A little light stuff...

Since I fly a lot, a friend sent me this compilation that was done for one day of flights...

Everybody is used to seeing the US covered with aircraft everyday, but what about the rest of the world???

Enjoy 24 hours of flights world-wide! Note: It is cued to the sun as it moves around the globe. This is also why it will be extremely hard to impossible to close any borders anywhere...

Here is a pic from another friend at NASA. There are currently two shuttles in prep on adjacent pads at the Cape. All the airplanes in the picture are being flown by Astronauts and the Gulfstream G-3 Shuttle Training Acft (STA) in the center is the "practice" airplane for the shuttle pilots. It has a fly by wire capability that allows it to mimic the shuttle and do power off approaches and powered waveoffs for landing practice.

And last but not least, a democrat poster for your "enjoyment" Please do NOT throw things at the screen, it may damage the screen and or the computer... :-)

Can somebody 'splain this???

Now I'm not gonna say I'm a little skeptical, but...

The Administration has fired the CEO of GM, are they now telling GM to dump Pontiac and fire 21,000 people? What is going on behind the scenes that we are NOT being told, what level of control is the Administration REALLY exerting?

GM said that it will ask the government to take more than 50 per cent of its common stock in exchange for cancelling half the government loans to the company as of June 1. The swap would cancel about $10 billion in government debt.

In addition, GM is offering stock to the United Auto Workers for at least 50 per cent of the $20 billion the company must pay into a union run trust that will take over retiree health-care expenses starting next year.

If both are successful, the government and UAW health-care trust would own 89 per cent of GM stock, with the government holding more than a 50 per cent stake, CEO Fritz Henderson said in a news conference at GM's Detroit headquarters.

Now I'm just a dumb ol' country boy, but that math ONLY leaves 11% for all the current stockholders.

What are they supposed to do now???

And what happens to all the money they invested? And how much say will the shareholders have (looks like not a damn bit to me)???

Oh yeah, and the Lightbringer is trying to "force" a deal for Chrysler- Like Fiat is going to bow to him... NOT!!!
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And the rest of the story is coming out on the Air Force One flyover- There is now an issue with the White House Military Office, run by Caldera who did graduate from West Point, but only served five years (all at Ft. Dix) instead of the normal seven years after commissioning. He then went into law and politics, and climbed the democrat ladder until he was Secretary of the Army 98-01 under Clinton.

Now if you believe the media, NO ONE ELSE in the administration knew this overflight was planned... Hmmm, lemme see POTUS was not notified his plane was going to be unavailable? I don't think so...

And oh yeah, nobody was notified, except... well...

The FAA, NYPD, Bloomburg's office (gee, guess they forgot to tell him) and 'supposedly' the FAA told NYPD not to broadcast what was going on...

But Caldera has been told to fall on the sword, so it will be interesting to see what plum position he gets after "resigning"!

Oh yeah, why a new picture? Because the Lightbringer didn't want to use the one of Air Force One over Mt. Rushmore, because that was 'representative' of the Bush administration!

Is it really any wonder the Lightbringer is at 56% popularity and is only more popular than Clinton at 55% at the end of the 1st 100 days?

I mean, really, what campaign promise has he NOT broken yet??? sigh... Or better yet, what campaign promise has he kept???

soap box back to the corner... again!!!

When the music stopped...

From a friend on the pointy end, from LSA Anaconda, Iraq...

For those unaware, the National Anthem is played before every showing in a military motion picture theater.

At a recent movie, in the large auditorium, we stood up and snapped to attention when the National Anthem began before the main feature. About 3/4 of the way through, the music stopped...

Now what would have happened in the States with about 1000 18-22 year olds? Hoots, catcalls, laughter, etc; and everyone would sit down and call for a movie; assuming they had stood in the first place.

Here, the 1000 soldiers continued to stand at attention, eyes fixed forward as the music started again. They continued at attention; and again, at the same point, the music stopped. What would you expect to happen? Even here I would have imagined laughter, as everyone finally sat down and expected the movie to start.

But here, you could have heard a pin drop. Every Soldier continued to stand at attention; suddenly there was a lone voice, then a dozen, and quickly the room filled with the voices of a thousand soldiers, finishing where the recording left off:

"And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. Oh, say does that Star Spangled Banner yet wave, o'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave".

It was the most inspiring moment I have had here in Iraq. I wanted you to know what kind of Soldiers are serving you here. Remember them as they fight for you!

