Book promo…

Posted on by May 13, 2025
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First up is a new book from Holly Chism, The Passing of the Age

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

The blurb-

Once, gods and Titans went to war because humanity existed and the Titans…didn’t like that. Will, the blacksmith’s apprentice, was born long after the war’s bitter, destructive, last gasp. It left the land scarred, leaving behind the Wastes, a massive pit in the landscape, dug by poisoned magic. The old world was lost in the ashes, and survivors were left with so little that any who didn’t pull their weight (or had something someone powerful wanted) were exiled to starve in the Wastes.

Just. Like. Will.

Cast out to the Wastes because his father remarried and his stepmother had wanted her children to inherit, he turned to his master, the smith. The smith, who had held Will back to keep using his labor for free, refused to go against the rest of the village, angry though he was to lose Will’s labor. In lieu of the honestly-earned status of journeyman that would have protected Will from exile, his master gave him a bag of grave goods: a hammer (but not a good one), tongs (that were rusting to pieces), and a file (more than half worn out). And two small coins to pay the ferryman when he reached the river dividing life from death.

Will entered the wastes with the clothes on his back, inadequate grave goods, and determination to live through it, in spite of his village. And a mission given him by the Land, and by the god of the wild places, to take the knife he made with his grave goods to the very center of the Wastes. There, he will find his destiny.

Next up is John David Martin with a series of short stories, The Lost Sword and Other Stories

The blurb-

Jared Thorne: A para-human detective and his dryad wife hunting for a legendary lost sword in a multi-dimensional city.

Eysteinn Bjarnarson: A descendant of the viking who settled North America fighting to win the love of the town beauty. His only opposition? A monster of Indigenous Canadian legend and…her father.

Captain Faust of the North American Marine Corps: A descendant of one Dr. Johannes Faust who learns some deals are heriditary. But can they be re-written?
Milo “Wolfkiller” Patel: A teenage bullrider on an alien world facing the challenge of his young career.

Pawel and Tamar: Newlywed asteroid miners whose wedding cruise from the trans-Martian orbit out to the belt turns deadly.
These are the characters whose stories I have faithfully recorded for you here. 

Last, but not least, another anthology from Raconteur Press, Moggie Noir: Dames, Derringers and Detectives

The blurb-

In this iteration, Moggie Noir is more than a framework, it’s a mewed.

I feel it is safe to say that we are most inspired by the creative expressions of authors who view genre notes for story calls as a guideline, and who then proceed to stretch the idea like Coney Island saltwater taffy. In this way, we have not been disappointed. The trick is to tug at the theme but still have the recognizable touches that tell the reader this is a noir story rather than a slapstick comedy or big fish story.

So, in this taffy-pulling spirit, we bring you our third Moggie Noir salvo, “Dames, Derringers, and Detectives.” This gritty set of tails will have you rooting for the good guys, hissing at some bad cats, and maybe—just maybe—you’ll see how true love can win in the end.

My mother told me…

Posted on by May 12, 2025
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If I couldn’t say anything good to not say anything…

So you get more humor…

If you grew up in Florida…

1.    Socks are only for bowling.

2. You never use an umbrella because you know the rain will be over in five minutes.

3. A good parking place has nothing to do with distance from the store, but everything to do with shade.

4. Your winter coat is made of denim.

5. You can tell the difference between fire ant bites and mosquito bites.

6. You’re younger than thirty but some of your friends are over 65.

7. Anything under 70 is chilly.

8. You’ve driven through Yeehaw Junction.

9. You could swim before you could read.

10. You have to drive north to get to The South.

11. You know that no other grocery store can compare to Publix.

12. Every other house in your neighborhood had blue roofs in 2004-2005.

13. You’ve gotten out of school early on Halloween to trick or treat before it got dark

14. You know that anything under a Category 3 just isn’t worth waking up for.

15. You dread love bug season.

15. You are on a first name basis with the Hurricane list. They aren’t Hurricane Charley, Hurricane Frances…but Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne.

