DEDICATED TO ALL THOSE WHO FLEW BEHIND ROUND ENGINES

Ev, this one's for you!

We gotta get rid of those turbines, they're ruining aviation and our hearing...

A turbine is too simple minded, it has no mystery. The air travels through it in a straight line and doesn't pick up any of the pungent fragrance of engine oil or pilot sweat.

Anybody can start a turbine. You just need to move a switch from "OFF" to "START" and then remember to move it back to "ON" after a while. My PC is harder to start.

Cranking a round engine requires skill, finesse and style. You have to seduce it into starting. It's like waking up a horny mistress. On some planes, the pilots aren't even allowed to do it...

Turbines start by whining for a while, then give a lady-like poof and start whining a little louder.

Round engines give a satisfying rattle-rattle, click-click, BANG, more rattles, another BANG, a big macho FART or two, more clicks, a lot more smoke and finally a serious low pitched roar. We like that. It's a GUY thing...

When you start a round engine, your mind is engaged and you can concentrate on the flight ahead Starting a turbine is like flicking on a ceiling fan: Useful, but, hardly exciting.

When you have started his round engine successfully your Mechanic looks up at you like he'd let you kiss his girl, too!

Turbines don't break or catch fire often enough, which leads to aircrew boredom, complacency and inattention. A round engine at speed looks and sounds like it's going to blow any minute. This helps concentrate the mind!

Turbines don't have enough control levers or gauges to keep a pilot's attention. There's nothing to fiddle with during long flights.

Turbines smell like a Boy Scout camp full of Coleman Lamps. Round engines smell like God intended machines to smell.

Pass this on to an old guy (or his son, or anyone who flew them, ever) in remembrance of ALL those who know the meaning of BMEP.

I learned about Radials as a young sailor, starting S-2F and EC-121s. And yes, you did develop a feel for them or you blew them up... 

You learned how to count blades, which engines on which acft were hard starters, which ones were easy, which ones liked to give you a stack fire, etc...

Random Road stuff...

Oh boy, this road trip is finally at an end...  My butt is draggin...

I get to go home for a whole thirty mumble hours before I have to leave again... sigh...

Main thing is everybody is going home in one piece, so I'm happy about that. A few more random pics from the road for ya.

Now you may have thought I was a little overboard about the rain in LA last week, but when I saw this thing come taxiing by, I really began to wonder!  It's a Grumman Albatross (better known as a Coast Guard HU-16).  It is beautifully restored! 

And while we were sitting on our butts waiting for our bird to come back, I took a little walk... I call this one a Pearl amongst the Swine...

What kind of pearl one asks?  It's a J-3 Cub with the tip mods for even shorter takeoff and landing...  It is down here from Alaska to be refurbished for next winter.  And yes, those are real Alaskan brand tires!  What that means is this little airplane cannot land on a regular runway, because it will blow the tires out, so it lands on grass or snow (or in between the runway, which is what this guy did)...  I can just see the guy in the Tower now...  "You want to land WHERE???"

And one of the traffic... This is NOT rush hour!  

You know how to tell??

The cars are more than six feet apart... sigh...

And a little humor.

A beautiful fairy appeared one day to a destitute refugee claimant outside a U.S. immigration office.

'My good man,' the fairy said, 'I've been sent here by President Obama and told to grant you three wishes, since you just arrived in the United States with your wife and three children.'

The man told the fairy. 'Well, where I come from we don't have good teeth, so I want new teeth, maybe a lot of gold in them.'

The fairy looked at the man's almost toothless grin and --

PING! -- he had a brand new shining set of gold teeth in his mouth!

'What else?' asked the fairy, 'two more to go.'

The refugee claimant now got bolder. & said; 'I need a big house with a three car garage on the water, with eight bedrooms for my family and the rest of my relatives who still live in my country. I want to bring them all over here..

PING! - In the distance there could be seen a beautiful mansion with a three car garage, a long driveway, a walkout patio with a BBQ in an upscale neighborhood overlooking the bay.

'One more wish', said the fairy, waving her wand. 'Yes, one more wish.

I want to be like an American with American clothes instead of these torn clothes, and a baseball cap instead of this turban. And I want to have white skin like Americans.

PING ! - The man was transformed, wearing worn out jeans, a Yankees T-shirt and a baseball cap. He had his bad teeth back and the mansion had disappeared from the horizon.

'What happened to my new teeth?' he wailed. 'Where is my new house?'

The fairy said 'Tough luck, Mac, Now that you are a White American, you have to fend for yourself.'

Tiger Woods Speech...

Tiger Woods accepted the invitation to speak at the inauguration........ But he didn't deliver the message his inviters had expected!

Tiger Woods spoke Sunday at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington during "We Are One," an inauguration celebration for President-elect Barack Obama. Below is the text of his speech, entitled "You'll Never Walk Alone" as posted on his Web site:

I grew up in a military family -- and my role models in life were my Mom and Dad, Lt. Colonel Earl Woods.My dad was a Special Forces operator and many nights friends would visit our home. They represented every branch of service, and every rank.

