Musing…

Posted on by June 11, 2022

To all of my friends 50 years old and up… most of us are going through the next phase of our lives. We’re at that age where we see wrinkles, gray hair, and extra pounds. We have run households, paid the bills, dealt with sickness, sadness, and everything else life has assigned us. We are survivors… we are warriors in the quiet… we are men and women…like a classic car or a fine wine. Even if our bodies may not be what they once were, they carry our souls, our courage, and our strength. We shall all enter this chapter of our lives with humility, grace, and pride over everything we have been through, and we should never feel bad about getting older. It’s a privilege that is denied to so many.

While the young point and laugh, snickering about how ‘dumb’ we are, they don’t realize most of the ‘technologies’ they enjoy today were developed or improved by us. And many of us stood proudly in the line of patriots that have defended this country for over 246 years.

They also don’t realize how good they have it, both in the freedoms they enjoy, and the bounty of America, yet they continue to run both the country and us down.

I pity them…

Whimsy…

Posted on by June 10, 2022

Gotta give it to the Brits, they DO have a sense of humor!

When asked to ‘name’ a new icebreaker back in 2016, the ‘winning’ name was Boaty McBoatface!

When the boat was actually commissioned, a ‘better’ name was used by the government, but they DID name one of the assets on the ship…

Full article, HERE.

Two years ago when the Brits got their P-8 ASW airplanes, this showed up on the side of one…

Not saying there were ‘miscreant E-4s’ involved but…

Of course the Brits aren’t the only ones that do stuff like that. Hawaii did that back years ago. Except they didn’t get any ‘good’ names/naming conventions like the Brits. They winner was…

Yep, The Bus… sigh…

Book promo…

Posted on by June 9, 2022

First up is Ben English with his memoir of his time with the Texas DPS- Black and White: Tales of the Texas Highway Patrol

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

The blurb-

BLACK AND WHITE: TALES OF THE TEXAS HIGHWAY PATROL
You know I never saw an officer, an EMT, a fireman or an ER crew ask anyone what their politics were, and then refuse to care for them because of their answer. The color of skin pigment, the last name, the amount of money in a bank account, none of that mattered. All that mattered was someone needed help, and they had the skills as well as the burning desire to do so. Yes, they are only human and internally flawed and prejudiced as any other. But their true nature, their crowning glory in mortal life, is their ability to rise above those flaws and prejudices when called upon. In a world of hungry, destructive wolves, they stand as the sheepdog who serves and protects the flock.

This is book that is not necessarily an easy read, but it is well worth it. Ben told me he had problems writing it, and I can see why. He revisited both the good and the bad of his 22 years with DPS, and I’m sure it brought back things he would rather not remember.

Next up is W.L. Emery with his latest book- Magic Employed

The blurb-

He’s back! The itinerant wizard with the sesquipedalian vocabulary is back in another anthology of short stories. Accompanied by his traveling companion Mirrabelle, Otheldo encounters mermaids, a violent demon from another dimension, and an evil wizard who has enslaved an entire tribe of fiendishly powerful ape-men. The good news is that he’s employed.

Lawdog and Cedar Sanderson have another comic out- Astro Lizards

The blurb-

A few brave lizards, and a gecko, with the right stuff. Two boys growing up in Africa explore the possibilities of explosives, with their reptilian pals. AstroLizards tells the tale of the nascent Nigerian Spac… er, well, an attempt was made. Sapper Lizards tells of the brave enlisted lizards and the wonders of ammonium triiodide. Finally, the Major’s tale of epic battles against beetles and a nose round out this comedic book. You can color the story in yourself! Or you can read and laugh and read again.

Last, but not least, Sarah Hoyt has another Barbarella out there- Barbarella #10

The blurb-

Snerk…

Posted on by June 8, 2022

Friend of mine who lives on the Leeward side of Oahu sent me this one…

A small parcel of land in central Oahu is the site of another standoff between a group claiming ownership of the land based on Native Hawaiian ancestral rights, and a company holding the modern land title.

