Two Things…

Posted on by March 6, 2013
First, go over to AOA‘s blog and read THIS post…

It’s worth the time, and puts everything in a frame all of us can understand about being a victim (or not)!

Secondly, Congressman Allen West pretty much blows this clown from CAIR away in this confrontation… 🙂

You can bet the Jihadists are after West, but everything he says is true and he’s done the time to research Islam (and actually did that BEFORE he went into combat to better understand the enemy)…

Now the other side of the coin is the BS going on in Gitmo, with one of the female defense lawyers (I thought they didn’t trust women???), pulled this crap…

Cheryl Bormann, a civilian attorney for bin Attash, appeared in a conservative Islamic outfit that left only her face uncovered and she asked the court to order other women present to wear “appropriate” clothing so that defendants do not have to avert their eyes “for fear of committing a sin under their faith.”

You can read the whole POS HERE…

As far as I’m concerned, they don’t want to play, then throw their asses in front of a firing squad and be done with it.  It’d save us a LOT of $$…

A Little Humor…

Posted on by March 6, 2013
For all you Catlicks out there…

This information is for Catholics only…OK, you Episcopalians, too (the Catholic-like ones).

It must not be divulged to non-Catholics.  The less they know about our rituals and code words; the better off they are.

AMEN:
The only part of a prayer that everyone knows.

BULLETIN:
Your receipt for attending Mass.

CHOIR:
A group of people whose singing allows the rest of the Parish to lip-sync.

HOLY
WATER: A liquid whose chemical formula is H2OLY.

HYMN:
A song of praise usually sung in a key three octaves higher than that of the congregation’s range.

RECESSIONAL
HYMN: The last song at Mass often sung a little more quietly, since most of the people have already left.

INCENSE:
Holy Smoke!

JESUITS:
An order of priests known for their ability to find colleges with good basketball teams.

JONAH:
The original ‘Jaws’ story.

JUSTICE:
When kids have kids of their own.

KYRIE ELEISON:
The only Greek words that most Catholics can recognize besides gyros and baklava (for you non-Catholics it means Lord have mercy).

MAGI:
The most famous trio to attend a baby shower.

MANGER:
Where Mary gave birth to Jesus because Joseph wasn’t covered by an HMO (the Bible’s way of showing us that holiday travel has always been rough).

PEW:
A medieval torture device still found in Catholic churches.

PROCESSION:
The ceremonial formation at the beginning of Mass consisting of altar servers, the celebrant, and late parishioners looking for seats.


RECESSIONAL: The ceremonial procession at the conclusion of Mass led by parishioners trying to beat the crowd to the parking lot.

RELICS:
People who have been going to Mass for so long, they actually know when to sit, kneel, and stand.

TEN
COMMANDMENTS: The most important Top Ten list not given by David Letterman.

USHERS:
The only people in the parish who don’t know the seating capacity of a pew.

Little known facts about the Catholic Church in Las Vegas:

There are more churches in Las Vegas than casinos. During Sunday services at the offertory, some worshipers contribute casino chips as opposed to cash. Some are sharing their winnings – some are hoping to win. Since they get chips from so many different casinos, and they are worth money, the Catholic churches are required to send all the chips into the diocese for sorting. Once sorted into the respective casino chips, one junior priest takes the chips and makes the rounds to the casinos turning chips into cash. And he, of course, is known as The Chip Monk.


Now THAT is funny… 🙂


Rock and Roll…

Posted on by March 6, 2013
This one is for MSgt B 🙂  It should bring back a memory or two…





F-15s out of Kadena vs. Marine F-18s!


Playtime in the air, and a good look at how busy it gets up there, in addition to some good footage of how much space a dogfight/furball really takes…


h/t JP

Old Airplanes…

Posted on by March 6, 2013
I know there are quite a few folks that like the old airplanes, and especially the WWII birds.  One I have always been fascinated by is the P-61 Black Widow.


A family friend flew one out of Guadalcanal in 1944, after flying Havocs in the ETO.  He admitted it was an unusual bird, and he didn’t make Ace flying it, but he said it was as good as it got for night intercepts.  Ralph had lots of stories, and lots of patience with a kid asking questions…


He went on to be an airline pilot, retired from that, and died two years ago while walking out to get the morning paper.


