Can I get a translator over here???

Posted on by March 6, 2013

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This is what pops up when you try to log into your blog from Japan…

sigh…

ON a brighter note, went to dinner with friends last night over in Hayama, had one of the best Italian meals I’ve had in a long time! Little bitty hole in the wall restaurant right on the waterfront, run by a Japanese family.

The twist is that the daughter is an accompished Chef, graduate of one of the big Italian cooking schools and a certified sommiler…

Of course the menu was totally in Japanese, so we were reduced to going in the kitchen and doing the old point and mime to order!

Antipasto, Penne Arribiata, Veal Scolopini with a good Chianti, then Tiramisu and expresso as good as I’ve ever had in Italy- It just goes to show how small the world is really getting!

Another GOOD read…

Posted on by March 6, 2013

A new blogger who I’m going to follow with a LOT of interest is Expert Witness he has one hellva background 🙂 Go check him out!

9/11- Time to move on???

Posted on by March 6, 2013

Reading the newspapers this morning and listening to the news has just flat pissed me off…

I lost two good friends in the Pentagon, Retired Captain Jack Punches and Captain Larry Getzfred. I served with and crossed paths with both these gentlemen from the 1970’s until 2001. I went to Arlington, and stood there remembering these guys like it was yesterday- How good they were with the sailors, how they worked throughout their careers to succeed in the Navy culminating in command tours. Jack had VR-24 in Sig and was well respected and remembered by his sailors, Larry had VP-40 and was very successful during the end of the cold war.

Yet today’s media pushes the idea it is time to ‘move on’ that 9/11 should become a part of our ‘history’ rather than continue to be kept at the forefront of people’s minds…

The media has also come out saying the reports due today on the conduct of the war are biased, some have said the reports are outright lies and some websites have marked General Petraeus as a traitor!

WTF Over? Are the democrats really that desperate? Has the Hate Bush campaign really got that much power?

What about the fact that we have been attacked by terrorists since 1985? Oh well, that was just attacks against the military, so I guess that doesn’t count…

What about the Embassies that were attacked over the years? Same thing…

September 11, 2001 was what woke America up, because the attacks finally came to our shores, and were successful…

We are STILL at war against the terrorists, they are committed to killing us-

The perception of the West as the enemy of Islam is widely expressed in Islamist circles. According to the Islamists, the U.S. and its allies declared war on Islam, which makes Jihad against them a personal duty for every Muslim. The people of the West, as enemies of Islam, necessarily deserve to be annihilated.

If we ‘move on’, what will we do when the suicide bombers are in our Malls and shopping centers, at our sporting events, and bombing our schools? Negotiate???
We listened to General Petraeus’ report along with US Ambassador Crocker today. As usual there were the screamers etc, in the back, who were thrown out. Too bad their punishment does not include being shipped to Iraq to get an up close and personal view…

We thought the briefs were well presented, and pretty realistic. Two of the folks were just back from IA’s in the Gulf, so they were able to verify directly much of what was said.

Congresscritter Lantos questioned the General, using a “media” reference and questioned whether ADM Fallon actually supports the phased mission completion and withdrawal. Huh??? General Petraeus works for ADM Fallon, why would they NOT agree???

Lantos went after Crocker about a diplomatic “surge”, taking a swipe at the administration while using the Congressional diplomatic actions to get observers into North Korea and taking credit for pacification of Libya!

Congresscritter Wexler must have been the designated Democrat hit man, as he called Gen Petraeus a liar, saying the brief differed from the NIE, therefore it MUST be wrong… Lemme see- NIE= a whole bunch of inputs from every agency (half of whom have NO ONE on the ground) vs. one General, who was actually on the ground…

Sigh…

I’m embarrassed by the Congresscritters- The majority could not ask a coherent question if their lives depended on it. Also, when they didn’t get the refutation they wanted, they started going further and further afield…

Oh yeah, Wexler the Heckler got on an absolute rant for a couple of minutes, never did ask a real question, just denigrated the General’s statement and even quoted a Gallup poll!!! Unbelievable…

A friend told me his opinion of Congress was they were acting like the dogs they are-

If they can’t eat it or screw it, they piss on it and walk away…

Come to think of it, THAT is an insult to all the self-respecting dogs out there.

Please, take a minute tomorrow and remember those who died at the WTC, the Pentagon, on ALL the flights and those who have given their lives defending us from further attacks.

Why do we even bother with debates?

Posted on by March 6, 2013

In my tiny little mind, I cannot figure out what at least half of the questions asked in the “debate” tonight were supposed to be about, they didn’t have a damn thing to do with being a President-

I think it was media driven to ask provocative questions designed to alienate voting blocks and force candidates to change their known stances on issues or come off looking like a fool. Prime example, asking Mike Huckabee if he believes in Evolution or Creation…

For Gods sake, the man is an ORDAINED BAPTIST MINISTER… What do you expect him to say?????

And then, Dog Blitzer asked a FOLLOW UP QUESTION???? Oh come on….

By the way, can you imagine that question being asked during the Democrap debate???