The unidentified group took over a 5-acre lot in an Oahu agricultural subdivision in September, and proclaimed themselves the rightful owners by “heirdom.” 

Full article, HERE from Hawaii local.

Here is a picture of the location-

This used to be part of the Dole Plantation back in the day, and the whole area on both sides of the road were pineapple fields for miles!!!

We were stationed at NAS Barbers Point, just southwest of this area, and the base was bordered by sugarcane fields owned by C&H Sugar. Now it’s all been broken up into small parcels and sold who knows how many times over.

When we were there, if you weren’t Hawaiian, you couldn’t buy land, you could ‘lease’ land for 99 years and build a house on it… And even then there were ‘native Hawaiians’ that would routinely try to ‘claim’ the base and surrounding land as ‘home land’, along with houses people had built, ESPECIALLY if somebody went on deployment and the wife/kids went back to the states for any length of time.

And you didn’t go into certain areas from Nānākuli to Makaha, and you sure as hell didn’t go to the beach unless you wanted to get robbed and your vehicle screwed with. And Mililani Town wasn’t safe after dark, along with a lot of the north end of the Leeward side of the island.

When the new base housing was completed in 1997-8, it was never occupied as the base was ‘closed’ in 1999. However, all that ‘new housing’ (red box) was sold to ‘native Hawaiians’ at less than the cost of building the houses… sigh…

I’ve said for years what we need to do is close the bases, pull everybody back, and let Hawaii TRY to make it on ‘tourism’…

In 40 years in and out of Hawaii, I never really enjoyed the island OR the locals and their attitudes toward ‘Haoles’. We were often called Opala, which is Hawaiian for trash, but they sure did love the money!

Sigh…

Posted on by June 7, 2022

Long day yesterday dealing with ‘things’ and the VA, so I can’t brain…

And I ‘think’ we are seeing peak Dunning Kruger on guns right now…

Battle of Midway ends/D-Day +24 hours…

Posted on by June 6, 2022

Due to an erroneous voice report that transposed BB to CV in the retreating Japanese forces on 6 June, the American forces under Spruance continued chasing the Japanese to the west. A second element of Japanese ships was located by the Enterprise scouts at 0730 and attacks launched against both groups.

In the meantime, attempts to salvage the Yorktown were continuing…

The timeline for the Yorktown was as follows-

June 5th: 1308 Vireo takes Yorktown in tow.
June 6th: 0200 Hammann, Balch, and Benham join.
0415 Hammann puts salvage party aboard.
0600 Hammann ties up alongside Yorktown.
1335 Torpedo wakes sighted.
1339 Hammann sinks.
1845 Submarine sighted on horizon.
June 7th: 0501 Yorktown sinks.

The Yorktown had been abandoned on the afternoon of June 4th. That night the Pensacola and Vincennes departed to rejoin Task Force SUGAR, while Task Force FOX moved off to the eastward, except for the Hughes, which was detached to stand guard over the Yorktown. 

By the morning of 7 June, all American forces were enroute to Pearl Harbor to refuel/reprovision after Yorktown sank.

This was a ‘win’ for America, and many consider it the turning point in the battle with Japan. Thanks to HYPO, the Battle of Midway was essentially a victory of intelligence, allowing the Americans to know when/where the Japanese were going and roughly who was there. The Japanese didn’t know the US carriers were there until attacked.

Two years later, almost to the day, Operation Overlord would kick off at Normandy with the landings. D-Day was actually postponed until 6 June due to weather.

Some facts from 6 June-

  • 150,000 Allied soldiers land on the shores of Normandy.
  • 5,000 vessels with 30,000 vehicles crossed the English Channel to France.
  • 13,000 men parachuted into France.
  • 11,000 planes were involved.
  • More than 300 planes dropped bombs.
  • 9,000 allied soldiers were dead or wounded after the first day.

The main fighting had started moving inland on the 7th and places like Bréville became synonymous with the determination NOT to give up! The Brits held Breville and eventually took Caen in what became a seven day battle.

