Scrooged Again…

Posted on by March 6, 2013
Yet again the military is suffering from PCism and social engineering and the Navy caved… sigh…


What’s missing?  A Bahrain tradition of the live nativity put on by the CHILDREN of the sailors…  That has been going on since C5F was stood up in 1995.


The “Live Nativity” was a long-standing tradition at NSA Bahrain that featured the children of military personnel dressed as shepherds, wise men, along with Mary and Joseph. It was part of a larger festival that included a tree lighting, Christmas music and photographs with Santa Claus and a camel.

But the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers objected to the Nativity and filed a complaint with the Navy’s Inspector General. They argued the Nativity promoted “Christianity as the official religion of the base.”

The atheist group also worried that the Nativity put service members in danger.

“Also of concern is the likelihood that the predominantly Muslim local population will see the U.S. military as a Christian force rather than a secular military support U.S. – but not necessarily Christian values in their Muslim country,” the MAAF wrote in their complaint. “This even threatens U.S. security and violates the Constitution as well as command policy.”

Entire article HERE.

So rather than take it through the ‘normal’ chain of command to the C5F Admiral, they jumped DIRECTLY to the Navy IG in Washington…  

Another article HERE, from a ‘different’ organization to the Air Force, using ‘different’ reasons; but the Air Force stood up to them and refused to move/dismantle the Nativity scene. So now this group is going to SUE the Air Force…

There IS a war going on in the military, and it’s against anyone who is religious, including Chaplains… So much for christian’s rights…

Update…

Posted on by March 6, 2013
FYI…

Frank James old blog Corn, Beans, Spent Brass and a Deadline got hacked, so if anyone still has that link dump it.

Frank is back with a new blog, but he’s not allowing comments nor planning on posting very much. His new blog is HERE.  

A little humor…

Posted on by March 6, 2013
This one is a four minute time waster, but he’s GOOD!!!



Sometimes we just need a laugh, you know???

Michigan Right to Work…

Posted on by March 6, 2013
Michigan is the latest state to turn toward right-to-work legislation in an attempt to save the state…


Union members and supporters are gearing up for a massive protest Tuesday in Michigan’s capital in a last-ditch effort to stall the expected passage of “right-to-work” legislation, as they already make plans to challenge the proposal in court. 

The surprise move by Michigan Republicans this past Thursday to approve the anti-union bills touched off a firestorm in the home of the U.S. auto industry. Following high-profile fights over union privileges in Wisconsin and Indiana, Michigan in an instant became the latest battleground in that struggle. 

The state legislature returns to Lansing on Tuesday, when Republicans are planning to cast the final votes on the union package and send it to Gov. Rick Snyder’s desk. Snyder, a Republican, has said he would sign the bill, which prohibits unions from demanding dues from workers. 

If this happens, Michigan would become the 24th “right-to-work” state in the nation — and American unions would suffer a stinging defeat in the cradle of the labor movement. Union bosses made clear they won’t go down without a fight. 


The complete article is HERE.


Unions, as usual, have vowed to protest, stop work; yada, yada, yada…

But when I see stuff like THIS, I just cannot help but hope they are successful in passing the bills…


Chrysler said in a statement that it does not support the decision to bring back the workers but would like to move on.

“While the company does not agree with the ultimate decision of the arbitrator, we respect the grievance procedure process as outlined in the collective bargaining  agreement and our relationship with the (United Auto Workers union),” the company said, according to MyFoxDetroit. “Unfortunately, the company was put in a very difficult position because of the way the story was investigated and ultimately revealed to the public. 

Italics and bold mine, yeah it was unfortunate, because it couldn’t be swept under the rug…

These employees from Jefferson North have been off work for more than two years. The time has come to put this situation behind us and resume our focus on building quality products that will firmly establish Chrysler Group’s position in the marketplace.”

The employees work at the Jefferson North Assembly Plant, which builds Jeep Cherokees.


Yeah, go ahead and buy that Jeep built by guys that are drunk and or high…  I’m betting you’ll ‘really’ feel safe in that vehicle won’t you???

Range time and newbie shooters…

Posted on by March 6, 2013
Spent a couple of hours going over safety, handling, aiming and different types of pistols with a couple of folks Friday night. He’d shot before but primarily rifles/shotguns.