16. You know what a snowbird is and when they’ll leave.

17. You think a six-foot alligator is actually pretty average.

18. You were twelve before you ever saw snow, or you still haven’t.

19. ‘Down South’ means Key West

20. You think New York drivers licenses should only be valid in New York.

21. Flip-flops are everyday wear.

22. Shoes are for business meetings and church,

23. but you HAVE worn flip flops to church before.

24. Sweet tea can be served at any meal

25. An alligator once walked through your neighborhood.

26. You smirk when a game show’s ‘Grand Prize’ is a trip or cruise to Florida.

27. You measure distance in minutes.

28. You have a drawer full of bathing suits, and one sweatshirt

29. You get annoyed at the tourists who feed seagulls.

30. A mountain is any hill 100 feet above sea level.

32. You think everyone from a bigger city has a northern accent.

33. You know the four seasons really are: hurricane season, love bug season, tourist season and summer.

34. It’s not soda, cola, or pop. it’s coke, regardless of brand or flavor, ‘What kinda coke you want?’

35. Anything under 95 is just warm.

36. You’ve hosted a hurricane party.

37. You go to a theme park for an afternoon, and know when to get on the best rides. (Space Mountain during the Electric Light Parade!)

38. You understand the futility of exterminating cockroaches.

39. You can pronounce Okeechobee, Kissimmee, Ichnatucknee and Withlacoochee

40. You understand why it’s better to have a friend with a boat, than owning a boat yourself.

41. Bumper stickers on the pickup in front of you include: various fish, NRA, NASCAR, Go Gators, and a confederate flag.

42. You were 5 before you realized they made houses without pools.

43. You were 25 when you first met someone who couldn’t swim.

44. You’ve worn shorts and used the A/C on Christmas.

Point to ponder…

Posted on by May 11, 2025
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One Sunday morning, an old cowboy entered a church just before services were to begin. Although the old man and his clothes were spotlessly clean, he wore jeans, a denim shirt and boots that were worn and ragged. In his hand he carried a worn-out old hat and an equally worn, dog-eared Bible.

The church he entered was in a very upscale and exclusive part of the city. It was the largest and most beautiful church the old cowboy had ever seen. The people of the congregation were all dressed with expensive clothes and fine jewelry. As the cowboy took a seat, the others moved away from him. No one greeted, spoke to, or welcomed him. They were all appalled by his appearance and did not attempt to hide it.

As the old cowboy was leaving the church, the preacher approached him and asked the cowboy to do him a favor. “Before you come back in here again, have a talk with God and ask him what he thinks would be appropriate attire for worship in church.” The old cowboy assured the preacher he would.

The next Sunday, he showed back up for the services wearing the same ragged jeans, shirt, boots, and hat. Once again he was completely shunned and ignored. The preacher approached the cowboy and said, “I thought I asked you to speak to God before you came back to our church.”

“I did,” replied the old cowboy.

“And what was his reply?” asked the preacher.

“Well, sir, God told me that he didn’t have a clue what I should wear. He said he’d never been in this church.”

Interesting…

Posted on by May 10, 2025
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And worrisome it if happens here…

Since the Iberian Peninsula lost power in a massive blackout, grid operators are in the process of trying to restore power to millions of customers and businesses. As you might imagine, the process—termed a “black start”—is quite a bit more challenging than flicking on a switch. However, the challenge is made considerably more difficult because nearly everything about the system—from the management hardware that remotely controls the performance of the grid to the power plants themselves—needs power to operate.

Restarting the grid

You might think that a power plant could easily start generating power, but in reality, only a limited number of facilities have everything they need to handle a black start. That’s because it takes power to make power. Facilities that boil water have lots of powered pumps and valves, coal plants need to pulverize the fuel and move it to where it’s burned, etc. In most cases, black-start-rated plants have a diesel generator present to supply enough power to get the plant operating. These tend to be smaller plants, since they require proportionally smaller diesel generators.

Full article, HERE from Arstechnica.com

Other than nuke plants, I’m not sure how many black start rated plants the US has, nor how much ability to shed enough load to actually perform a black start.

Most of the nuke plants have a capability to ‘dump’ their load without scramming the plant. And from conversations with folks, they do have generators to maintain ‘local’ power to the control room and plant.