American parachute troops had a 9 mile bridgehead on the evening of June 7th, even after the blown drops on the morning of the 6th, with disassociated dribs and drabs fighting and joining together as a coherent force against the completely surprised Germans. The two bridgeheads of Omaha Beach and Gold Beach at Port-en-Bessin were still being contested by the Germans.

The 1st and 29th infantry divisions, which have had very heavy losses since the landing on Omaha Beach, but continued to advance. The 29th Infantry, on its way to Isigny-sur-Mer, but behind schedule.  The 90 survivors of the Rangers battalions at Pointe du Hoc, are isolated on a thin strip of Land at Pointe du Hoc and are so understrength they cannot fight their way out to Grandcamp, their assigned target.

From a scattered start for the Americans, things began to come together and they begin to press the Germans into retreating.

Another YGTBSM moment…

Posted on by June 5, 2022

Commiefornia has already put a plan forward to ban natural gas/propane in homes starting in 2026…

New homes built in California starting in 2026 need to be powered by all-electric furnaces, stoves and other appliances if California is to meet its ambitious climate change goals over the next two decades, according to a state pollution-reduction plan released Tuesday.

Full article, HERE from Time.com

BUT, LA had to go them one better…

On May 27th, citing the climate crisis, the Los Angeles City Council voted Friday to ban most gas appliances in new construction, a policy that’s expected to result in new homes and businesses coming equipped with electric stoves, clothes dryers, water heaters and furnaces.

More than 50 California cities and counties have adopted similar rules banning or discouraging gas hookups in new homes and other buildings. 

Full article, HERE.

Ummm… This from a state who is ALREADY having power issues, including ‘unscheduled’ brownouts, power cuts to prevent forest fires, less power available than the state needs when it gets hot, etc. Yet they want to reduce use of oil/gas 91% by 2045!

And they have to go buy power on the open market which is NOT cheap. Oh, and remember they want MOAR electric vehicles too! But they aren’t building anymore power plants and Diablo Canyon is due to sunset and be shut down in the next year or so.

But they go buy power from guess where? Palo Verde! Which is, oh by the way, a nuclear power plant in Arizona!

Can we say hypocrisy? I knew you could!

 

So…

Posted on by June 3, 2022

The left/dems are totally losing their s**t over guns…

Democrat Representative David Cicilline of Rhode Island said a bit of the anti-gun left’s quiet part out loud in a House hearing on Thursday when he went on a rant against the constitutionally protected rights of the American people.

Full article, HERE, with video…

So he flat out says he doesn’t care about Constitutional rights…

And they want to take our guns. Specifically semi-auto rifles (and semi-auto pistols) and standard capacity magazines.

Let’s start with AR-15s- Estimates are there are 15-20 MILLION ARs in the US. Now lets add 5 magazines per rifle (may be a low estimate). That is 100 MILLION magazines, and most people have enough ammo to fill the magazines, so that is 3 BILLION rounds of .223/5.56 ammo.

Let’s say there are 500,000 AKs, 50,000 SCARs (16 and 17), and 50,000 ‘other’ bullpups, etc. each with 5 magazines. That’s another 3 MILLION magazines and 60 MILLION additional rounds of ammunition.

Now let’s talk pistols… Nothing I can find gives us any hard numbers, so these are cumulative guesses, FWIW.

Glocks- Around 8 MILLION in the US since 1988. Each with 5 magazines, and 17 rounds.  Add in another 2 MILLION CZs, BHPs, Berettas, S&W, etc. with 5 magazines and 13 round magazines. Total all that up, and you’re looking at another 810 MILLION rounds of ammo.

Soooo… They are talking about taking in the neighborhood of 30.6 million guns, 153 million magazines, and something around 4 billion rounds of ammo away from Americans.

Seeing how well CT and NY have done with their ‘mandatory’ compliance rules for ARs, IMHO, they will play holy hell trying to do that in any way shape form or fashion.

