The people at home did their parts for the war too…
Norman Rockwell needs no introduction, and he did a number of posters supporting various entities during the war. The one above is one of the ‘Four Freedoms’ paintings he did for the Saturday Evening Post in 1943, it’s called Freedom of Speech. The others are below-
Freedom from Fear
Freedom from Want
Freedom of Worship
You can read more about this at Rockwell’s wiki entry.
Interesting conversation in the hotel bar last night…
Talking to an American from Austin, TX that runs a multi-national consulting firm and his Australian regional manager about what is going on in Australia as far as manufacturing…
Part of the backstory here is that Ford, Holden (Chevy), and Toyota are ceasing production of autos here. Also one refinery is closing on the East Coast and one of the tobacco companies is closing their manufacturing. Estimates are something north of 50K jobs will be lost due to these closings in both direct and indirect jobs.
They do ‘scaled’ personnel consulting, e.g. knowledge levels needed, numbers of bodies, and management of personnel policies for ramping up or down for major companies. The Aussie basically said words to the effect that Australia is ‘f**ked’, between the government taxes, lack of tax breaks, relatively ‘low’ breakpoint for luxury tax on items (like cars) and unions driving salaries to levels that are not supportable. He also said that without oil/gas production and mining, Western Australia would truly be in the toilet, that the wine (Swan Valley) and beef production couldn’t support the entire area.
They also discussed the impact of the current prime minister’s attempts to get free trade agreements with Japan, Korea and China and what that would do to jobs (probably move them offshore) in Australia. It appears at least Toyota is planning on manufacturing in Japan and just shipping vehicles into Australia, Ford will probably manufacture in the Philippines, and what Chevy will do is undetermined.
On another front, it appears there is now a push to limit the AUS submarine force, the Parliament is now saying only six submarines are needed, and they might be better off buying from Japan or Germany rather than building their own.
All in all, a pretty damn bleak forecast in the next few years, and I hope the Aussies get it solved. They’re good folks, and deserve better…
Stay the f**k out of DC… Period…
If it ain’t the FEMS screwups, it’s the cops and rabid prosecution of ANYBODY with anything resembling a gun, or now a bullet for a muzzle loader…
The Mark Witaschek case just keeps getting stranger and stranger…
On March 26, Mr. Witaschek was convicted by Judge Robert Morin for “attempted unlawful possession of ammunition” for the box of copper and lead pieces that go in an antique-replica muzzleloader gun.
The judge did not rule on the shotgun shell, which had misfired at a hunt years ago. The District only allows registered gun owners to possess ammunition.
(And you MUST be registered IN the District)… 18 USC Sec 926A does not apply according to DC police and attorneys…
The nation’s capital did not think giving this man a criminal record was enough. At sentencing, Assistant District Attorney Oritsejemine Trouth asked the judge to demand Mr. Witaschek register as a gun offender with the police within 48 hours.
And they still weren’t done. The day after the trial, an agent from the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue showed up at Mr. Witaschek’s office.
/snip
Ms. Miller asked Mr. Witaschek why he thought this tax investigation suddenly arose.
“I think the police wanted to confiscate my guns from the beginning. They are really angry that I didn’t comply,” the businessman explained. “They will use whatever government resources they choose to get what they wanted — or make me pay. They already used the U.S. attorney, a grand jury, the D.C. attorney general, and now the Office of Tax and Revenue.”
Go read the whole thing HERE on Washington Times. h/t to Emily Miller for the coverage!
Think about tattoo on forehead- Stay OUT of DC…
Sigh…
IF anyone is interested in a signed copy, please shoot me an email. I’ll be heading back later this week, and would like to order books so I can get them out to those who want one.
It will be $14, so that I can pay the postage and shipping charges.
Thanks to those who’ve given the book good reviews, and I have appreciated the conversations on email about the book. Thanks too for the constructive criticism!