Of course, the elephant in the room is ‘what’ caused this blackout in Spain and the entire Iberian peninsula. I have not heard anything, and I doubt we will, as this is obviously a security issue, in addition to other problems…

What happens if it happens here?

I know Texas is ‘not’ on the national grid, even though there is a lot of pressure on Texas to ‘voluntarily’ participate… voluntarily…yeah, right…

I’m betting there are lot of folks in the US power industry looking at their hole cards, emergency procedures are being reviewed, and a lot of discussions are ongoing right now.

In point of fact, our infrastructure security is weak, and that has been proven a couple of times over. I can’t help but wonder if the administration is also looking into this and what the response(s) will be.

Ding… Round 432…

Posted on by May 9, 2025
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India and Pakistan are at it again…

Nuclear powers India and Pakistan are clashing again, and there are claims of aircraft kills from air battles that sound like a hodgepodge of foreign-made fighters.

Full article, HERE from Business Insider, and HERE from AV Web.

So, there are reports that more than 125 Indian and Pakistani fighter jets reportedly engaged in a dogfight lasting more than an hour in the early hours of Wednesday.

But interestingly, they are also saying that nobody actually crossed any border, but were firing missiles at each other at ranges of up to 100nm.

If verified, this would be the largest ‘dogfight’ since WWII…

Of course, all of this is now questionable from ‘many’ angles… A ‘dogfight’ but never closing on the enemy, ‘reports’ of shootdowns, etc.

At this stage I can’t help but wonder if some or all of the shootdowns were blue on blue on either or both sides. Especially if you are firing at ‘something’ beyond visual range (BVR).

FWIW, US policy is that you have to visually ID your target, which is why the F-14s in the US never fired a Phoenix missile in air to air combat, because even though they could get lockups BVR, they couldn’t shoot. Iran actually fired more Phoenix missiles than the US ever has.

I think there are WAY too many questions right now, but the one thing that IS apparent is that both sides are continuing to escalate…

Dammit…

Interesting…

Posted on by May 8, 2025
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Things are about to get ‘sporty’ in Canada if this is any indication…

Attending a recent independence rally in Edmonton, Alberta, Calgary-based management consultant James Albers found that “One could scarcely miss the parallels between the plight of Alberta today and that of the American colonies before 1776—only now the offending party is Ottawa, not Westminster.” Albers compares the Stamp Act of 1765 to Canada’s infamous National Energy Program that eviscerated Alberta’s economy, and the Tea Act of 1773 to Bill C-69 (the No Pipelines Act). As for the four Coercive Acts of 1774, we have the Emissions Cap, Equalization (the redistribution of wealth from the West to the East), the Net Zero fantasy, and the Tanker Ban. 

What all this means should be obvious to any sentient person. “Our freedoms—of speech, of enterprise, of provincial autonomy—are being strangled under a national bureaucracy.” Canada no longer works for Alberta and the West. “Injustice by Ottawa,” Albers concludes, “has long since moved from aberration to institution,” as it did for the American colonies in the 1770s. 

Full article, HERE from PJ Media.

We just ‘might’ get either one or two more ‘states’ if both Alberta and Saskatchewan have had enough of Canada (and now Carney’s) policies around oil and other issues. Alberta has definitely been screwed multiple times by Ottawa, and they do have a ‘western’ mentality.

This would also deprive Canada of a lot of their ‘breadbasket’ in addition to the oil from Alberta, which, according to what I’m hearing, is basically supporting the eastern provinces and not doing much for Alberta.

Folks I know up that way are just shaking their heads over the election, and mumbling about stupidity in electing Carney, who has NO experience at running a country or politics, having been a banker…

In any case, it’s going to be interesting to watch what happens… or doesn’t…

 

Various things…

Posted on by May 7, 2025
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Good, bad, and ugly are coming to the fore…

An F/A-18 fighter jet landing on the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier in the Red Sea went overboard, forcing its two pilots to eject, a defense official told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The incident Tuesday marks the latest mishap to mar the deployment of the Truman, which has been essential in the airstrike campaign by the United States against Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

Full article, HERE from Military Times.