About two months ago he wanted to go to the range and shoot a pistol, having not shot one in 15 or so years, so we walked through safety and went to the range. He decided he want to get a pistol for home defense, so we’ve been going back and forth and he’s been trying various pistols. He’d finally decided on a Walther PPQ, as he liked the fit/feel and felt he could shoot it accurately…

And now he wanted his girlfriend to be able to shoot it safely too…

Now she’s a little Japanese American lady, and she’d ONLY ever shot a .22 pistol “years” ago…

Hence the couple of hours of discussion prior to the range…

Got up WAY too early yesterday morning, picked out a few pistols to work with her on, had to dig out ammo, etc…

Got to the NRA range at 0800 and I was 12th in line. No biggie, since I knew they would have to take the range test and get a range brief. 

And I watched people coming OUT of the range… lots of kids toting rifle cases, WTF???

Come to find out the high school shooters had shot starting at 0500!!!  Heh, guess 0800 ain’t bad for us old farts 🙂

So got the folks in, got them through the range test and range brief, and timing worked about right. We only had to wait about 10 minutes for a lane.

Put the lady on the range with the .22/45 to start, and she did pretty well.  Her boyfriend stepped up and proved he DOES like that PPQ (5 yards 10 shots in about 2 inches).  Showed the lady how to load the mag for the .22 and she loaded the second one herself.  Put her back on the line and she did well again. Safe with the gun, group was a little big, but all on the paper.

Once she felt comfortable, I asked her if she wanted to try a 9mm, and she shot the G17 not quite as accurately, and had a bit of a problem with the trigger feel, but again not bad.  On the second mag, just flat bad luck, she had a spent case bounce off the divider, and get inside her high necked shirt.  She put the gun down safely BEFORE she shook the round out the bottom of her shirt!!! 

Not sure what she was calling me about that time, but when I asked her if she wanted to continue she finished the mag off.  Her boyfriend got back in and shot a couple of more mags through the PPQ again doing well. 

She had said Friday night she wanted to try a revolver, so I brought the Trooper MKIII along.  Now you’ve gotta picture this…

She’s about 5’2″, ‘maybe’ 110 lbs, standing on the line with a MKIII with a 6 inch barrel! She put all six in the black!!!

I had her load six more, and the she put all of them in the black too!

She finally decided to try the PPQ, and she was getting a bit tired, so she started dipping the muzzle anticipating the recoil.

One more mag on the .22/45 and she was back up on target, if low.

Called it a day at that point, and we went outside and ‘debriefed’ the day…

Turned out the gun she liked the best was the Trooper!!!  And she did acknowledge she was getting a bit tired, but just could not believe she was anticipating as badly as she was.

Good day all the way around, and her boyfriend called me yesterday evening, they want to go again, and are planning on joining the NRA next time we go!  And she wants to get a .22 and practice!!!

 

71 Years Ago Today…

Posted on by March 6, 2013


On 7 December 1941, in one of the defining moments in U.S. history, the Japanese attacked the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and nearby military airfields and installations, based at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and removed the U.S. Navy’s battleship force as a possible threat to the Japanese Empire’s southward expansion. The U.S. was now brought into World War II as a full combatant.

Naval Base Pearl Harbor was attacked by 353 Japanese fighters, bombers and torpedo planes in two waves, launched from six aircraft carriers.  All eight U.S. Navy battleships were damaged, with four being sunk.

Two were raised, and with four repaired, six battleships returned to service later in the war. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, and one minelayer.  188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed; 2,402 Americans were killed and 1,282 wounded.

Japanese losses were comparatively light. Twenty-nine planes, less than 10 percent of the attacking force, failed to return to their carriers.

The Japanese success was overwhelming, but it was not complete.  They failed to damage any American aircraft carriers, which by a stroke of luck, had been absent from the harbor. They neglected to damage the shoreside facilities at the Pearl Harbor Naval Base, which played an important role in the Allied victory in World War II.

American technological skill raised and repaired all but three of the ships sunk or damaged at Pearl Harbor. Most importantly, the shock and anger caused by the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor united a divided nation and was translated into a wholehearted commitment to victory in World War II.