The other thing I find interesting is the media’s continual broadcasting and disecting of Republican “scandals” and the complete lack of coverage of any Democratic scandals…

This was sent to me as humor, but I think there is a lot of fact behind the humor…

DEMOGRAPHICS OF AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS AS REVEALED BY SUBSCRIBER STATISTICS-

The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who run the country.

The Washington Post is read by people who think they run the country.

The New York Times is read by people who think they should run the country and who are very good at crossword puzzles.

USA Today is read by people who think they ought to run the country but don’t really understand The New York Times. They do, however, like their statistics shown in colored pie charts.

The Los Angeles Times is read by people who wouldn’t mind running the country — if they could find the time — and if they didn’t have to leave Southern California to do it.

The Boston Globe is read by people whose parents used to run the country and did a far superior job of it, thank you very much.

The New York Daily News is read by people who aren’t too sure who’s running the country and don’t really care as long as they can get a seat on the train.

The New York Post is read by people who don’t care who’s running the country as long as they do something really scandalous, preferably while intoxicated.

The Miami Herald is read by people who are running another country but need the baseball scores.

The San Francisco Chronicle is read by people who aren’t sure there is a country . . . Or that anyone is running it; but if so, they oppose all that they stand for. There are occasional exceptions if the leaders are handicapped minority feminist atheist dwarfs who also happen to be illegal aliens from any another country or galaxy, provided of course they are pro gay rights, pro government sponsored gender reassignment surgery, anti military and that they are not Republicans.

The National Enquirer is read by people trapped in line at the grocery store.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune is read by people who have recently caught a fish and need something in which to wrap it.

sigh…

I’m just grouchy tonight- Another night on the road in another hotel attending another set of meetings that are a repeat of the meetings we had last year… and the year before… and the, well you get the idea.

I really envy those of you who actually have a job that lets you get home at night to your family and sleep in your own bed.

Just Peachy!: As A Parent:

Posted on by March 6, 2013

Just Peachy!: As A Parent:

You have to go read Babs comments on bringing up children! Kudos to the Lady for a dead on set of comments. Too bad more people don’t believe the same way! Honesty in raising children and exposing them to the world is becoming a thing of the past.

Miscellaneous Guy Stuff

Posted on by March 6, 2013

Well, since I had no where to go this weekend, and the weather has been pretty nice, I talked a friend into playing Golf yesterday, except that he had also been invited to go Dove hunting… so we ended up with a twofer…

Since all the local courses were full, we ended up with an 0830 tee time, about 40 minutes South of DC at a course in Stafford Co.; which happens to be on the way to the Dove shoot, so up and at em at the crack of dark… Load up the golf gear, the gun gear, a change of clothes, hard hat, and blaze orange vest.


Off into the dark of morning I go; and promptly get off at the next exit, turn around and go back to get the ammunition still sitting on the work bench… sigh…


Make the rendezvous with 5 minutes to spare, transfer the load to the Suburban we’re taking, and off we go to pick up the other two guys. We get to the first house, both guys are sitting on the front porch, with the Lincoln loaded with gear-


Now I find out, oh by the way, the golf cum dove shoot has now turned into a family affair with a ‘lunch’ down at the farm, so now we have to take two SUV’s to carry all the crap required…

Oh joy… So off we go, with our mini-caravan heading down I-95 to the golf course, only to have the other SUV call and say they have to stop for gas! Something about the wife’s extended shopping trip yesterday…


Finally get to the golf course and we have 10 minutes to make our tee time- so we jump through our asses, get up to the first tee, and find out the fourth member of the group didn’t bring any golf balls… This is just getting better and better…

Suffice to say, we played a round of flog- not golf. Now on to the Dove shoot! But first, we stop an pick up a bushel of crabs for lunch. Just as we get through paying and load them up, ANOTHER phone call- I-95 is at a dead stop, so the women have decided NOT to come, they are turning around and going shopping; and oh by the way, save some crabs and bring them home for the us and the kids…


Now mind you, I was told this was just a “little ol place down close to the river,” so as we drive in down a country road, to a country lane to a dirt trail, I’m expecting maybe an old cabin, or maybe a trailer stuck on the property.


Nah… this is the Taj Mahal of little ol places… Two story steel building, built out with an upstairs bunkroom, downstairs game room, living room and full kitchen!!! 20 acres of cleared land, shooting platform with skeet throwers, golf driving area, little pond with Koi in it, etc..

Since there are crabs to be eaten, that is first on the priority list, as people get full, the action moved out to the skeet area. I dug out my trusty old Mossy 590A1 18 inch barrel, no choke black shotgun with ghost ring sights, and promptly get laughed at- “You’re not REALLY gonna use that are ya?”

Unless you want to loan me yours, damn right I’m gonna use it! (not like I have a lot of choices here). So one of the guys throws a few birds for me, and I actually hit 2 of 4- (blind hog here- stepped on the acorn)

With a couple of hours to go before any serious dove arrivals, we drug a few other toys out of various gun bags …

Since I happened to have my M-4 along, I put a few down range to check the sights. I was pretty happy with this at 100 yards!

