My old crew, back in the day… Circa 1985ish… One crew, one airplane, one ‘small’ maintenance det…
Way up North… 🙂
Ironically, got to talking to one of my co-workers, turns out he was on a sub ‘playing’ with the same thing we were…
SMALL @#%^$ world!!!
Some of the most professional people I’ve ever worked with… And we done good, as they say…
I missed this one…
I watched the original coverage, but it dropped off the MSM…
There Was A Giant Mass Shooting NOBODY’S Talking About, Care To Guess Why?
Posted on November 30, 2015 by Sean Brown.
For the past week, the media has obsessed over the shooting in Colorado Springs near a Planned Parenthood, and while our attention was drawn to that, another mass shooting occurred. The victim count was huge, but nobody seems to be talking about it, and it’s not hard to see why.
Some may have heard about the shooting that occurred in Louisiana last week, when gunmen opened fire at a park with some 300 people in it and injured 17 people, but for the most part, there’s been silence from the media about it. According to the New Orleans Advocate, the Bunny Park shooting was an act of “domestic terrorism,” Mayor Mitch Landrieu said, and it was committed in cold-blood by several gunmen, one of which has been apprehended, but there’s several reasons the media may be ignoring it.
The Times-Picayune reports that 32-year-old Joseph “Moe” Allen was arrested on Sunday in relation to the incident, and he’s been charged with 17 counts of attempted first-degree murder. You would think that with the number of victims, the youngest being 10, and the majority of whom were under 21, and the heartless nature of the incident, the media would be all over it, but you would think wrong.
But you see, Allen is a black thug with a criminal record a mile long, so his violent acts don’t fit into the current narrative that white conservative Christians are the largest threat to our nation. Plus, being a convicted felon, he shouldn’t have even had a gun to begin with. The law forbidding him from owning one didn’t work, and he was also a part of the catch and release program for violent thugs.
Now you see why this one has been overlooked? Heavily reporting this story would mean having to admit that more gun control wouldn’t be effective, and it would also mean having to bring attention to the problem with systemic violence in the black community. Plus, reporting it would highlight the dangers of letting violent criminals back on the streets after shortening their prison terms, none of which the liberal media would willingly do, especially when there’s a juicy story about a white man a couple of states over.
You can read the story HERE from the 27th… Strange… VERY strange that this hasn’t gotten any coverage.
And did ANYBODY hear about THIS one??? I sure as hell didn’t…
Trio charged with shooting school activity bus with children on board
Full article HERE.
h/t JP
From Brownell’s newsletter.
The .22 Ammo Situation – We’ve received questions lately on something we’ve all been wondering about: Why is .22 rimfire ammo still “scarcer’n hen’s teeth”? The shortage of centerfire stuff ended a while ago, so what’s up?
Here’s the scoop from some of our industry friends who are really plugged into the ammunition business. It’s not as bad as it was. Rimfire ammo IS making its way onto store shelves, but demand is still sky high, so it zooms off those shelves almost instantly, usually with a limit on the number of boxes you can have.
Premium brands of .22 LR are sticking around longer in stores because customers who were willing to pay high prices just to get any .22 ammo have slowed down their buying. But the less-expensive ammo – the “buy a brick and plink all Saturday afternoon” stuff – still gets gobbled up as soon as it hits a shelf.
The biggest issue is, unlike centerfire ammo, rimfire is produced on dedicated machinery that can only load rimfire. Centerfire machines can load many different cartridges, so if there’s a big shortage of .308 Winchester, the ammo factory can switch a bunch of machines over to it and ramp up supply much faster. That’s why calibers that were in short supply in 2013 and 2014, like 9mm or .223 or .45 ACP, came back a lot faster.
Rimfire is a whole other ball of wax because of the way the cases are primed. It’s really, really expensive and takes a long time to set up new rimfire production machinery – so costly that manufacturers can’t spend the time and money to do it unless they’re absolutely sure higher demand is here to stay, so the .22 LR production capacity in the U.S. isn’t going to expand much any time soon. As long as demand for less-expensive rimfire ammo remains so strong, it will continue to be hard to get. Our guys tell me supply will probably stay very tight right through 2016. Wish I had better news – as soon as I do, you’ll be the first to know!
At least there IS some good news… sigh…
THE LAST CAB RIDE
I arrived at the address and honked the horn.
