Ghosties, Goblins and other strange sightings...

We all hear about haunted houses, church yards, and various other things, but how often have you heard of an ENTIRE building being haunted???

Now granted, the Japanese look at ancestors and 'spirits' a little differently than we do, BUT...

There is an entire housing tower on this particular base that the Japanese categorically refuse to enter at any time, day or night!

They swear it is built on ground where a number of Okinawans were killed in WWII and they supposedly inhabit the building (and dislike the Japanese intensely). Since the Japanese won't clean it, it can't be occupied; plus there are supposedly a number of stories surrounding things that occurred in that building, like heating and cooling turning on/off on it's own, raining in some rooms, lights turning on/off, etc...

The second is a house known as the Samurai house- This is another location where the housing office cannot put any family to live. It appears this house is 'haunted' by a band of 13th century Samurai, who have parties on occasion, including horses, sword fights, etc... Apparently the APs have made numerous responses to this house over the years based on calls.

The story (with pictures of the damage) is also told of a group of Airmen who were going to make the house a haunted house for Halloween one year. After decorating the house, they left on a Thursday night, intending to return Saturday night. Friday night the APs were called to a reported "brawl" at the house, only to find it locked, no lights, nothing...

Upon entry, they discovered massive damage to ALL the props, etc. for the haunted house, and the pictures indicated much of the damage was made with long sharp objects based on the cuts and slices... One four inch post was sliced completely through at a 45 deg angle...

In other sightings, going to work yesterday I passed the Marine bicycle race team on the perimeter road. As I passed, I realized 'something' didn't look right... Sure enough, in the middle of the group was a Japanese sitting upright, riding a Schwinn single speed wearing a Steel Pot!

Yesterday afternoon I ran into the Master Gunny at the barracks and asked him about it, turns out the Japanese Officer is the liaison officer for the squadron, and decided he wanted to participate, but didn't have a bike or bike helmet, so he 'borrowed' a maintenance bike and grabbed his pot out of his car! The Master Gunny said he kept up for almost 5 miles, and they slowed down so as not to embarrass him!

In other news- Packout is done, most of the team is gone/going today; and I'm outta here tomorrow! Good timing since there is ANOTHER @#^&* typhoon on the way... sigh...

Can't find the damn cats...

Okay already… enough with the #^&( typhoons… sigh…

We've had one count 'em ONE day of sunshine since we've been here; NOW we’ve got THIS screwing up my schedule, so I’ve actually got a couple of hours off…

Oh yeah, this is Typhoon Lupit...

On a lighter note- in the last post I posted a bunch of car and truck model names. Well, I’ve done some more ‘investigation’ of this (read I went as asked somebody).

According to Haruji-san, it’s different versions of the SAME model…

He took me down to the local Toyota dealer, and (now understand I don’t speak Japanese, the dealer didn’t speak English, and Haruji’s translations are “close”) this is what I came away with….

As an oh by the way, car dealers over here dress JUST like their US counterparts... perfectly coiffed helmet hair (never moves in the wind at all), long sleeve dress shirts with French cuffs, obnoxious cufflinks, obnoxious ties, expensive shoes, etc...

In the US, we have, for example a Ford Taurus, it may be a Taurus, Taurus L, Taurus XL, or Taurus XLE; so four models total…

Over here, that could be as many as TWELVE different models with different names, based on interior trim level (the more “expensive” the name, the higher the level), engine/drivetrain package, and/or exterior trim levels.

There is even a baby SUV called “Terios Kid”, named after a popular VIDEO GAME!!!

That thing has chrome everything, wings, nav system, mag wheels, and a cloth interior that replicates the game characters. It’s marketed to the young male population, and I about fell out when Haruji called a “pimp car”… J

Now Haruji is a character himself- He’s about 5’2”, either 75 or 76, and survived the Battle of Okinawa as a child by walking the length of the island with his family. I asked him one time about his education, and he held up his hands and said, “these are my education…

He owns four businesses, three of which are run by his sons. His other business is providing port services to the Navy and others that use the military port at Naha. He is also a car nut, and has a hot-rodded 20 year old Nissan Skyline with twin turbos that he built himself (and claims he has never been beaten, after riding with him init, I BELIEVE him).

He is also pretty well connected over here- We needed a 100 ton crane on a Japanese holiday weekend on short notice, two hours later it showed up, driven by the President of the crane company! I am NOT about to get Haruji mad at me…

Now back to your regularly scheduled BS...

