In Memoriam…

Posted on by June 16, 2013

30 years ago today, June 16, 1983, “Yankee Bravo Zero Six” was on a submarine-hunting training mission north of the Hawaiian island of Kauai.The Orion’s radar was off, in order to be undetected by the submarine. The night and overcast sky made for zero visibility.

At just after 4 a.m., the aircraft hit a steep ridge on the Na Pali Coast of Kauai.
All fourteen Shipmates were lost.

In memory of the 14 men aboard U.S. Navy P-3 Orion YB-06 of VP-1 that crashed on the ridgeline between Honopu and Kalalau valleys on June 16, 1983.

Squadron VP-1
Lt. Cmdr. J.R. Moseley, Macon, Georgia
Lt. M.E. Gallagher, Pensacola, Florida
Lt. j.g. R.L. Coulter, Glendora, N.J.
Lt. j.g. R.W. Bruno, Mojave, Calif.
Lt j.g. M.R. Lunde, Arlington, Texas
S.A. Phipps, Monticello, Ky.
B.M. Sparrow, Westland Michigan
B.D. Sunde, Erie, Pa.
R.C. Wilson, Fresno, Calif.
A.S. Castillo, Hollister, Calif.
Ronald Lipschutz Jr., Elverta, Calif. hometown Southington, CT.
L.A. Roth, Oxnard, Calif. and Houston
C. Chambers, Houston, Texas
D. Stringer, Eau Claire, Wis.

RIP all, we carried on and your loss was NOT in vain, RIP…

For those who take trips to DC…

Posted on by June 15, 2013

If you are from D.C. or the surrounding area, you’ll understand these rules. If you are coming here, you’ll learn these rules. If you are just going to visit, give up. Read, enjoy and then destroy them.

1) First, you must learn to call it by its rightful name. It is D.C., or “the District”. Only tourists call it Washington.

2) Next, if your road map of Montgomery County is more than a few weeks old, throw it out and buy a new one. It’s obsolete. If in Loudoun or Fairfax County and your map is one day old, it’s already obsolete.

3) There is no such thing as a dangerous high-speed chase in D.C. It’s just another chase, usually on the BW Parkway.

4) All directions start with “The Beltway”…whic*h has no beginning and no end, just one continuous loop that locals believe is somehow clarified by an “inner” and ‘outer loop’ designation. This makes no sense to ANYONE outside the Beltway.

5) The morning rush hour is from 5 to 11 AM. The evening rush hour is from 1 to 8 PM. Friday’s rush hour starts Thursday morning, especially during the summer on Route 50 eastbound.

6) If there is a ball game at the FedEx Field, there is no point in driving anywhere near PG County.

7) Tip: Never say PG County to anyone from Mitchellville, Upper Marlboro or Fort Washington. They’ll blow a vessel in their neck and go into a seizure.

8 ) If you actually stop at a yellow light, you will be rear-ended and shot at. If you run the red light, be sure to smile for the $100 picture you will receive courtesy of DMV. (However, if you don’t go as soon as the light turns green, you will get cussed out in 382 languages, none of
them English.)

9) Rain causes an immediate 50 point drop of IQ in drivers. Snow causes an immediate 100 point drop in IQ and a rush to the Giant for toilet paper and milk.

10) Construction on I-270 is a way of life and a permanent source of scorn and cynical entertainment. It’s ironic that it’s called an “Interstate” but runs only from Bethesda to Frederick. (Unless you consider Montgomery County another state, which some do). Opening in the 60’s, it has been torn up and under reconstruction ever since. Also, it has a “Spur” section which is even more confusing.

11) All unexplained sights are explained by the phrase, “Oh, we’re in Takoma Park or Greenbelt”.

12) If someone actually has their turn signal on, they are by definition, a tourist. Car horns are actually “Road Rage” indicators. Heed the warning.

13) All old ladies in Buicks have the right of way in the area of Leisure World.

14) Many roads mysteriously change their names as you cross intersections. Don’t ask why, no one knows.

15) If asking directions in Arlington, Langley Park, Wheaton or Adams Morgan, you must know how to speak Spanish. If in PG County, Ebonics will be your best bet. In Annandale, a Cambodian or Vietnamese dialect will come in handy. If on Dupont Circle, Capital Hill or U Street, a gay dialect helps.

