Old School Gun Control…

This LINK goes to Life Magazine and a photo series from 1956 on guns in schools…

This note attached really sets my teeth on edge…

[NOTE: LIFE.com is aware that encountering images of guns and children in a classroom might be distressing to some readers — even if those images were made decades ago and depict an adult instructing schoolkids in a rural community in the proper and safe use of firearms. Our intention is not to incite, but to add context and nuance to the national dialog around guns, gun violence and gun safety in the United States.]

Personally I believe we need MORE of this not less.  Eddie Eagle from the NRA is a classic example of a GOOD training program.  By demonizing guns, rather than the shooters, we are creating an entire set of generational prejudices that will come back to haunt us.

Guns are tools, NOT demons… And as long as these generations refuse to realize that, gun control WILL happen, and that will be the end of the USA as we know it.  There will be no way to defend ourselves…

But the criminals will continue to get guns the same way they always have…

Sigh…

Feedback…

Appears there is lots of ‘negative’ feedback from the left over the movie Lone Survivor…

Here’s a clip from Judge Jeannie and Chris Heben (former SEAL).

It’s a pretty good fisking of the left’s whole argument…

It IS an outstanding movie, doesn’t sugarcoat what happened, and tells it like it was from Luttrell’s POV.  There is some ‘Hollyweird’ action surrounding the village stuff that didn’t happen, but all in all it’s not a bad portrayal.

In other news…

The President, the Commander in Chief, has made the Rules of Engagement (ROE) so difficult, that our troops are often killed before they can even get permission to fight.

Nothing has been done to stop our troops from being murdered by the Afghanis they are training, either.

Now, the President wants the US to sign on to the UNs International Criminal Court (ICC), which would allow the UNs ICC to arrest and try US troops for War Crimes, without the legal protections guaranteed under US Law, and from which there is no appeal.

The President, with his Democratic control of the Senate, has nearly all the power. If the non-establishment can take back the Senate in 2014, our troops can once again be protected from unnecessary danger.

Please consider this, and send it on to your mailing lists. Thank You and Semper Fi.

Interestingly enough, when GWB was president you heard about the the military deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan almost daily.  With Obama in the White House, the mainstream media has been strangely quiet.

More than 1,000 American soldiers have lost their lives in Afghanistan in the last 27 months. This is more than the combined total of the nine years before. Thirty have died in August. During the last month, over 50 additional NATO and US servicemen have been murdered, inside jobs by those who are hired to be a force for good in Afghanistan.

The commander in chief is AWOL.  Not a peep, although he ordered the White House flag flown at half-staff for the Sikhs that were killed. There is a deep disgust, a fury, growing in the ranks of the military against the indifferent and total incompetence of this president.

It has taken on a dangerous tone.  No one knows what to do about him, but the anger runs deep as the deaths continue with no strategic end in sight to the idiocy of this war.  Obama has had 4 years to end this futile insanity, during which time he has vacationed, golfed, campaigned, and generally ignored the plight of our men and women in uniform {and so much more}.

But, there is now a movement afoot in the armed services to launch a massive get out the vote drive against this president.  Not just current active duty types, but the National Guard, Reserves, the retired, and all other prior service members. This is no small special interest group, but many millions of veterans who can have an enormous impact on the outcome of the November election if they all respond.

The million military retirees in Florida alone could mean an overwhelming victory in that state if they all show up at the polls. It might not keep another one hundred U.S. troops from dying between now and November, but a turn out to vote by the military against this heart breaking lack of leadership can make a powerful statement that hastens a change to the indifference of this shallow little man who just lets our soldiers die.

Veterans:  Please do participate and forward this to your fellow veterans & friends.

h/t JP

One more round of pics…

All these are airport related… 🙂

In the line of the old saw about one man’s junk…

Everything but the seat…

Adelaide 5

And more bike remnants and a what the hell…Adelaide 3

A mechanical ‘roo…Adelaide 2

And a crab because he could…Adelaide 1

and it was ‘painted airplane day’… Out of Adelaide…Adelaide 4

And out of LAX…  The original Continental paint job on a new 737…

DSC00606And home for a whole ONE night, then back on the road today…

Just shoot me now…

Went Walkabout…

And got my ass totally lost…

Simple (supposedly) directions to a good restaurant that was ‘only’ a few minutes walk…

But one does see some ‘interesting’ things…

This was actually the ‘right’ alley I was supposed to walk through…

IMG_1521

A better pic, nice work, but not where most people would ever see it…IMG_1520OBTW, that was the ONLY correct alley out of four…

I did finally get there, and was only 15 minutes late, the cop I asked for directions DID get a laugh out of it though, when he turned me around and pointed across the street to the place I was asking directions to…  Sigh…

And this was the plaque for the artwork at the hotel…

IMG_1523And the panorama shot of the artwork…

IMG_1524The maintenance guy I was chatting with said it was all done by ‘local’ aboriginal artists and took about a year to complete it… Each of the panels AND the raised areas has a meaning, but it started raining and I didn’t get the complete data dump on it.