In my Dad, and in those guests, I saw first hand the dedication and commitment of those who serve. They come from every walk of life. From every part of our country. Time and again, across generations, they have defended our safety in the dark of night and far from home.

Each day -- and particularly on this historic day -- we honor the men and women in uniform who serve our country and protect our freedom. They travel to the dangerous corners of the world, and we must remember that for every person who is in uniform, there are families who wait for them to come home safely.

I am honored that the military is such an important part, not just of my personal life, but of my professional life as well. The golf tournament we do each year here in Washington is a testament to those unsung heroes. I am the son of a man who dedicated his life to his country, family and the military, and I am a better person for it.

In the summer of 1864, Abraham Lincoln, the man whose memorial we stand, spoke to the 164th Ohio Regiment and said:"I am greatly obliged to you, and to all who have come forward at the call of their country."Just as they have stood tall for our country -- we must always stand by and support the men and women in uniform and their families.

Thank you, and it is now my pleasure to introduce the U.S. Naval Glee Club.

You know he was greatly pressured to be there. You know the liberals have been mad at him for a decade for not joining their ranks. You know he didn't want to be there. So instead of paying homage to Obama, he paid tribute to our soldiers. Not one time did Tiger mention Obama or the inauguration or the new administration. You know, he knew he would disappoint, even anger, many, many liberals. but Tiger is his own man. His old man taught him to be his own man. Somewhere in that cold, gray Washington sky, old Earl was smiling down on his son.

Good on ya Tiger!

I'll play along...

Here is the link to the Hero Factory, go play :-)


Ironically, the logo is actually our shooting team logo, minus a bullet hole...

Random Road stuff...

On the way in this morning, everybody was ducking/dodging something in the road; as I get up close, move over and get ready to dodge... There is a student driver!

That poor sucker was doing 55 and everybody else was doing 80...  He was up on that wheel like a NASCAR veteran and the instructor was kinda crouched down like he was expecting them to get hit any minute...

The cat herding is going about as well as can be expected, minor changes have cause major perturbations with the cats, but at this point I am expecting nothing less... sigh...

I also screwed up, forgot what day it is, and missed going to the California NASCAR race at Pomona. What's even worse, I had a %$^&* free ticket...   (pardon me while I go bang head against wall)

AND it's Oscar night in LA, so all the industry people are in town, some staying at the same hotel I'm at.  How do I know this, you ask?  Well, when I come back and see NINE extended limos in the parking area near the lobby, and bunches of people in Tuxes and designer dresses.  A couple I "think" I recognize, including one older woman with a 20 something boy toy in slavish attendance...

That means there is no way in hell I'm going anywhere near down town tonight!

In the insult to injury category- My work computer (which is the only one I brought) decided to die last night, so among other things, I had to go buy a computer today... Since Circus City is going out of business, I thought I might get lucky, but Noooo.  That place looked like scavengers had attacked it!!!  There was not a single thing left I would have paid money for...  

Anyhoo, I'm sitting here trying to reconfigure a computer, download updates, and salvage address books, in addition to getting work going.  Guess this is gonna be a room service salad night.... sigh...

Whales...

No- not THAT kind...

A3D Skywarriors, also known as Whales, also known as All Three Deads... Built in the 1950's, accepted by the Navy in 1956, still flying in 2008. Er... Do. The. Math... 52 years and tens of thousands of hours later, they are still serving.

Since I had a little time and access, a couple of pics for those airdales who read this blog.

Steam gauges... This is Ron's office, Ron is the high time pilot in the world on this aircraft... The yellow handle is the blade fold handle, which blocks the throttles- Not a bad idea, as this sucker won't fly too well with the wings folded...

And the unofficial call sign for both the pilot and airplane is Dinosaur...

This is why it was called an All Three Dead- This was the only way in/out of the aircraft, no ejection seats, just an escape slide that went out the bottom of the aircraft ...

AND this was the largest aircraft to routinely fly on/off the carrier. On the older boats (CV-41/43) there was about four feet of clearance between the wing tip and parked aircraft when landing this thing...

A side note- One of my co-workers is one of the few to survive a water landing in an A3- And that is the way they logged it... :-)

To see this airplane in flight, and read more, go to the A3 Skywarriors site - HERE and start the A-3 Takeoff video on the front page.

It’s all good…

Zero dark 30- the bird has been prepped, unplugged from “shore power” and is being towed from the hangar. As it bounces over the door tracks, the wings flex, almost as if stretching and getting ready for flight.

