BEFORE THE FALL

Before God and Allah this was the known world. Places to the North, East and South had a history too. You can read it.

To the west, in the New World, history was lost. One can read about the Incas and Mayans and Aztecs but their words vanished from the earth. Nothing in writing survived the Spanish conquest.

Their cities achieved population densities that more than rivaled England or Spain. Every bit of that is lost and gone. It was as if they had no Plato or Cicero or Trajan.

SURFPAC

They have locked the doors and are safe now.

 This one actually hurt. We had an open door policy when I worked there. We wanted to hear from our fleet.

Nobody is ever again going to just drop by and say hello and you suck.

So.

Spared again I guess.

RUGGED NAUTILUS AND ME

In 1996 the US military prepared for the Atlanta Olympic Games by polishing our fangs so as to deter Iran from doing anything crazier than usual. It took the form, in Naval Forces Central Command, of daily flights of Air Force cargo planes arriving with 'stuff' that was offloaded. The planes were emptied and then flown home. Concurrently, a brand new radar sonar surveillance system and generators were sent to me via an opportune lift (Air National Guard training flight) C-141. I met the plane when it landed at Bahrain International Airport. As it taxied up to the navy's military cargo area and home of the Desert Duck, I saw that it had some problems. Fuel. Lots of fuel was sleeting off the top of the wings. 10 men got off the plane and all appeared to not notice gallons of jet fuel dripping on them.

My purpose was twofold. I was going to take delivery of the replacement surveillance system and I was going to load up the one we had for return to the states. Simple. There was another problem. The plane had not one but two load-masters and they were in a snit. There was a third man who was also a load-master who was 'observing and rating' the two guys throwing a fit.* It took them 6 hours. SIX HOURS to offload two generators and my surveillance system. They elected to use a 5 ton truck to pull the system off up until they backed it into one of the upraised personnel doors in the aircraft. It left a mark. When they became hysterical, the civilian ramp boss snuck up behind them with a piece of yellow gear and whipped the stuff off the plane.

The plane continued to offload fuel from the top of the wings. Once the cargo was off, my problems began. If it took this crew 6 hours to get a generator off. It was going to take forever to get a 20 foot milvan embarked. I had 10 minutes. The crew were told they could not remain overnight and had to leave for Dhahran; never to return.

I took my brand new surveillance system back to the Banz and phoned home to let them know that I now had two of them and what did they want me to do with the spare. They were quite excited at the news. This was before video conferencing so I can't be sure that they were foaming at the mouth but that was the impression I got.

So, we return to our highly polished fangs now. There were all these completely totally empty Air Force cargo planes returning CONUS. Why not, we wondered, see if we can use them for opportune lift? It must be noted that my community had no money at all. None. We were skint. We looked under the cushions for change and dipped a finger into every payphone coin return. I consulted my brothers at NAVCENT and even deigned to talk to CTF 54 and ASU. Yes yes, I knew better but optimism is my guiding star. I did it. I consigned the old surveillance system to an empty C5 on the promise that it was free.

Months later I was home on leave for a couple of weeks when I got a call from our Logistics Officer. He was a very nice man, ordinarily. Jeff started out the call by asking me if I had my checkbook. He told me that the Air Force had billed us $54,000 for that opportune lift and he thought I should pay. I countered with the system was damaged in transit and he should send a bill for $54,000 to the Air Force and stop bothering me.

It became a game. A game I truly enjoyed playing. My stuff always moved by a DEPORD after that. Deployment Orders from the Joint Chiefs of Staff always tell the services to comply and capture the cost for later reimbursement. No money or funding has to change hands. I think it a more sane approach. Imagine. An army platoon sergeant calls for air support in Afghanistan and the Air Force operator asks if he has a funding site for that which can be billed by the Air Force. That was TRANSCOM.

I took notes and now I have them again

*there was another load-master there. We took advantage of the 452nd's offer and got certified simply because it was far easier to self-manifest. Only played us false one time, in Adak. No. I did not even breath a word as I watched that farce. It was not life and death and they did not work for me.