– – – – This is part of the legacy we should work to uphold and honor every day as Americans, whether it’s PC or not, it’s reality…

And thanks to Bob, THIS story about a gent who survived Pearl Harbor and who’s spent his life trying to put names to the un-named dead from Pearl Harbor!

And for the aviation buffs, THIS link contains a lot of pictures from all services before/during WWII.  Wish I’d found this when I did the earlier post on aircraft in WWII.

RIP Lloyd B. Curtis, and Lyle C. Curtis. you will never be forgotten…

Privacy? Not so much…

Posted on by March 6, 2013
This is truly interesting, but NOT in a good way…  And eIA’s post HERE kinda set me off on this trail…

We ‘are’ being watched, and you can bet at least ‘some’ of us are on a variety of lists, thanks to DHS among others…

The FBI has the e-mails of nearly all US citizens, including congressional members, according to NSA whistleblower William Binney. Speaking to RT he warned that the government can use information against anyone it wants.

One of the best mathematicians and code breakers in NSA history resigned in 2001 because he no longer wanted to be associated with alleged violations of the constitution. 

He asserts, that the FBI has access to this data due to a powerful device Naris.

/snip/

RT: You blew the whistle on the agency when George W. Bush was the President. With President Obama in office, in your opinion, has anything changed at the agency – in the surveillance program? In what direction is this administration moving?

WB: The change is it’s getting worse. They are doing more. He is supporting the building of the Buffdale facility, which is over two billion dollars they are spending on storage room for data. That means that they are collecting a lot more now and need more storage for it. That facility by my calculations that I submitted to the court for the electronic frontiers foundation against NSA would hold on the order of 5 zettabytes of data. Just that current storage capacity is being advertised on the web that you can buy. And that’s not talking about what they have in the near future. 

RT: What are they going to do with all of that? Ok, they are storing something. Why should anybody be concerned?

WB: If you ever get on the enemies list, like Petraeus did or… for whatever reason, than you can be drained into that surveillance. 

RT: Do you think they would… General Petraeus, who was idolized by the same administration? Or General Allen?

WB: There are certainly some questions, that have to be asked, like why would they target it (to begin with)? What law were they breaking?

RT:In case of General Petraeus one would argue that there could have been security breaches. Something like that. But with General Allen  – I don’t quite understand, because when they were looking into his private e-mails to this woman.

WB: That’s the whole point. I am not sure what the internal politics is… That’s part of the program. This government doesn’t want things in the public. It’s not a transparent government. Whatever the reason or the motivation was, I don’t really know, but I certainly think, that there was something going on in the background, that made them target those fellows. Otherwise why would they be doing it? There is no crime there.

/snip/

RT report in full and video HERE.

And when you tie it in with all the phone companies being ‘required’ to maintain your text messages for TWO YEARS just in case they are needed for a criminal case… Article HERE.

And they already capture GPS data, and you add photo recognition software, and police cars/cities with cameras… Yeah, we have NO privacy left *unless you’re in your own house in the basement, not connected to the net, not watching TV, just reading a book…

Just a heads up…

Posted on by March 6, 2013
I’ve pretty much lost faith in anybody in this cluster f**k actually being willing to come to the table and avert either the fiscal cliff OR the tax hikes, much less Sequestration, or the implementation of Obamacare.

And I’m not sure what is going to happen after we run off that cliff…

I got an interesting email tonight pointing to a couple of ‘items’ for persual. 

Anybody ever seen this?

It  was developed by Matt Bracken and the description can be found at the WRSA blog HERE, and if that name sounds familar, well he wrote Enemies Foreign And Domestic, Domestic Enemies – The Reconquista, and Foreign Enemies And Traitors.

Then go read When The Music Stops, also by Matt Bracken, and also at the WRSA blog HERE. 

I truly hope we’re not going down this path, but it seems to edge closer and closer to reality every day.  And I DO remember those riots back in the 60’s and 70’s and thankfully was no where near them.  The points Matt raises ARE valid and they are playing out now if you follow the news about the middle east and other ‘hot spots’… Mass media has obviated any advantages the LEOs have…

Not trying to be the bearer of bad tidings, but forwarned is forarmed…