We step out into the pre-dawn chill of the ramp, enjoying a pilot’s breakfast (a cigarette, cup of coffee, and a donut) talking about the flight, what needs to be done, and the weather. As we talk, we start laughing about it, remembering how many times and places we have done this before…

Greg walks back into the hangar, gets geared up and climbs into the cockpit as the NC-8 cart starts into its load cycle. The ground crewman gives the thumbs up, and master power is turned on, the cockpit comes alive as the displays, radios and nav systems start spinning up.

One last walk through the kneeboard cards on powering up the package, and I have to get down, not able to go flying. dammit…

The package is cycled, checks good, the engine started and one more check of the package is done. Greg gives a thumbs up, the ground crew and pilot do the dance of checks, wipeouts and minutia of the pre-taxi routine. Chocks are pulled, and off he goes.

We stand on the ramp, once again silent in the early morning. Just as the sun starting to peek over the hills, we hear the power come up, and the bird lifts off cleanly, climbing into the new day…

We turn around to walk back to the hangar, the sound of a radial engine in full pitch causes us to turn around. It’s an old Navy T-28 doing a break for the field…

Not a bad way to start the morning…

GImme a minute...

Gimme a minute, I’m trying to get the seat cushion outta my ass…

Sigh… Let me count the ways I hate LA… Traffic, traffic TRAFFIC!!! 1.5 inches of rain, 4 lanes wide, STILL doing 65mph bumper to bumper, wrecks everywhere and these idjits are honking and cussing each other; and this is at 0630 BEFORE rush hour starts! "Best" wreck seen, Mercedes AMG55 rear ended one of the big 7 series Bimmers- Two blondes out in the middle of the lane, yelling at each other as their hair styles melted and their $1000 dresses got soaking wet. I just kept on driving...

The Grapevine is snowed in, CHP is kicking people off, radio is saying don’t even go that way… Any bets there will be 5-6 hour traffic delays???

Finally get off on the surface streets, one section is about 3-4 inches deep, I’m poking along through it; here comes a little lowered fart mobile, he hits the water at probably 50mph and goes for a hydroplane ride, until he gets stopped by a palm tree… sigh…

We do our conference call, find out there are four of us in the same building, all calling in from different offices… yep, this day is gonna be a REAL winner…

So, we decide to go to lunch, I end up driving, and damned if I don’t get pulled over for a turn signal being out! At least I didn’t get a ticket, but now I’ve got to hassle with that sometime today!

Oh joy- just checked the weather, calling for an inch or more rain later today! LA’s gonna be swimming!

Edit- This was actually from yesterday, this morning was not much better... sigh...

And on the Lightbringer’s rule, we have this…

Norman Mattoon Thomas (November 20, 1884 - December 19, 1968), and some of us are old enough to remember him running for President, was a leading American socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America.

Norman Thomas said this in a 1944 speech: "The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of "liberalism," they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened." He went on to say: "I no longer need to run as a Presidential Candidate for the Socialist Party. The Democratic Party has adopted our platform."

Heard probably the best description of the porkulus bill a while ago- Congressional ReAllocation Program- CRAP! Yep, works for me, cause they are sure as hell reallocating my money from MY pocket into theirs in the form of more taxes!!!

A dumb question here- IF this CRAP is so important, why has the Lightbringer waited until Tuesday to sign it? Why is the trip to Denver being called a "campaign" appearance?

It looks like our total debt is over $78 Trillion dollars when you add the national debt, Social Security, and Medicare/Medicaid costs together. That exceeds the economy of the ENTIRE world…

We will be working for the rest of our lives to try to pay this off. Retire? I think not…

Oopsie…

Big ocean, small (well relatively speaking) submarines…

The HMS Vanguard was towed back to a submarine base in Scotland with visible dents and scrapes, the BBC reported. The Le Triomphant suffered damaged to a sonar dome in the front of the submarine but returned under its own power to its base on L'Ile Longue on France's western tip, according to the French military.

Neither France nor Britain would confirm the exact date of the collision, but said it took place earlier this month. France issued a brief statement Feb. 6 saying the Le Triomphant had struck "a submerged object" that was probably a shipping container.
Yep, submerged object alright… Sigh… SOMEBODY was WAY out of their box. Suffice to say, this should never have happened, but as usual, I’m betting the French were off the reservation because they are notorious for this kind of crap…

And of course all the media is in full O.M.G. mode… they have Nuclear MISSLES aboard, why it could have been a world wide DISASTER. HOW could this possibly have happened…

Without going into detail, their entire goal is to be invisible from the time they submerge until the return to port. They don’t use their SONAR at all, the move slow, etc. to minimize their noise signature, and move randomly in (well, supposedly in) their assigned boxes.

Except the USSR has lost four Nuc subs on the bottom over the years and we have lost two (USS Thresher and USS Scorpion). Link is here.

More Chi-town politics…
Horror of horrors, a Chicago politician lied! Burris is now questioning what the definition of is is after being caught up in the Blago scandal, after saying he was squeaky clean…

Taking Chance...

