Dammit…

Posted on by May 7, 2024
13

I knew it was coming, but I still hate to see this become reality…

Wokeness has finally succeeded in destroying a formerly great organization. After 114 years, the Boy Scouts of America is changing its name to Scouting America.

“The organization steeped in tradition has made seismic changes after decades of turmoil, from finally allowing gay youth to welcoming girls throughout its ranks,” reports the Associated Press. “With an eye on increasing flagging membership numbers, the Irving, Texas-based organization announced the name change Tuesday at its annual meeting in Florida.”

Full article, HERE.

Norman Rockwell was a supporter of Scouting, doing somewhere around 65 paintings about Scouting over the years that were featured in the Scouting magazines.

My father died when I was nine, and Scouting provided good male role models for me during my childhood. In addition, it taught me self-sufficiency, leadership, involvement in the community.

I made it all the way to Eagle Scout, Order of the Arrow, and through the Explorer program.

One of the things I remember most is the pride the leaders took in the USA and how they lead by example. I think this was because most of our leaders were veterans of WWII, and had some pretty strong feelings about ‘what’ and ‘how’ we should learn.

Sadly, like many other organizations, Scouting has had its troubles, many brought on by lawsuits and leading to the bankruptcy of the original organization.

At least I’ll always have my good memories…sigh

Blogversity…

Posted on by May 5, 2024
27

Gah, I’ve been doing this for a while… 17 years ago I started with this post!

I’m new to this whole arena, but thought I’d give it a try. I guess I fall in the “silent majority” as we have been deemed, I’ve never sought publicity, sued anyone for spilling my coffee, sure as hell ain’t a movie star; well, you get the drift…

I’m mid-50’s have a decent job, two decent kids trying hard to make their own way in the world today, and a lot of frustration with what is happening to the US of A. Being from the South, I hunt, fish, and shoot guns; so that immediately makes me one of those “rabid rednecks” to quote some out there. I did have a pickup, but it’s hard to park it where I work, so I drive a Pontiac… sure do miss the truck though… sigh…

As a retired military type, it really hurts to see the crap we are putting the folks in service through today. I lived through that in Vietnam, and I take the time to thank every Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine for their service when I get the chance. Most of the kids (I’m Southern so I can say that) are doing the best they can with what they have. They believe in the job they and others are doing in the Sandbox, and are pretty upset by the media coverage they get.

Anyway, I’m going to try this for a while and see what happens… thanks for reading and commenting…

Old NFO

6500 posts, 87,800 comments, and something over 10 million views later, I’m STILL amazed y’all stick around for my brain drippings…

THANK YOU EACH AND EVERY ONE!

Points to ponder…

Posted on by May 5, 2024
12

I don’t feel like digging through the ‘trash’ that is news today, so you get something else…

A successful business man was growing old and knew it was time to choose a successor to take over the business.

Instead of choosing one of his Directors or his children, he decided to do Something different. He called all the young executives in his company together.b

He said, “It is time for me to step down and choose the next CEO. I have decided to choose one of you. “The young executives were Shocked, but the boss continued. “I am going to give each one of you a SEED today – one very special SEED. I want you to plant the seed, water it, and come back here one year from today with what you have grown from the seed I have given you. I will then judge the plants that you bring, and the one I choose will be the next CEO.”

One man, named Jim, was there that day and he, like the others, received a seed. He went home and excitedly, told his wife the story. She helped him get a pot, soil and compost and he planted the seed. Everyday, he would water it and watch to see if it had grown. After about three weeks, some of the other executives began to talk about their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow.

Jim kept checking his seed, but nothing ever grew

Three weeks, four weeks, five weeks went by, still nothing.

By now, others were talking about their plants, but Jim didn’t have a plant and he felt like a failure.

Six months went by — still nothing in Jim’s pot. He just knew he had killed his seed.

Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothingJim didn’t say anything to his colleagues, however, he just kept watering and fertilizing the soil – he so wanted the seed to grow.

A year finally went by and all the young executives of the company brought their plants to the CEO for inspection.