16) If you stop to ask directions in Southeast… well, just don’t.

17) A taxi ride across town will cost you $12.50. A taxi ride two blocks will cost you $16.75. (It’s a zone thing, you wouldn’t understand) (Oh, and if you are in DC and want to go to MD, don’t tell them until you get in the car…they won’t take you otherwise)

18) Traveling south out of DC on Interstate 395/95 is the most dangerous, scariest thing you will ever do and when you hit it, you will wonder why the section of this road called “the Mixing Bowl” is so named. After all there is no mixing there, heck, there is no movement at all.

19) There is nothing more comforting than seven lanes of traffic cruising along at 85 mph, BUMPER TO BUMPER!!!

20) The minimum acceptable speed on the Beltway is 85. Anything less is considered downright sissy.

21) The Beltway is our daily version of a NASCAR reality show. Strap up and collect points as you go.

22) The open lane for passing on all Maryland interstates is the far right lane because no self-respecting* Marylander would ever be caught driving in the “slow” lane. Unofficially, both shoulders are fair game also.

23) The far left lanes on all Maryland interstates are official “chat” lanes reserved for drivers who wish to talk on their cell phones. Note: All mini-vans have priority clearance to use the far left at whatever speed the driver feels most comfortable multi-tasking in.

24) If it’s 10 degrees, it’s Orioles’ opening day. If it’s 110 degrees, it’s the Skins opening day.

25) If the humidity is 90+ and the temperature is 90+, then it’s May, June, July, August and sometimes September

And there will be MOAR than one case of this…

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Recall Alert…

Posted on by June 15, 2013

Daddy Bear has a recall alert up HERE.

Appears Thompson Center has some problems.  Read and pass along to any users you know of.

Posted from my iPhone.

Off with friends…

Posted on by June 15, 2013

It’s going to be ONE of those weekends, I can see it coming…

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Light blogging and commenting, go enjoy the folks on the sidebar!

Oh, and talk about double entendre advertising…

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No other comment needed… 😀

Two Commentaries worth reading…

Posted on by June 13, 2013

GEN Brady and ADM Lyons speak out on the current state of our military…

Niether gent is politically correct, they just call it as they see it…

First GEN Brady-

Maj. Gen. Patrick Brady, retired from the U.S. Army, is a recipient of the United States military’s highest decoration, the Medal of Honor. He is the author of “Dead Men Flying: Victory in Viet Nam The Legend of Dust Off: America’s Battlefield Angels.”