HBO will be showing Taking Chance this weekend. If you can either watch it or TiVo it do so. This is a very special story written by LT Col Michael Stroble, the officer who volunteered to escort the body of PFC Chance Phelps home in 2004 after Pvt. Phelps was killed in Iraq.

This was originally posted in 2004 on Blackfive’s blog (here) and I do not know a single person who read it that was not in tears... Now, five years later, HBO will show it Saturday night in prime time. Talking to folks in the business, it’s about 95% correct.

I will tell you, having been a CACO twice while on active duty, this is if not the hardest, one of the hardest duties there is in the military. After you watch it and dry your tears, say a prayer for those still fighting for our freedom around the world and those who take on the duty of bringing those who die in the line of duty home.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, please go watch!

Old NFO

Trillion with a T...

This evening (Feb. 14th), Fox News will be airing an exclusive investigative report "Trillion With a 'T': How to Spend $1,000,000,000,000".

Since I don't have anything better to do, I'm gonna watch and see where my money is really going...

h/t JR over a Keyboard and a .45

And in honor of Valentines Day... a little humor-

My wife and I were watching Who Wants To Be A Millionaire while we were in bed.
I turned to her and said, "Do you want to have sex?" "No," she answered. I then said, "Is that your final answer?" She didn't even look at me this time, simply saying "Yes." So I said, "Then I'd like to phone a friend."

And that's when the fight started....

I asked my wife, "Where do you want to go for our anniversary?" It warmed my heart to see her face melt in sweet appreciation. "Somewhere I haven't been in a long time!" she said. So I suggested, "How about the kitchen?"

And that's when the fight started....

A man and a woman were asleep like two innocent babies. Suddenly, at 3 o'clock in the morning, a loud noise came from outside. The woman, bewildered, jumped up from the bed and yelled at the man 'Holy Crap. That must be my husband!'
So the man jumped out of the bed; scared and naked jumped out the window. He smashed himself on the ground, ran through a thorn bush and to his car as fast as he could go.

A few minutes later he returned and went up to the bedroom and screamed at the woman, 'I AM your husband!' The woman yelled back, 'Yeah, then why were you running?'

And then the fight started....

I tried to talk my wife into buying a case of Miller Light for $14.95. Instead, she bought a jar of cold cream for $7.95. I told her the beer would make her look better at night than the cold cream.

And then the fight started....

A woman was standing nude, looking in the bedroom mirror. She was not happy with what she saw and said to her husband, 'I feel horrible; I look old, fat and ugly. I really need you to pay me a compliment.' The husband replies, 'Your eyesight's damn near perfect.'

And then the fight started....

I took my wife to a restaurant. The waiter, for some reason,took my order first. "I'll have the strip steak, medium rare, please." He said, "Aren't you worried about the mad cow?" "Nah, she can order for herself."

And then the fight started....

My wife and I were sitting at a table at my high school reunion, and I kept staring at a drunken lady swigging her drink as she sat alone at a nearby table. My wife asked, 'Do you know her?' 'Yes,' I sighed, 'She's my old girlfriend. I understand she took to drinking right after we split up those many years ago,and I hear she hasn't been sober since.' 'My God!' said my wife, 'who would think a person could go on celebrating that long?'

And then the fight started...

My wife was hinting about what she wanted for our upcoming anniversary. She said, 'I want something shiny that goes from 0 to 150 in about 3 seconds.' I bought her a scale.

And then the fight started...

My wife sat down on the couch next to me as I was flipping channels. She asked, 'What's on TV?' I said, 'Dust.'

And then the fight started...

Feinstein is a #@$%* idiot and security risk...

The disclosure by Feinstein, as chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, marked the first time a U.S. official had publicly commented on where the Predator aircraft patrolling Pakistan take off and land.

At a hearing, Feinstein expressed surprise at Pakistani opposition to Predator-launched CIA missile strikes against Al Qaeda targets along Pakistan's northwest border. "As I understand it, these are flown out of a Pakistani base," she said.

The CIA declined to comment, but former U.S. intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information, confirmed that Feinstein's account was accurate.

Phil LaVelle, a spokesman for Feinstein, said her comment was based solely on previous news reports.

Previous news reports, my dying ass... Thank you Congresscritter Feinstein for putting EVEN MORE of our troops at risk and in harms way with your incompetence and stupidity!

Can we charge her with treason? Please?

Ye Gods, do any of those idjits up there have ANY sense? Oh yeah, one more good one on the porkulus bill-

Not only was it not published for 48 hours as promised, the Senators ONLY got hard copy, no electronic copy so they couldn't search the bill the way they normally do for keywords (read PORK)... It does appear Reid stuck his multi-million dollar fairy tale Maglev Train from Anaheim to Las Vegas in the bill, but no according to the Lightbringer, there is no earmarks...

Oh and THIS is even better... the Lobbyists on K Street got electronic copies!