About that whole equal pay thingie…
Democrats are trying to get the female vote in November with a public relations campaign about “equal pay for equal work,” yet they are not practicing what they preach. The White House and Senate Democratic leaders employ fewer women as top aides, so they earn less.
To play off “Equal Pay Day” on Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has scheduled a show vote on the Paycheck Fairness Act, which shifts the burden to employers to prove pay discrepancies are not related to gender. Democratic Conference Vice Chairman Chuck Schumer tweeted Monday: “Without action to address the gender pay gap, women won’t reach pay equity until 2058.”
Full article HERE by Emily Miller in Washington Times.
Except that the media is actually paying attention, and even the White House is under fire…
“Now the study also showed that men and women with the same White House jobs earn exactly the same salary. Now the White House said its gender pay gap is tied to job experience, education, and hours worked among other factors. This matters because those explanations, according to the Labor Department, explain a good deal of the gender pay gap nationally. The big difference in these stories: When President Obama discusses this issue nationally, he doesn’t mention those other work variables, only the broad figure, that 77 cents for every dollar is what women earn compared to men,” said Garrett.
“When the factors that the White House used to defend its gender pay gap are used nationally, the Labor Department says the difference in median wages between men and women shrinks to about 5 cents to 7 cents on the dollar.”
Full article HERE.
Interesting how even the administration isn’t playing by the ‘rules’ it wants everybody else to use… But that seems to be teh way…
Do as I say, not as I do…
6.2 liter, 450hp, 6 speed…
And the sumbitch didn’t even leave the keys so we could keep his rotors cleaned off…
Sigh…
Dunno whatinhell was going on with the radio yesterday, but this damn song came on EVERY time I got in the car to do something… and now it’s stuck in my head…
Personally, I’m old enough to remember the original version by Nancy Sinatra, and I think it’s better… This one is more of a mash up, IMHO…
But I’m ‘sharing’ it anyway… 😛
But it’s also fitting the crap going on, fix one thing, something else comes up…
Lather, rinse, repeat…
And it’s actually been ‘relaxing’ to not see US news, other than through the filter of the BBC…
Quickie run through the emails and news elicited this one…
Vegetarians may have a lower BMI and drink alcohol sparingly, but vegetarian diets are tied to generally poorer health, poorer quality of life and a higher need for health care than their meat-eating counterparts.
Looks like once again ‘facts’ are overcoming emotion and I’m betting there are some lefties that are NOT happy with this…
Full article from CBS Atlanta HERE.
Of course I can already ‘see’ the response… It wasn’t done HERE, so it doesn’t count…
Sigh… Back to watching seaweed grow…
I don’t know what’s being broadcast up there, but ‘I’ tend to believe the signals heard by MV Ocean Shield are a LOT more believable than what the Chinese Navy is claiming…
Ocean Shield is towing a US Navy system, manned by US sailors that is specifically designed to ‘listen’ at the correct frequency, being towed at depth. And they’ve held contact for over 2 hours in one pass, and 19 minutes in the crossing pass.
The Chinese have a little Benthos transducer on a stick down about 6-10 feet, over the side of a RHIB, and a guy on a headset sweeping through the frequency band… But they’ve ‘heard’ two clicks…
And they are 500 klicks south of where Ocean Shield is… and between search areas…
One of the ‘big’ questions is why no debris has been seen by either ship. You have to remember this is now the THIRD week since the crash, and currents down in the Roaring 40’s (40 South Latitude) can run as 2-3kts/hr. Which would mean the debris field could move 48-72nm per DAY, or 1008-1512nm over the last three weeks…
Oceanographers are working hard at long term current plots and folks are still flying their asses off, and ships are still searching, but honestly it’s first just trying to find the haystack, and THEN find the needle…
My heart goes out to the families of the victims, and it’s really frustrating to see some of the crap that is STILL being spewed by the media…
Kudos to those at sea, and those in the air who continue to do their best. I hope they are successful sooner rather than later.