The cats are winning...

Quickie... Now in the 10th day in a row of rain... I think I'm growing webs between my toes...

Commuting in Japan is just 'such' fun...

Driving on the wrong side (with apologies to Julie), trying to juggle the windshield wipers, turn signals and NOT get run over by the Kamikaze motorcyclists is enough to make me want to drink a beer or a dozen...

Add to that the stop lights, which also have arrows, so you can literally have a red light, with a through arrow, so legally you are driving THROUGH a red light... sigh...

And here is a partial list of vehicle models I've seen in my commutes for your viewing pleasure... Make up your own sentences like I get to do depending on what order I see the vehicles...

Little trucks-

That’s
Life
Naked
Scrum

Big trucks-

Canter
Fighter

Vans-

Box
Cube
Move
Custom
California
WagonR
Palette
Rasheed

Cars-

Note
Crown
Majesta
Voxy
Grande
Royal
Sylphy
Diana
Platz

Back to the rat race... Y'all have a good weekend...

My apologies...

Due to the press of work (read cat herding) and trying to keep track of things going on in three different locations, while finding out TODAY that my assistant is now not showing up, I'm gonna be running around with my hair on fire for the next couple of weeks...

So, posting will be non-existant, blog reading and comments won't be happening, email 'may' get answered and maybe not...

I 'should' resurface at the end of the month, God willing and the creek don't rise...

YGTBSM...

So I had finally gotten to where I was supposed to be for work, and am stuck staying on an Air Force base out here...

There I was, enjoying an adult beverage or three in the O club last night in the stag bar, deep in conversation with some Marine F-18 drivers; when all of a sudden somebody called TEN-HUT!

That immediately stopped all the conversations and everybody started looking around to see who had walked in. Then one of the folks at the bar yelled, "Hey, y'all gotta see this s**t, you're not gonna believe what just happened!"

There was a mass movement toward the TV over the corner of the bar, and suddenly all the TVs were changing to CNN, and there it was...

Obama wins Nobel Prize for Peace...

I honestly have NEVER seen a bar get quieter in my life than then...

And as CNN started putting out the details; nominated in February (with a total of 2 weeks in office), and absolutely NOTHING in the way of actual accomplishments, but oh, how great this was for the Lightbringer, and he's going to stop the war in Iraq, and stop the war in Afghanistan, etc. etc...

I can honestly say the general sentiment in the club was alternating between WTF and YGTBSM, coupled with howstupidarethesepeople. People were literally stunned and looking at each other with glazed expressions of those who just could not process what had just happened.

Some desultory conversations started back up, but most were just shaking their heads and wondering what this will bode for their futures (and many don't think it bodes well)...

I finished my drink and headed back to billeting, interested to see what else was being said, only to find out that Fox News is NOT an available channel on the base AFRTS. CNN and HLN are up all the time, so I switched over to the Pentagon channel, only to find the Fox program that was supposed to be on was not available...

So, I go jump on the wireless to see what is being said, and lo and behold; all usenet, newsnet, rss feeds, and blogs are BLOCKED!

So lets try my favorite gun forums- nope; Remington- nope; Glock- nope; Brady bunch- Yep! Facebook- Yep; YouTube- Yep...

WTF???

So I go over to Billeting and ask what is going on. The answer? "Oh, command policy to limit the amount of bandwidth used." Huh???

Sigh...

You may be asking, well how are you posting now? I drove down to the Marine Base, that's how :-)

And the Nobel prize is STILL the subject of discussion at breakfast, with no different comments than those heard last night...

Oh yeah, Crucis, this ISN'T your Air Force anymore...

Well THAT was interesting...

Nothing like getting awakened at 0300 by "something" scratching at my window...

Only problem, I was on the third floor! Typhoon Malor obviously didn't read it's own press release, so it just hauled ass up the Japanese Islands; it wasn't supposed to get here until late this evening...

Oh yeah, the scratching? Well, there was a tree about 10 feet from the window, it was being bent that far by the winds (est. 70 mph) and branches were scratching the window. Then it started raining... Sideways...

Supposedly 6 inches of rain in an hour, winds blowing like hell, about 0500 it got perfectly calm. I walked outside and there were NO clouds, the sun was coming up and it was really nice (for about an hour); then we got the back side of the typhoon!

More rain (sideways again) winds steady at 35-40mph, gusting to 50mph. Believe me, it gives a whole new meaning to that "windblown" look...

