A little humor…

Posted on by May 17, 2026

To start the week…

I don’t write ’em, I just pass ’em along on recycled electrons…

-If I had a dollar for every girl that found me unattractive, they’d eventually find me attractive.

-I find it ironic that the colors red, white, and blue stand for freedom, until they’re flashing behind you.

-Never tell your problems to anyone, because 20 percent don’t care and the other 80 percent are glad you have them.

-Television may insult your intelligence, but nothing rubs it in like a computer.

-I bought a vacuum cleaner six months ago and so far all it’s been doing is gathering dust.

-Every time someone comes up with a foolproof solution, along comes a more-talented fool.

-I’ll bet you $4,567 you can’t guess how much I owe my bookie.

-Behind every great man is a woman rolling her eyes.

-If you keep your feet firmly on the ground, you’ll have trouble putting on your pants.

-A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.

-My wife got 8 out 10 on her driver’s test–the other two guys managed to jump out of her way.

-Women spend more time wondering what men are thinking than men spend thinking.

-Give me ambiguity or give me something else.

-He who laughs last thinks slowest.

-Is it wrong that only one company makes the game Monopoly?

-Women sometimes make fools of men, but most guys are the do-it-yourself type.

-I was going to give him a nasty look, but he already had one.

-The grass may be greener on the other side but at least you don’t have to mow it.

-If at first you don’t succeed, skydiving is not for you.

-If tomatoes are technically a fruit, is ketchup a smoothie?

-Money is the root of all wealth.

-No matter how much you push the envelope, it’ll still be stationery.

Security…

Posted on by May 16, 2026

There is security (Kabuki) theater, and then there is SECURITY…

US staff and press members accompanying President Donald Trump reportedly discarded materials from given by the Chinese officials before boarding Air Force One on Friday. The report highlights the deep mistrust that continues to define the US-China ties. The American officials and White House reporters threw away various items collected during the trip, including staff burner phones, credential badges, and lapel pins issued by China. The materials were reportedly dumped into a bin placed near the aircraft stairs shortly before departure from Beijing Capital Airport, according to a journalist in the White House Pool. The move comes as Donald Trump concluded his high-profile two-day visit to Beijing after meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Full article, HERE from the Economic Times of India.

The US delegation went into the trip with tight security, no personal phones, computers, or any electronic devices. Only burner phones and selected ‘clean’ computers were allowed, and they were not connected to the Internet. Also, only secure, verified charging stations were used.

All Chinese gifts, badges, pins, and commemorative items were all dumped into a trash bin at the base of the ladder, including burner phones.

A friend who has been there on business always carries a burner phone and a ‘clean’ laptop that is locked down tighter than a…well, you get the idea. And when he comes back the phone is disposed of, and the computer wiped clean and reloaded for the next trip.

This is the difference between this administration and the last one. As if people aren’t already aware of the prosecutions of leakers under this administration…

And no, security is not perfect, and never will be as long as humans are involved, but at least they are trying…

TBT…

Posted on by May 13, 2026

Getting down low…

It was part of our job, especially during rigging operations- That was getting the upright sequences of the ships, the names off them, and anything ‘strange’ that the crew might notice.

Low passThis wasn’t us, he’s probably right at 100 feet… We were ‘supposed’ to stay at least 200 feet…

But occasionally the weather wasn’t real good, and you had a mission to do… It did usually get real quiet when you got down low, as you didn’t want to distract the pilots… 🙂

But these guys,,,

JMSDF p2V

Gave a whole new meaning to the word low… I got one flight with them out of Hachinohe, Japan back in the day. and they got down in the WEEDS…

There is a seat in the nose, which was the magnetic anomaly detector was, along with being the camera station. You can slide that seat forward until you’re looking straight out and dang near straight up or down. They were rigging some ships north of Hokkaido, and asked if I’l like to go up to the nose. I’d been sitting in the back with the operators, and ‘thought’ we were low on a couple of passes…

So I climb over the wing, weave my way down into the seat, and grabbed the camera as I saw we were inbound to another “Rust Maru”… It was probably a coastal freighter, so not real big…

Normal rig was down one side, 270 turn, stern pass, 270 turn and up the other side. I thought we were pretty low on the first pass, as I got a good shot of the name plate on the bridge wing, but when we did the 270 and came by the stern, I KNEW we were low, because I was looking straight out at the name on the stern…

Probably 50 feet off the water… Sigh… and we rolled into a 270 turn to the right.

