On the road again... still...

Made a stop by the Naval Aviation Museum at Pensacola today and took a few pics...

These pics illustrate how closely the Blue Angels REALLY fly. In the original Atrium they have the last set of Blue Angel A-4s suspended in a correct formation...

And before you ask, these were a mix of A-4 E and A-4F acft reworked to remove the humpback and bolt the leading edge slats in the full up position and add a drag chute and oiling system for the smoke...

From the "Boss" or #1- You can see the approximately 4 foot overlap of the wings...

From #3 you can see the slight step down of about 3 feet and aft about 20 feet from #1. If I remember correctly, the positional "cue" was the polished edge of the intake in a specific position with respect to the canopy bow...

From under #3 you can see that #4 is again stepped down about 3 feet and aft about another 20 feet from # 2 and 3...

From #4 Again the cue was the polished ring on the back of #1s fuselage and THAT was really all he was paying attention to... And #4 is REALLY bracketed amongst the other airplanes...

At 400 knots... and the ONLY person paying any attention to where they were going was the Boss... All the others were flying form on him!!!

If you ever get the chance, and are in the area of Pensacola, Florida; stop by the Museum, they have a great collection of not only airplanes, but models of Carriers, helicopters and other things; including guns, uniforms, patches, the Cubi O'club Bar, and some historic and beautiful Navy art!!! And it's REALLY history you can reach out and touch...

Another one worth the read...

Frank James is an excellent writer, shooter and farmer, and he's got a post up that just nails the Congresscritters to the wall...

An excerpt- "The buzzards eating on the pigs I killed last week have more integrity than these carrion insects..."

Go read the rest HERE !!!

And BZ has a post up called "Worshiping Obama". It's a well researched comparison between Obama and you know who up HERE...

You may not like the comparison, but it DOES have merit when looked at in the bigger picture of Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), and personally, I believe there ARE some issues...

Worth the read...

Snigs doesn't often get truly up on the soapbox, but she did HERE, and it's worth the read... She's one of those Southern (Steel) Magnolia types... Nice, polite, but you do NOT want to get on her bad side...

Tar and Feathers from the Left...

Most of y'all know I don't usually go off the deep end so to speak, but THIS really fired me up... I grew up in the 50s and 60s in the South, and I saw both the good and the bad of the Civil Rights fight(s)... His words in black, mine as always in blue.

From today's WAPO...

In the faces of Tea Party shouters, images of hate and history

By Colbert I. King
Saturday, March 27, 2010

The angry faces at Tea Party rallies are eerily familiar. They resemble faces of protesters lining the street at the University of Alabama in 1956 as Autherine Lucy, the school's first black student, bravely tried to walk to class…

It is worth asking how employing more bigotry as Colbert is doing in this article will do any good? He and his represent the party that promised to lead us to a better place. It amazes me how broad a brush he uses to paint a very large part of the population as racists. I have attended one Tea Party event, and I never saw anyone who had ANY racial motivation whatsoever. As a matter of fact, I saw quite a number of blacks (including a bus load from Georgia), Hispanics and Asians out there next to the capital who were angry about taxes and spending our dollars in a reallocation of wealth, not about race...

The Tea Party’s only goal, is to defend the US and it’s constitution from this administration’s takeover…

Those were the faces I saw at a David Duke rally in Metairie, La., in 1991: sullen with resentment, wallowing in victimhood, then exploding with yells of excitement as the ex-Klansman and Republican gubernatorial candidate spewed vitriolic white-power rhetoric…

Nope, never heard any white-power anything, more like when are you, the administration, going to listen to the People that elected you…People are angry, and it's got nothing to do with race. It has to do with the arrogant, willful imposition of extreme leftist policies by Obama, Pelosi, Reid et al. It has awakened the silent majority in this country, and made them aware that the election of Obama is not be a continuation of Clintonian moderation, but a radical leftist agenda.

They were spotted last weekend on Capitol Hill under the Tea Party banner protesting the health-care-reform bill. Some carried a signs that read "If Brown [Scott Brown (R-Mass.)] can't stop it, a Browning [high power weapon] can." Some shouted racial and homophobic epithets at members of Congress. Others assumed the role of rabble, responding to the calls of instigating Republican representatives gathered on a Capitol balcony…

And where is the proof? Who has been arrested? I heard ONE news report of a threat against Stupac, from a women who called him a piece of s**t, but I didn’t hear her ID herself as a Tea Party person…

And what about all the threats against Bush, and the Republicans? That was “politics” and okay??? Can we say DOUBLE STANDARD???

