Wow! he never stopped typing. I think an intervention is in order.
The response always was, "Stay, with God."
Wow! he never stopped typing. I think an intervention is in order.
Sunday, March 10, 2019
WIZARD AT CHRISTMAS
Somehow I forgot about this.
Jim Butcher and S.M. Stirling are probably the two best writers of my stuff in this generation. I have to be careful because some day my sister might find my blog and she's a pretty good writer too.
Jim Butcher and S.M. Stirling are probably the two best writers of my stuff in this generation. I have to be careful because some day my sister might find my blog and she's a pretty good writer too.
BLINDED BY GAS BUT STILL CARRYING RIFLES
I believe this is John Singer Sergent's but I'll have to double check. I just found it interesting that though blinded by poison gas and cannot see they still carry their rifles off the field.
Saturday, March 9, 2019
MEMORIES
I just downloaded a copy. The first time I bought the actual book it was in Newport back in 1974. I bought the next one in San Diego about 20 years later. I have this little problem keeping hard copy books so I just found it online.
Jackie Fisher was one of my favorites out of history. He was about the last man I know of who was table mates and comrades with a King. He clearly liked the man.
And now, perforce, we shall have to go on to Peshawar Lancers. Somebody has to.
Jackie Fisher was one of my favorites out of history. He was about the last man I know of who was table mates and comrades with a King. He clearly liked the man.
And now, perforce, we shall have to go on to Peshawar Lancers. Somebody has to.
OUR LAW IS BROKEN
16 Felony counts for lying to cops. Surely this is a signal that our justice system is broken. The idiot made up a crime, conspired with two other black guys to carry it out and ends up charged with 16 felony crimes.
Well, now I know why some dimbulbs think whossname is guilty of something. I mean, like us all he was in Chicago at one point in his life, right? He could be charged with a bazillion crimes none of us ever heard of.
I'm never going there again.
Well, now I know why some dimbulbs think whossname is guilty of something. I mean, like us all he was in Chicago at one point in his life, right? He could be charged with a bazillion crimes none of us ever heard of.
I'm never going there again.
Friday, March 8, 2019
A HELP
Does my blog require you to do anything at all when you post a reply? If so, please let me know so I can find some way to turn it off.
I sometimes write comments on other peoples blogs and get sent down a rat hole of stupid stuff to fill out and I really intend that not for people that would comment here.
There are literally no restrictions I know about for commenting here but I suspect glogsport has outguessed me.
I sometimes write comments on other peoples blogs and get sent down a rat hole of stupid stuff to fill out and I really intend that not for people that would comment here.
There are literally no restrictions I know about for commenting here but I suspect glogsport has outguessed me.
BABY FAT
I read the books about Hobart Floyt and this girl struck me as Baby Fat. Yes, while meant as a pejorative, it morphed as Alacrity Fitzhugh did. Srsly, you had to be there, read the books. Just another book plug for a dead author.
You probably don't even want to know how I pronounced Hecate to myself as I read the books. It was right up there with my sister's books and my horrible didn't get it right pronunciation of her characters names. Srsly Agape? You're just pulling my leg now aren't you?
I was also quite partial to the music.
You probably don't even want to know how I pronounced Hecate to myself as I read the books. It was right up there with my sister's books and my horrible didn't get it right pronunciation of her characters names. Srsly Agape? You're just pulling my leg now aren't you?
I was also quite partial to the music.
RIDING THE RAILS II
recycled.
A few years back my room mate and I used to take the Seoul subway to our offices in Yongsan Main Post. The first couple of times we did it after we arrived we ended up in the damnedest places. We would try to get on pure Korean military installations but never did. What is theirs is theirs. What we share is ours.
I spent a little over two months living in hotels in Seoul that first time and we refused the Army's kind offer of transportation (a bus which appeared at 0530) and decided to test the proof of life by exposing ourselves every single day (we worked @7 days a week) and took the Seoul subways to work.
We had alternate routes. We could amble out, after coffee and breakfast in the Lotte and turn to the left or the right. We mostly went left. I blame that on Reg. He was from Massachusetts and thus a total leftist. We would embark at Seoul Station or City Hall with a transfer or we would sometimes go to the right and take the subway to Itaewon. Either way, we had to walk the last quarter mile or so.