As incompetence, deception, duplicity and dishonesty become the hall marks of the Obama administration, it is important that we not lose sight of the greatest danger posed beyond these serial scandals: the feminization, emasculation and dismantling of our military. The two most important elements of national survival are the media and the military; one keeps us free and the other keeps us secure. We know the media are failing ˆ God help us if the military does also. We may be able to fix the government in 2014. Fixing the military is more problematic.
Let‚s begin with Benghazi. It is incomprehensible that any commander, let alone the commander in chief, would go AWOL during a crisis such as Benghazi, but he was. In the midst of the massacre of our ambassador and three heroic Americans, President Obama was nowhere to be found. He did manage to surface, too late for the massacre, to meet a campaign commitment the next day. But, before retiring, we are told he turned the crisis over to his underlings, including the military. What we learned about our military leadership during that crisis should alarm all Americans.
The demise of our military of course begins with the commander in chief, but he can‚t do it alone. He has to have willing sycophants and he has had them in the civilian and military leadership at the Department of Defense. The indifference of the people and military inexperience in Congress are contributing factors. The military disasters are a form of gradualism. Look at the changes under Mr. Obama. We cannot focus on these changes enough.
Our military is suffering unprecedented rates of suicide and PTSD. Obama‚s sequestration will cut benefits to veterans as well as damage readiness. (There has been a 2000 percent increase in backlog for veteran assistance in four years!) We now have a quad-sexual military with all the health, readiness and moral issues that come with exalting sodomy. Sexual assault is at an all-time high. Women will be tasked to lead bayonet charges. As a result of the sex scandals, Congress is now looking to curtail the military‚s ability to discipline, another tribute to the lack of leadership in the military and lack of military understanding in Congress.
Billions of defense dollars are unaccounted for. Christianity is under military attack, and Bibles have been burned to appease Muslims. (References to God and Jesus are forbidden at Arlington, chaplains will be forced to perform homosexual „marriages,‰ and Bibles and religious item are forbidden to the wounded at Walter Reed, etc.)
We have a new doctrine for crisis: „Don‚t deploy forces into harm‚s way without knowing what‚s going on.‰ Therefore, no Normandy or Inchon. In other words, don‚t go until the crisis/massacre is over. Their default position is don‚t go, period. The military leadership, after the terrorist massacre at Fort Hood, outrageously lamented the effect it would have on diversity ˆ and equally outrageously labeled it workplace violence denying the victims and their families the benefits they deserve.
There have been unprecedented security leaks, and China is electronically in bed with us. They even lost the graves of our warriors at Arlington. I could go on, but it should be clear that all of the above is the result of a leader who knows not the difference between a corps and a corpse and is both indifferent to and unknowledgeable of military readiness. And as bad, the military leadership is complicit in these disasters. (As a further tribute to their ineptitude, they have actually considered combat-level medals for warriors not shooting and desk-bound computer operators, medals that were the laughingstock of veterans.)
But given that the president tasked the military to act in the Benghazi crisis, what did they do? Indefensibly, they did nothing, they did not even try! No obstacle, no doctrine, nothing can defend not trying, never mind the risk, to save fellow Americans. Were they under orders to sit on their aˆ and let their fellow Americans die? In my 34 years of military service involving many crises, I never knew of one without an after action report (AAR), in which each and every action was put under a microscope to identify those responsible for the results be they good or bad. Congress, the media, someone should demand the AAR on Benghazi. It must exist. Who ordered the stand down? Who said sit on your aˆ? Why no hearing on this?
Just as the way forward for America is a return to the morality and values of the past, so too must the military return to the readiness standards and common sense of the past. We can survive in a relatively valueless society ˆ but only with a strong and ready military. Sadly the military is mirroring society ˆ the goal of Mr. Obama and progressives ˆ and will soon be impotent. Once the progressives have a helpless military they no longer need to explain why they didn‚t go; they can say we are unable to go. Progress is not the path we are on; true progress is the path to our past. The other scandals may be more glamorous and outrageous (such as lying about Benghazi before the coffins of those massacred by terrorists, enemies‚ lists and assaults on the First Amendment) but what Mr. Obama is doing to our military is more grave. 
ADM Lyons-
Washington Times
June 11, 2013
Pg. B3