And they are consequential. Without folks like them, there would be no Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity or Pat Buchanan. There would never have been a George Corley Wallace, the Alabama governor dubbed by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Diane McWhorter in a 2008 Slate article as "the godfather, avatar of a national uprising against the three G's of government, Godlessness, and gun control."

Hence, an explanation for the familiarity of faces: today's Tea Party adherents are George Wallace legacies.

Oh really? George Wallace is the ‘father’ of the Tea Party??? George Wallace was a Democrat, Lester Maddox was a Democrat, ALL the members of the KKK were Democrats, Senator Robert Byrd, was a Grand Dragon of the KKK . If it was not for the Republicans there would be no Civil Rights Act - AND the point Mr King entirely misses - I guess any anger that is not the property of the Democrats is racist, homophobic, etc… And Limbaugh is a product of the Tea Party???

They, like Wallace's followers, smolder with anger. They fear they are being driven from their rightful place in America...

Um.. like our homes and businesses? Yep, pretty much…

They see the world through the eyes of the anti-civil rights alumni. "Washington, D.C." now, as then, is regarded as the Great Satan. This is the place that created the civil rights laws that were shoved down their throats. This is the birthplace of their much-feared "Big Government" and the playground of the "elite national news media."

Um… NO, through the eyes of people fed up with representatives that refuse to listen to those who elected them, and are blithely charging down the path of we know better than you, and pay no attention to the bribes and strong arm tactics behind the curtain…

The angry '50s and '60s crowds threatened and intimidated; some among them even murdered. That notwithstanding, Americans of goodwill gathered in the White House to witness the signing of landmark civil rights laws.

So… are we preemptively being accused of murder here???

I know that the folks over a Sipsey Street are NOT fomenting anything other than the brick throwing, and in fact are also denouncing the threats; but they are being lumped in with the Tea Party (by the WAPO no less), even though they are not associated with them per se...

Schoolhouse doors were blocked, and little children were demeaned. Yet the bigots didn't get the last word. Justice rolled down like a mighty river, sweeping them aside.

And we’re bigots too, in addition to being racists???

They insulted, abused, lied and vandalized. Still, President Obama fulfilled his promise to sign historic health-care reform into law by the end of his first term.
Those angry faces won't go away. But neither can they stand in the way of progress.
The mobs of yesteryear were on the wrong side of history. Tea Party supporters and their right-wing fellow travelers are on the wrong side now. It shows up in their faces.

Hey Mr. King, I’d suggest you get out of your ivory tower and ACTUALLY find out about the Tea Party… I think you would find some of your so called friends from those days who are actually MEMBERS of the Tea Party

sigh…

You can read the entire oped HERE, or go to WAPO’s site and sign in as packing@packing.org with packing as the password…
Oh yeah, if you would like to comment to Mr. King – his email is kingc@washpost.com

Haiti AAR...

This from a friend...

To All,
I just returned from Haiti with Hebler. We flew in at 3 AM Sunday to the scene of such incredible destruction on one side, and enormous ineptitude and criminal neglect on the other.

Port o Prince is in ruins. The rest of the country is fairly intact. Our team was a rescue team and we carried special equipment that locates people buried under the rubble. There are easily 200,000 dead, the city smells like a charnal house. The bloody UN was there for 5 years doing apparently nothing but wasting US Taxpayers money.

The ones I ran into were either incompetents or outright anti American. Most are French or french speakers, worthless every damn one of them. While 1800 rescuers were ready willing and able to leave the airport and go do our jobs, the UN and USAID ( another organization full of little OBamites and communists that openly speak against Americana) These two organizations exemplar ed their parochialism by:
USAID, when in control of all inbound flights, had food and water flights stacked up all the way to Miami, yet allowed Geraldo Rivera, Anderson Cooper and a host of other left wing news puppies to land.

Pulled all the security off the rescue teams so that Bill Clinton and his wife could have the grand tour, whilst we sat unable to get to people trapped in the rubble.
Stacked enough food and water for the relief over at the side of the airfield then put a guard on it while we dehydrated and wouldn't release a drop of it to the rescuers.

No shower facilities to decontaminate after digging or moving corpses all day, except for the FEMA teams who brought their own shower and decon equipment, as well as air conditioned tents. No latrine facilities, less digging a hole if you set up a sh**ter everyone was trying to use it.

I watched a 25 year old Obamite with the USAID shrieking hysterically, berate a full bird colonel in the air force, because he countermanded her orders, whilst trying to unscrew the air pattern. " You don't know what your president wants! The military isn't in charge here we are!"