If one got off at Yongsan, the walk took one by Korean Imperial Defense Headquarters (which, soon after, relocated itself out of artillery range of the north Koreans hugging their side of the DMZ with their endless artillery and poison gas shells.) It also let us stroll past the Korean War Museum. If there was ever a museum that had 'one of everything,' it was that museum.
My Coast Guard colleague and I rode the rails underground in a sea of ignorance. The first time, because all the instructions and signs were written only in Korean, we had some trouble but there was an old man to help set us on the proper path. We were wearing our very attractive greenish, black, yellow uniforms of camouflage and he sussed out our desire to go the headquarters of United States Forces in Korea. He got us on the right train despite a very serious language barrier.
I think we took that train for the first month until the young lieutenants convinced us that there was a shorter way to the office. What they hadn't factored was the way that we commuted out of pure ignorance. We had found that if we grabbed a strap on either of the last two undermanned cars of the train that we would not be jammed in like sardines.
Yes, we turned out to be the second worst thing the country team experiences from visitors. We didn't know the last cars on every train are for women only. I know they didn't care at all but maybe it has changed again. We are old reprobates and we would not dream of depriving any lady of a seat on the line. We were just going 4 stops down the line and change. The cars weren't empty but there was absolutely no "inadvertent" brushing, touching, etc. They were mostly empty.
Over the next two decades, the lines got worse. Way. Every train car was packed to maximum capacity. It's a subway. At some point, you cannot add more cars to the train without leaving the rearmost hidden in the tunnel, well away from the platform. The trains took on the aspect of Japanese commuter trains.
It turns out that one can walk for many miles underground in Seoul through the subterranean stores that feature everything from art, belts, sunglasses, bathroom fittings, furniture, clothing... It has to be seen to be believed.
I'll never see it again but it was a really amazing place in the impeccably clean, bright, glistening undergrounds of Seoul. It was like Madrid's in the olden days in terms of clean. Madrid's didn't have any shops and just a handful of buskers.
A few years back my room mate and I used to take the Seoul subway to our offices in Yongsan Main Post. The first couple of times we did it after we arrived we ended up in the damnedest places. We would try to get on pure Korean military installations but never did. What is theirs is theirs. What we share is ours.
I spent a little over two months living in hotels in Seoul that first time and we refused the Army's kind offer of transportation (a bus which appeared at 0530) and decided to test the proof of life by exposing ourselves every single day (we worked @7 days a week) and took the Seoul subways to work.
We had alternate routes. We could amble out, after coffee and breakfast in the Lotte and turn to the left or the right. We mostly went left. I blame that on Reg. He was from Massachusetts and thus a total leftist. We would embark at Seoul Station or City Hall with a transfer or we would sometimes go to the right and take the subway to Itaewon. Either way, we had to walk the last quarter mile or so.
If one got off at Yongsan, the walk took one by Korean Imperial Defense Headquarters (which, soon after, relocated itself out of artillery range of the north Koreans hugging their side of the DMZ with their endless artillery and poison gas shells.) It also let us stroll past the Korean War Museum. If there was ever a museum that had 'one of everything,' it was that museum.
My Coast Guard colleague and I rode the rails underground in a sea of ignorance. The first time, because all the instructions and signs were written only in Korean, we had some trouble but there was an old man to help set us on the proper path. We were wearing our very attractive greenish, black, yellow uniforms of camouflage and he sussed out our desire to go the headquarters of United States Forces in Korea. He got us on the right train despite a very serious language barrier.
I think we took that train for the first month until the young lieutenants convinced us that there was a shorter way to the office. What they hadn't factored was the way that we commuted out of pure ignorance. We had found that if we grabbed a strap on either of the last two undermanned cars of the train that we would not be jammed in like sardines.
Yes, we turned out to be the second worst thing the country team experiences from visitors. We didn't know the last cars on every train are for women only. I know they didn't care at all but maybe it has changed again. We are old reprobates and we would not dream of depriving any lady of a seat on the line. We were just going 4 stops down the line and change. The cars weren't empty but there was absolutely no "inadvertent" brushing, touching, etc. They were mostly empty.