Folks, please take a moment and remember those Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Airmen who are on the front lines in our war against TERROR. I am NOT going to be PC about it, they ARE out to kill us...

This also brings to mind a conversation from the range today- Four old military guys (1 WWII, 1 Korea, 2 of us youngsters) and a retired Judge. In between firing, we were discussing the 2nd Amendment (gee, we are ALL for it..), and the so called torture (three of us have been waterboarded as part of our military training) and an interesting point was raised...

Lets have those hearings! Lets get ALL the info out on the table- Declassify the results now that the procedures have been declassified. Lets get a TRUE definition of torture. Lets get ALL those House and Senate Armed Services and Intelligence Committee members to testify under oath, lets get the last 4-5 heads of the CIA up there, lets get the lawyers up there that drafted the memos! Lets have a REAL hearing, open to the public!

THEN, let the AMERICAN PEOPLE decide who was right and who was wrong...

I did not hear a single good word said about any of the Congresscritters today- In my opinion, they no longer care about the people they are supposed to represent, all they care about is getting re-elected by hook, crook, lies or pork- What ever will put their fat asses back on the Hill.

*blink, blink*

Even the Judge was down on them, and he actually said term limits are something whose time has come.

Kicking the soapbox back in the corner now... sigh...

Oh yeah, fun was had at the range- I got minute-of-angle on the barn, since I was inside it :-)

Random Stuff, part 392...

Well, I think we skipped straight from winter to summer... 92 in Northern Virginia today, and I'm finally getting around to the spring house cleaning. I KNEW I should have paid for a maid service... I HATE doing windows! sigh...



On the news front, Pelosi has been caught in a flat out lie on the "torture briefs", and is squirming like a large mouth bass on a hook! Hmmm, come to think of it, she DOES kinda resemble one... I wanna see how she gets out of this one :-)

And this also popped up after the Globull Warming hearings on Friday! I guess this is just going to be par for the course...

Washington, DC -- UK's Lord Christopher Monckton, a former science advisor to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, claimed House Democrats have refused to allow him to appear alongside former Vice President Al Gore at a high profile global warming hearing on Friday April 24, 2009 at 10am in Washington. . . . . . . . the Democrats rescinded his scheduled joint appearance at the House Energy and Commerce hearing on Friday. Monckton said he was informed that he would not be allowed to testify alongside Gore when his plane landed from England Thursday afternoon.

“The House Democrats don't want Gore humiliated, so they slammed the door of the Capitol in my face,”

The entire article is HERE


If nothing else, between this and Pelosi, it should provide at least 'some' entertainment!!!

And I got this pic from a friend that works in the Pentagon... Kinda says it all...


And this from an entrepreneur, you just 'knew' it was coming...

Since I was a good little boy today, I think tomorrow will be a range day! Get a few frustrations out, and try out some new ammo. Yea Me!!! :-)

ARRGGGHHHHH!!!

I had a frothing at the mouth post ready to go over the crap going on in DC, but it didn't save, and I've calmed down considerably since I vented on it...

Instead, a little light stuff for your enjoyment...

The unexpected virgins, the original bitter clinging gun owners...

Gotta love the Aussies, and their beer, even if it IS the Navy beer (in the RAN they call VB the Navy beer, since it's cheap, that's what gets bought)...

And a preview of the new Chrysler after they come out of bankruptcy. When you exceed 60 mph, strange things happen... :-)

I'm hearing a lot of rumbling about more tea parties July Fourth, find one and attend!!! THIS IS OUR COUNTRY and we need to take it back from the politicians!

The Rest of the Story...

This was waiting in my inbox at work this morning, from a source I know well, and is pretty damning. It also proves I was wrong on my post on Easter that the Lightbringer actually made a decision... sigh...

1. BHO wouldn't authorize the DEVGRU/NSWC SEAL teams to the scene for 36 hours going against OSC (on scene commander) recommendation.

Hence the required parachute drop...

2. Once they arrived, BHO imposed restrictions on their ROE that they couldn't do anything unless the hostage's life was in "imminent" danger

3. The first time the hostage jumped, the SEALS had the raggies all sighted in, but could not fire due to ROE restriction

4. When the Navy RIB came under fire as it approached with supplies, no fire was returned due to ROE restrictions. As the raggies were shooting at the RIB, they were exposed and the SEALS had them all dialed in.