Restoring Military Readiness

A professional fighting force, not diversity, must be the military’s priority

The impact of fighting two wars over the past decade has taken its toll on our military forces. They have been run hard and put away wet. Sequestration has only compounded the problem. Our military services are already reeling from previously approved $800 billion in defense cuts over the next decade and are now faced with $500 billion in additional budget cuts now that sequestration has been implemented.
All this means that we will have the smallest Army since prior to World War II. The Navy, with its anemic shipbuilding program, will most likely be left with the smallest fleet since prior to World War I. The U.S. Air Force will suffer a similar adverse impact. Selected aircraft squadrons from both the Air Force and the Navy have been ordered to stand down and not fly. It will take several months to restore their readiness.
Symbolic of the Navy’s demise are the five aircraft carriers that are currently moored at piers at the Norfolk Naval Base in Virginia for lack of operating and overhaul funds. Clearly, with the escalating civil war in Syria, one carrier battle group should be immediately deployed to the Mediterranean. Such a deployment would dramatically change the strategic equation and counter Russia’s deployment of 11 ships currently there.
The Obama administration’s draconian budget cuts are being made at a time when global instability is increasing. The Middle East continues in a state of turmoil, particularly with the ongoing civil war in Syria. However, the most destabilizing factor in the Middle East would be for Iran to achieve a nuclear-weapon capability. With China and North Korea’s help, they may now have all the necessary elements. In the Pacific, China continues with its massive military buildup. Its cyberwarfare attacks and penetration of our military-industrial complex has, at a minimum, reduced our technology advantage in any future confrontation. This is most serious since our technological advantage was always our force-multiplier.
The one constant that made our military the finest fighting force in the world was the dedication and professionalism of our personnel – our national treasure. The troops took pride in being recognized as the “best and brightest.” It made for high morale and solid unit cohesion. Professionalism was their No. 1 priority. Now with President Obama’s social engineering of our military forces, “diversity” has become the No. 1 priority. It is hard to comprehend how the promotion of the homosexual and feminist agendas contributes to unit integrity or improves combat readiness. Why, then, are these disruptive agendas being forced on our military, particularly when we are being challenged throughout the world? Fulfilling a political agenda is insufficient rationale to deliberately weaken our military forces and national security.
As he was tiptoeing out of the Pentagon, former Secretary of Defense Leon E. Panetta made his ill-advised and irresponsible endorsement of eliminating military women’s exemption from direct land combat battalions. Thirty years of studies and reports in the United States and the United Kingdom have provided more than sufficient empirical data that men and women are not physical equals nor interchangeable in all roles. There is no other nation in the world with a military force comparable to ours that assigns women in direct combat infantry land wars.
When the U.S. Marines conducted an online survey of active-duty personnel in 2012, it failed to show support for women in direct ground combat units. Regrettably, never asked was how would women assigned to infantry and special operations forces affect mission effectiveness? Research done by the Presidential Commission on the Assignment of Women in the Armed Forces, which studied the issue in depth in 1992, determined that a “voluntary” option for women to engage in close combat, but not for men, would not work. In a direct combat environment, women do not have an equal opportunity to survive, or worse, would end up causing fatalities to fellow troops.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff stated that women’s exemption from direct ground combat missions somehow has contributed to the current rise in the sexual abuse we see in our military forces today. This makes no sense. Women are closer to combat today than ever before, but the rates of sexual assault and abuse are soaring with no end in sight.
The rescinding of the Clinton “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy has come at a price. In Volume II of the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office report, there is no change in “unwanted sexual contact” for women (32 percent in both 2010 and 2012), but an increase among men reporting “unwanted touching” from 31 percent in 2010 to 57 percent in 2012. It certainly calls into question the Department of Defense’s claims that repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy has been a complete success.
What’s most disturbing is the apparent acquiescence to these ill-conceived policies by our top military leadership. In life-and-death situations, you must have the first team in place. Mandates for diversity metrics are no substitute for proven combat effectiveness when engaging the enemy.
Our combat readiness in today’s world must be our first priority. Since our top military leadership is complicit in the administration’s social engineering of our military, Congress must exercise its constitutional responsibility to “provide for the common defense” and make policy for the armed forces. As a first order of business, Congress should reinstate the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.
Retired Adm. James A. Lyons was commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet and senior U.S.military representative to the United Nations.
The question is, “What can we realistically do about the decline of our nation?”
“I” don’t have a good answer, because I don’t know what we can do to resolve the mess in Washington short of starting over…  And the dems have the illustrious 47% who will back them to keep getting their free cheese…
Comments, recommendations, ideas??? ANYTHING???
h/t JP and others

Teh Funnies…

Posted on by June 12, 2013

Willie’s playing my song again…

So a little humor for your Friday…

The Ocean . . . All You Need To Know

Children Writing About the Ocean. The next time you take an oceanography course, you will be totally prepared.

1) – This is a picture of an octopus. It has eight testicles. (Kelly, age 6)

2) – Oysters’ balls are called pearls. (Jerry, age 6)

3) – If you are surrounded by ocean, you are an island. If you don’t have ocean all round you, you are incontinent. (Mike, age 7)

4) – Sharks are ugly and mean, and have big teeth, just like Emily Richardson . She’s not my friend any more. (Kylie, age 6)

5) – A dolphin breaths through an asshole on the top of its head. (Billy, age 8)

6) – When ships had sails, they used to use the trade winds to cross the ocean. Sometimes when the wind didn’t blow the sailors would whistle to make the wind come. My brother said they would have been better off eating beans. (William, age 7)

7) – I’m not going to write about the ocean. My baby brother is always crying, my Dad keeps yelling at my Mom, and my big sister has just got pregnant, so I can’t think what to write. (Amy, age 6)

8) – Some fish are dangerous. Jellyfish can sting. Electric eels can give you a shock. They have to live in caves under the sea where I think they have to plug themselves in to chargers. (Christopher, age 7)

9) – When you go swimming in the ocean, it is very cold, and it makes my willy small. (Kevin, age 6)

10) – The ocean is made up of water and fish. Why the fish don’t drown I don’t know. (Bobby, age 6)

11) – My dad was a sailor on the ocean. He knows all about the ocean. What he doesn’t know is why he quit being a sailor and married my mom. (James, age 7)

The Dragon strikes again…

Posted on by June 12, 2013

Dragon Leatherworks will be opening a brick and mortar store.