At about 40 degrees angle of bank…

And I’m trying to remember what the wingspan is (it is 103 feet)…

And hoping we didn’t get a big wave…

Sigh… Fun times…

And the hair on the back of my neck just stood up remembering that flight…

Posted in TBT

Teh stoopid…

Posted on by May 12, 2026

Is STRONG with them…

Virginia Democrats continue to prove they are as ignorant of grammar and basic proofreading as they are of their state’s constitution.

After the Virginia Supreme Court rightly ruled that Democrats unconstitutionally pushed through one of the most egregiously gerrymandered congressional maps in U.S. history, which would have erased the state’s sizable GOP voter population’s voice, Democrats promptly appealed. Unfortunately, the very first page of their motion to delay misspelled “Virgnia” and “Sentator.” Virginia Attorney General Jay “Kill the Kids” Jones did manage to correct those misspellings in his latest appeal, but he forgot to change his template to reflect his appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, not the Supreme Court of Virginia.

Full article, HERE from PJ Media.

And apparently don’t know how to do cut and paste…

Plus, I don’t think (I don’t know) whether SCOTUS even has standing to hear this appeal since this is a state issue, NOT a federal one, or impacting federal law.

But maybe Jones et al should look at using an LLM to write their appeals, at least the LLM would get the right spellings and right wording…

And I wonder how much this will cost them to pursue it, IF SCOTUS takes it?

Meanwhile, it’s it already to late to do anything this year, and doesn’t VA law say it has to be brought up with the ‘new’ legislature after the next election? I’m not a lawyer, sure as hell don’t play one on TV either…

Anyhoo, need more popcorn!

Dayum…

Posted on by May 11, 2026

This… I don’t even know what to say…

Nearly one third of Americans (30 percent) believe that at least one of the three attempts on President Donald Trump’s life over the last two years was staged, according to a new NewsGuard/YouGov poll. For each attempted assassination, a majority of Americans said either that it was staged or that they were not sure — averaging 54 percent across all three.

Only 38 percent of Americans believe that all three assassination attempts were authentic.

A national survey of 1,000 Americans conducted by YouGov on behalf of NewsGuard asked respondents from April 28 to May 4 whether they believed any of the three attempts on Trump’s life — at a July 2024 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, at Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course in September 2024, and at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in April 2026 — “was staged.” Respondents indicated whether they thought the statement that the assassination attempt was staged was “true,” “false,” or that they were “not sure.”

Full article, HERE from Newsguard Tech by Sofia Rubinson and Samantha Tanner.

I’m amazed that anyone, regardless of party affiliation would believe the Butler, PA or any other assassination attempt was faked! Two people died there! But for 42% of Dems think the Butler attempt was fake??? What the hell?

Are these people really that delusional? Or is this a reflection of the media’s ‘messaging’ these days???

I’ll be damned if I know… Sigh…

A little humor…

Posted on by May 10, 2026

To start the week…

The Stolen Car

The proud owner of a magnificent 1956 Chevrolet convertible, wrote to say he had restored the car to perfection over the last few years, and sent this…

Last week on a very warm summer afternoon I decided to take my car to town. It needed gas, as the gauge was practically on empty, but I needed an ice cream, so I headed first to my favorite ice cream shop.

I had trouble finding a parking space and had to park it down a side street. I noticed a group of young guys standing around smoking cigarettes and eyeing my car rather covetously.

I was a bit uneasy leaving it there. But people often take interest in such an old and well-preserved car, so I went off to enjoy my ice cream.

The line at the ice cream shop was long, and it took me quite a while to return to my car. When I did, my worst fears were realized… My car was gone.

I called the police and reported the theft and then went back and bought a quart of pistachio ice cream. About ten minutes later the police called me to say they had found the car abandoned near a gas station a few miles out of town.

It was unharmed and I was relieved. It seems just before I called, they had received a call from a young woman who was an employee at a self-service gas station. She told them that three young men had driven in with this beautiful old convertible.

One of them came to the window and prepaid for 20 dollar’s worth of gas.

Then all three of them walked around the car several times. They opened the hood and for a long time they all looked around inside. Then they closed the hood and walked around the car in the other direction.

Then they all got in the car and drove off, without filling the tank. The police were at a loss to explain this unusual sequence of events.

The question is, why would anybody steal a car, pay for gas that they never pumped, and then abandon the car later and walk away?

Answer: They couldn’t find where to put the gas! You’d never guess in a million years where it was on this car.