 

 

 

Pay no attention…

To those ‘little’ provisions slipped into the Defense Appropriations Bill…

It’s not enough that they are taking pay from retirees (that they promised to fix)…

NOW they are trying to slip Commissary closures in too…

The budget proposal would reduce the Defense Commissary Agency’s annual budget from $1.4 billion annually to $400 million by 2017, forcing the agency to make major changes — including possible widespread store closures, sources told Military.com. The plan will potentially be included in the Defense Department’s 2015 budget request expected to be released next month.

Full article HERE from Military.com.

It’s like they’re judging the response to the pay cut, going hmmm, not much reaction and it got knocked off the front page pretty quick; okay, lets do THIS next… It’s only food, and it’s not like they save that much.  They can make up that 30% by shopping at Walmart…

If this isn’t a declared war on the military and retirees I don’t know what is… This administration has succeeded in turning the military into a social experiment; run senior leadership that didn’t kow tow to the administration out,  loosened rules for everyone except Christians, and are now reducing pay both for active and retirees (BO did a 1.0% raise vice the 1.8% that was recommended).  Their goal IMHO is to make the military so unappealing everyone will avoid service.  And now they are talking about ANOTHER reduction in manning levels, possibly bringing the Army down to 500,000 active…

Moar random travel…

The ‘hand towels’ in the hotel here are bigger than the BATH TOWELS in Japan…  Sigh…

And the Aussie military has apparently dumped Land Rover as the provider of choice for light vehicles, and have bought Mercedes trucks/utility vehicles… The reason? Apparently maintenance issues…  Dunno the prices, didn’t stop and ask…IMG_1517

And I got a chance to get out a little bit yesterday afternoon, walking by the train station and decided to wander in…

Looks like it was built in probably 1920s and it reminds me of either Union Station in DC or one wing of Grand Central Station in NYC

IMG_1522

And the interior ‘hallway’…IMG_1518

And the original ticket windows are still there (albeit no longer used).  Interestingly, they are barely three feet high to the counter…IMG_1519Chatting with one of the waitresses in the hotel yesterday, she complimented me for tipping, then told me not to bother…

She said they make $21-25/hr, and all tips are ‘shared’ and taxed too.  So if I gave a $10 tip, depending on the sharing and taxing, she would only get maybe $.60 of that ten dollar tip!!! I asked what if I gave it directly to her, she said she’s still obligated to share it…

So thanks, but don’t waste my money tipping, just thank her…  Interesting way to put it.

More Stearmans…

The 2014 New Years Video…

I can’t embed it, but here’s the link…

And Mr. Kinsey deserves a BIG tip of the hat for what he does to support Naval Aviation…

This was a couple of years ago, but thank you sir!!!

h/t Roy Kinsey

edit- Okay, I are now confuzed… Apparently the videos are working… Beats the hell outta me…  Anyway, ENJOY!

Random travel…

In the some ‘stuff’ never changes category…

Bicyclist the world over seem to think they ‘own’ the road, and South Australia is having some big bike race/to do this week…

Soooo, this morning on the way to my meeting, I’m poking along on a main highway, seldom getting over 20-30 mph kph.  I’m about three cars behind a semi and I’m wondering WHY since the speed limit is 50kph.  I can ‘kinda’ see what looks like a pack of bikes in the left lane, but that doesn’t explain why the truck isn’t going.  Suddenly the semi just LAYS on the horns, and keeps on them, and I see smoke pour from the stacks on the truck. And all of a sudden it’s like a covey of quail flushing and going everywhere!!!

Apparently the bikes were taking BOTH lanes, and the trucker had finally had enough… LOL

In the ‘unfortunate advertising’ category, on the main road out of town, it appears there is a restaurant called Chicken Chef right next door to a business called Australian Birds, specializing in rare birds.  I just wonder what gets served as what in that restaurant…

And in the music is world-wide, I’m sitting in traffic and suddenly Sweet Home Alabama comes on the radio… Talk about a double take!!!

And it’s ONLY in the 90’s here today, a positive cold spell…

Peace Dividend???