It's now 1700, beautiful sunny afternoon, not a cloud in the sky, winds are down to 5-10mph. Hard to believe the change in just a little over 12 hours!

Since most of this occurred in the middle of the night (so to speak) I don't have any pics.

So I'll throw a random picture in from the range shoot a few weeks ago...

I had a hitchhiker on my Model 70; and no I didn't shoot until it was gone, so there :-)

I have absolutely NO idea where that dragonfly came from, or why he liked the barrel so much...

In other news, there is a little bit bigger "round" in development that is now out in public domain...

It's called the MOP, The Massive Ordnance Penetrator, and is a 30,000-pound bomb that would dive deeper than any previous bomb, and could be strapped to B-2 or B-52 bombers in the near future.

The GBU-24 bunker buster is tiny in comparison to the new MOP. The MOP is 20 feet long and can penetrate bunkers a 'long' way before exploding. At 15 tons, the MOP is a third heavier than the previous "mother of all bombs", the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bomb, which was only 10.5 tons. The MOP also packs a whopping 5,300 lbs of explosives, which is 10 times the amount its predecessor bunker-buster, the BLU-109, carried.

Basically, all you need to clean up afterwards will be a mop, cause there isn't going to be anything left...

The new Tsars...

TO HELP YOU KEEP TRACK of The White House Tzars, here is the latest list; read it and weep...

Afghanistan Czar: Richard Holbrooke- Ultra liberal anti gun former Gov.of New Mexico . Pro Abortion and legal drug use.

AIDS Czar: Jeffrey Crowley Homosexual. A Gay Rights activist. Believes in Gay Marriage and Special Status, including free health care for gays.

Auto recovery Czar: Ed Montgomery- Black radical anti business activist. Affirmative Action and Job Preference for blacks. Univ of Maryland Business School Dean teaches US business has caused world poverty. ACORN board member. Communist DuBois Club member.

Border Czar: Alan Bersin- former failed superintendent of San Diego . Ultra Liberal friend of Hilary Clinton. Served as Border Czar under Janet Reno - to keep borders open to illegals

California Water Czar: David J. Hayes Sr. Fellow of radical environmentalist group, "Progress Policy". No training or experience in water management.

Car Czar: Ron Bloom- Auto Union worker. Anti business & anti nuclear. Has worked hard to force US auto makers out of business. Sits on the Board of Chrysler which is now Auto Union owned. How did this happen?

Central Region Czar: Dennis Ross- Believes US policy has caused Mid East wars. Obama apologist to the world. Anti gun and pro abortion.

Domestic Violence Czar: Lynn Rosenthal- Director of the National Network to End Domestic Violence. Vicious anti male feminist. Supported male castration.

Drug Czar: Gil Kerlikowske- devoted lobbyist for every restrictive gun law proposal, Former Chief of Police in Liberal Seattle. Believes no American should own a firearm. Supports legalization of drugs.

Economic Czar: Paul Volcker -Head of Fed Reserve under Jimmy Carter when US economy nearly failed. Obama appointed head of the Economic Recovery Advisory Board which engineered the Obama economic disaster to US economy. Member of anti business "Progressive Policy" organization.

Energy and Environment Czar: Carol Brower- Political Radical -Former head of EPA -- known for anti-business activism. Strong anti-gun ownership.

Faith-Based Czar: Joshua DuBois Political Black activist-Degree in Black Nationalism. Anti gun ownership lobyist.

Great Lakes Czar: Cameron Davis- Chicago radical anti business environmentalist. Blames George Bush for "Poisoning the water that minorities have to drink." No experience or training in water management. Former ACORN Board member

Green Jobs Czar: Van Jones- (since resigned). Black activist Member of American communist Party and San Francisco Communist Party who said Geo Bush caused the 911 attack and wanted Bush investigated by the World Court for war crimes. Black activist with strong anti-white views.

Guantanamo Closure Czar: Daniel Fried -Rights activist for Foreign Terrorists. Believes America has caused the war on terrorism.

Health Czar: Nancy-Ann DeParle. Former head of Medicare / Medicaid. Strong Health Care Rationing proponent. She is married to a reporter for The New York Times

Information Czar: Vivek Kundra- born in New Delhi , India . Controls all public information, including labels and news releases. Monitors all private Internet emails.

International Climate Czar: Todd Stern- Anti business former White House chief of Staff- Strong supportrer of the Kyoto Accord. Pushing hard for Cap and Trade. Blames US business for Global warming.