Yes, we’re growing again! We’ve outgrown our present location, so the decision was made to go full-on brick-and-mortar!

A storefront has been selected here in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and we’ve begun sprucing up the new location. It will have 500 square feet dedicated strictly to retail space, which will showcase our holsters and gunbelts. We’ll also be adding a fashion concealed carry option for our female shooters, beginning with a hand-laced hip bag designed to carry pistols of the Makarov design or smaller, with a larger full-size gunpurse to follow right after the new Year.

Dennis is fighting the usual battles with ATF et al to get the licensing changed over, but as soon as he does the new store will be at:

Dragon Leatherworks
1956-B Oak Ridge Turnpike
Oak Ridge, TN.   37830

Dennis can do just about anything you want holster wise, and he’s been a long time contributor to all of our causes.  And he does DAMN GOOD WORK!!!

Oh yeah, and he’s also expanding into purses and other things!

Out of the past…

Posted on by June 13, 2013

Sheriff Taylor got it…

Now why can’t the idjits in charge (who are supposedly WELL educated) get it???

Sigh…

h/t Craig

Interesting, this one didn’t post on time either… Seems like a ‘trend’ if it’s even slightly a negative post about the administration, it’s not coming up on time… Go figure… Morning unknown NSA analyst…

When Mommy goes to prison…

Posted on by June 12, 2013

It appears Sesame Street has a new initiative…

It’s brought to you by the letter P — for prison.

PBS’s “Sesame Street” is moving from ABCs and counting numbers to offering its young viewers a bigger lesson in life: how to cope when Mommy or Daddy lands behind bars.

Called “Little Children, Big Challenges: Incarceration,” the program is distributing “tool kits’’ to schools, community centers and even jails in 10 states — including New York — starting today to help kids ages 3 to 8, organizers said.

Full article HERE.

Unfrikkinbelievable… One wonders how much money ‘this’ is going to take…

What in the hell is going on with America???

h/t Wai

 

What next???

Posted on by June 11, 2013

From Mrs. C via email…

HAYWARD — An elementary school will hold a toy gun exchange Saturday, offering students a book and a chance to win a bicycle if they turn in their play weapons.

Strobridge Elementary Principal Charles Hill maintains that children who play with toy guns may not take real guns seriously.

“Playing with toys guns, saying ‘I’m going to shoot you,’ desensitizes them, so as they get older, it’s easier for them to use a real gun,” Hill said.

At Saturday’s event, called Strobridge Elementary Safety Day, a Hayward police officer will demonstrate bicycle and gun safety, and the Alameda County Fire Department is sending a rig and crew to talk about fire safety.

Fingerprinting and photographing of children will be offered, with the information put on CDs for parents to use, if needed, in a missing child case. All youngsters attending will be given a ticket to exchange for a book, Hill said.

Every child who brings a toy gun will get a raffle ticket to win one of four bicycles, Hill said.

Read the whole thing HERE.

Now I have to say I agree with her comment, “What kid in their right mind would trade a toy gun for a book?”

None that “I” know of…

But you have to remember this is a suburb of San Francisco, so ‘that’ does play into this whole stupidity…

In other news, females of ALL ages will now have access to the morning after pill…

The Obama administration announced Monday it will end age restrictions on emergency contraception, allowing girls and women of all ages to purchase the morning-after pill without a prescription. 

The Department of Justice notified U.S. District Judge Edward Korman it will submit a plan for compliance with his recent ruling that allowed unrestricted sales of Plan B One-Step. If he approves it, the department will drop its appeal of his April ruling.

According to the department’s letter to the judge, the Food and Drug Administration has told the maker of the pills to submit a new drug application with proposed labeling that would permit it to be sold “without a prescription and without age or point-of-sale prescriptions.” 

Read it HERE.

So, Sudafed needs a life history and a two hour pile of BS forms, IDs, etc…  But the morning after pill will now be on the aisle next to the aspirin???

And parents have NO say in whether or not Snowflake buys it, no matter HOW old she is???

Sounds like one more nail in the coffin of the family…

Sigh…