AS IT IS AND WAS

A real portrait of the man. I've liked this since it first appeared.

THE PAST

I see from Task and Purpose that Russia is firing up to 60,000 rounds of artillery or rockets every day in its war in Ukraine. I think it is safe to say that none of our NATO allies could match that number for more than a couple of days at the most. I suspect most of our NATO allies have a few thousand rounds buried in some bunker somewhere and that's it. They also lack the means to actually make more of them. As usual, their plan is to rely on the U.S. to furnish them with ammunition and replenish their stocks just as they did when they fired off all their long range missiles in Libya and had to turn to Hillary and grovel for some more in their glorious victory over Qaddafi.

I once lived at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey. One of the things that struck me as I rode or ran around the installation was the preserved buildings that were in lay-up just in case we ever needed to make a massive number of artillery projectiles again. They'd been laid up either since the Korean War or World War I. They were old. I realize this is not how we produce our artillery ammunition anymore but it does weigh on my mind. I don't think the United States could begin to match 60,000 artillery rounds and missile/day.

It's easy to say that artillery is no longer the King of Battle and point to aviation and cruise missiles. I honestly don't know what happens when bomblets blanket an artillery position. I imagine it would shred the tires and ding the tube but I don't know if they would outright destroy modern Russian artillery or not. The cannon cockers will be dead but the tubes may well keep going. There is also a not inconsiderable air defense network. I think the Russians have studied our employment of the Air/Land Battle techniques over the last 30 years and have probably come up with some ideas for mitigating or even defeating it. The defeat might take a simple form that we won't expect in a million years. Yep, they'll rain Kalibre and other missiles down on the airfields a thousand miles away and destroy all those aircraft right there on the ground where it's easy.

I have to admit,I keep waiting for the retaliation any country would and can deliver to allies of its enemy. It's one thing to covertly pass along weapons and intel but to boast about doing both in public in a press conference, well, your position has been established. You are now a combatant.

THE STUPID, IT RUNS DEEP

It is unsettling to watch the left that runs Washington Week in Review try to describe efforts by the left to pass a federal abortion law that will rule all the states. You would think that after the Supreme Court placed that issue squarely in the wicket of things the Constitution has left to the States that the idiots would understand that none of the current conservative Justices plan to retire for decades and that when they say that Article X is the ruler of all on this issue the left would simply shut up and accept it, particularly since about 70% of the population despises the idea of killing infants. Ah, well. If they want to make it part of their election platform, so be it.

Artice X: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Those idiots in Congress keep forgetting the States and the People. No surprise, they're all fascists.

INTERESTING TIMES

I went away to be at my parent's 65th wedding anniversary. A very good time was had by all. I don't recall much of anything at all happening of great note while I was actually on the road but it sure seems exciting now doesn't it? A little known Constitutional Amendment in the Bill of Rights was called back to the fore by the Supreme Court much to the dismay of liberals everywhere. In the meantime, my State's law that states that any person of age and legal standing may carry a concealed weapon without a license went into effect this week which means just about anybody will now be able to use a public restroom with an excellent chance of finding a very nice pistol left behind by the previous occupant. Oh, sure you laugh, as if. On the other hand it has happened more than once in the Congress and it happened all the time in the little restroom next to the front gate at NOLF Imperial Beach back when I was working on that installation. I plan to keep my eyes open. People unacustomed to carrying a weapon have no idea what a literal pain in the ass it is. And, "finders keepers" is how I plan to play that one out.

I looked to see what the riots were like tonight but it seems there is nowhere near the depth of support for killing babies as most people thought there was. Right now it looks like another damp squib. Do I think some nutjob will try to kill a Justice in 'retaliation'? Absolutely. It's interesting how Joe Biden came out and described abortion as a CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT but seems as ignorant as ever he was about anything and everything. People wondered that the Court didn't release both decisions yesterday but I see into the matrix now. The 2nd Amendment faded entirely away as the media shifted targets to embrace abortion 24/7. It's like all their prepared arguments about how the blood would be running in the streets now that New Yorkers who aren't criminals have a RIGHT to carry a weapon for self defense.

I'll be interested to see what tomorrow brings. For me it will be the Highland Games!

A LIGHT YEAR AND DECADE BEHIND

Why didn't any of you tell me about Yellowstone?

THE STUPID, IT POUNCES

I see that we are going forward with the idiot notion of renaming Confederate Army posts with modern stupid names. I know how we lost sight of the reason for those names but I'm kind of surprised that nobody had pointed it out. They were names granted by the Army and the ones in Congress who know that Reconstruction was over and the time to rebuild the Union was at hand and it was a simple graceful costless thing to do.

