What Next???

It seems the administration has now set up a blackmail scheme to ‘force’ schools into compliance for transgendered…

The Obama administration’s ‘guidance’ Friday that every public school provide transgender access — or face the loss of federal funds — drew swift and strong condemnation from conservatives, with one public official blasting it as presidential “blackmail.”

The administration’s directive — citing Title IX in telling schools to give transgender students access to all activities and facilities consistent with their gender identity — effectively touched off a national debate that could well extend into the next president’s term and reverberate through the courts.

To whit- “When a school provides sex-segregated activities and facilities, transgender students must be allowed to participate in such activities and access such facilities consistent with their gender identity.”

Full article HERE, on Foxnews.com

Interestingly, Title IX only designates sex as M/F… You have to go to Dept of Ed directives to find any mention of LGBT, and nowhere in there are any ‘changes’ to the basic Title IX law…

AFAIC, make them ALL gender neutral, put in full walls and lockable stalls and go for it… OR, you could do it far east style… Holes in the floor, no partitions, and good luck finding toilet paper.

Granted this is an oversimplification, but does this now bring into question the larger issues not only with Title IX sports (e.g. boy IDs as a girl or vice versa, can she/he now not only use the guys/girls locker room, but can she/he now play on guys/girl’s sports teams?), but also accommodations in the general public.

The other elephant in the room is pedofilia and child abuse. With all the attention being focused in the last 15 years on these crimes, the administration’s direction ‘seems’ to directly counter (at least in my mind), the extent people have gone to, to ensure that children are not taken advantage of. The other elephant is young girls, all of whom have significant privacy issues (especially early-mid teens), can now be forced to allow boys who identify as girls to come into their bathrooms/shower areas… That’s not going to end well…

And all this is being done to cater to .035% of the population…

When you add in the SJW (nee POS) constant complaining, it’s bringing things to a boil between those with conservative views and those with socialist views…

Sigh… I’m getting too old and grumpy for this crap…

Net Humor…

This one came over the transom from the mil-email string…

THINGS THAT NEVER HAPPEN IN STAR TREK

-The Enterprise runs into a mysterious energy field of a type it has encountered several times before.
-The Enterprise goes to visit a remote outpost of scientists, who are all perfectly all right.
-The Enterprise gets involved in an enigmatic, strange, and dangerous situation, and there are no pesky aliens they can blame it on in the end.
-Some of the crew visit the holodeck, and it works properly.
-The Enterprise visits the Klingon home world on a bright, sunny day.
-The crew of the Enterprise discover a totally new lifeform, which later turns out to be a rather well-known old lifeform wearing a funny hat.
-An attempt at undermining the Klingon-Federation alliance is discovered without anyone noting that such an attempt, if successful “would represent a fundamental shift of power throughout the quadrant”.
-The crew of the Enterprise are struck by a mysterious plague, for which the only cure can be found in the well-stocked Enterprise sick-bay.
-Picard hears the door chime and doesn’t bother to say “Come”.
-The Captain has to make a difficult decision about a less advanced people which is made a great deal easier by the Starfleet Prime Directive.
-Picard doesn’t answer a suggestion with “Make it so”.
-The Enterprise successfully ferries an alien VIP from one place to another without serious incident.
-Picard walks up to the replicator and says “Coke on ice”.
-An enigmatic being composed of pure energy attempts to interface to the Enterprise’s computer, only to find out that it doesn’t know the password.
-Kirk doesn’t get into a fistfight.
-Kirk gets into a fistfight and doesn’t rip his shirt.
-A power surge on the Bridge is rapidly and correctly diagnosed as a faulty capacitor by the highly-trained and competent engineering staff.
-Worf actually gives another vessel more than two seconds to respond to one of the Enterprise’s hails.
-The Enterprise is captured by a vastly superior alien intelligence which does not put them on trial.
-The Enterprise is captured by a vastly inferior alien intelligence which they easily pacify by offering it some sweeties.
-Kirk doesn’t end up kissing the troubled guest-female before she doesn’t sacrifice herself for him.
-The Enterprise visits an earth-type planet called “Paradise” where everyone is happy all of the time. However, everything is soon revealed to be exactly what it seems.
-When Worf tells the bridge officers that something is entering visual range no one says “On screen”.
-A major Starfleet emergency breaks out near the Enterprise, but fortunately some other ships in the area are able to deal with it to everyone’s satisfaction.
-Guinan forgets herself, and breaks into an expletive-laden stand-up comedy routine.
-The Enterprise is involved in a bizarre time-warp experience which is in some way unconnected with the Late 20th Century.
-Beverly Crusher manages to go through a whole episode without having a hot flash and getting breathless every time Picard is in the room.
-Kirk (or Riker) falls in love with a woman on a planet he visits, and isn’t tragically separated from her at the end of the episode.
-Somebody takes out a shuttle and it doesn’t explode or crash on an isolated planet.
-Counsellor Troi states something other than the blindingly obvious.
-Mood rings come back in style, jeopardising Counsellor Troi’s position.
-The warp engines start playing up a bit, but seem to sort themselves out after a while without any intervention from boy genius Wesley Crusher.
-The Enterprise separates as soon as there is any danger.
-Wesley Crusher gets beaten up by his classmates for being a know-it-all little wanker, and consequently has a go at making some friends of his own age for a change.
-The crew of the Enterprise are struck by a strange alien plague, for which the cure is found in the well-stocked sickbay.
-Spock (or Data) is fired from his high-ranking position for not being able to understand the most basic nuances of about one in three sentences that anyone says to him.
-The transporter is actually able to lock on to someone’s signal when they’re in danger.
-Most things that are new or in some way unexpected.
-Worf kills Wesley by mistake in the holodeck.
-A redshirt sneaks down a deserted corridor, turns a corner, and suddenly has a surprise birthday party.
-Data falls in love with the replicator.
-A redshirt manages to avoid the thrown knife, phaser shot, arrow, or whatever.
-The deflector shields hold through the duration of the battle.
-Kirk meets a woman whom he’s known for years but never had sex with.
-Kirk says “Uhura, I’m frightened”.
-Kirk gets court-martialled for violating the Prime Directive.
-An unknown ensign beams down as part of an away team and lives to tell the tale.
-An android race turns out to be completely friendly and not threatening or menacing in any way.
-Some patient of McCoy’s who’s NOT a central character lives.
-Scotty doesn’t mention the laws of physics.
-The crew of the original Enterprise disperse, Sulu gets his own ship, and nobody suffers major emotional trauma.
-A major character dies and isn’t resurrected.
-The episode ends without Bones and Kirk laughing at Spock’s inability to understand the joke and doesn’t raise his eyebrows.
-The mysterious giant threatening object is on a direct course for some world other than Earth.
-Artificial intelligence and android technology make human exploration of the galaxy obsolete.
-A major character has a serious character flaw.
-A VIP visitor to the Enterprise is not a relative, lover or close friend of a major character.