5. BHO specifically denied two rescue plans developed by the Bainbridge CO and SEAL teams

6. Bainbridge CO and SEAL team CDR finally decide they have the OpArea and OSC authority to solely determine risk to hostage. 4 hours later, 3 dead raggies.

Editoral note- Commanding Officers in the Navy are NOT shrinking violets...

7. BHO immediately claims credit for his "daring and decisive" behaviour.

A commenter on the email chain said the following...

As usual with him, it's BS.

So per our last email thread, I'm downgrading Oohbaby's performance to D-. Only reason it's not an F is that the hostage survived.

Read the following ACCURATE account.

Philips first leap into the warm, dark water of the Indian Ocean hadn't worked out as well. With the Bainbridge in range and a rescue by his country's Navy possible, Philips threw himself off of his lifeboat prison, enabling Navy shooters onboard the destroyer a clear shot at his captors and none was taken.

The guidance from National Command Authority " the president of the United States, Barack Obama " had been clear: a peaceful solution was the only acceptable outcome to this standoff unless the hostages life was in clear, extreme danger.

The next day, a small Navy boat approaching the floating raft was fired on by the Somali pirates and again no fire was returned and no pirates killed. This was again due to the cautious stance assumed by Navy personnel thanks to the combination of a lack of clear guidance from Washington and a mandate from the commander in chief's staff not to act until Obama, a man with no background of dealing with such issues and no track record of decisiveness, decided that any outcome other than a peaceful solution would be acceptable.

After taking fire from the Somali kidnappers again Saturday night, the onscene commander decided he had enough. Keeping his authority to act in the case of a clear and present danger to the hostages life and having heard nothing from Washington since yet another request to mount a rescue operation had been denied the day before, the Navy officer unnamed in all media reports to date decided the AK47 one captor had leveled at Philips back was a threat to the hostages life and ordered the NSWC team to take their shots.

Three rounds downrange later, all three brigands became enemy KIA and Philips was safe.There is upside, downside, and spinside to the series of events over the last week that culminated in yesterdays dramatic rescue of an American hostage.

Almost immediately following word of the rescue, the Obama administration and its supporters claimed victory against pirates in the Indian Ocean and declared that the dramatic end to the standoff put to rest questions of the inexperienced presidents toughness and decisiveness.

Despite the Obama administrations (and its sycophants) attempt to spin yesterdays success as a result of bold, decisive leadership by the inexperienced president, the reality is nothing of the sort.

What should have been a standoff lasting only hours as long as it took the USS Bainbridge and its team of NSWC operators to steam to the location became an embarrassing four day and counting standoff between a ragtag handful of criminals with rifles and a U.S. Navy warship.

Sadly, I'm betting there will be lawyers reviewing this for end to end and probably changes to ROE to disallow OSC discretion in action...

A credible threat???

I snuck home for the weekend, and managed to grab lunch today with a friend in law enforcement in East Texas. We were discussing the DHS memo and out of the blue he told me something that really concerned me-

I don't have any independent confirmation of this, and it's second hand, but I believe its possible...

It was that the folks from ICE had been tasked to conduct surveillence Tea Parties held on Apr 15, using available security cameras, still and video, and undercover officers in the crowd. It was not only to monitor the speakers, but the crowds and assess who the "specific" leaders were.

He did not know how widespread this was; but in thinking about it, since most of the Tea Parties were held at court houses, state houses, etc. There definitely are security camera systems available, and video from upper floors would have been unnoticed in the general hubbub of people taking pictures...

Not local LEOs, not state LEOs, ICE... Since the change over, ICE now works for DHS. When you think about the memo, the "reaction" of the MSM, and the "lack" of reaction from the Administration it's enough to make one wonder...

Oh yeah, one other thing- There are numerous ICE agents working the Southern parts of the US... Gee...um... two plus two equals...

Now the other thing is the Lightbringer supposedly backing off on the AWB, stating, "there was not enough support in Congress." Does anyone else believe this is just a delaying tactic until the Dems can strong arm enough votes to push it through?

That's the direction I'm leaning, this assault on 2A is NOT over...

And via Crucis, THIS guest editorial (called Resistance is Futile) from David Codreas website The War on Guns, which talks to that issue.

And a little "humor" ... Kinda reminds me about the comments a few years ago about paper hats and $9000 communications systems at McDonald's...

Recently, when I went to McDonald's I saw on the menu that you could have an order of 6, 9 or 12 Chicken McNuggets. I asked for a half dozen nuggets.

"We don't have half dozen nuggets" said the teenager at the counter.