Soooo, an ‘arrestment failure’ could either be a wire breaking, or the ‘foot’ on the F-18s hook could have broken off. The good is both the pilot and RIO were able to eject and survived! This is the third F-18 lost off the Truman this cruise. One shot down (blue on blue), one over the side due to a sharp defensive turn by the ship, and now this one…

In other news, round one of the Conclave didn’t make a decision on a new pope. Personally, I think this is gonna take a while.

And a bit of startling history… We’ve talked before about ‘secrets’ coming out from WWII that would change the history books, and this is one of them, and not in a good way…

This is a tale of unexpected lost opportunities and equally unexpected decrypts that changed the course of many battles in World War II. The unexpected opportunities went to the Germans and Japanese.

Full article, HERE from the Strategy Page.

Personally, I don’t think this is the ‘last’ thing we’re going to find out that upsets a bunch of applecarts, but this one is also rather sad that apparently none of our intel folks had a clue about this.

It does call into question whether or not things might have been different if MacArthur and Nimitz had a better relationship and worked together rather than being at odds…

Of course the other thing is how much crypto and equipment ‘we’ lost that we never heard about in both the Pacific and ETO. One wonders when/if that was reported to higher, and why the crypto wasn’t changed.

I know we did that after Walker… sigh…

Hooboy…

Posted on by May 6, 2025
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This one is about to get ‘interesting’, and NOT in a good way…

India said it attacked “terrorist infrastructure” in neighboring Pakistan on Wednesday in two of its occupied territories, killing at least one child and wounding two other people in what Pakistan has called a “blatant act of war.”

The Indian armed forces launched “Operation Sindoor,” which targeted terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir from where terrorist attacks against India have been planned and directed, the Press Information Bureau of India said in a statement. 

“Our actions have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature,” India’s Defense Ministry said in a statement. “No Pakistan military facilities have been targeted.”

Full article, HERE from Fox News.

This ‘disagreement’ goes back almost 80 years, to 1947, over the Kashmir region. Both India and Pakistan ‘claim’ it and there have been numerous skirmishes there for years.

The problem is, both countries have nukes, and Pakistan is basically run by the ISI, which is heavily muslim. They started the Taliban, in addition to harboring Bin Laden for years.

If this keeps escalating, I’d expect to see tac nukes inside a month probably from Pakistan but ‘blaming’ India…

If you were planning to travel in that area anytime soon, it ‘might’ be a good idea to change plans!

Just sayin…

This is gonna be…

Posted on by May 5, 2025
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Interesting…

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday directed the active duty military to shed 20% of its four-star general officers as the Trump administration keeps pushing the services to streamline their top leadership positions.

Hegseth also told the National Guard to shed 20% of its top positions.

In a memo dated Monday, Hegseth said the cuts will remove “redundant force structure to optimize and streamline leadership.”

Full article, HERE at Militarytimes.com

Now the cats will truly be among the pigeons…

Because no 4 star or 3 star wants to give up their position, much less lose a billet that is ‘protected’ for a specific group, i.e. Armor or infantry or in the Navy, submariners, aviators, or surface types. It will be even worse in the Navy within the air community, with fighter, attack, helo, and fixed wing land based all fighting for relevance…

The Air Force will be the bombers against the fighters, with the ass and trash crowd coming in a poor third.

But this is long overdue! It was supposed to be done in 1992 with DOPMA, the Defense Officer Planning and Manning Act, with the secondary agenda of protecting those academy grads from those pesky mustangs who’d come up through the ranks and might take a command slot away.

In the Navy it was colloquially known as NAPA… The Naval Academy Protective Association, which is why a lot of us mustangs retired rather than fight a losing battle.

Will it work?

Maybe. But it will be extremely interesting to watch the infighting in the various services as those billets shrink and force structure gets leaner with less bureaucracy. And I will be really interested to see what happens in the acquisition community, as they have become a power in every service, making decisions that many on the pointy end have never understood. Especially the long lead times to actually GET stuff to the warfighters before it became obsolete.

The power plays in all the services should be ‘entertaining’, to put it mildly!

I’m gonna need more popcorn for this one!!!

A little humor…

Posted on by May 4, 2025
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To start your week…

An Oklahoma Kid’s first Bow and Arrow set!!

Don’t know who wrote this, but he has a way with words that makes one visualize being right there beside him.