If any of you are thinking of giving money to the Haitian relief, or to the UN don't waste your money. It will only go to further the goals of the French and the Liberal left. If we are a fair and even society, why is it that only white couples are adopting Haitian orphans. Where the hell is that vocal minority that is always screaming about the injustice of American society.

Bad place, bad situation, but a perfect look at the new world order in action. New Orleans magnified a thousand times. Haiti doesn't need democracy, what Haiti needs is Papa Doc. That's not just my opinion , that is what virtually every Haitian we talked with said. the French run the UN treat us the same as when we were a colony, at least Papa Doc ran the country.

Oh, and as a last slap in the face the last four of us had to take US AIRWAY's home from Phoenix. They slapped me with a 590 dollar baggage charge for the four of us. The girl at the counter was almost in tears because she couldn't give us a discount or she would lose her job.

Pass that on to the flying public.

God Bless America and the U.S. Marine Corps

Bleg for Mary and Densey Cole...

8 days for Mary and Densey Cole

Mary and Densey Cole have 8 days to go to show a HUGE lead in the contest that Mary has entered into with Crate and Barrel for a honeymoon. They have a lead, let's make sure they keep it!

Please pass this along on your blogs and ask others to do the same. Let's make their dream come true!

Here is the link where you can vote, read their story in Mary's own words and VOTE! Thanks for all your continuing support...

http://www.ultimateweddingcontest.com/entries/33527?sort=votes#33527

h/t CPDcoppurr

An Interesting Video...

The Horsemen come to P'cola in three F-8F Bearcats and fly with the Blues...

Six minutes of video well worth watching! Sit back and enjoy!!!

Remember in November...

Well, tomorrow will, I believe, prove to be a black day for the USA...

We had the culmination of bribery, strong arm tactics, outright lies and social engineering at its finest last night in the so called House of Representatives...

BUT they passed a bill over the objections of 64 to 71% of the public they supposedly represent, and I really don't believe half of them had ANY idea of what they were doing other than responding to a variety of pressures...

The only bi-partisanship I saw was in the opposition to the bill, and had the President not agreed to an executive order to prohibit abortion (Is that even legal???) it would have gone down in defeat.

Anyone who can do basic math knows this is going to cost ALL of us more than we really can afford, not only in taxation, but in increased costs for insurance... I had a doctor's appointment this morning with my regular doc, and she told me the practice has decided to no longer take Medicare/Medicaid patients, as they are not being reimbursed at a break even cost, and do not see anything but bad news with what happened yesterday.

Where are the doctors going to come from to support 31 million new patients? Beats the hell outta me... that is 8 years of training...

How long will it take to get an appointment? If Mass is any indication, 17-31 days, e.g. you will be dead before the appointment arrives if you have a critical problem...

But wait, you can go to the ER, right??? Um... maybe... but THOSE wait times are already 3-6 hours depending on the hospital and day of the week...

$500M cut in Medicare/Medicaid- so... we add 31 million and CUT reimbursement???

And most 'benefits' don't kick in until 2014, but the taxation starts immediately...

Turk Turon has a good post up HERE with some additional information that bears thinking about...

JayG has his take up HERE

TOTWTYTR has a good post up HERE

Pamela Hart has a different view up HERE

Granny has her take up HERE

Gay Cynic has his take HERE

All variations on the theme of basic unhappiness and dissatisfaction with congress...

Yep, they have fundamentally transformed the US alright. Right into the poor house...

AND they have also taken over all Student Loans...

We lost this battle, no question; but I firmly believe this is only the first battle in what promises to be a long war against the progressive/socialist agenda this president and the dems are trying to ram down our throats...

I do believe the States will go through with their suits against the government, and I do believe at least parts of the bill(s) will be declared unconstitutional as this infringes on States Rights in a major way.

I propose our rallying cry be "Remember in November" and VOTE THEM OUT!!!

Pics from the road...

A few pics from the latest go-round of travel to the mid-East...
They don't call it the sandbox for nothing...

(and this is one of the 'good' roads)

Now THIS is a hotel room :-) This was my room in Kuwait...

A family of five could fit in this place with NO problem... Off to the left, out of picture is the kitchen area, all top of the line appliances too!!!

The beach side of the hotel...

Our own patrol boat, if you look straight up from the post in the bottom middle, the dot between the umbrella tops is a PG...

And from Bahrain, an interesting anomaly... The Tree of Life!

The Tree of Life , also known as Shajarat al-Hayah, in Bahrain stands alone in the desert about 1.2 miles from the Jebel Dukhan(Smoking Hill-gladly dormant), the highest point on the island. It is almost of monumental proportion and has been aptly named as it seems to epitomize the very essence of life. It is said that this mesquite tree is a least a 200 and possibly as much as 400 years old, and considered to be one of Bahrain's natural treasures.