 

TBT…

Back in the day…

Well, actually about 12,045 days ago… 🙂

The ‘military’ side of Keflavik, IC.

The first hangar, center bottom, was the VP hangar. Needless to say, this is a ‘summer’ shot!

An aerial view of the ramp areas and facilities of the 57th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, with other facilities in the background.

An aerial view of the ramp areas and facilities of the P-3 and 57th Fighter Interceptor Squadron ramps, with other facilities in the background.

Aeroflot used to try to ‘taxi’ through our ramp, by ‘mistaking’ the tower’s directions to the terminal, which is just out of the picture, lower right.

Fuel trucks, airplanes, and occasionally USAF Security Police were used to ‘block’ their access, to prevent them taking pictures of the airplanes and inside of the hangar.

Flying out of Kef in the winter was always fun, considering the closests alternate airport was 772nm away (Kinloss) which was 2 1/2 hours. Made for some LONG days…

One funny note, they actually do have golf courses up there, and in the summer, you could tee off at midnight, and finish in ‘twilight’ about 0400 in the morning. Drinking in the bar was problematic, since you could stagger out at 1130 or 2330, and not be able to tell the difference… 🙂

Posted in TBT

Success???

For ‘some’ definitions of success…

The Army Times reported this weekend that the Army’s endstrength for March was 479,172. That’s 154 fewer soldiers than the service’s previous post-World War II low, which was reached during the Army’s post-Cold War drawdown in 1999.

The Army is actually lower now that under Slick Willie, who did his damnest to destroy the military too! So, according to the current administration, this is a ‘success’???

And they want to drive the number down to 450,000 people.

And the administration continues to send dribs and drabs of combatants back to the Middle East. Rough unofficial numbers are 4-5000 in ‘combatant’ roles, and another 4-5000 in ‘support’ roles. But the ‘war is over’… Yeah, right…

Full article HERE, on Fox News.

Lest anyone think it’s ONLY the Army, all services are taking hits. The Navy is now at it’s lowest ship count since 1916! Think about that, ONE HUNDRED years ago, the US Navy had more ships than it does today…

From Reagan’s high in 1989 of 592, with 125 of those being submarines, we are now down to 271 with 72 submarines.

Another ‘success’ for the administration! Damn them…

And cutting money for maintenance has had even more impact on the ‘implements’ used by the services, be they ships, airplanes, submarines, helicopters, tanks, etc…

Oh yeah, for reference, the Navy’s 1916 numbers were 245, with 44 submarines…

IF anybody has the Marine and USAF numbers, please put them in comments, if you would…

That whole two regional conflicts ability? It’s history… But even more interesting, there hasn’t been a concurrent reduction in ‘requirements’ for military presence. E.g. the administration signing up to ‘protect’ Central Europe from missiles. That has added a three destroyer presence in the Med, which hadn’t been there for 10 years at least.

And the whole ‘pivot’ to the Far East? Yeah, three ships… in 2017… Whoopie…

In another ‘interesting’ story, apparently the book of face has been caught ‘faking’ trending updates by plugging things like BLM in, while kicking anything conservative out of the trending updates. So much for ‘believability’ of the book of face’s lack of bias…

 

Trigger time!!!