I give, I'm gonna go have a Scotch or three (dozen).

Where do I start...

I'm beginning to think YouTube is starting to censor posts/links to videos. I tried to post one last night about Chuckie Shumer and his little chatters rant yesterday, and I'll admit is was pretty snarky, since I started off by calling him a sanctimonious prick, but hey, it's TRUE...


Anyhoo, bottom line is the post never was sent to my blog by YouTube. My rant did include the figures for the $2 Trillion for the bailouts and porkulus bill; cutting to the end of the story, it will cost each of us over the age of 16 and working in the US about $75,000 over our working lives to actually pay for all the crap in this. By the way, this does NOT include the normal taxes we pay...

Late entry- Our glorious tax break is now... wait for it... A whopping $13/week! Yea! Maybe I can afford TWO cups of coffee in DC...

Edit- Based on what has been posted, I don't even qualify for the $13 because I make too much. Sigh...

I'm not going to call this a bumper sticker since it's just a hair LARGE, but it pretty much fits my sentiments...




On other notes- Sen Gregg declined to be the Sect'y of Commerce after getting back doored by R. Emanuel on the porkulus and the Census.


"However, it has become apparent during this process that this will not work for me as I have found that on issues such as the stimulus package and the Census there are irresolvable conflicts for me. Prior to accepting this post, we had discussed these and other potential differences, but unfortunately we did not adequately focus on these concerns. We are functioning from a different set of views on many critical items of policy."


Full quotes here. And speaking of the Census, taking it away from Commerce (which was supposedly to keep the Census from being political) and putting it under Emanuel means the Democrats are going to politicize the hell out of it and gerrymander the hell out of the Congress to their benefit.


In my opinion (for what that's worth), I believe we "may" be looking at what is effectively the end of the two party system as far as fair representation in government if they get their way.


And since I'm already pissed, one more non-PC thought for the evening... WHY does the porkulus have billions for illegal immigrants to get food, medicine, and education stuffed in there? How about instead those billions are put in to redo Operation Wetback and send em all back home??? Then there will be lots of open jobs, the unemployment rate will drop considerably, and 12,000,000 more people will actually be added to the tax rolls who will PAY taxes, unlike the illegals, who only drain our system. Also, I'd bet the crime rates would also drop...


Ah hell, since I'm at it anyway, one more-


"I absolutely think it's time to be bringing accountability to the airwaves," Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., told liberal radio host Bill Press last week. She said she expects hearings soon on reviving the policy, which was introduced in 1949 and abolished in 1987.

Since Stabenow's husband, Tom Athans, is and has been an executive at several liberal radio talk groups, I wonder what HE gets out of the deal...

Also, interesting is this apparently will ONLY apply to radio, not broadcast TV, not cable TV or the print media. Hmmm, lemme see... Where is the ONLY place left for Conservatives and Christians to host programs? Uh, oh, RADIO... Doh!

HR45 is alive and well, and if you're curious as to what the Dems are doing, go check this LINK to see... Those folks are determined to bring us to our knees!

Lemme see, is there anybody I didn't piss off tonight? Nah, this'll do.

That is all.

Preparedness...

Bug out bag? Two or three routes out of where you are? Know where you're going? Ammo, essentials (medications, etc.)?

The professionals will be talking about it Friday, 11:00 pm CST on Texas Fellowship Blog Talk Radio.Y'all give it a listen, and offer your comments. Mark does a good job with his shows too!

Here comes the weather...

Severe thunderbumper watch till 0200... I'm shutting down so I don't blow ANOTHER computer up... night all.

Edit- Interesting how the deep red washed out in the jpeg, compared to the actual Doppler radar shot. Hmmm...

Random stuff...

Geithner has postponed the announcement of the use of appx $350B left of TARP money (link here), so they can concentrate on spending the $850+B of the "new" stimulus (pork) package. Is it just me, or are now looking at OVER $1.4 Trillion dollars going out the door in basically 6 months? And for what, really?

Listening to the news this morning, it appears that John Q. Public is roughly 7:1 against this spending bill; but is anybody listening??? I think not...

On a different note- From a discussion I've been in, a different take on the Airbus forced landing in the Hudson. This is STRICTLY a discussion of the airframe, NOT a slam at the pilots or the crew!

Don't be surprised if the Airbus fly by wire computers didn't put a perfectly good airplane in the water. In a older generation airplane like the 727 or 737 300/400 the throttles are hooked to the fuel controllers on the engine by a steel throttle cable just like a TBM or a Comanche.

On the Airbus nothing in the cockpit is real. Everything is electronic. The throttles, rudder and brake pedals and the sidestick are hooked to rheostats who talk to a computer who talks to an electric hydraulic servo valve which in turn hopefully moves something.

