Sigh… These last three weeks have been road trip central
IAD-NRT and return, IAD-SAN and return, and now IAD-HNL…
By the time you read this, I’m ‘hopefully’ back at IAD for four hours at home to repack the bag and go to the airport and do DCA-CHA…
If anybody sees a drunk body clock with a Mai Tai stumbling by, point it in my direction…
I’m going to LibertyCon to try to learn some writing skills. I’ll be the guy in the Hawaiian shirt snoring in the back row…
Sigh…
Many people don’t realize the history of the US Navy’s interest in a better riding ship…
Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull (SWATH) designs have actually been around since the 1930s. But the Navy got interested in the late 60’s and built the RV Kaimalino in conjunction with UH Marine Center in the mid-70s. It was basically a steel box welded on top of two newly designed underwater hull forms. It also had a helicopter landing pad on top. I’ve posted about it before, but it just struck me how sad a shape the ship is in. UH has no money to do any repairs, and have pumped the hulls dry to try to keep the leaking rudder post out of the water…
It wasn’t really designed as anything other than a ‘day cruiser’, with minimal services/billeting/etc on the ship. At only 27 meters, it’s not a real big ship…
It sits today, tied up at the UH Marine Center, slowly rotting away (well corroding away), a sad relic of the early days of R&D.
A good article on SWATH hull is HERE, from American Scientist in the Nov/Dec 2000 issue.
In many ways this reminds me of a few other ‘orphans’ sitting in various places…
One of the first, if not THE first ROVs sits in a bay at Scripps, and some wag put a paper coffee cup in the mechanical arm with the words “Will work for food” penciled on it. That ROV is a monster, probably 10X10X10 feet, and constructed out of space hardware, as few knew what impact the pressures of the deep would actually have on mechanical devices. It should be in a museum somewhere, but again, no money and no desire to make that happen…
As technology accelerates from years to months of development, I wonder what will happen (or has already happened) to those ‘original’ prototypes of new tech. Hell, if you’re a SF reader, you’ve seen Buck Rogers gadgets imagined by Nowlan, Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke and others come to life in our generation.
I remember someone posting an ad from Radio Shack back in the day, and EVERY item on that sale page is now contained in the average smart phone…
As we move ever more quickly into this evolving technology age, sadly American kids don’t want to go into STEM – science, technology, engineering and math curriculums. They are hard work…
This US News report gives some information HERE. But these scholarships go begging…
And those people who ARE at the forefront of tech development aren’t American, they are Asian, Indian, Pakistani, Iranian, etc…
Pretty soon WE (America) will be hostage to the rest of the world in the tech sector…
Sad, but true.
Just wanted to remind you of some of Hillary Clinton’s past accomplishments that are overlooked in her resume!
When Bill Clinton was president, he allowed Hillary to assume authority over a health care reform. Even after threats and intimidation, she couldn’t even get a vote in a democratic controlled congress. This fiasco cost the American taxpayers about $13 million in cost for studies, promotion, and other efforts.
Then President Clinton gave Hillary authority over selecting a female attorney general. Her first two selections were Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood – both were forced to withdraw their names from consideration. Next she chose Janet Reno – husband Bill described her selection as “my worst mistake.” Some may not remember that Reno made the decision to gas David Koresh and the Branch Davidian religious sect in Waco, Texas resulting in dozens of deaths of women and children.
Husband Bill allowed Hillary to make recommendations for the head of the Civil Rights Commission. Lani Guinier was her selection. When a little probing led to the discovery of Ms. Guinier’s radical views, her name had to be withdrawn from consideration.
Apparently a slow learner, husband Bill allowed Hillary to make some more recommendations. She chose former law partners Web Hubbel for the Justice Department, Vince Foster for the White House staff, and William Kennedy for the Treasury Department. Her selections went well: Hubbel went to prison, Foster (presumably) committed suicide, and Kennedy was forced to resign.
Many younger voters will have no knowledge of “Travelgate.” Hillary wanted to award unfettered travel contracts to Clinton friend Harry Thompson – and the White House Travel Office refused to comply. She managed to have them reported to the FBI and fired. This ruined their reputations, cost them their jobs, and caused a thirty-six month investigation. Only one employee, Billy Dale was charged with a crime, and that of the enormous crime of mixing personal and White House funds. A jury acquitted him of any crime in less than two hours
Still not convinced of her ineptness, Hillary was allowed to recommend a close Clinton friend, Craig Livingstone, for the position of Director of White House security. When Livingstone was investigated for the improper access of about 900 FBI files of Clinton enemies (Filegate) and the widespread use of drugs by White House staff, suddenly Hillary and the president denied even knowing Livingstone, and of course, denied knowledge of drug use in the White House. Following this debacle, the FBI closed its White House Liaison Office after more than thirty years of service to seven presidents.
Next, when women started coming forward with allegations of sexual harassment and rape by Bill Clinton, Hillary was put in charge of the “bimbo eruption” and scandal defense. Some of her more notable decisions in the debacle were:
She urged her husband not to settle the Paula Jones lawsuit. After the Starr investigation they settled with Ms. Jones.
She refused to release the Whitewater documents, which led to the appointment of Ken Starr as Special Prosecutor. After $80 million dollars of taxpayer money was spent, Starr’s investigation led to Monica Lewinsky, which led to Bill lying about and later admitting his affairs
Hillary’s devious game plan resulted in Bill losing his license to practice law for lying under oath to a grand jury and then his subsequent impeachment by the House of Representatives.