BOOTS ON THE GROUND

Why don't the ruling and chattering class use the word soldier anymore?

STABILITY

Once there was a mighty empire. Damascus was within that empire.

 

 I enjoyed The West Wing. It was a brilliantly written and acted show. The words from the episode Proportional Response ring loudly today as we gear up for another Social War.

Did you know that two thousand years ago a Roman citizen could walk across the face of the known world free of the fear of molestation? He could walk across the Earth unharmed, cloaked only in the protection of the words civis Romanus -- I am a Roman citizen. So great was the retribution of Rome, universally certain, should any harm befall even one of its citizens.

I dare say we all wish we had Mr. Bartlet for president. There is stasis and stability and there is dynamic stability. The world has been a pretty dynamic place for some time. What we did to the Shah of Iran was a mistake. A huge mistake. We did it again with Mubarek in Egypt. We did it in Libya. We are doing it again in Syria. Some of the ruling class are unhappy that dictators maintain the relative stability of their countries using fear, the police and a ruthless fanaticism to suppress the uncivilized barbarians. They pretend to see no barbarians. The house of Saud must tremble at knowing that they are next on our hit parade.

We are going to look away as we do to Syria what we did to Libya and Egypt. Those poor bastards.

WHEN BARBARIANS COME

Who knew Del Mar, California was the modern Alexandria?

RIVER SHARKS EVERYWHERE

The perfect end to this police boat attack farce will be the owner of the sunken vessel getting a citation and cleanup bill from the government and city agencies involved for hazarding a police boat and spilling oil and possible chemical/bio hazardous waste into the river. I find these things a little amusing but not too amusing. Last week I was sailing and canoeing that same river a half mile away from where this idiot gratuitously lunged out of the water to smash boats.

Think about this though

if you fell overboard and needed someone to come over and help you out of the water, is this the guy you'd want to motor over you and offer assistance? 

Why yes, I did leave out a word.
 * updated. the first film seems to be held by the NSA and won't run. So I added another and another that started with the same search term.  The question remains. Do we really want any help at all from these guys?

Piling on an earlier post. These guys are the modern highwaymen. Why do we pay them?

FREE HAWAII

A couple hundred cruise missiles ought to do the trick.

A RIGHT TO PRE-EMPTIVE SELF DEFENSE

I don't go out of my way to read about how awful American law enforcement is these days. The news just happens to be filled with stories about the armed thugs we have allowed to take over our Public Safety offices at every level from local to national authorities. This murderous thug is not leading the charge of police who believe they have both a right and a duty to shoot anybody they want to but is rather just part of the main stream of modern police type thinking.

Chief of Police shoots handcuffed suspect

Seriously, it wasn't too many years ago that I mourned police officers killed in the line of duty. Somehow Public Safety morphed totally into Officer Safety and screw the rest of us. I suppose I can live with that. When the cops open fire on unarmed people every day of the week and also manage to shoot innocent bystanders it may be time to rein them in and just issue them a single bullet. On the other hand, it only takes them one bullet sometimes so just are their actions and true their aims.

The picture above? Oh, its just life in a Republic where the police were not accountable to anyone.

A MOST HONORABLE COMPANY

For many years I have read of the Watcher's Council and read their articles with enjoyment and appreciation. Smart bunch of writers I'd say to myself. I have been a little farther away than usual from the world for the last couple of weeks while messing about in boats with my daughter and showing my girl the wonderments of the West Coast. I'm a little late noticing things. Just look!

 Thank you The Mellow Jihadi!

SHAKESPEARE RENDEZVOUS

I'm back in San Diego briefly wrapping up some affairs that have been left to themselves for long enough. Through great good fortune I was lucky enough to have both company on the way and charming reasons to find myself back on the left coast and in San Diego. We left Portland and drove down to Eureka so that we could see the Redwoods and the little forests that remain.