Here’s a video of a P-61 ‘training’ flight, and it truly shows the complexity of the old recip birds…


When I first came in the Navy, I worked on and flew in various recips and honestly always loved them.  They are/were much more complex than jets; and on their way out or not, they took a LOT more attention to detail to fly well, much less get one started…LOL

The other thing is, honestly I can’t think of a damn thing to write this morning that makes any sense… 

Sigh…

EDIT- Thanks to Angus, a link HERE to the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum which is rebuilding the last P-61 to flyable condition!!!

Getting Old SUCKS…

Posted on by March 6, 2013
So I finally get home and sleep in my own bed, not worrying about getting up every four hours to medicate the daughter, and what happens?


I don’t think I ever moved, and woke up this morning with one hellva crick in the neck… dammit…


So much for going to the range, if I can’t straighten my head up, not much point in trying to go shoot the new rifle.  Sigh…


So I’m cleaning it and checking the sight alignment, etc. and I notice this is NOT a NM rear sight, e.g. 1/2 min clicks vs. 1/4 min clicks, so off I go to try to find a new rear sight.  NOT easy, as there appear to be a lot of  ‘so called’ NM sights out there…


I called around and various folks pointed me to Creedmore and I finally found a real one at Creedmore Sports (HERE), Andy, if you happen to read this and are in the same situation, this is the real deal… And not a bad price either!!!


On another note- I went out to my favorite gun store to look for a spare sling for the HBar, and the store was slam full! I’ve seen them busy before, but today it was literally packed!  Men, women, kids, all in a buying mood; and I saw at least 6-7 cases of ammo going out the door.  Pistols seemed to be the biggest draw, but I saw families trying/discussing shotguns for home defense, and I did note the salespeople pointing out that a 20ga was just as effective and easier for a woman or younger child to handle, and they were recommending ALL get training. All I got was a brick of .22  sigh…


As y’all know, I’ve pretty much stayed away from the political commentary (Mainly to keep my BP down), but I’m sensing a real change in the silent majorities’ attitudes lately… And what is coming through is “we’re tired of this mess and we won’t put up with much more”. And they are voting with their wallets to buy guns, ammo and more importantly, training on how to use those tools…


And that is not just around here either, it’s happening and SC, AR, NC, and FL based on the calls I made this morning.  The critters in DC better look at their hole card and start turning this country around before it gets turned around FOR them…


Remember in November- Re-Elect NONE!  

It’s FRIDAY…

Posted on by March 6, 2013
Random things…


Daughter is doing well, no apparent bruising, redness, infection at the three incisions for her surgery.  BUT, she’s not even close to mobile, and is NOT having fun getting up and down, much less going to the bathroom…



And no I wasn’t kidding about the stitches looking like tie wraps…


So she’s spending most of the day asleep on the couch or getting fed, or getting her pain and other meds…


And she said to say thank you to all those who texted, emailed, and called, even if she doesn’t know y’all 🙂


And speaking of meds, DO take pain meds as prescribed, to actually mitigate the pain so that healing begins.  Toughing it out does no one any good… And take the anti-nausea pills too, they are prescribed to keep you from throwing up the other meds!


Of note, I didn’t mention it earlier, but one thing you want to make sure is in place is a limited power of attorney for medical when anyone goes in for surgery.  Thankfully, it was not needed; but safe is better than sorry if something had happened.  


The deck is ‘almost’ done (thank you RAIN, I got a day off)…

More piers for the ‘step up’

First part of the stepped section finished!

Strong backs knocking down the slope…

Last portion awaiting the decking and wall…

And it’s raining so no work for me 🙂

Back on the airplane and back to the salt mines… sigh…  And I’ll leave you with a movie trivia question.

Who was the original star that was supposed to play Bullitt, and what was the original location supposed to be???

Five years…

Posted on by March 6, 2013
Five years ago I started spouting my drivel in this little corner of teh Intarwebz…


I did it mainly to kill time when I was on the road, and sitting in various airports around the world, and I was tired of what was going on with the various gun forums I was on (flame wars, BS responses to comments, and lots of wanna-be’s that didn’t have a clue).