In a older generation airplane when you hit birds the engines keep screaming or they blow up but they don't both roll back to idle simultaneously like happened to Flt. 1549. All it would take is for bird guts to plug a pressure sensor or knock the pitot probe off or plug it and the computers would roll the engines back to idle thinking they were over boosting because the computers were getting bad data.

The Airbus is a real pile of crap. I didn't like flying them. Google Airbus A320 Crash at the Paris Airshow in 1998. Watch the video of an airbus A320 crash into a forest because the computers wouldn't allow a power increase following a low pass. The computers wouldn't allow a power increase because they determined that the airspeed was too low for the increase requested so the computers didn't give them any until it was way too late.

Pushing the throttles forward in a Airbus does nothing more than request a power increase from the computer. If the computer doesn't like all the airplane and engine parameters you don't get a power increase. Airbus blamed the dead French crew since they couldn't defend themselves. A Boeing probably would have still been flying...

On a personal note- I was on an A-320 going into LAX last year in moderate turbulence on final where the auto throttles went to max power at about 10 feet off the deck. The pilot did manage to land that sucker, but talking to him after the flight he told me the airplane tried to wave off, he thought, due to the turbulence and fluctuating airspeed...

AD put up this post a few days ago which prompted me to put these words down on paper (so to speak)...

In the last six months, I have had a friend and two acquaintances die from alcohol and drugs. These were not young kids, these were mature successful adults who had retired and basically decided they had no reason to continue living...

"Ron" was a long time government engineer, divorced, kids grown and gone, who drank himself to death in 60 days. He had NO hobbies, no really close friends, no outside interests- basically his work was his life. When he retired, he basically went home and drank all day every day. Another acquaintance saw him about a week before he was found dead, and said he had put on about 60 lbs, reeked of booze and was staggering around the grocery store at 8am. A week later, they busted down the door to his apartment and he was found dead in a litter of empty fifths of booze...

My friend "John" who lived in Florida, was a bit "different" due to his time in Nam- I think based on what he told me, he had seen and done some things that he never wanted to face. He also was medically retired for many years from the Army and had been treated for years for PTSS. He was one of those folks who didn't really like people, hated being indoors, and never really held a full time job, but worked 60-70 hours a week.

But he was always ready to help friends with any tasks (and a damn good handyman). Ironically, he was excellent with kids! We finally convinced him to take up golf, and always made sure he was included in our foursomes when we played. He seemed to enjoy it, but I don't think he had another outlet or hobby.

I'm sure he was taking a variety of drugs, because he would often disappear for days at a time, but he always showed back up if he'd made a commitment to help somebody or we'd told him we were playing golf.

I saw him about a year ago, we talked about golf, work and my kids, whom he remembered when they were little. He seemed tired, and wasn't taking as good care of himself as he had been. I talked to another friend, who was also concerned; but told me "John" was just giving up on life, and openly doing drugs and booze in combination. He just didn't care. Two weeks ago I got the call that "John" had been found dead in his apartment.

Last was "Billy" a retired 30 year CWO4 from the Navy. "Billy" was a maintenance wizard, the original go to guy when weird problems cropped up. He was known for working 16-18 hours a day, was almost always in on weekends, and had to be forced to take leave. When "Billy" retired, he was fine for a couple of months, but then we started seeing him at the golf course at lunch, except his lunch was 12 oz at a time, and many of them. It wasn't long before he was passing out at the bar, and the cops were called a couple of times. When they tried to get him into treatment, he refused and basically told the Docs, "I'm done, nobody wants me and I have no where to go."

Again, no hobbies, no friends outside work, no social life after his wife died about 5 years ago. A month ago he was found dead, in his car in the golf course parking lot with two fifths...

The moral of this- Work is NOT a substitute for a life! Now some will say I'm the pot calling the kettle black; but please people, find SOMETHING outside work to put your energy into- Travel, golf, shooting, petite point, whatever... But don't let everything revolve around work to the exclusion of everything else. Stop and smell the roses, or the gunpowder, your choice...

That is all.

Rahm Emanuel to Disarm America:

THIS is now the guy that is Chief of Staff for the President. After you listen to this tell me the 2nd Amendment is not going to be under fire in the near future.

This is RIDICULOUS!!!

From Fox News-

The senior military judge overseeing terror trials at Guantanamo Bay has dropped charges against a suspect in the 2000 USS Cole bombing.

The legal move by the Hon. Susan J. Crawford upholds President Obama's Guantanamo order to halt court proceedings at the Navy detention center in Cuba.

You can go to this link from the NYT and read the entire 38 page docket.

There is a lot more to this than meets the eye. First and foremost, this puts everything back to square one. If this gets brought to the US Justice system rather than a Military Tribunal, all the previous evidence (above) will be null and void. Basically this means Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri could walk!

The Lightbringer has graciously invited not only the families of the USS Cole victims, but also the 9-11 families to the White House tomorrow. I'm wondering if they are going to pull ALL the charges against everybody to prevent the judges like Col. James Pohl from doing their jobs.