Over the next two decades, the lines got worse. Way. Every train car was packed to maximum capacity. It's a subway. At some point, you cannot add more cars to the train without leaving the rearmost hidden in the tunnel, well away from the platform. The trains took on the aspect of Japanese commuter trains.
It turns out that one can walk for many miles underground in Seoul through the subterranean stores that feature everything from art, belts, sunglasses, bathroom fittings, furniture, clothing... It has to be seen to be believed.
I'll never see it again but it was a really amazing place in the impeccably clean, bright, glistening undergrounds of Seoul. It was like Madrid's in the olden days in terms of clean. Madrid's didn't have any shops and just a handful of buskers.
Thursday, March 7, 2019
Wednesday, March 6, 2019
NOTHING BUT A LIAR
He lied his whole life and this is merely to document it.
Five years ago to this month, former director of national intelligence James Clapper lied to Congress, and he has been scrambling to make excuses for the ongoing lies and leaks ever since.
In March 2013, Sen. Ron Wyder asked Clapper under oath if the U.S. government was collecting “any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans.” Clapper paused and said, “No, sir. … Not wittingly.” Three months later, Edward Snowden leaked documents revealing that the National Security Agency was in fact collecting in bulk domestic call records and other various internet communications on millions of Americans.
This was the first of many “untruths,” as Clapper likes to call them. Here are other lies Clapper has cooked up since trying to explain his false statements under oath.
1. He Lied Because He ‘Simply Didn’t Understand’ The Question
In an apology letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein written about four months after the hearing, Clapper said he gave the “clearly erroneous” answer because he “simply didn’t think of” the call-record collection.
Even though Clapper had received the committee’s questions the day before his testimony, he maintains he did not realize that Wyden was asking about Section 215 of the Patriot Act, and was answering a question regarding a different program, specifically Section 702 of FISA.
“I didn’t realize what he was talking about,” Clapper said at the University of Chicago last May. He repeated the lie again to CNN’s John Berman on Tuesday after news broke that the Trump administration is planning to end the NSA’s spying program.
“I didn’t lie, I made a big mistake and I just simply didn’t understand what I was being asked about. I thought of another surveillance program, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act when I was being asked about Section 215 of the Patriot Act at the time, I just didn’t understand that,” Clapper said.
2. He Lied In the ‘Least Untruthful Manner’
Clapper told MSNBC not that he didn’t understand the question as previously explained, but that Wyden’s question about whether the NSA spies on Americans was a gotcha question equivalent to, “When are you going to stop beating your wife?”
“I responded in what I thought was the most truthful, or least untruthful manner by saying, ‘no.”
3. He Lied to Congress About Leaking Details On the Steele Dossier
A report from the House Intelligence Committee published last May shared that Clapper had leaked to CNN’s Jake Tapper details of a briefing regarding the Christopher Steele dossier given to President Obama and then-President-elect Donald Trump.
“Clapper flatly denied ‘discussing[ing] the dossier [compiled by Steele] or any other intelligence related to Russia hacking of the 2016 election with journalists,” the committee wrote. Clapper then backtracked when asked specifically about his discussions with Tapper. “Clapper subsequently acknowledged discussing the ‘dossier with CNN journalist Jake Tapper,’ and admitted that he might have spoken with other journalists about the same topic.”
To recap: Clapper leaked information about the dossier briefing to Tapper, lied to Congress about leaking, and was then given a contributor contract with CNN a few months later. As Mollie Hemingway reported, these lies would all eventually prove to be a set-up scheme by Clapper and then-FBI director James Comey to give legitimacy to the fabricated dossier.
4. He Lied about His Communication with CNN
In an attempt to run interference for Clapper’s lies to Congress, The Washington Post fact checker unknowingly published yet another lie from Clapper. In a statement to the Post, Clapper said, “The first time I had any interaction with Jake Tapper was on May 14.”
This statement conflicts with both the statements Clapper made to the House Intelligence Committee, and what House Democrats said in their own report about how Clapper talked to Tapper while in office.