I don’t think they could come up with the money, or the facilities to do buybacks (and watch them go right back out the back door (in certain agencies). Nor do I see them finding anybody that would volunteer to go door to door to collect them (including from the very LEOs supposed to be enforcing the rule). The military? I don’t know…

Engrish translations…

Posted on by June 3, 2022

Don’t always come out right…

– Cocktail lounge, Norway: Ladies are requested not to have children in the bar.

– Doctor’s office, Rome: Specialist in women and other diseases.

– Dry cleaners, Bangkok: Drop your trousers here for the best results.

– In a Nairobi restaurant: Customers who find our waitresses rude ought to see the manager.

– On the main road to Mombassa, leaving Nairobi: Take notice: when this sign is under water, this road is impassable.

– On a poster at Kencom: Are you an adult who cannot read? If so we can help.

– In a city restaurant: Open seven days a week and weekends.

– In a cemetery: Persons are prohibited from picking flowers from any but their own graves.

– Tokyo hotel’s rules and regulations: Guests are requested not to smoke or do other disgusting behaviours in bed.

– On the menu of a Swiss restaurant: our wines leave you nothing to hope for.

– Hotel, Yugoslavia: The flattening of underwear with pleasure is the job of the chambermaid.

– Hotel, Japan: You are invited to take advantage of the chambermaid.

– In the lobby of a Moscow hotel across from a Russian orthodox monastery: you are welcome to visit the cemetery where famous Russian and soviet composers, artists and writers are buried daily except Thursday.

– A sign posted in Germany’s black forest: It is strictly forbidden on our black forest camping site that people of different sex, for instance, men and women, live together in one tent unless they are married with each other for this purpose.

– Hotel, Zurich: Because of the impropriety of entertaining guests of the opposite sex in the bedroom, it is suggested that the lobby be used for this purpose.

– Advertisement for donkey rides, Thailand: Would you like to ride on your own ass?

– Airline ticket office, Copenhagen: We take your bags and send them in all directions.

– A laundry in Rome: Ladies, leave your clothes here and spend the afternoon having a good time.

Looks like the gloves are coming off…

Posted on by June 2, 2022

From yesterday’s meetings on the hill.

Congressman Mondaire Jones (D-NY) warned law-abiding gun owners that Democrats will do everything in their power to ensure AR-15s and similar types of firearms are confiscated during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday.

The hearing was to consider H.R. 7910, the “Protecting Our Kids Act,” which would raise the legal age to purchase “certain semiautomatic centerfire rifles or semiautomatic centerfire shotguns” from 18 to 21 with “exceptions.” The bill will also “modernize the prohibition on untraceable firearms [and] encourage the safe storage of firearms.”

Full article, HERE.

According to him, ‘nothing’ is off the table to get the bill rammed through. And he said ALL semi-automatics were assault weapons that held more than a minimum number of rounds should be banned. When asked if that included pistols, he waffled… which means yes, Glocks will be illegal too, since according to him, they are ‘assault’ weapons, along with BHPs, CZs, S&Ws, etc.

Xiden, last night, said the 2nd Amendment is NOT absolute. removing protection from gun manufacturers for lawsuits and more. He pushed red flag laws, raising the age to purchase to 21, etc. and DO SOMETHING! If you want to do that, let’s make EVERYTHING 21. Voting, gender surgery, abortion, everything. Consistency should be required, not just a goal for ‘one’ item.

I believe the dems are sure they are going to lose in Nov, not able to beat the margin of cheat, and are going to slam through everything they can as quickly as they can. Otherwise, I don’t believe they would be jumping up and down on the third rail of politics (guns), and ignoring inflation, the food issues, and the price of gas, goods, and services.

In other news, gas is over $8/gal some places in California, approaching $6/gal in the Chicago area, and premium was at $5/gal in north Texas yesterday. I did notice more people open carrying yesterday, and more people paying more attention to their surroundings. Obviously SA is up right now between Uvalde and Tulsa.

Some folks are wondering when the bubble is going to go up in various media. Personally, and I hope I’m wrong, I think it will be this fall when food shortages start hitting the major metro areas. Once the food riots start, I don’t believe it will stop short of a full scale nationwide uprising.

Your thoughts?