"You don't?" I replied.

"We only have six, nine, or twelve" came the reply.

"So I can't order a half dozen nuggets but I can order six?"

"That's right."

I shook my head and ordered six McNuggets.

Sigh... Y'all have a good weekend!

Uh oh, I think we're in trouble...

The below comment was extracted from the Washington Post article from today, Federal Agency Warns of Radicals on the Right...

"Congressional debates about immigration and gun control also make extremist groups suspicious and give them a rallying cry, the report says.

"It is unclear if either bill will be passed into law; nonetheless, a correlation may exist between the potential passage of gun control legislation and increased hoarding of ammunition, weapons stockpiling, and paramilitary training activities among rightwing extremists," the report said."

Let's see how far this will stretch. Soooo, you bought a gun, ammo, didn't vote for the Lightbringer, sent an email saying how the obamabots are selling out America, you're white, English is your first language, you are not a Muslim, you're a life member of NRA, GOA, yada yada...............

Gee, that kinda fits, so I guess it ought to get me a front row seat as an extremist!!! Anybody else think this is just one more piece of the propaganda that is being put out to "label" us???

sigh... I want my country back!!! Please!!!

Real Gunfighter Lance Thomas on Justice Files

I think this pretty well counters the 20-20 and 60 minutes crap...

Nuff said...

Happy Easter...

I'd like to wish each and every one a Happy Easter! Hopefully you find ALL the eggs that were hidden... :-)

On a positive note- Yea Navy! Good shooting by the SEALS on Bainbridge!!! It took retired Gen Jones, now the National Security Advisor to give the new administration the balls to carry out the rescue, and it went down with no problems on our end. Three tangos down with three shots "should" give those assholes pause about trying to take another US ship/crew...

Senators McCain and Graham were in Yokosuka getting briefs Saturday morning, and I have to believe they weighed in on making this happen...

Tyranny of Distance...

There are a lot of news reports about the hijacking that took place off Somalia the other day. This was the first time in years they took an American crewed ship, and the crew has managed to get the ship back (Good on them!!!).

One of the questions being raised is why it took so long... First, the total area they are trying to patrol is over 1,000,000 square miles (roughly an area 5 times the size of the USA!), with a Combined Task Force (CTF) total of less than 10 ships, not all of which are US Navy... Since we don't have enough aircraft to fly the patrols anymore, the ships have to rely on notification from higher for directions/locations to go to. Even if they go balls to the wall, they are pretty much limited to 20+ kts transit speed, so it takes them roughly 20 hours to go 350 miles (which is about where the closest unit was).

I'm not going to go into detail, but numerous things are in the works at "many" levels... Just an FYI, years ago we did a study of how many assets would really be required to cover the OPAREA. It was in excess of 50 ships and 30 aircraft- Figure the odds...

On a brighter note, I'm heading back tomorrow! Five days, 30 hours of meetings, after meeting meetings, pre-meeting meetings, and I'm about meetinged out... We did get a good dinner at the Club last night (I have a requirement of one good meal a trip).

The down side, well I finally slept in till 0500 this morning, so I'm almost acclimatized... dammit...

And one to leave you with... This is a pic taken from the bridge of an oil tanker crossing the Pacific. Now this tanker is almost 1000 feet long, and normally has about 30 feet of freeboard (distance from the deck to the waterline)... THIS is what happens when you get caught in the fringes of a typhoon... Oh yeah, you are looking at the bow, that's the forward mast (yellow and black) sticking up in the distance.

You can go HERE and read about Halsey's Typhoon in 1944, which did more damage to the Navy in WWII than any SINGLE Battle!!! Even today, that typhoon is part of routine briefs to Navy CO's and ship's crews.

Y'all have a good weekend!

On the road again...

Well, back on the road yet again...

At the airport 2 hours before takeoff (international)- Check...

14 hour flight- Check...

1 hour wait for the bus- Check...

2 1/2 hour bus ride- Check...

Room in the BOQ- Ah... er... Sorry, no rooms...

2 hour frantic scramble for a room- Check...

1/2 hour train ride back the way I came- Check...

$180 for a room at a Sheraton- Check...

And a whole three hours of sleep- Check... dammit...

Anyhoo, since I back in Japan (again) and this time I have a camera, a quick little video of the Cherry Blossoms. They are in FULL bloom, and are EVERYWHERE!!!

Also, you may wonder why I included this picture of a street! Simple... These folks actually WORK!