This one has been flopped over the transom from both the mil-email chain and some readers-

A bit of history, and some interesting commentary here- While primarily pointed at the Army, this also applied to all services and the Navy has gone from 580+ plus ships under Reagan to 250ish under Bo…

When we entered into the first Gulf War, our active Army strength was around 760,000. It was well equipped, well trained and powerful enough to actually maintain the world peace that progressives and beauty pageant contestants so desire. Even as this force pushed the Iraqis out of Kuwait, the liberal media was questioning out loud whether Americans were ready to see the body bags.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, politicians decided we no longer needed such a robust force. There were no more enemies requiring us to maintain it. No more large force on force battles ahead. We had to reduce it. Drawdown commenced. Or as cheerleaders inside the services and Pentagon called it, a builddown. Word out of Washington was a windfall was upon us. We would reap a peace dividend. All of the money we would save by cutting the size of America’s national defense structure could be used to fund other necessary things. Social programs.

I watched Lone Survivor yesterday. From reading the book when it came out, I fully expected it to be gut-wrenching. And it was. It is a well done movie. Go watch it. Sadly, most Americans never knew the story. Still do not. Even when the Congressional Medal of Honor was presented posthumously to Navy SEAL Lieutenant Michael Murphy, the first person to receive it in the Afghan War, it was barely a media blip. You see, it is not the kind of story that interests a progressive media along with the fact that it was presented by President Bush. Never willing to shine a good light on anything military, they were more interested in the propaganda pictures provided to them by the Islamists.

The progressive media prefer the story of down trodden and poverty stricken villagers being brutalized by the U.S. military. Poor people who are driven to terrorism because of stark poverty. Their wealth of course was stolen from them by whom else but the capitalist west led by America. It was the same song they sang throughout the Viet Nam war. I am certain you remember Genghis John Kerry’s famous lies about American Soldiers in Viet Nam burning and pillaging villages. And Hanoi Jane’s radio broadcast. Well, war hero John is at it again. The poor and poverty stricken are driven to war.

When President Bush was in office, the body count was high priority in the media. Boys the media called them or American kids. Anything to pluck at American’s emotions. We would get it daily. There was even speculation about when it would surpass one thousand. The media appeared anxious for that moment. They even went to court looking for permission to photograph the caskets as they came home. Nowadays, it simply is not an issue. You may hear in passing of some “NATO” casualties in Afghanistan. By what we hear in the news, one would think that nothing is happening there. You most assuredly would not know that nearly 75 percent of American war deaths in Afghanistan have occurred under the watch of Barack Obama. The progressive media wing does its job quite well.

While a man like Marcus Luttrell and his team fights and sacrifices and does what their country asks of them to preserve the peace and ensure freedom at America’s front door, Washington’s politicians are giving both away at the back door. Washington is proving once again that it has little thought of the trials the military and their families have endured during 13 years of war.

Beginning with the Whitehouse and right on down through the halls of the United States Congress there appears little concern for the military. Illegal immigrants are more important that Soldiers, Veterans or their families. There is the big budget deal out of Washington. Then one that will keep the government open. It saves a relative few pennies when considering trillions of dollars of debt ($6.2 billion over 10 years) by reducing military pensions, costing military retirees as much as $120,000.00 over a lifetime. Have to love those peace dividends. With a straight face, Washington laments how important it is to cut military pensions to save the budget, while absolutely refusing to close a tax hole that has allowed the Internal Revenue Service to pay out over $14 billion dollars in refundable tax credits to illegal immigrants – the people we supposedly cannot find because they only exist in the shadows.

I was listening to some banter on a talk radio program the other day. Conservative media view versus a progressive one. The topic was Obamacare and how in the world will we ever pay for it. Without hesitation, the progressive said close 800 military bases.

Washington can only find passion these days for the military when it comes to social engineering it to resemble their Godless utopian world view. The next time they need Soldiers willing to sacrifice for their political blundering, maybe they can find a few brigades of illegal immigrants to do their bidding. They are certainly paid well enough. We can even embed them with progressive media.

Very interesting commentary; very true perspective.  Will we continue to ignore it???
CAN we afford to ignore it???  ‘I’ don’t think we can…
h/t JP, Frito, Snake

Sometimes you just gotta wonder…

Probably one of the most iconic photos ever taken from space, happened accidentally…

Historically, all the Apollo missions were on VERY specific timelines, required to collect data pretty much every waking minute.  Very little thought or time was given to the astronauts for ‘sightseeing’…

And I can’t help but wonder if they got their butts chewed for using ‘extra’ film for non-essential photography…

But ‘I’ am damn glad they did!!!

h/t JP