After waiting a few minutes I honked again.
Since this was going to be my last ride of my shift I thought about just driving
away, but instead I put the cab in park and walked up to the door and knocked..
‘Just a minute’, answered a frail, elderly voice. I could hear something being dragged across the floor.
After a long pause, the door opened.
A small woman in her 90’s stood before me. She was wearing a print dress and a pillbox hat with a veil pinned on it, like somebody out of a 1940’s movie.
By her side was a small nylon suitcase. The apartment looked as if no one had
lived in it for years. All the furniture was covered with sheets.
There were no clocks on the walls, no nickknacks or utensils on the counters. In the corner was a cardboard box filled with photos and glassware.
‘Would you carry my bag out to the car?’ she said.
I took the suitcase to the cab, then returned to assist the woman.
She took my arm and we walked slowly toward the curb.
She kept thanking me for my kindness.
‘It’s nothing’, I told her. ‘I just try to treat my passengers the way I would want
my mother to be treated.’
‘Oh, you’re such a good boy, she said.
When we got in the cab, she gave me an address and then asked, ‘Could you drive through downtown?’
‘It’s not the shortest way,’ I answered quickly..
‘Oh, I don’t mind,’ she said. ‘I’m in no hurry. I’m on my way to a hospice.
I looked in the rear-view mirror. Her eyes were glistening.
‘I don’t have any family left,’ she continued in a soft voice.. ‘The doctor says I don’t have very long.’
I quietly reached over and shut off the meter.
‘What route would you like me to take?’ I asked.
For the next two hours, we drove through the city.
She showed me the building where she had once worked as an elevator operator.
We drove through the neighborhood where she and her husband had lived when they were newlyweds.
She had me pull up in front of a furniture warehouse that had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a girl.
Sometimes she’d ask me to slow in front of a particular building or corner and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing.
As the first hint of sun was creasing the horizon, she suddenly said, ‘I’m tired. Let’s go now.’
We drove in silence to the address she had given me.
It was a low building, like a small convalescent home, with a driveway that passed under a portico.
Two orderlies came out to the cab as soon as we pulled up. They were solicitous and intent, watching her every move. They must have been expecting her.
I opened the trunk and took the small suitcase to the door. The woman was already
seated in a wheelchair.
‘How much do I owe you?’ She asked, reaching into her purse.
‘Nothing,’ I answered.
‘You have to make a living,’ she said.
‘There are other passengers,’ I responded.
Almost without thinking, I bent and gave her a hug. She held onto me tightly.
‘You gave an old woman a little moment of joy,’ she said. ‘Thank you.’
I squeezed her hand, and then walked into the dim morning light. Behind me, a door shut. It was the sound of the closing of a life…
I didn’t pick up any more passengers that shift. I drove aimlessly lost in thought.
For the rest of that day, I could hardly talk. What if that woman had gotten an angry driver, or one who was impatient to end his shift?
What if I had refused to take the run, or had honked once, then driven away?
On a quick review, I don’t think that I have done anything more important in my life.
We’re conditioned to think that our lives revolve around great moments.
But great moments often catch us unaware – beautifully wrapped in what others may consider a small one.
PEOPLE MAY NOT REMEMBER EXACTLY WHAT YOU DID, OR WHAT YOU SAID. BUT THEY WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER HOW YOU MADE THEM FEEL.
Worth thinking about as we start the Christmas season… It’s not the gifts, it’s not the dinners, it’s the personal interactions…
h/t Ev
So yesterday was a ‘day’ of travel, mostly due to my own stupidity…
BUT, I’m truly pissed at AA CSR who refused to inter-line transfer my bag. I ended up having to pick up the bag, then recheck with United, which meant I missed my connection. United got me on a later flight for free, and were very understanding, all things considered.
After sitting in DFW for 5 hours, I got an interesting seatmate going back to DC, he’s ex-Navy, now a commodities trader from Houston. He was on his way to London, to meet with some ‘houses’ over there as he called them.
His take, along with others he is meeting with are that the next 6-18 months are going to be VERY interesting in the global markets, and downstream, e.g. the US markets. He said every indicator they are seeing is that global markets are ‘teetering’ (his words), due to the attacks in Paris and the expected follow-ups. His belief, and apparently a number of others is that the entire ‘system’ is fragile, and one more attack is possibly enough to send the market into freefall, when you consider the currency fluctuations, Greek bailout, Chinese Yuan devaluation and “climate change” proponents.