At 0800 when I came on base, they were starting tearing up the street, at 1200 they had the trenching complete and new pipes going in the ground.

At 1600 they were paving the street!!! They did two blocks in 8 hours and had everything tidied up by 1700!

We need to get THAT work ethic in some of our DOT folks... Like that would ever happen... sigh...

In other news, I was watching CNNj this morning and it was interesting that apparently some of the banks are now trying to give the TARP money back to the government, but the Lightbringer i NOT LETTING THEM RETURN IT!!! WTFO???

The banks are willing to pay our money back so they retain control of their banks and they can't!

Sounds like the administration is going to try to get control of the banking industry like they have of the auto industry! If this is true, just stick a fork in us, cause we're done...

Off to sleep (I hope)...

What's Happening...

Well, lemme see... The Lightbringer has fired the CEO of GM, thrown Chrysler under the Italian bus; if I were Fiat, I'd stall, let Chrysler go bankrupt and THEN buy for pennies on the dollar, void ALL union contracts and start over...

Got slapped down by the G20, made a speech directly to the German people (howinhell did he get away with that?) Is flying around with an entourage of about 500 people and apparently 12 teleprompters...

They have rammed through the largest tax increases in history on tobacco ($6.61 a carton on cigarettes, and $23/lb on roll your own tobacco)...


Had ANOTHER income tax "issue". Jeez do ANY Democrats actually pay ALL their income taxes??? Sebelius... Who is a fruit cake anyway and now SHE is in charge of Health Care? O.M.G!


Sadly there was a shooting today in NY State apparently 12 dead plus the shooter, but I guess everyone has seen coverage... Thoughts and Prayers go out to the families of those who were killed.


Frank James has details up HERE on his Corn, Beans and Brass blog about the truth on the Mexican guns! Frank pretty much calls it as he sees it anyway, and does a MUCH better job than I... Go Read!!! JR over at A Keyboard and a .45 has a post up too. Also, HERE is a link to Fox News with video...

Oh yeah, if you REALLY want to get your blood pressure up, go HERE and take the carbon calculator survey... I got a 23.5, of course I live on the road, and drive a V-8, so I'm on their S**T list anyway...

As far as I can tell, if you own a car and like to heat your house in the winter, you're going to be in the "much higher than average" category. One of my friends on the Left slide...er side sent it to me, and she's horrified at how high she scored and she says she's going to make some changes.

What's bad is, I know a bunch of idjits like my friend will go out and buy Priuses and mercury-infused light bulbs to get their scores down, but what this really says to me is that unless I retire and move into a nice, unheated yurt (somewhere in the Southwest, so I don't use carbon in my commute), there's nothing I can do to earn forgiveness from the lefties. So I might as well climb keep getting on those 777s for a few more trips to earn my paltry salary...

Oh yeah, for my shooting friends, Natchez Shooters Supply has .223 for 12.99 a box...

Y'all have a good weekend!

Random Road stuff, part 3224...

This is a special video... If you don't feel good after seeing this one, there is something wrong!!!

And a little food pr0n for BBQ season... :-)

We are about to enter the summer and BBQ season. Therefore it is important to refresh your memory on the etiquette of this sublime outdoor cooking activity, as it's the only type of cooking a 'real' man will do, probably because there is an element of danger involved. When a man volunteers to do the BBQ the following chain of events are put into motion: Routine... (1) The woman buys the food. (2) The woman makes the salad, prepares the vegetables, and makes dessert. (3) The woman prepares the meat for cooking, places it on a tray along with the necessary cooking utensils and sauces, and takes it to the man who is lounging beside the grill - beer in hand. Here comes the important part: (4) THE MAN PLACES THE MEAT ON THE GRILL. More routine.... (5) The woman goes inside to organize the plates and cutlery. (6) The woman comes out to tell the man that the meat is burning. He thanks her and asks if she will bring another beer while he deals with the situation. Important again: (7) THE MAN TAKES THE MEAT OFF THE GRILL AND HANDS IT TO THE WOMAN. More routine.... (8) The woman prepares the plates, salad, bread, utensils, napkins, sauces, and brings them to the table. (9) After eating, the woman clears the table and does the dishes. And most important of all: (10) Everyone PRAISES and THANKS HIM for his cooking efforts. (11) The man asks the woman how she enjoyed 'her night off.' And, upon seeing her annoyed reaction, concludes that there's just no pleasing some women.... Ducking and running for cover now... :-)