If I were Skipper Lippold, I'm afraid I'd be beating on his desk...

Here is the memorial to those who men and women who died on the USS Cole. It is titled We Will Never Forget, but it's obvious some people have.

Just as a reminder- Here is a picture of the damage that killed 17 of our sailors.

I don't know about anybody else, but I'm going to be on the phone as soon as I get to work, calling my Senator and raising hell about this. I consider this a grevious insult not only to the families of the men and women who were killed Oct 12, 2000, but to those who wear the uniform today, and all of us who wore it in the past.

After 8 years, just about to finally put the culprit on trial and now this...

You can go here and get their phone numbers.

Sorry for the rant, but I'm just absolutely pissed!!!

Know thine Enemy...

A Must read...

Via Fuzzy, from JPFO

JPFO, not all that long after its founding, presented an essay by Gus Cotey in a popular magazine of the time. I read this article and shook my head in disbelief. Cotey had NAILED it! I did something I’d never done: I tracked down the author’s phone number and called him and congratulated him on what was a terrific breakthrough in understanding. It was a breakthrough that all gun owners could use as “high impact” intellectual ammunition.

What Cotey had done, with marvelous perception, was identify the seven personality types that make up the victim disarmament crowd. Cotey saw through the emotionalized preaching and posturing and pandering and put the true motivations of these dangerous buffoons under a microscope.

Go read the entire article here JPFO .

h/t Fuzzy

It's starting...

I'm wondering if this might not be a test case for restrictions here in the US later this year...

From the Canadian Shooting Sports Association January 2009 Newsletter

AMMO, BUY AMMO!
We have it on good authority that the U.S. State Dept is cutting off all Export Permits for certain calibers of ammunition, namely .50BMG, 7.62x39mm Soviet, 7.62x51mm NATO, .308 Winchester , 5.56mm NATO and .223 Remington. They may also expand the list to include 6.8mm SPC, 69mm Parabellum, .40 S&W and .45 Automatic, amongst others. As well, there may be blanket export bans on certain types of firearms and DSP-83 End Use Certificates (with a $250 Export Fee) attached to all other types. Already, many firearms-related companies are refusing to ship product to Canada because the U.S. required paperwork is simply too excessive to make it profitable and a number of Canadian distributors have had U.S. Export Permits refused for simple sporting arms in “prohibited” calibers.. Don’t be terribly surprised to see reloading components added to the list too!

It appears the anti-gun bureaucrats in the State Department have found a kindred spirit in President-Elect Barack Obama and are revving up the jets on us already. We have to emphasize that this information comes from a very reliable source and has been independently confirmed but at present, it is still being fought and the battle isn’t over yet. Lots of us are working on this and remember, this is U.S export only and does not affect EU imports. Firearms and ammunition exported from Europe will be unaffected (at least so far.) We’ll keep you informed as this unfolds. In the meantime, we suggest you consider stocking up.

When you get this, along with the comments from Gordon Hutchinson (the author of The Great New Orleans Gun Grab, who was on Gun Nuts blog talk last night) confirming the New Orleans PD along with other LE agencies in Louisiana have routinely confiscated weapons from people INCLUDING licensed CCW holders, then telling them they could have the weapons back when they produced a receipt of ownership. Most of the time when the individual showed up with a receipt, no gun was found... The officers had stolen the weapon... AND this has been going on for years!

With all due respect to my LEO friends who read this, NOPD is probably the most corrupt law enforcement agency in the United States, if not the world...

I am NOT surprised by this, nor was I surprised by the fact the Eddie Compass, et al, were augmenting their salaries with phantom cops (which came out during Katrina) when "hundreds" of cops didn't report to work, etc. How could they? They didn't exist...

When you add in HR 45 SUMMARY AS OF:1/6/2009--Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009 -

Amends the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act to prohibit a person from possessing a firearm unless that person has been issued a firearm license under this Act or a state system certified under this Act and such license has not been invalidated or revoked etc...

They road to hell is being paved with legislation and ignorance and we are in front of the steam roller...

Where is the REAL news reporting...

I' m tired and grumpy, so no sweetness and light tonight...

CBO states approximately 25% of $900 BILLION stimulus is actually going into economy-

But yet, the Las Vegas paper's editorial says only 90M$ or 10% is stimulus, the rest is pork barrel.

The WSJ is down on it too all kinds of pork barrel...

And then there is Daschle- Oops my bad... I REALLY got $5.2 million from the Health and Human Services community (for lobbying Congress, shhhh!) in the last two years, not the $2 million I originally claimed. Oops, I paid my back taxes of over $100,000. Now today, he has a closed door meeting with former colleagues...

The White House both underscored the magnitude of the problem and tried to downplay it in the space of seven words. "Nobody's perfect," said press secretary Robert Gibbs. "It was a serious mistake. ..."