We know that President Obama was briefed on the dossier on January 5, 2017, and President-Elect Trump was briefed on January 6, 2017. The transcript of the congressional intelligence committee’s interview of Clapper exposes that his communications with journalists revolved around those January briefings.
HOUSE INTEL: Did you confirm or corroborate the contents of the dossier with CNN journalist Jake Tapper?
MR. CLAPPER: Well, by the time of that, they already knew about it. By the time it was — it was after — I don’t know exactly the sequence there, but it was pretty close to when we briefed it and when it was out all over the place. The media had it by the way. We were kind of behind the power curve, because the media, many media outlets that I understood had that, had the dossier for some time, as did people on the Hill.
Clapper acknowledged that he spoke with Tapper “pretty close to when we briefed it,” which would have been in January. Once again, Clapper is caught in a lie about his previous lies.
The question is, why are the lies continually excused? As a federal employee who lied to Congress, Clapper received a free pass from Barack Obama’s FBI. As a private citizen, he gets paid to spin his own crimes on television. Clapper is a serial fabricator who can’t even keep his own lies straight.
James Clapper lying to us again for the umpteenth time.
One could leave it by simply pointing out that he is demcrat and so lies come naturally to him.
Five years ago to this month, former director of national intelligence James Clapper lied to Congress, and he has been scrambling to make excuses for the ongoing lies and leaks ever since.
In March 2013, Sen. Ron Wyder asked Clapper under oath if the U.S. government was collecting “any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans.” Clapper paused and said, “No, sir. … Not wittingly.” Three months later, Edward Snowden leaked documents revealing that the National Security Agency was in fact collecting in bulk domestic call records and other various internet communications on millions of Americans.
This was the first of many “untruths,” as Clapper likes to call them. Here are other lies Clapper has cooked up since trying to explain his false statements under oath.
1. He Lied Because He ‘Simply Didn’t Understand’ The Question
In an apology letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein written about four months after the hearing, Clapper said he gave the “clearly erroneous” answer because he “simply didn’t think of” the call-record collection.
Even though Clapper had received the committee’s questions the day before his testimony, he maintains he did not realize that Wyden was asking about Section 215 of the Patriot Act, and was answering a question regarding a different program, specifically Section 702 of FISA.
“I didn’t realize what he was talking about,” Clapper said at the University of Chicago last May. He repeated the lie again to CNN’s John Berman on Tuesday after news broke that the Trump administration is planning to end the NSA’s spying program.
“I didn’t lie, I made a big mistake and I just simply didn’t understand what I was being asked about. I thought of another surveillance program, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act when I was being asked about Section 215 of the Patriot Act at the time, I just didn’t understand that,” Clapper said.
2. He Lied In the ‘Least Untruthful Manner’
Clapper told MSNBC not that he didn’t understand the question as previously explained, but that Wyden’s question about whether the NSA spies on Americans was a gotcha question equivalent to, “When are you going to stop beating your wife?”
“I responded in what I thought was the most truthful, or least untruthful manner by saying, ‘no.”
3. He Lied to Congress About Leaking Details On the Steele Dossier
A report from the House Intelligence Committee published last May shared that Clapper had leaked to CNN’s Jake Tapper details of a briefing regarding the Christopher Steele dossier given to President Obama and then-President-elect Donald Trump.
“Clapper flatly denied ‘discussing[ing] the dossier [compiled by Steele] or any other intelligence related to Russia hacking of the 2016 election with journalists,” the committee wrote. Clapper then backtracked when asked specifically about his discussions with Tapper. “Clapper subsequently acknowledged discussing the ‘dossier with CNN journalist Jake Tapper,’ and admitted that he might have spoken with other journalists about the same topic.”
To recap: Clapper leaked information about the dossier briefing to Tapper, lied to Congress about leaking, and was then given a contributor contract with CNN a few months later. As Mollie Hemingway reported, these lies would all eventually prove to be a set-up scheme by Clapper and then-FBI director James Comey to give legitimacy to the fabricated dossier.
4. He Lied about His Communication with CNN
In an attempt to run interference for Clapper’s lies to Congress, The Washington Post fact checker unknowingly published yet another lie from Clapper. In a statement to the Post, Clapper said, “The first time I had any interaction with Jake Tapper was on May 14.”