A few of my favorite things…

favorite things

A little shooty goodness always makes the day go better! 100 rounds of .22, 100 rounds of .38, 50 rounds of 9mm and 50 rounds of .45 to get me at least headed in the right direction, and a little training was done too…

15 yards with the .45 after some good warm up, and I was comfortably in the 9 ring with a called flyers high left and 2 o’clock right.

15 yd tgt

The rapid fire, not so much… Geez, pulled left again and @#^#$#$ round dropped low in the 7 ring! GAH!!!

Finished up with about 50 rounds from the 10/22 with suppressor, giggles were had by all, and ‘somebody’ wants a new toy from Christmas…

Much fun was had with a reactive (ball) target too! Although I did get cussed by one of the other folks for hitting it just before she shot (a couple of times)… 🙂

I really need to get out there once a week, I really sucked early in the day. Shooting well IS a perishable skill, and nothing shows that more quickly than a month layoff.

Aviation Art…

14

Desperate for new pilots in the South Pacific, in August 1943 the First Marine Wing appointed the unconventional fighter ace Major Greg ‘Pappy’ Boyington to pull together a newly formed squadron from a mix of experienced combat veterans and untested novice pilots. The Marine Corps gave him just four weeks to turn this motley group into a fighting force ready for combat. Boyington succeeded beyond all expectations and the rest is history. Equipped with the Chance Vought F4U Corsair, they called themselves ‘The Black Sheep’, and under Boyington’s leadership, saw action at Guadalcanal, Munda, the northern Solomons, Vella Lavella, Bouganville, and Tokokina Kahili, and were the first to lead fighter sweeps over the major Japanese base of Rabaul. In a period of just eighty-four days Boyington’s pilots recorded 273 Japanese aircraft destroyed or damaged, 97 confirmed air victories producing eight fighter Aces, sank several ships, destroyed many ground installations and numerous other victories. With typical mastery, Robert Taylor has brought to life an encounter over Rabaul in late December 1943, paying tribute to one of the US Marine Corps‘ most famous fighter squadrons, and its outstanding leader. With the Japanese airbase at Rabaul visible in the distance, ‘Pappy’ Boyington and his fellow pilots of VMF-214 tear into a large formation of Japanese Zekes and a series of deadly dogfights have started, one Zeke already fallen victim to their guns.

For their outstanding contribution to the war in the South Pacific, the ‘Black Sheep’ were awarded one of only two Presidential Unit Citations accorded to Marine Corps squadrons during the war in the Pacific.

 

Nine years…

That’s how long I’ve been putting my brain drippings out here…

I can’t believe y’all are still around!!! 🙂

3,211 total posts, over 44,000 total comments, and roughly 500,000 page visits in the last year, putting me at around 3,000,000 visitors since I started.

I’m very humbled by this, and I truly appreciate the readers and commenters who’ve hung with me over the years. It’s been a helluva rollercoaster, and the future doesn’t promise to get much better… Sigh…

Thanks to those who took a chance on me, and put a link on their sidebars. The other thing this brings to mind are the number of bloggers whom we’ve lost, either to frustrations, other pursuits, or passing away. Salut!

Here’s that first post, which didn’t even get a comment…LOL Matter of fact, it wasn’t until about the 5th post that I actually GOT a comment!!!

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

 

YGTSM!!!

This one is probably going to lose me a few readers, but I really don’t care. I’m pissed at what I’ve seen over the last three days, and I need to get this off my chest.

I gave this oath-

I, [name], do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter. So help me God.

That oath has no expiration date, nor does my commitment and devotion to the USA.

Having said that, I have NEVER seen the amount of vitriol, whining and bitching that is surrounding the upcoming election. After Cruz got out, things only got worse on the Pubs side, and the Dems aren’t any better with the Berns…

From the talking heads, to the dancing monkeys, to the bloggers to the book of face, people just went off the deep end, Triggleypuff style…

If you can stomach it, it looks like a bunch of SJWs (nee POS) throwing a massive hissy fit. Many are ‘threatening’ to not vote, just stay home and pout.

Does anyone understand the term abrogate???

abrogate

  • : to fail to do what is required by (something, such as a responsibility) LIKE VOTING!!!

Voting is a fundamental right and responsibility of U.S. citizens — the right to have a say in how they are governed and the responsibility to be informed about candidates and issues when they go to the polls.

I’m not going to tell you how to vote, that is between you and your deity of choice. I don’t care if you write in Joe Schmuckatelli, but I will say that if you abrogate your responsibility to vote, you are giving up on the USA. And by extension giving up any right to ‘comment’ on the outcome, as far as I’m concerned.

Hopefully people will calm down and NOT go Triggleypuff as the year winds down.

Kicking the soapbox back in the corner and looking for the scotch… sigh

 

TBT…

Some people have commented about the family resemblance between myself and Jace…

So here ya go… Me at age 3 (mumble years ago) with my grandfather and grandmother on my mother’s side.

jimc 1954

And Jace at 2 1/2 last month…

Jace 4 26 16 2

You decide… 🙂

Posted in TBT