Hillary avoided indictment for perjury and obstruction of justice during the Starr investigation by repeating, “I do not recall,” “I have no recollection,” and “I don’t know” a total of 56 times while under oath.
After leaving the White House, Hillary was forced to return an estimated $200,000 in White House furniture, china, and artwork that she had stolen.
She is unbelievable ~ literally!
Now we are exposed to: the destruction of possibly incriminating emails while Hillary was Secretary of State & the “pay to play” schemes of the Clinton Foundation – we have no idea what shoe will fall next. But to her loyal fans – “what difference does it make?”
Integrity does matter!
And this doesn’t even get into the stuff from Arkansas, the cattle deals, etc…
Back on the road… FINALLY after a 4 hour delay at IAD… But I’d rather have the pressurization problem fixed BEFORE we took off…
Just sayin…
So 10 hours (+4 delay) later, get to HNL, and the timing is ‘perfect’…
Right in the middle of @#^%^#$ rush hour… An hour to go SEVEN *&^%$ miles…
And a rhetorical question… WHY would anybody want a Porsche 911 Carrera 4S in Hawaii? There isn’t a single road on the island where you could get it out of second gear!
Sigh…
Ed over at Not of this World is in a contest to win a trip to DC for he and his wife. His radio ad has made it to the final four, and it’s a pretty positive ad (IMHO).
I’m asking you to drop by his blog HERE, and help him out. It won’t take but a minute of your time, and I know he’d appreciate it!
Mas Ayoob has a great column up over at Backwoods Home Magazine. I would strongly recommend you all go read it.
Mas has worked in the gun world for many years, and speaks from experience, HERE.
As a former VFD type, I saw my share of suicides over 10 years of volunteering, and many times heard the comment, “If only…”
We are having way too many suicides within the military community, and I think we can all benefit and learn to ‘recognize’ the signs and help those people get help.
It’s ALIVE!!!
Apparently the author is the last one to know… Thanks to Uncle Kenny for the update!
It’s live as a paperback now, and hopefully the Kindle version will be live in the next day or so.
You can click the book to go directly to Amazon.
And the Kindle version is HERE. Hopefully I’ll get this unscrewed and get them tied to my author page quickly…
Here’s the blurb-
When Texas Deputy Sheriff John Cronin thwarts the Cartel’s plan to get paid to smuggle Muslims across the border, he becomes the target of the Cartel once again.
One try fails, but the cartel isn’t about to give up.
With his granddaughter, Jesse, still recovering from her last run-in with the Cartel and now far away with her Marine husband on a military base, Cronin only has to worry
about the innocents around him. One way or another, this old school law man plans to end this cat and mouse game for good.
But, this time, the Cartel is playing for keeps; ending this war might just cost the old man his life. Either way Cronin plans to go out on his feet, fighting tooth and nail.
Same drill as usual if you want a signed copy- Email me with how many, where to ship it to, and how you want it personalized. Price will be $15 (sorry about the increase).
I will also be marking down the first two books in Kindle format to $.99 on Tuesday as a thank you to my readers, so if you know somebody that hasn’t got them, let those folks know.
New proof is in!
I went ahead and pulled the trigger (so to speak) after consulting with Tina on the quality of the cover. She’s much happier with this one!
It should go live in 4-5 days. I’ll put the Kindle up at the same time. Thank you all for your patience as I worked through the editing and paperwork drill.
I’m not promising you won’t find some errors, and if you do, please email me so that I can fix them. Even with multiple readers, some things slip through editing and proofing.
A tragedy occurred in Charleston, SC this week. Nine men and women were killed by a punk with a gun. It seems all the MSM along with BO, the Clintons, and the rest of the LWL are dancing in the blood of these good people. It took me a while to actually FIND the names of those who were killed.
Here is the list-
More information on each of them can be found on Buzzfeed HERE.
My heart goes out to these families in their time of loss, and there are no words to express how badly I feel.These are the people we need to remember. They were the innocent victims, unable to defend themselves…
They were at church in a bible study and were gunned down by this little punk. And no, I’m not naming him. He’s been caught, and I hope South Carolina puts him to death.
Rather than concentrating on the INDIVIDUAL that did this, and delving into his motives/life, it’s automatic to blame guns… And while this is a tragedy, to me it’s an even bigger tragedy that our ‘leaders’ rather than looking at root causes, have gone immediately to hate crime (which I believe it is), and domestic terrorism, while calling for more gun laws.
What do these people not understand about the fact that criminals DO NOT OBEY LAWS?
BO’s comment- “At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this kind of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries,”
Just set my teeth on edge… Sweden, France, and Britain all have MORE restrictive laws than we do, and they’ve all suffered mass shootings too.
And CNN is going right along with the agenda… HERE. But never named the victims… Too busy dancing in the blood…
Say a prayer for them, and for their families in this time of grief. I hope the media has the decency to give these families time to mourn and bury their dead in privacy and peace.
My post on Wednesday generated quite a few comments online, and a few emails…
These two items are rather interesting…
First, in the delicious irony category…
For Latinos, who make up 38 percent of the state’s population, the landscape and lawn care is an important source of employment. More than 73 percent of workers in the landscape industry in California are Hispanic, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce using American Community Service Data 2005-2009. Many say the shift from luscious green lawns to cactus, mulch and rocks is crippling their industry.
And most of them are illegals… Oops…
Link to the foxnews.com article HERE.
And secondly, a link to a Foxnews.com video HERE about the activists wanting to shut down the bottled water industry in Kali… LOL
In other news, slogging back to the house today, but I’d MUCH rather be doing this kind of flying!!!