The source of water on which this tree thrives is unknown and remains an enigma, serving to increase the lure of the place. As a side note, we figured out the tree sits roughly 300 feet above sea level, so the tap root has to be a least that long... Who knows...

This is as we were driving up, just to show the bareness of the landscape...

Up close, and yes, people drive up and literally park right against the tree...
And there is graffiti all over the tree...

And from under the tree, looking toward the Arabian Gulf about 4 miles away...

And now back to the regularly scheduled BS...

No blog for you...

Now in another location, lousy internet connectivity, what there is, is dog ass slow... Won't be blogging or commenting until Saturday...

Sorry Folks...

Blog roll adds...

Go check out the new adds to the blogroll!

Mule Dung and Ash, Granny with a Pitchfork, The Right Idea and Lagniappes Lair are all good reads, with different perspectives, but ALL are worth the time!!!

On the travel front, first time back in Kuwait since 1991, LOTS of changes- The lights are on (everywhere), traffic is heavy, and as usual, those in charge do nothing and the 'contract' workers do everything... lots of Philippine and other Asian workers seen everywhere...

My body clock is now back in screwed up time, e.g. I have NO idea what time my body thinks it is, so sleep is gonna be 'fun'... sigh...

America Rising...

Nuff said...

A Good Cause...

CDPcoppurr has a post up HERE about Densey Cole and his chance to get a real honeymoon...

It helps that people know who he is and what he was put through in his own words. The REST of Densey Cole's story of what happened...HERE

HERE is the link where you can vote... It will only take you a minute and it IS for a good cause!

Michael Murphy MOH...

Crucis has a post up HERE on Lt Mike Murphy's MOH won in Afghanistan. This is the team leader that Marcus Luttrell refers to in his book 'Lone Survivor'.

Go take the seven minutes and listen to the video...

Story of a Challenged Senior...

At a certain age, everyone will understand this poor guy.

Hell, at a certain age that WILL be US...

I thought about the 30 year business I ran with 1800 employees, all without a Blackberry that played music, took videos, pictures and communicated with Facebook and Twitter.

I signed up under duress for Twitter and Facebook, so my seven kids, their spouses, 13 grandkids and 2 great grand kids could communicate with me in the modern way. I figured I could handle something as simple as Twitter with only 140 characters of space.

That was before one of my grandkids hooked me up for Tweeter, Tweetree, Twhirl, Twitterfon, Tweetie and Twittererific Tweetdeck, Twitpix and something that sends every message to my cell phone and every other program within the texting world.

My phone was beeping every three minutes with the details of everything except the bowel movements of the entire next generation. I am not ready to live like this. I keep my cell phone in the garage in my golf bag.

The kids bought me a GPS for my last birthday because they say I get lost every now and then going over to the grocery store or library. I keep that in a box under my tool bench with the Blue tooth [it's red] phone I am supposed to use when I drive. I wore it once and was standing in line at Barnes and Noble talking to my wife as everyone in the nearest 50 yards was glaring at me. Seems I have to take my hearing aid out to use it and I got a little loud.

I mean the GPS looked pretty smart on my dash board, but the lady inside was the most annoying, rudest person I had run into in a long time. Every 10 minutes, she would sarcastically say, "Re-calc-ul-ating" You would think that she could be nicer. It was like she could barely tolerate me. She would let go with a deep sigh and then tell me to make a U-turn at the next light. Then when I would make a right turn instead, it was not good.

When I get really lost now, I call my wife and tell her the name of the cross streets and while she is starting to develop the same tone as Gypsy, the GPS lady, at least she loves me.

To be perfectly frank, I am still trying to learn how to use the cordless phones in our house. We have had them for 4 years, but I still haven't figured out how I can lose three phones all at once and have run around digging under chair cushions and checking bathrooms and the dirty laundry baskets when the phone rings. (sounds familiar, please let it keep ringing until I find it. . . don't laugh, I am serious)

The world is just getting too complex for me. They even mess me up every time I go to the grocery store. You would think they could settle on something themselves but this sudden "Paper or Plastic?" every time I check out just knocks me for a loop.

I bought some of those cloth reusable bags to avoid looking confused but I never remember to take them in with me.

Now I toss it back to them. When they ask me, "Paper or Plastic?" I just say, "Doesn't matter to me. I am bi-sacksual.." Then it's their turn to stare at me with a blank look.

Mini-Meet...