Intelligence Czar: Dennis Blair- Ret Navy. Stopped US guided missile program as "provocative". Chair of ultra liberal "Council on Foreign Relations" which blames American organizations for regional wars.

Mideast Peace Czar: George Mitchell Fmr. Sen from Maine- Left wing radical. Has said Israel should be split up into "2 or 3 " smaller more manageable plots". Anti-nuclear anti-gun & pro homosexual.

Pay Czar: Kenneth Feinberg- Chief of Staff to TED KENNEDY. Lawyer who got rich off the 911 victims payoffs.

Regulatory Czar: Cass Sunstein- Liberal activist judge-believes free speech needs to be limited for the "common good". Rules against personal freedoms many times -like private gun ownership.

Science Czar: John Holdren- Fierce ideological environmentalist, Sierra Club, Anti business activist. Claims US business has caused world poverty. No Science training.

Stimulus Accountability Czar: Earl Devaney- spent career trying to take guns away from American citizens.. Believes in Open Borders to Mexico . Author of statement blaming US gun stores for drug war in Mexico .

Sudan Czar: J. Scott Gration- Native of Democratic Republic of Congo . Believes US does little to help Third World countries. Council of foreign relations, asking for higher US taxes to support United Nations.

TARP Czar: Herb Allison- Fannie May CEO responsible for the US recession by using real estate mortgages to back up the US stock market. Caused millions of people to lose their life savings.


Terrorism Czar: John Brennan- Anti CIA activist. No training in diplomatic or gov. affairs. Believes Open Borders to Mexico and a dialog with terrorists and has suggested Obama disband US military.


Technology Czar: Aneesh Chopra- No Technology training. Worked for the Advisory Board Company, a health care think tank for hospitals. Anti doctor activist. Supports Obama Health care Rationing and salaried doctors working exclusively for the Gov. health care plan.

Urban Affairs Czar: Adolfo Carrion Jr.- Puerto Rican. Anti American activist and leftist group member in Latin America . Millionaire "slum lord" of the Bronx , NY. Owns many lavish homes and condos which he got from "sweetheart" deals with labor unions. Wants higher taxes to pay for minority housing and health care.


Weapons Czar: Ashton Carter- Leftist. Wants all private weapons in US destroyed. Supports UN ban on firearms ownership in America . No Other "policy"

WMD Policy Czar: Gary Samore- Former US Communist. Wants US to destroy all WMD unilaterally as a show of good faith. Has no other "policy".

It should come as no surprise to anyone which direction this administration is trying to drive this country; but this pretty much lays it out agency by agency...

It's also looking like the Dollar is imploding against foreign countries money, which doesn't bode well for us... Against the Yen, the dollar is down 10% in the last 90 days, to the lowest I've seen it in recent memory... it's 87Y=$1

Thoughts and Prayers please...

For those who read Bayou Renaissance Man, Peter is in the hospital with an incipient heart attack... Please send thoughts and prayers.

H/T Murph and Miss D

Desks...

I got this from an old family friend with this email-
As you might remember I was a navy gun fire control man during the Korean war. I served aboard the Cruiser USS Manchester from 1951 to 1954. I am a member in good standing with the Cruiser Sailor's Association and as such receive a quarterly magazine with all kind of Cruiser stories and other good articles. "Desks" appeared in this quarter's magazine and I think it is one of the very best articles I have had the pleasure to read in quite a long time. I am enclosing an .rft copy of the article for you and wish, if you see fit, you would pass it along to your friends. It is the way things should be in our schools. This teacher is wise beyond her years.


I like this teacher. A lesson that should be taught in all schools ... And colleges.

Back in September of 200S, on the first day of school, Martha Cothren, a social studies teacher at Robinson High School in Little Rock, did something not to be forgotten. On the first day of school, with the permission of the school superintendent, the principle and the building supervisor, she removed all of the desks out of her classroom.

When the first period kids entered the room they discovered that there were no desks.
"Ms. Cothren, where're our desks?" She replied, "You can't have a desk until you tell me how you earn the right to sit at a desk."

They thought, "Well, maybe it's our grades..." "No," she said.

'Maybe it's our behavior." She told them..." 0 it's not even your behavior."

And so, they came and went, the first period. second period, third period. Still no desks in the classroom. B early afternoon, news crews had started gathering in Ms. Cothren' classroom to report about this crazy teacher who had taken all the desks out of her room .