Grant's Pass to Crescent City

 From Eureka we continued down Highway 1 to San Francisco with a few hours in Muir Wood because only a madman would not stop to admire what God and man hath wrought there. We spend the night with family in Albany across the Bay and set out the next morning southerly until the San Mateo Bridge, made a bit of westing and continued on down Highway 1 with brief stops along the way in Monterey and a few nice spots of beach and Carmel and spent the night at the Ventana Inn and Spa.

Big Sur

Muir Wood

As we left Big Sur we saw the rocket contrail and wondered what that was and then we continued down the coast on Highway 1 past Malibu and Santa Monica before heading into the hell that is the 405 in LA. We got to NAB Coronado at about 2100 because we stopped at my old place in Solana Beach to wolf down the first of daily rations of Robertos at Fletcher's Cove.

When I found out from reading his blog that Sarge was in Lemoore I asked him if he was up for a meet at Shakespeare's Pub since I know he is an admirer of Lex.  I used to hang out in distinguished company,

Three Captains

nowadays I travel with my Blogger-at-Arms and hang out with old guys in bars. It was great to meet Sarge, Tuna and the Naviguesser.  For a long time the only blogger I knew was Lex.

The Author, Old AF Sarge, and Tuna at Shakespeare's Pub

Everybody I asked to dinner at Sbicca's is welcome to a Guinness at Shakespeare's-on me. I'll be in town thru Thursday.

GIFTED AMPHIBIANS

Ruthlessly stolen tonight from Traditional Vibe.

NO MERCY

I've been traveling the land for the last 2 weeks and away from news of all kinds purely because that is my preference. It looks like this country will lash out at Syria soon with the merciless and pointless savagery we  have become infamous for indulging.

It's the indiscriminate killing that bothers me. Any country that does that is no better than the scumbags who leave car bombs in shopping districts in order to blow up innocents. We object to the senseless killing of Syrians so we should do some too?

I think only a tiny number of Americans have actually thoughtfully considered the chain of events unleashed when engaging in a tactical attack on civilian infrastructure in foreign countries but you can ponder the idea in this way. Take a few minutes during the day to sit and consider that your state capital has become a renegade menace to the USA and needs to be reduced by explosions to kill the leadership, destroy their means of controlling the population through broadcast news and radio, eliminate the electrical power to key/vital areas such as public transit, schools, hospitals and military bases. Isolate the capital from the surrounding region and Republican Guard by destroying bridges, rail terminals, airfields, hangars, TV and radio transmitters and stations. You have 500 missiles, each with a thousand pounds of high explosive. Use them as you like. There are no points for saving any or keeping any back. Draw up your list of targets and then fire.

2 girls sit on the steps at home

How many friends did you kill? Do you think it made a difference?

ODERINT DUM METUANT works for competent butchers of men. It does not have the same effect when incompetently butchering women and children for no reason.

YEAH, WE SAW THAT

Finally!
We were driving down Highway 1 from Big Sur and saw this huge plume that wasn't a cloud. It wasn't until we checked in at NAB Coronado that we realized that it was the biggest rocket ever launched out of Vandenberg.

Big sucker on the right...

What we saw

The viewing is limited in MassifCentalisOriental so this is the first good bit of sky stuff we've witnessed since the Transit of Venus.

LABOR ORGANIZATION

This has been brewing for as long as their coffee used to brew but it's interesting to listen to the attitudes of the workers and their supporters. This is the strategy of the UAW when it struck the weakest auto maker and forced the rest to raise wages and benefits. I don't think that's going to happen this time. This used to be an entry level job. The fact that it isn't says volumes about education and job creation in this country.

Waitress=money.

WORTH FIGHTING FOR

It gets rarer and rarer.

I'll have a double!

A FLASH OF LIGHT

Today was the first day of school in parts of California. They have a phobia about guns at schools that extends to pictures of guns at schools or to maintaining a list of people that should be 'first against the wall' come the Revolution. I wonder how school administrators and teachers would handle kids showing up with these vital tools of the knowledge imparting arcania....

Of course they'd respond as if these were the targeting beams for big scary Laser Guided Bombs or Missiles. It would be nice for their over-reaction to harmless stimuli to have some basis in reality. For once.