This statement conflicts with both the statements Clapper made to the House Intelligence Committee, and what House Democrats said in their own report about how Clapper talked to Tapper while in office.
We know that President Obama was briefed on the dossier on January 5, 2017, and President-Elect Trump was briefed on January 6, 2017. The transcript of the congressional intelligence committee’s interview of Clapper exposes that his communications with journalists revolved around those January briefings.
HOUSE INTEL: Did you confirm or corroborate the contents of the dossier with CNN journalist Jake Tapper?
MR. CLAPPER: Well, by the time of that, they already knew about it. By the time it was — it was after — I don’t know exactly the sequence there, but it was pretty close to when we briefed it and when it was out all over the place. The media had it by the way. We were kind of behind the power curve, because the media, many media outlets that I understood had that, had the dossier for some time, as did people on the Hill.
Clapper acknowledged that he spoke with Tapper “pretty close to when we briefed it,” which would have been in January. Once again, Clapper is caught in a lie about his previous lies.
The question is, why are the lies continually excused? As a federal employee who lied to Congress, Clapper received a free pass from Barack Obama’s FBI. As a private citizen, he gets paid to spin his own crimes on television. Clapper is a serial fabricator who can’t even keep his own lies straight.
James Clapper lying to us again for the umpteenth time.
One could leave it by simply pointing out that he is demcrat and so lies come naturally to him.
SAC AND ME
Most readers will simply lose their socks when I say that SAC had it's eyes on me when I was nobbut a freshman. It's true. They meant to stick me in a hole in the ground in Arkansas or Nebraska or some other state with an abundance of aas. I wised up and tried the navy after the air force told me that their plans for me involved an uninviting hole in the ground after 2 years of telling me that navigator was not impossible given my eyesight.
Make no mistake. Rickover wanted me too. He told me so, repeatedly. He thought me the ne plus ultra for the nuclear propelled peopled navy and it was hard to tell him to get lost. You see he was a very very very smart man and could not get lost even if he tried, very hard.
I was still in the shadow of the Air Force when the Titan II left the silo and 100% of the Air Force said they could neither confirm nor deny that that missile in the silo had a 9 megaton warhead on it when it exploded..
It was kind of like the B52 refueling on the ground in the same time frame when it's wing fell off.
I changed my life plans at that point and did join the navy, Admiral Rickover be danned.
no, not a typo or don't know how to type damned.
I changed my life plans at that point and did join the navy, Admiral Rickover be danned.
no, not a typo or don't know how to type damned.
Tuesday, March 5, 2019
DUHH!
California poltroon insists President Trump stop trying to take back our money from their rail ponzi scheme by saying it will end with the rail ponzi scheme having to fire 2600 "workers". These are the people that the left consider woke. I wonder if we speak the same language sometimes.
Yes, I want to stop paying those diseased bastards a salary to not build a railroad to nowhere.
Yes, I want to stop paying those diseased bastards a salary to not build a railroad to nowhere.
Monday, March 4, 2019
NAVY COMMUNICATIONS TAUGHT ME TO LIMIT DAMAGE
I remember some things from the schools the Navy sent me to. I was sent twice to the Navy schools on CMS management. The school taught us a little bit about how to manage to stay on top of the Russians who were reading all of our encrypted messages courtesy of dozens, if not scores of guys just like us managing navy secure communications. Each was one week of bent reality each time. It was all about Crypto Management Security.
They started the course by saying destroy these records after 90 days---always, 90 days
They moved on to say to destroy these other records annually and not one day after
Then they finished with the ones that must be kept 3 years and THEN DESTROYED
You see, by the limits of CMS 4K or CMS 4L those were the rules.
Nobody, not DIRNSA or CNO could ask you to produce records to incriminate you after their destruction dates even on their best day with a willing court IF YOU COMPLIED WITH THE DESTRUCTION MANDATES laid out by the Director of National Security (DIRNSA) or Chief of Naval Operations (CNO). Heady powers were we young ensigns given to destroy stuff. They also wanted us to destroy the crypto keys, cards, etc but that was purely secondary to destroying the records of destruction of the keys, crypto, etc.