THE REALLY SCARY THING

About Mutual Assured Destruction is that nobody believes Putin gives a damn and nobody in the West thinks the ruling elite care about it anymore. They don't live or work in the Soviet targets anymore. I'm actually kind of tired of them.

I don't care either democrats. I'm not going to miss NY NY or DC or San Francisco and yeah, I lived in them all.

If you would like to see where something like 3000 Russian nuclear weapons are targeted, it's available on line. It will give you nightmares as you start to co=-rationalize that you think Putin is a psycho with cancer and nothing to live for but you go for it. After all, you also think man made global warming is real.

The number of nuclear warheads they have changes every now and but they had 5700 the last time I looked and cared. Not a bomb specialist, I hear they degrade over time. Not a nuclear engineer, it's the material.

An enemy really doesn't have to ship them ballistically. They can use UPS.

THINGS HAPPEN

In a couple of days Ohio's new universal concealed carry law goes into effect. I think that we will stay home for a few days. in my experience newbies ventilate the living hell out of things when they start carrying a weapon in public. Just like the bad place you don't go, most places are going to be somewhat dangerous around here. There is no license, no training required, just strap it on and ventilate. I imagine the police and security around here are having nightmares. Good.

i DON'T KNOW

POLITICS

Politics say an awful lot about a person but only if you're a pinko commy nazi lover. Everybody else it to conform and shut the fuck up.

I DON'T KNOW WHY

For some reason my thoughts turned to Lex tonight. I'm recalling the dinner at Zbbicas. On another note. My eyes are playing up on me. I type at hand stretch but I cannot see what I type with glasses or without. That exact distance defeats both my eyes and my reading glasses. It doesn't really. At just the right glare, I can read it fine. Except that I don't often glare to write.

A GOOD QUESTION

Just why have we never seen the list of big names that went to Epstein's island to have sex with little girls? A government could release the list into the media who would promptly have buried it but a private citizen could expect to be sued into oblivion by the billionaiers and millionaires who own the media. Nevertheless, Elon Musk makes an excellent point.. Where is the list of names of men who flew to Expsteins island and had sex with minors? Another question could be why have the minors not named names? I think dying might be at the top of list for reasons why not. You really don't want the Clintons mad at you.

MOST NIGHTS I CAN STILL HEAR IT

Dover Beach



By Matthew Arnold



The sea is calm tonight. The tide is full, the moon lies fair Upon the straits; on the French coast the light Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand, Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay. Come to the window, sweet is the night-air! Only, from the long line of spray Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land, Listen! you hear the grating roar Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling, At their return, up the high strand, Begin, and cease, and then again begin, With tremulous cadence slow, and bring The eternal note of sadness in.



Sophocles long ago Heard it on the Ægean, and it brought Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow Of human misery; we Find also in the sound a thought, Hearing it by this distant northern sea.



The Sea of Faith Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, Retreating, to the breath Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear And naked shingles of the world.



Ah, love, let us be true To one another! for the world, which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night.

ON GUNS

I see that the dumb crowd are up in arms again about guns. You would think they could get behind the simplest solution to what they term the gun violence problem. It's pretty easy actually. Any fool could do it. You just take every single person who committed a crime while armed with a gun and you shoot them. Right away, in a hurry, before they get away or a lawyer. It's so simple a caveman could do it. But of course half the people emoting about gun violence would be outraged if you appended a 9mm in the head to any shooter who engaged in something as harmless as carjacking or robbery or assault. The left really like them criminals like antifa and the rest. In 9 days Ohio is going to be a free concealed carry state with no limits. It will be interesting to see how that develops as people start dropping the criminal scumbags in almost every encounter. In 10 days it's going to suck to be a criminal here. I'm kind of looking forward to it.

I WENT WALKING

I'll do it again every night. I forgot how much I enjoyed it. I went walking every night at the top of Grape Street, down to the harbor front and out to Tom Hamms. A restaurant I never once dined at on Harbor Island, That was about a five mile round trip. When I moved to Solana Beach I walked just about every day down the beach to Del Mar and then up and back again. I stopped when I got married but that was probably due to the terrain. Let's be honest. Hills suck. OTGH, I walked a lot in Korea and I was there a lot. I usually got there for the two weeks the Cherry Trees blossomed in Chinhae. They made walking a delight. Yes there were the trees but then there were the delightful girls out admiring them. I think Korea is still surging in population. I used to go to the City to simply sit and have coffee and watch the girls walk by. Yes, it was Union Square and the Francis Drake but my they were restful to a bachelor eye.