LEFT 5 AND FIRE FOR EFFECT!

TAO OF PRATCHETT

There are always more.

"Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day," I say. "But set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life. 

“It was nice to hear the voices of little children at play, provided you took care to be far enough away not to hear what they were actually saying.”


“No matter how fast light travels it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.”

FINDING HAPPY IS NO CHORE

I worry sometimes that the good times are forgotten but it is not so. I have no fears about the bad times for there were never any of those between the two of us. She is slipping steadily into the age of reason but holding firmly to play which is a good thing. We do things together that would be the despair of her mother if either one of us was inclined to ever share with others what we do when we go off into the bright mornings when we two are together again. We only get these two weeks a year and the occasional holiday before she must return to Mordor and keep at bay the enemies of Just So and Enough.

 If only there was some way to smuggle a Palantir (iPod) into Mordor with her when she goes on alone to her other home among the nazgul so we could talk together anytime she wanted. I looked at disguises but we need to fool

DECAPITATION STRIKE

Authors of the Cold War era used to write wonderful thrillers about some Agents fending off or defeating an attack that destroyed the leadership of the United States in a single strike. These agents would be canny, resourceful, brilliant and deadly and best of all, they did the job. We have shows like NCIS which show similar levels of effort by similarly talented very special agents in the here and now,  but I wonder.

Would we be a lot better off if somebody elected to launch a decapitation strike at US and it worked?

THE FIND PRINT

Hidden deep within the midden below are the words of salvation, "this act not enforceable on days ending in y".  Honestly, how hard could it be to have inserted those words anywhere in this act or in any other bill passed by Congress and signed by the President? I can see those words written into the Food Stamp Act that no democrat dare disdain with the addendum that they apply to all federal regulations written and approved since 1945.

House Speaker props up Obamacare Legislation

It's in the fine print.

INJURED SPRITES OF THE APOCALYPSE

Have the Palestinians been up to their old trick of exporting terrorism to their neighbors again? I'd be curious to see how many of the minions of darkness waging civil terror in Syria are Palestinians like their brothers in Egypt, Lebanon and Libya. It's at times like this that I can hear the faint declaration of those willing to die for their beliefs and their Gods and rest easy that I am still willing to kill for mine.

....and I have plenty of ammo.

Give them time and they will kill anybody for nothing. There are any number of plagues locked away against the day that hasn't come yet but it is not too early to say that what was locked away can be taken out and used this day or the next and there is nothing at all that 95% of the world can do to stop or slow it down. What happened to the New World as plagues swept from one ocean to the other and back again destroying generations in a twinkling of an eye can happen again. Will happen again and this time it will be the witting tool of men who aim to do evil.

People so steeped in death and evil won't blink at using poison gas on civilians, their own civilians if the cause demands it and they won't stop at unleashing all the plagues of ancient times on the earth if they could just lay their hands on them. Sad to say, there's any number of good Germans who will happily sell them to anybody with the money to pay for them.

Rich new lands to repossess in the name of much diminished mankind. Whole continents adrift without a living soul on them.

Those of us who made a peculiar study of war on the Korean Peninsula used to opine that the Kim Regime would infinitely prefer to use their arsenals of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons rather than follow the Soviet and Chinese into peace with the West. We anticipated a devastating but extremely local little nuclear war.  The good old days.

And people worry about Global Warming.  Do try to keep up, People!

HAVING FUN IN MY MIND

Simply thinking NSA makes this funny all by itself in my mind.

I suppose one might also admit it applies to people with blogs.

Not me.

FLEECY SKIES

We struck out seeing the Perseid Meteors. Clouds made mock of our vain attempt to see just a few, even one meteor in the night sky. Still, not going to give up looking. I did find a very interesting little thing tonight while rummaging around that will give breath to what I mentioned during our last foray in the dark hinterlands of MetroParkCentralis:


This astroviewer gives you a look at the International Space Station's real time ground track and provides a 10 day projection for when the ISS will be visible from your place on the planet when you enter your location on the map.

It can't always be cloudy.