Life as a child growing up on a farm in Oklahoma!!

Around age 10 my dad got me one of those little bad^*&*% compound bow beginner kits. Of course, the first month I went around our land sticking arrows in anything that could get stuck by an arrow. Did you know that a 1955 40 horse Farmall tractor tire will take 6 rounds before it goes down? Tough “critter”.

That got boring, so being the 10 yr. Old Dukes of Hazard fan that I was, I quickly advanced to taking strips of cut up T-shirt doused in chainsaw gas tied around the end and was sending flaming arrows all over the place.

One summer afternoon, I was shooting flaming arrows into a large rotten oak stump in our backyard. I looked over under the carport and see a shiny brand new can of starting fluid (Ether).

A light bulb went off in my head.

I grabbed the can and set it on the stump. I thought that it would probably just spray out in a disappointing manner. Lets face it, to a 10 yr old like myself, (Ether), really doesn’t “sound” flammable.

So, I went back into the house and got a 1 pound can of pyrodex (black powder for muzzle loader rifles).

At this point, I set the can of ether on the stump and opened up the can of black powder.

My intentions were to sprinkle a little bit around the (Ether) can but it all sorta dumped out on me. No biggie, a 1 lb. Pyrodex and 16 oz (Ether) should make a loud pop, kinda like a firecracker you know?

You know what? The heck with that – I’m going back in the house for the other can, so I got a second can of pyrodex and dumped it too. Now we’re cookin’.

I stepped back about 15 ft and lit the arrow. I drew the nock to my cheek and took aim. As I released I heard a clunk as the arrow launched from my bow. In a slow-motion time frame, I turned to see my dad getting out of the truck… OH SHOOT! He just got home from work.

So help me – it took 10 minutes for that arrow to go from my bow to the can. My dad was walking towards me in slow motion with a “what the heck” look in his eyes.

I turned back towards my target just in time to see the arrow pierce the starting fluid can right at the bottom. Right through the main pile of pyrodex and into the can. Oh shoot!!!!

When the shock wave hit, it knocked me off my feet. I don’t know if it was the actual compression wave that threw me back or just reflex jerk back from 235 decibels of sound. I caught a half a millisecond glimpse of the violence during the initial explosion and I will tell you there was dust, grass, and bugs all hovering 1 ft above the ground as far as I could see. It was like a little low to the ground layer of dust fog full of grasshoppers, spiders, and a worm or two.

The daylight turned purple. Let me repeat this… THE COTTON PICKING DAYLIGHT TURNED PURPLE!!

There was a big sweet gum tree out by the gate going into the pasture. Notice I said “was”. That sucker got up and ran off.

So here I am, on the ground blown completely out of my shoes with my T-Shirt shredded, my dad is on the other side of the carport, having what I can only assume is, a Vietnam flashback: ECHO BRAVO CHARLIE YOU’RE BRINGIN’ EM IN TOO CLOSE!! CEASE FIRE. DARN – IT CEASE FIRE!!!!!

His hat has blown off and is 30 ft behind him in the driveway. All windows on the north side of the house are blown out and there is a slow rolling mushroom cloud about 2000 ft over our backyard.

There is a Honda 185 3 wheeler parked on the other side of the yard and the fenders are drooped down and are now touching the tires.

I wish I knew what I said to my dad at this moment. I don’t know – I know I said something. I couldn’t hear. I couldn’t hear inside my own head.

I don’t think he heard me either… Not that it would really matter. I don’t remember much from this point on.

I said something, felt a sharp pain, and then woke up later. I felt a sharp pain, blacked out, woke up later….repeat this process for an hour or so and you get the idea.

I remember at one point my mom had to give me CPR, and Dad screaming “Bring him back to life so I can kill him again”. Thanks Mom.
One thing is for sure… I never had to mow around that stump again.

Mom had been complaining about that thing for years and dad never did anything about it. I stepped up to the plate and handled business.

Dad sold his muzzle loader a week or so later. I still have some sort of bone growth abnormality, either from the blast or the beating, or both. I guess what I’m trying to say is, get your kids into archery. It’s good discipline and will teach them skills they can use later on in life.