Continue reading →

One more chance…

Posted on by May 10, 2026

To save at least 3 F-14s…

Four decades after Tom Cruise’s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell first felt the need for speed in the cockpit of an F-14 Tomcat, new legislation is keeping hope alive that the iconic swept-wing fighter could someday fly again.

In late April, the U.S. Senate, led by sponsor Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., unanimously approved the “Maverick Act,” introduced by freshman U.S. Rep. Abraham Hamadeh, an Illinois Republican and Army Reserve officer. The bill, which has yet to become law, authorizes the secretary of the Navy to hand over the service’s three remaining F-14D Tomcats to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center Commission in Huntsville, Alabama.

It allows the commission to put the aircraft on display, but also permits them to be operated in “an airshow … or a commemorative event to preserve United States naval aviation heritage.”

Full article, HERE from Navy Times.

I worked with and knew a number of folks that flew the F-14s on active duty, and the ones that went to the sundown ceremony at Oceana September 22, 2006 came back grumbling about the fact that the birds were going to be destroyed.

There was a good reason, even back then, there were ‘concerns’ about Iran getting pieces/parts to keep their F-14s flying, including via the black market. They were the only other country to have them, in addition to P-3Fs they’d bought in the late 70s.

Ironically, the Iranians were the only ones to ever fire the Phoenix missile in combat, and yes, it worked as advertised. ROE prevented the US F-14 squadrons from ever using them by requiring positive ID of the target prior to firing.

There are there are approximately 8-10 F-14 Tomcat airframe hulls remaining in inventory at the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG). They don’t have any engines, electronics, or anything else in them. The ‘goal’ of the Maverick Act is to make three flyable F-14s out of what is left.

I just hope they succeed…

Photo Dave Parsons (Smithsonian Mag)

Interesting…

Posted on by May 8, 2026

It appears the Balikatan joint exercise got interesting this year…

Japan didn’t fire those Type 88 anti-ship missiles in the Philippines because Tokyo needed target practice; they fired them because China needed to see the smoke.

The physical target was a decommissioned Philippine Navy ship, but the audience sat in Beijing, where Chinese President Xi Jinping has spent years watching neighbors argue, hedge, complain, and sometimes fold.

Japan just stepped onto Philippine soil, launched ship-killing missiles during Balikatan 2026 (the annual military exercise between the Philippines and the United States), and reminded China that the First Island Chain isn’t a string of paper lanterns waiting for strong winds.

The facts don’t need embellishment; Japan’s Self-Defense Forces fired Type 88 anti-ship missiles from northern Luzon on May 6, hitting the BRP Quezon roughly 46 miles off Paoay.

Over 17,000 troops joined  2026, including about 10,000 Americans and roughly 1,400 Japanese personnel. Japan, Canada, France, and New Zealand joined as active participants for the first time.

Full article, HERE from PJ Media, and HERE from Stars and Stripes

The US also fired a few ‘toys’ including HIMARS, a TLAM, and a few other things. Pretty much all of them pointed at China’s ‘first islands’ claim. And the irony is the Japanese P-3 also can carry and fire the Harpoon anti-ship missile…

I’m ‘sure’ this is just a coincidence, since President Trump is going to China in a couple of weeks…

Back in the day, this was ONLY a US/Philippine exercise, no other players. Things are changing in more ways than one with the Bilat and Trilat participation we’re seeing in those heretofore singular exercises…

Will it get somebody’s attention? One hopes…

Picky, picky…

Posted on by May 7, 2026

Gotta admit I never even thought about this one…

A major food brand is being sued over claims it falsely marketed its canned tomatoes as premium “San Marzano” products.

Cento Fine Foods, based in New Jersey, is facing a proposed class action lawsuit claiming it misled consumers by labeling its tomatoes as “certified” San Marzano despite allegedly failing to meet the strict standards associated with the variety, according to a May 4 complaint filed in federal court in California.

“San Marzano tomatoes are considered the Ferrari or Prada of canned tomato varieties,” the lawsuit states, quoting Martha Stewart’s website. “Loyalists say they are well worth the higher price tag compared to other Italian or domestically produced options.”

Full article, HERE from Fox News.

Obviously those folks have ‘spesul’ taste buds to be able to pick out which tomatoes are which.

Meh…whatever… I grew up eating tomatoes, tomato sauce, and chili. To me, a tomato is a tomato, and the best ones are the ones you grow yourself.

You want to go spend all that money, feel free!