On the US front, they are concerned about the new EPA regulations, like 15% Ethanol, and global trade in wheat, corn, soybeans and rice. These, accompanied by the ‘low’ oil prices and the administration turning down the Keystone pipeline, will put the US at the mercy of, among others, China and Russia.
China is a huge producer of steel (marginal quality), but if they throw enough money at Canada, Canada will build a pipeline to Vancouver and we’ll never see any of the oil. Russia has oil in Siberia, and little known (or not known by me) is that they also have extensive diamond mines. De Beers is apparently keeping the diamond market artificially high by buying and storing ‘excess’ diamond production in London.
A tertiary concern is the cascading failures of the ACA, and the impact this will have on medical care, devices and hospitals. He thinks there are two possible outcomes, either single payer (a mistake he believes), or a ‘fall back’ to the previous way of insuring people. Apparently there are some ‘fact sheets’ floating around that say the current situation is untenable due to the lack of ‘healthy’ people buying into the system, along with the increasing rates, and companies like United Health Care leaving markets.
It was an educational three hours, to put it mildly. His takeaway was that if they Dems get in, we’re done for, and he’ll emigrate to either Australia or Belize.
Dunno about you, but I think ‘I’ would let him have the fish…
I’m sure there are others in that pond… Just sayin… 🙂
This sheriff gets it…
Read the full story HERE!
I’m still recovering from all the food and goodies yesterday. Enjoy the folks on the sidebar.
As we take this time to pause and reflect, let us remember those who are quietly celebrating while underway or forward deployed around the world. While we enjoy time with family, they have the watch.
We’ve all been there and know those mixed feelings of pride at accomplishing the mission, but also missing our loved ones while deployed during this time.
For those at home, please keep these shipmates in your thoughts and prayers. If you’re forward, reach out, be good company for each other, and wish your shipmate a Happy Thanksgiving.
Well, I AM ex-Navy… 🙂
Hopefully y’all are spending the holidays with family, and if not, at least with friends…
If you aren’t, get a group together and do an ‘orphan’s Thanksgiving’. We used to do this in the Navy all the time when folks were ‘stuck’, and we’d all get together at somebody’s house, and everybody brought food. It usually turned into an all day party, with ‘strays’ usually ending up on couches or the floor later… 🙂
1746 miles… My right ankle now has a 73MPH ‘crick’ in it…
But things are moving, albeit slowly. Boxes unpacked, filled up two trash cans already.
WHY in the hell did I pack empty boxes??? I have no &^$#% clue!
At least the ammo is here, sticking six feet out in the garage, but at least it’s here!
Thanks to friends, the truck was unloaded and returned already. Of course the ‘reason’ they helped was to coon finger all the guns that came off the truck… Sigh…
But thank you FRIENDS! I mean that! Saved me trying to find or pay for folks to unload it.
Three weeks from now I get to do it all over again… Double sigh…
One funny incident, coming through a small town in East Texas, I see the local police flip on the lights, and do a u-turn. He comes up behind the truck, checks it out, then moved around and SLOWLY cruised past me.
Then he pulls in front of me and slows down…
Okay fine, you want a look at the other side of the truck. So I pull out and pass him. Meanwhile, I’m frantically thinking of which LEOs I know in the area, just in case…
At the city limits, he turns around. Whew…
Next town, SAME DAMN THING! Really guys???
But nobody stopped me. If they had, you probably wouldn’t be seeing this post, I’d be calling for bail money! 🙂
If you’re on the roads this week, PLEASE be careful! Lots of folks travelling. Another funny incident last night at the restaurant, multi-generational group of women, probably all the same family come in and are seated two tables over from me.
Great-grandma is dithering over the menu, daughter finally says, “Well, you like broccoli, get that.” Granny says, “No, it makes me fart now.”
Great granddaughter, probably 3-4ish pipes up rather loudly, “Grammy gonna fart? Grammy stink?”
Of course everybody within 6 tables hears this, and we’re all trying not to laugh. Great-grandma says, “If I don’t eat broccoli, I won’t.”
Great granddaughter pipes up again, “Good, cause I got to sleep with you!”