Jim told his wife that he wasn’t going to take an empty pot.But she asked him to be honest about what happened.

Jim felt sick to his stomach, it was going to be the most embarrassing moment of his life, but he knew his wife was right. He took his empty pot to the board room.

When Jim arrived, he was amazed at the variety of plants grown by the other executives. They were beautiful – in all shapes and sizes Jim put his empty pot on the floor and many of his colleagues laughed, a few felt sorry for him!

When the CEO arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted his young executives.

Jim just tried to hide in the back. “My, what great plants, trees and flowers you have grown,” said the CEO. “Today one of you will be appointed the next CEO!”

All of a sudden, the CEO spotted Jim at the back of the room with his empty pot. He ordered the Financial Director to bring him to the front. Jim was terrified.. He thought, “The CEO knows I’m a failure! Maybe he will have me fired!”

When Jim got to the front, the CEO asked him what had happened to his seed, Jim told him the story.

The CEO asked everyone to sit down except Jim. He looked at Jim, and then announced to the young executives, “This is your next Chief Executive Officer!

His name is Jim!” Jim couldn’t believe it. Jim couldn’t even grow his seed.

“How could he be the new CEO?” the others said.

Then the CEO said, “One year ago today, I gave everyone in this room a seed.

I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me today.

But I gave you all boiled seeds; they were dead – it was not possible for them to grow.

All of you, except Jim, have brought me trees and plants and flowers. When you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another seed for the one I gave you.

Jim was the only one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it.

Therefore, he is the one who will be the new Chief Executive Officer!”

* If you plant honesty, you will reap trust* If you plant goodness, you will reap friends* If you plant humility, you will reap greatness* If you plant perseverance, you will reap contentment* If you plant consideration, you will reap perspective* If you plant hard work, you will reap success* If you plant forgiveness, you will reap reconciliation

So, be careful what you plant now; it will determine what you will reap later.

Think about this for a minute.

If I happened to show up on your doorstep crying, would you care?

If I called you and asked you to pick me up Because something happened, would you come?

If I had one day left to live my life, would you be part of that last day?

If I needed a shoulder to cry on, would you give me yours?

Ummm… errr…

Posted on by May 4, 2024
2

Notable quotes…

There are two ways to go to the gas chamber: free or not free. [Viktor Frankl]

The fatal fallacy of gun control laws in general is the assumption that such laws actually control guns. Criminals who disobey other laws are not likely to be stopped by gun-control laws. What such laws actually do is increase the number of disarmed and defenseless victims. [Thomas Sowell]

When immigration is done by single individuals, it is immigration. When done by groups, it is invasion.” – Nassim Taleb

But test and prove all things until you can recognize what is good; to that hold fast. [1 Thessalonians 5:21]

I would sooner be governed by the first two thousand names in the Boston telephone directory than by the two thousand members of the faculty of Harvard. [William F. Buckley Jr]

In politics, never assume that because something is insane, it will not be done. [Thomas Sowell]

If the path before you is clear, you’re probably on someone else’s. [Carl Jung]

Brains never yet moved the masses, but emotion and earnestness will not only move the masses, but they will remove mountains. [Admiral of the Fleet (British) John A. Fisher]

You should never forget that the airplanes don’t fly, the tanks don’t run, the ships don’t sail, the missiles don’t fire unless the sons and daughters of America make them do it. [General Norman Schwarzkopf]

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. [Arthur Schopenhauer]

There is one phrase in the Bible repeated 365 times. 365 is no coincidence. Be not afraid. [Richard Grenell]

Even the smallest things ought to be directed toward a goal. [Marcus Aurelius]

When we try to pick out anything by itself we find it hitched to everything else in the universe. [John Muir]

I got nothin’ against mankind. It’s people I can’t stand. [Archie Bunker]

Carry On: Verbal order which means, resume doing nothing. [Murphy’s Laws of Combat, Marion F. Sturkey]

Lord, Lord, how subject we old men are to lying! [Falstaff, in Shakespeare’s Henry IV]