The final period of the day came, and as the puzzled students found seats on the floor of the deskless classroom, Martha Cothren said, "Throughout the day no one has been able to tell me what he/she has done to earn the right y to sit at the desks that are ordinarily found in this classroom.

Now I am going to tell you."

At this point, Martha Cothren went over to the door of of her classroom and opened it. Twenty-seven (27) U.S. Veterans, all in uniform, walked into that classroom, each one carrying a school desk. The Vets began placing the school desks in rows, and then they would walk over and stand alongside the wall. By the time the last soldier had set the final desk in place, those kids started to understand, perhaps for the first time in their lives, just how the right to sit at those desks had been earned.

Martha said, "You didn't earn the right to sit at those desks. These heroes did it for you. They placed the desks here for you. Now, it's up to you to sit in them. It is your responsibility to learn, to be good students, to be good citizens. They paid the price that you could have the freedom to get an education. Don't ever forget it..."

And a lesson a few adults need to learn too...

Business as usual...

Well, lemme see...

Gen McCrystal was specifically selected to take over Afghanistan, right?

He was directed to 'fix' the problems, right?

He proposed a troop increase of 42,000 AT THE MINIMUM needed to stabilized/start turning the situation around, right?

He submitted the paperwork in a timely fashion (in mid-August), right?

The military chain of command approved it (Gen Patraeus, ADM Mullin), right?

So he's good to go, right???

Ah... not so fast... The administration has been sitting on the request and waffling since August. NEITHER the HASC or SASC has yet to call Gen McCrystal, and he has only had ONE short VTC with the Lightbringer.

Now he is being pressured to 'withdraw' the 'overzealous' request...

Oh yeah, he DID have a 20 minute sit down with the Lightbringer today after the Olympic Committee gave the Olympics to Brazil today.

I 'guess' that will be the Lightbringer's justification for flying to Copenhagen now.

HEY, YOU, ADMINISTRATION- We've got people DYING over there, they need a little help!!! Stop with the BS, and either s**t or get off the pot!!!

Sigh...

And speaking of the Olympics, looks like a major fail for the Lightbringer, Mz. Lightbringer and Oprah... Any bets all those unions and real estate developers in Chitown are just a hair pissed???

Oh yeah, and guess who Blogo's little Senator blames for Chitown not getting the Olympics? Give up???

George Bush of course!!! sigh...

I guess they think if we are distracted enough (like the trip to Copenhagen), we won't notice the BS continues in DC. Latest projection on the Health Care bill out of the Senate=$1 Trillion over 10 years. And now the "latino activists" are clamoring for inclusion for "their" people...

Reminds me more and more of Clinton!

And a couple of golden oldies for ya...

Sometime this year we taxpayers may again receive an Economic Stimulus payment, since they still have almost 90% of the Stimulus funds STILL in the government... And, oh by the way, new unemployment numbers are now at 9.8% (13% if you count those that have given up and quit looking).

I'll explain it using the "Q and A" format.

Q. What is an Economic Stimulus payment?
A. It is money that the federal government will send to taxpayers.

Q. Where will the government get this money?
A. From taxpayers.

Q. So the government is giving me back my own money?
A. Only a smidgen.

Q. What is the purpose of this payment?
A. The plan is for you to use the money to purchase high ticket items like a high-definition TV set, thus stimulating the economy.

Q. But isn't that stimulating the economy of China?
A. Shut up.

Below is some helpful advice on how to best help the US economy by spending your stimulus check wisely:

• If you spend the stimulus money at Wal-Mart, the money will go to China.
.
• If you spend it on gasoline, your money will go to the Arabs.

• If you purchase a computer, it will go to India.

• If you purchase fruit and vegetables, it will go to Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala.
• If you buy a car, it will go to Japan or Korea.
• If you purchase useless stuff, it will go to Taiwan.
• If you pay your credit cards off, or buy stock, it will go to management bonuses and they will hide it offshore.

Instead, keep the money in America by:

1 spending it at yard sales, or
2 going to ball games, or
3 spending it on prostitutes, or
4 beer or
5 tattoos.

(These are the only American businesses still operating in the US)

Conclusion: Go to a ball game with a tattooed prostitute that you met at a yard sale and drink beer all day.

And I found this from back in 2006 I think it was... Prophetic to say the least...

Nothing like hearing the plan straight from the horse's mouth!

And here is a video that is actually WORTH WATCHING...

But for some unknown reason, YouTube refuses to let me post it...

It's called GI Joe and Lillie.

Y'all have a good weekend, ya hear :-)