I trundled up to Baltimore yesterday afternoon, in DC traffic (1 hour to go 16 miles), to meet up with AD, TOTW, and Epi at the EMS conference...

Did I mention I HATE DC traffic???

I actually found a parking place less than a mile walk to the bar even! Of course one of the 'courteous' Baltimore drivers tried to dive into it as I started backing up, but the law of gross tonnage won :-) After suitable honking and hand gestures that fine lady decided to look elsewhere...

Did I mention I HATE DC and BALTIMORE traffic???

Anyhoo, paid the King's ransom to park and walked over to the bar- And there was AD, holding court as usual :-) Since it was early, and the beer had just started flowing, it was pretty quiet by our 'standards'...

TOTW and I retired to the outdoors to indulge our bad habits and catch up on happenings since the last time we saw each other and commiserate on the condition of Lou, who literally IS a legend in EMS, one of the original medics and later paramedics at Baltimore Shock Trauma. TOTW and I discussed how to get somebody to sit down with Lou and capture an oral history from him, since he was there at the start of it all. Lou is not well, and his health is declining, please keep him in your thoughts and prayers...

Meanwhile, AD and the crowd had moved to a bigger table, and the beer was starting to flow, so we wandered back in. Since the crowd was all EMS folks, I truly felt like a third wheel, but I enjoyed watching the show, and yes Farm Girl, I did pass along your greeting :-)

As we were ordering food, a BIG ol' boy(as we say down South), not quiet as big as Matt, but close showed up at the table, staring intently at AD for three or four minutes. He had heard AD give a lecture on something a couple of years ago and was STILL impressed by it!!! He joined us and things got merrier as the beer continued to flow.

Turns out this ol' boy is a paramedic at Lennox Hill Hospital in NYC; and in his off time he's a club bouncer in NYC. I asked him if he'd ever had to fix somebody up AFTER he pounded them down, and he said only a couple of times, then he casually mentioned he'd been shot THREE times bouncing! One time SIX shots in the back!!! He said thankfully he was wearing a vest when that happened! I asked him if he ever wore his vest while working for Lennox, and he just grinned and said, "No comment".

Bottom line, that Gentleman TRULY works the mean streets, and has for 18 years... More power to him!

Epi popped in, saying she was upstairs with another group of EMS bloggers, and complained they were all younger than her and the booze and Jello shots were starting; so we started kidding her about being 'mama' and by coming down to OUR table, she immediately became the youngest person there...

Epi seemed much happier than last year, and did say that even with all the issues of paramedic school life is MUCH better! That's great to hear, as she is truly one of the good (AND Nice) ones...

Meanwhile, the beer and food continued to flow, and AD continued to hold court, while TOTW and I just watched and shook our heads... He is really something when he gets on a roll, as he was last night! :-)

I had to bolt early, as I had stuff to do this morning, and as I left I heard AD say to the waitress, "Oh, we're gonna be HERE a while darling, just hang on to that check for me"... TOTW just rolled his eyes, and told me they had a hour drive to get to where they were staying, so there is no telling what time they got home...

So I trot my happy ass back out to my truck, to find that somebody had keyed my driver's side door from top to bottom (I wonder if the bitch that lost 'her' parking space to me came back?). Then the fun began as I started trying to get OUT of the parking space, since new people had left me about ONE foot in front and in back!!!

After backing and filling 'forever' I finally got out, and back on the road home...

Did I mention that I HATE DC and BALTIMORE traffic???

54 miles and TWO hours later I finally get home (and this was WELL after 'rush hour')...

Did I mention I HATE DC and BALTIMORE traffic???

But it was definitely worth it, good times with good friends is ALWAYS worth the effort!!!

Yea Us...

Virginia just lost a few more Brady points... :-)

From NRA/ILA Alert-

SB 334, Senator Hanger's restaurant ban repeal has PASSED the House UNCHANGED.

SB 408, Senator Vogel's bill to allow non-CHP holders to have a loaded handgun in a locked container or compartment in their motor vehicle or boat PASSED UNCHANGED.

SB 3, Senator Smith's bill to allow CHP holders to renew their permit through the mail passed UNCHANGED.

All these will go to the REPUBLICAN Governor of VA for signature next week, and go into effect in July I believe...

Also the oral arguments have been completed in McDonald and can be read HERE. Turk Turon has been lucky enough to actually be there, and has a number of posts up on his blog about the goings on!

I'll make a prediction now- 5-4 in our favor with Scalia writing the opinion and Sotomayor writing the dissent...

And I'm stuck in Texas in meetings... sigh... sometimes Life just ain't fair :-(

h/t Turk Turon