I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure. [Clarence Darrow]

If it’s worth doing it’s worth doing with class. [Bob Fiegel]

If every Jewish and anti-Nazi family in Germany had owned a Mauser rifle and twenty rounds of ammunition and the will to use it, Adolf Hitler would be a little-known footnote to the history of the Weimar Republic. [Aaron Zelman]

Remember that the people that hid Anne Frank were breaking the law and the people that took her to the camps were enforcing it. [Your conscience]

The weak grow strong by effrontery. The strong grow weak through inhibition. [Henry Kissinger]

The person who says he knows what he thinks but cannot express it usually does not know what he thinks. [Mortimer Adler]

Those whom God would destroy, He first makes mad. [Sophocles’ Antigone]

The Second Amendment makes more women equal than the entire feminist movement. [unknown]

NOT about to say anything about this one…

Women are simple.

Their yes means yes, no means yes and no means no & no means maybe.

But maybe means yes & maybe means no.

YMMV, selected individuals may differ significantly. Handle with care at all times. See last quote above…

Very not good…

Posted on by May 3, 2024
15

It appears Artemis STILL has issues…

NASA’s acting inspector general, George A. Scott, released a report Wednesday that provided an assessment of NASA’s readiness to launch the Artemis II mission next year. This is an important flight for the space agency because, while the crew of four will not land on the Moon, it will be the first time humans have flown into deep space in more than half a century.

The report did not contain any huge surprises. In recent months the biggest hurdle for the Artemis II mission has been the performance of the heat shield that protects the Orion spacecraft during its fiery reentry at more than 25,000 mph from the Moon.

Although NASA downplayed the heat shield issue in the immediate aftermath of the uncrewed Artemis I flight in late 2022, it is clear that the unexpected damage and charring during that uncrewed mission is a significant concern. As recently as last week, Amit Kshatriya, who oversees development for the Artemis missions in NASA’s exploration division, said the agency is still looking for the root cause of the problem.

Full article, HERE from Ars Technica.

NASA has obviously become more ‘political’ than they were back in the day, and quite honestly that scares the hell out of me.

Also, the ‘brute force’ use of computing power to ‘fix’ issues rather than try/fail with actual hardware doesn’t bode well for the folks that will be flying in the can. Of course, the administrators et al WON’T be…

Gee, where have we seen ‘that’ mentality before???

Book promo…

Posted on by May 2, 2024
8

Raconteur Press has another one out! Space Cowboys #5 

As always, click on the cover for the Amazon link!

The blurb-

When every inch of our planet has been explored, from the depths of the sea to the top of every mountain, Space and her untamed frontiers will still be beckoning us, calling us to go beyond the farthest star and see what there is to see.

Old Sam Clemens once said that History don’t repeat itself, but it do rhyme. In Space, we got a vast, unexplored, mysterious, and dangerous frontier. We’ll have herds of some kind to watch over and to drive to market. Most times we’ll be far and beyond the reach of “civilization,” with their myriad of laws, lawyers, and politicians. Those tough enough to carve out a living will need the independent, rugged spirit of the cowboy to survive. There will be leeches and villains, for sure, heroes and anti-heroes, and some folks just trying to eke out a living. If we choose to tell their tales draped in the lingo and trappings of the cowboy, that’s just another rhyme, with form following the function.

If you’re new to the Space Cowboy series, you’re in for a treat. These ten stories, from ten different authors, are where you’ll find Explorers charting new frontiers in space, Trailhands and Drovers watching over their cattle on alien plains, and Lawdogs of every stripe meting out frontier justice, and doing their best to make sure scallywags with evil intent don’t win in the end. These cowboys and cowgirls don’t back down from a challenge. It’s not in their nature.

Next up is James Copley with a new series, Path to Freedom- The Path, Book One

The blurb-

Not all paths are equal…especially the path of the Kin. Genetically engineered human – animal hybrids, the Kin are good enough to fight and die in Terra’s wars, but not good enough to be full citizens or escape human racism.