Nobody getting a request for documents from this Congress of Shame should have any records at all by this point. They knew the instant the Democrats won the House what would follow and there is no shame in pointing out that you simply recycled all your paper files into mulch and saved the megabytes (who are vanishing at a rapid pace which should be looked into by Congress) by freeing up space for them on your corporate, personal or shared drives.
One has to admire those who hold with the idea that persistence of data is a right not to be tarnished. I wonder how many of the great speeches or plays of ancient Greece, Carthage, Rome or Atlantis were purged shortly before the Inquisition or its predecessors came calling and demanded a look see in the name of some commissar looking to send some people to the gulag.
One has to admire those who hold with the idea that persistence of data is a right not to be tarnished. I wonder how many of the great speeches or plays of ancient Greece, Carthage, Rome or Atlantis were purged shortly before the Inquisition or its predecessors came calling and demanded a look see in the name of some commissar looking to send some people to the gulag.
IS BRAZILE STILL ALIVE?
Is Donna Brazile still around? I haven't heard from her lately and she was clearly on Hillary's enemies list. You know those lists the socialists have, for their enemies, who they mean to dispose of and make disappear. It's kind of treated as a joke and yet it is not. It really is as as far from joking as you can get while you still draw breath.
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| Hillary wishes she looked this cute. |
Sunday, March 3, 2019
DRAGON HITS ISS VERY SOFTLY
As I watched the video of the first Dragon Crew capsule match orbits and link up with the ISS, I remembered sitting in the theater at Radio City Music Hall watching 2001 with my class down from Newport for a day of New York City, courtesy of the nuns.
I thought we would have something like that in orbit by 2001 because back in in 1974 it seemed to be possible and worth it. I'm not sure the ISS is "worth it" but watching the docking last night was awesome. Of course, there's always OldAFSarge to point out that the searchlights and AAA guns of WWII were synchro driven and did pretty much the same thing almost 80 years ago.....
While he was a radar tech I was not but I remember being told one night by the captain that I could not leave the ship until I figured out and fixed the problem that caused our radar to go from 'True' heading to 'Relative' heading as we entered port that evening. Our radar tech was goofing off on a sister ship sweeping mines in the Persian Gulf so it was left to me and the Ensign Ops Officer to "fix" the radar. While I was forbidden to leave the ship until the radar was fixed I didn't hesitate to head across the pier to our sister ship, Constant and track down their radar tech who, most willingly, came over to trouble shoot our radar problem. "Burnt digital to analog synchro converter", was his answer and showed us the blackened carcass of the converter in our radar control console. "No big deal, I got one I can give you" and that was that.
Guys like me getting hammered to fix radars on the spot or never see home again was not what I expected a mere 12 years after watching 2001. To say I was disappointed is an understatement. Stupid radars....
It was a nice docking though.
I thought we would have something like that in orbit by 2001 because back in in 1974 it seemed to be possible and worth it. I'm not sure the ISS is "worth it" but watching the docking last night was awesome. Of course, there's always OldAFSarge to point out that the searchlights and AAA guns of WWII were synchro driven and did pretty much the same thing almost 80 years ago.....
While he was a radar tech I was not but I remember being told one night by the captain that I could not leave the ship until I figured out and fixed the problem that caused our radar to go from 'True' heading to 'Relative' heading as we entered port that evening. Our radar tech was goofing off on a sister ship sweeping mines in the Persian Gulf so it was left to me and the Ensign Ops Officer to "fix" the radar. While I was forbidden to leave the ship until the radar was fixed I didn't hesitate to head across the pier to our sister ship, Constant and track down their radar tech who, most willingly, came over to trouble shoot our radar problem. "Burnt digital to analog synchro converter", was his answer and showed us the blackened carcass of the converter in our radar control console. "No big deal, I got one I can give you" and that was that.
Guys like me getting hammered to fix radars on the spot or never see home again was not what I expected a mere 12 years after watching 2001. To say I was disappointed is an understatement. Stupid radars....
It was a nice docking though.