WELL NO @#$&* KIDDING!!! Lemme see I seem to remember something like this being said in the NATION magazine in 2001...

The most dangerous lesson that can be taken from the Chavez fiasco (see David Moberg, page 12) is the theory that Bush's Cabinet picks can be blocked only if they have failed to keep their personal affairs in order.

And yet this whole crowd is getting a free ride... Holder, Clinton, Geithner, Daschle

All I've got to say is it does NOT bode well for the 2nd Amendment or the economy (unless you're a union employee).

In other news, 55 are now dead and still 470,000 without power in the ice storm in the Midwest, and still no FEMA help, "Because the situation is unsafe."

Where is the main stream media on this, were are the calls for the Lightbringer to do something??? Where are Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton? Oh wait a minute, these are predominantly WHITE people... never mind...

Conservative Scalawag has a link here to one of the reports.

Oh yeah, and while all this is going on, the Lightbringer is serving $100 a pound Wagyu (read Kobe beef) steaks in a black tie affair at the White House (being kept at 72 degrees so the Lightbringer doesn't get cold...

Sigh... Oh well, I've probably pissed off a few people with this post, so lemme do one more thing to piss people off!

Got this "safety poster" today. It DOES make a good point, ya know... :-)

Picshurs, as they say in Texas...

Finally got home and got to the right cable, so here are a few pics from yesterday's blog meet at Phlegmmy's place...

Yes, there was food :-) Actually there were three tables covered with food...

Goody counter early in the day... And yes, that IS the Para Ord Gun Blog .45 center left in the picture!

Goody counter later in the day, that bottle of tequila gives a WHOLE new meaning to the word shooter...

Comparison of Matt and Farmgirl's hands. As they say in Texas, Matt is a big ol boy...

And one last picture of the goody table after EVERYBODY had gotten there... At that point, we were having to climb up on a chair to get everything in the picture :-)

Oh yeah, all but two of these were carried concealed to the party...

And last but not least, Pig candy! Thanks to Breda for the recipe! Now as a few others have said, AEpilot Jim kinda went overboard for bacon, both at dinner and at the party...

Pig candy gathering...

Well, the 'short' blog get together at Phlegmmy's is now history, but trust me, it was an INTERESTING day... There were goodies galore, and oh yeah, there was food too :-)

We had Phlegmmy (the hostess with the mostest), JPG and Holly, Matt from Better and Better, Blackfork and friend, Lawdog, Farmgirl (who won for the longest drive), The Keyboard part of the .45, 2Amusing, aepilot-Jim, Peter from Bayou Renaissance Man, Alan from Snarkybites, Rabbit (a frequent commenter), and Ambulance Driver.

And yes, we had Breda's pig candy...

And it disappeared faster than I could believe.

Oh yeah, the goodies... well, ya know how you ALWAYS forget something... sigh... Well I got the camera, I just forgot the @#$^ cable to connect it to the computer!!!!

ARRGGHHHHH!!!! No ^&*(( way to post them... I'm sure SOMEBODY will post one or two of the goodies shots...

Anyhoo- the goodies consisted of every bodies carry pieces and knives ending up on the kitchen counter, with numerous photos as others arrived, pistols got cussed and discussed, Farmgirl's valentines present (Walther PPK) was shown around, trigger jobs compared, sight types, and stopping power discussed. If I remember correctly, we had wheel guns from .22 to .44, semi-autos from .380 to .45 and everything in between. I don't remember seeing two identical pistols :-) We also had a couple of rifles around just in case...

We discussed shooting competitions, with Blackfork giving an impromptu lecture on competition rifle shooting, JPG talking about shooting IPSC back in the 80's at the national level, Peter talking about being in South Africa during the end of Apartheid and MANY various conversations (at one time I think we had at least three simultaneous ones going).

Alan Skiped Breda and Mike at one point, so we got a chance to see/try to talk to them. It was a little noisy, so I don't know how much they actually were able to hear.

One of the more interesting conversations that took place was why we write blogs... I really wish I had a tape recorder, as the reasons were many and varied. That discussion degenerated into HOW people write, from multiple rewrites to stream of (un)consciousness (me).

Another interesting conversation was over what people thought was a good post and the reaction, and what they did as a throw away post, that people went nuts over. The consensus was that NONE of us are sure why or what really trips people to read/comment on certain posts.

I was also interested to find how many of us have been on TFL and THR through those iterations. We all pretty much agreed Tam is the queen of bloggers, and has really been a leader in the blogging sphere and had been responsible for a number of blogs starting
(blogmama :-)).

To sum it up, I was impressed with everyone I met, both individually and collectively. People ranged from thoughtful to sarcastic to humorous in a heartbeat, very down to earth, knowledgeable in many areas, damn smart about guns, and confident in themselves, what they do for a living and at ease with the world.

Thank you for the invite Phlegmmy and the privilege of attending. I hope that we can do this again in the future!