Here’s my first attempt…


I’m new to this whole arena, but thought I’d give it a try. I guess I fall in the “silent majority” as we have been deemed, I’ve never sought publicity, sued anyone for spilling my coffee, sure as hell ain’t a movie star; well, you get the drift…

I’m mid-50’s have a decent job, two decent kids trying hard to make their own way in the world today, and a lot of frustration with what is happening to the US of A. Being from the South, I hunt, fish, and shoot guns; so that immediately makes me one of those “rabid rednecks” to quote some out there. I did have a pickup, but it’s hard to park it where I work, so I drive a Pontiac… sure do miss the truck though… sigh…

As a retired military type, it really hurts to see the crap we are putting the folks in service through today. I lived through that in Vietnam, and I take the time to thank every Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine for their service when I get the chance. Most of the kids (I’m Southern so I can say that) are doing the best they can with what they have. They believe in the job they and others are doing in the Sandbox, and are pretty upset by the media coverage they get. 

Anyway, I’m going to try this for a while and see what happens… thanks for reading and commenting…

Old NFO


Not much has changed, I’m older, now back to driving an SUV; but  everything else is pretty much the same…


I’ve made a lot of friends both through this little blog, and met a great group of people in meat space too!


And I’ve had a blast (literally in some cases) shooting with many of y’all, and hope to meet more of you in the real world!


1039 posts with this one, 199 loyal readers- Thanks to each and every one of you! About 400,000 visits (splitting the Sitemeter stats); and the most popular post was the one I did on CFL bulbs… 


Go Figure…


And linking DOES work!  Thanks to Lawdog, Murph, Brigid, Uncle, Tam, Peter, Jay G, Paw and all those others who link to me.


Thanks again for putting up with me and reading and commenting, it IS appreciated!

Boycott Spirit Airlines!!!

Posted on by March 6, 2013
More BS from the corporate world…


Spirit Airlines has a no refund policy, but terminal illness is ‘usually’ a reasonable rationale to refund a ticket with most airlines.  However…


NOT in this case… The airlines’ one word answer?  “No.”


The “Boycott Spirit Airlines” Facebook page has seen its number of “likes” soar in recent days, rising tenfold to nearly 7,000. The social network support has come as Jerry Meekins, a 76-year-old Vietnam veteran with terminal esophageal cancer, raised a fuss when the Fort Lauderdale-based airline nixed his request for a $197 refund. Meekins was going to fly to New Jersey for his daughter’s surgery, but his doctor told him not to fly, citing his deteriorating health. The Facebook page blasting the much-complained-about airline already existed, but Meekins’ plight has sent furious fellow veterans and concerned citizens flocking to it. 

You can read the entire article HERE


I don’t usually jump these out of the mil-email world, but this just pisses me off!

Back…

Posted on by March 6, 2013
Daughter’s surgery went well, Labrium was pretty much torn free of the hip joint, chips in socket, and tendon needed repair.


All done via Ortho, a tad over two hours.  No major problems, and she’s got a video of it.  They had to put a plastic screw into the hip joint to re-attach the labrium and stitches that look like tie wraps 🙂


(She WILL get kidded about that)


Got her home and resting (not necessarily comfortably), but resting…


Next couple of days will be the real issue, worry about infection and fever, and being able to mitigate the pain correctly.  Thanks for the thoughts and prayers…

Vacation my butt…

Posted on by March 6, 2013
So… stopped by to help out youngest daughter while she has hip surgery, and lo and behold, I find out I’m helping build a deck on the back of the house…

So we let the young folks dig… 🙂

And bend and fight with the pilings…

While Vito played king of the mountain on the dirt pile…

And the first two days work is complete, and Vito is surveying his new kingdom…

And he got a bath, no choice in the matter… Damn dog was RED with dirt from one end to the other!!!

And he’s back to his favorite sport, slobber all over me, and drop the ball in my lap to throw… Sigh…
And that whole ‘fetch’ thing needs work… Threw the ball and Vito brings back a 5 foot section of cedar post (weighed about 15 lbs)!!!

Posting/commenting will be light for the next couple of days while I help out up here… Go read the folks on my sidebar, good stuff there!