Nearly broken and at the end of his rope, former scout pilot and Prisoner of War, Rodrick “Red” Vulkeshson, a Fox-Kin, has finally accepted the inevitable. He has no future in the Human Confederation of Worlds. Helped by his friend, Goose, he flees the star nation of his birth to an alien world to chase the dream which once captured his soul; becoming the captain of his own ship.

Red hopes to accomplish in the wider galaxy that which proved impossible in Corporate-dominated Confed space. However, his past will not let him go so easily, as he finds unexpected obstacles in his way. Nor are Terrans very popular outside the human sphere of influence, and he’s finding it difficult to navigate the byzantine alien regulations and cultures. It turns out that it isn’t just human Corporations that utilize legal warfare, and not all of them are content to limit themselves to just legal means.

And that’s just the beginning of his troubles…

And last but not least, my friend Ben English has a paperback version of Out There: Essays on the Lower Big Ben (Hiker’s Edition)

The blurb-

When one opens the pages to this book they step into another world and place, and even on occasions, another time. No matter what you may know about the lower Big Bend or think you know about the lower Big Bend, here are thoughts, maps and photographs that bring together a heretofore unachieved mosaic of this rugged, lonesome land. In effect, ‘Out There’ is a work that others simply cannot compare to. Whether you might be a first-time visitor or have made many a journey into its more remote environs, there is so much contained within to both see as well as savor. It is a book meant not for sitting on a shelf and gathering dust, but one to be read and re-read time and again. If home is where the heart is, even the first few paragraphs leave no doubt as to where the author’s resides. And that is only the beginning…

This one doesn’t have the color pictures, only B&W, but it is small enough to carry in the field!!!

I’ll highly recommend all three of these for your reading enjoyment!

TBT…

Posted on by May 1, 2024
19

Haven’t done one of these in a while…

Back in the day, this is how we let everybody know we’d gotten the ‘job’ done!

Used to piss off certain COs, but what the heck, our maintainers loved it!

It was always a team effort, and without the maintenance support we had, we could not have succeeded as often as we did!

Fond memories!!!

Here we go again!!!

Posted on by April 30, 2024
9

Looks like we’re going to get more weather tonight!

This is a ‘classic’ dryline fire up, albeit starting a little early. But at least last night it was in the ‘right’ place and not slopping back and forth like last weekend. I’ve included the doppler radar overlays the orange box is mesocyclonic activity, blue diamond is hail, green circle is rain/cell and red triangles are tornadic activity or debris.

As of 2000, we were lucky, as we ‘watched’ the storms build north and east of us, but my guess is it was going to get ugly to the east and further up in the plains states!

The bloom is…

Posted on by April 29, 2024
21

Off a rose or three…apparently!

Electric vehicles are becoming an unprofitable boondoggle for multiple motor companies. It turns out that woke virtue signaling is not the wisest business strategy.

There are, no doubt, multiple factors that feed into the drop in electric vehicle (EV) sales for companies including Ford, Tesla, and Mercedes-Benz. I would, however, mention one: EVs are too expensive and too unreliable for most Americans to purchase. They are a pricey and impractical choice. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if EV sales continue to drop for companies with EVs in America and Europe for the foreseeable future.

Full article, HERE from PJ Media.

And the Gaza protests are not being well received in certain schools… HERE

Much less at UGA… HERE

It seems that many are getting quickly fed up with it, and universities are taking steps including dismissing participants, cancelling scholarships, kicking them out of dorms, etc. GOOD!!!

Oof…

Posted on by April 28, 2024
9

Well, another Foolzcon is in the books… 50 of 65 invited made it…

Some of the folks who were there! Pic courtesy of Cedar!

But it DID get a bit exciting last night…

Tornados (2 reported), hail, lightning, and RAIN (OMG RAIN) for over 6 hours! We got 5 inches of rain!!!

So needless to say, folks were glued to their phones/weather radar sites. Thankfully, where we were stayed safe, and mostly dry, but getting home was ‘interesting’!

Going up 287, I hydroplaned 4 or 5 times going under 50 MPH, and there was flooding!