ODD THINGS FOR A SUNDAY
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| Democratic Faithful Rejoice in new Symbol of their Boundless Belief in Socialism and other Fairy Tales |
JUST HOW DID AMERICANS GROW TO SEE THE WORLD
History of our place is rich and you can start there. I did when I was just a little older than when my opinions started to form shape and by that, come to be what I perceive as reality based on a written history that I've been exposed to. It doesn't sound like much but it was.
My parents took me out of school after 2nd grade in Annandale and made me study very very hard all summer, endless summer, so I could be accepted at a school where, instead of learning about dragons, we learned Greek classical myth and history, and Latin, and French. That ate my 3rd and 4th grades. By the end of that I could forge a parent signature in under 12 seconds in the bathroom, at twilight.
More importantly though was our accommodations. They were, as usual, quite nice. My parents gave me 100% of the attic to live in and his bookshelves were at the top of the stairs to their room and the top of the stairs to my room. I was 10. I read them all. Lee's Lieutenants to Greek Myth I read everything and that included one of the few paperbacks, a book by Leon Uris. I read that a couple of times back then, under the covers on an old army spring bed with an old army sprung lamp. It was Exodus. I might have reread it in college on my own between volumes of history. No, that wasn't my major but I liked reading history.
That one book, read at just that age, shaped forever my view on the Middle East that gives the rest of the world conniptions. It helps that I spent most of a decade serving there but that's incidental.
At the age of 10 my fully formed thought for the rest of my life was based on that one book.
I do know exactly what the shabab trained little girls and boys learn and the little PLO and Hamas boys and girls learn at that age and I'm here to tell you, it's just about unshakable. The paths that knowledge delivered then, at that age, carves paths into the brain and memory that cannot be revoked.
Throughout the islamic world the saudis and emirates and the rest have been funding whole schools where the only thing taught is hate.
Oddly enough, nobody talks about it very much.
They're doing it right now right here in the United States and they've been doing it for generations in Western Europe, NATO, Turkey and the rest of the world such as Africa where they do things unimaginable to the West almost every single day but the West doesn't pay attention because Africa is huge and is mostly run by the Nazgul.
My parents took me out of school after 2nd grade in Annandale and made me study very very hard all summer, endless summer, so I could be accepted at a school where, instead of learning about dragons, we learned Greek classical myth and history, and Latin, and French. That ate my 3rd and 4th grades. By the end of that I could forge a parent signature in under 12 seconds in the bathroom, at twilight.
More importantly though was our accommodations. They were, as usual, quite nice. My parents gave me 100% of the attic to live in and his bookshelves were at the top of the stairs to their room and the top of the stairs to my room. I was 10. I read them all. Lee's Lieutenants to Greek Myth I read everything and that included one of the few paperbacks, a book by Leon Uris. I read that a couple of times back then, under the covers on an old army spring bed with an old army sprung lamp. It was Exodus. I might have reread it in college on my own between volumes of history. No, that wasn't my major but I liked reading history.
That one book, read at just that age, shaped forever my view on the Middle East that gives the rest of the world conniptions. It helps that I spent most of a decade serving there but that's incidental.
At the age of 10 my fully formed thought for the rest of my life was based on that one book.
I do know exactly what the shabab trained little girls and boys learn and the little PLO and Hamas boys and girls learn at that age and I'm here to tell you, it's just about unshakable. The paths that knowledge delivered then, at that age, carves paths into the brain and memory that cannot be revoked.
Throughout the islamic world the saudis and emirates and the rest have been funding whole schools where the only thing taught is hate.
Oddly enough, nobody talks about it very much.
They're doing it right now right here in the United States and they've been doing it for generations in Western Europe, NATO, Turkey and the rest of the world such as Africa where they do things unimaginable to the West almost every single day but the West doesn't pay attention because Africa is huge and is mostly run by the Nazgul.
Saturday, March 2, 2019
CHALLENGER ASSESSMENT
It takes great personal character to obstruct management when they are wrong. These people rarely make it to vice president, general or admiral.
THE ENEMY OF GOOD ENOUGH
Here we see NASA boldly stake out its position on manned space flight.
Perfect is always the enemy. Chasing the last .1% of perfection costs 99 times as much as getting the first 99.9 percent right. NASA wasn't burned again and again by failures of the machine. Each failure they suffered after Gemini was a management problem that concerned engineers KNEW about.
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