After various and sundry guns had been fired, one idiot dove flew right across in front of the skeet thrower- The poor guy on line tried to change in mid-stream from clay bird to dove, with the expected results… He missed everything, and of course we didn’t let him forget it!


We proceeded to get on line as we had planned, everyone in agreement on sight line, etc… I took my trusty 590 and trudged to the far end of the field (new guy walks the furthest to the worst position). I plopped down on a comfortable stump, rigged up and donned the old hardhat- Why you ask? Well, years of bird hunting in Texas taught me there is ALWAYS one sumbitch that cannot follow rules… He will chase a bird through his zone, the next guys and three counties over to get a shot! While the pellets just sting a little, they are an obnoxious interference when I’m trying to scan for doves.


I start hearing a few shots and see birds in the distance, but none down my way… Suddenly, I see one coming and jinking like he’s got an ME109 on his tail- I come up and shot- feathers- bird is still hauling ass… dammit…


Now I’m really paying attention- One comes out of the tree line high, shot- feathers-and now it dives for the deck and jinks like hell, out of my sight line… 0 for 2 sigh…


Ahhh- here comes another high boy- he’s not jinking… maybe… shot- MORE damn feathers… and he is almost into the treeline, when he falls… FINALLY, 1 for 3


I go pick him up and bag him, and start walking back to my stump when I hear the rattle of spent shot hitting the ground, so I just hunch up and keep walking. Somebody got a little excited I guess.


I plop back down on my stump, and go back to scanning, here comes one out of the treeline, about 10 feet up, I draw a bead, shot- ‘A’ feather- away he goes and the next guy knocks him down as shot rains down again. 1 for 4, that’s IT; I’ve had enough fun and it’s obvious the old 590 just isn’t working out here…


So up the hill I trudge, collecting doves on the way, and finally get up to the Taj… The host wants to know if I want to borrow his son’s 20ga, but I pass. I’d rather sit in the air conditioning and watch golf!


We hear shot rain down on the roof of the cabin, and look out, sure enough, the first guy is 40 degrees beyond his sight line, damn near turned completely around! The host goes out mumbling about car windshields and other things and takes care of the problem.


The others finally come in, we had about 24 doves total, probably 100 rounds fired, so I don’t feel so bad now 🙂 We donated the doves breasts to the little church lady down the road, and off we went for DC.


We finally got back about 9pm, unloaded and the guys got gnawed on by the wives for being ‘late’ with the dinner as I stole out the door and headed back to my place. I pulled in, unloaded the car and realized I was a little hungry, since I had only eaten four crabs all day.

Of course, there were no leftovers, I didn’t want to cook, so the default was a peanut butter sandwich…


Oh the highs and lows of it all…. 🙂

Random Stuff…

Posted on by March 6, 2013

Diamondback Rattler Found at Edwards Air Force base- Don’t ya know that sucker would feed a family of four, or give you 32 hat bands…
What is going on in this Country????

By Associated Press 1 hour ago

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – An elementary school has banned tag on its playground after some children complained they were harassed or chased against their will.”It causes a lot of conflict on the playground,” said Cindy Fesgen, assistant principal of the Discovery Canyon Campus school.Running games are still allowed as long as students don’t chase each other, she said.Fesgen said two parents complained to her about the ban but most parents and children didn’t object.In 2005, two elementary schools in the nearby Falcon School District did away with tag and similar games in favor of alternatives with less physical contact. School officials said the move encouraged more students to play games and helped reduce playground squabbles.

Where the hell are we going???? How far are they going to take this PC crap????
ARGGGHHH!!!!
A little humor- How to give a cat and a dog a pill an oldie but a goody….
1. Pick cat up and cradle in the crook of your left arm as though holding a baby. Position right forefinger and thumb on either side of cat’s mouth. Gently apply pressure while holding pill in right hand. As cat opens mouth insert pill. Allow cat to close mouth and swallow.
2. Retrieve pill from floor and cat from behind sofa. Cradle cat as described above. Repeat process.
3. Retrieve cat from bedroom. Throw sodden pill away.
4. Take new pill from foil wrap, cradle cat (see above) Hold rear paws tightly with left hand. Force jaws open. Insert pill and force to back of throat. Hold mouth shut for ten seconds.
5. Retrieve pill from goldfish bowl and cat from top of wardrobe. Call spouse from garden.
6. Kneel on floor with cat wedged firmly between knees, holding cat’s front and rear paws. Ignore low growls. Ask spouse to hold cat’s head firmly with one hand while forcing wooden ruler into mouth. Drop pill down ruler while vigorously stroking cat’s throat.
7. Retrieve cat from curtain rail. Unwrap foil from another pill. Make note to buy new ruler and curtains. Carefully sweep shattered figurine from hearth and set aside for possible repair later.
8. Wrap cat in large towel. Have spouse lie on cat with its head just visible from below spouse’s armpit. Put pill in end of drinking straw. Force cat’s mouth open with pencil and blow down drinking straw.
9. Check label to make sure pill is not harmful to humans. Drink glass of water to remove taste. Apply band-aid to spouse’s forearm. Remove blood from carpet with cold water and soap.
10. Retrieve cat from neighbor’s shed. Get another pill. Place cat in cupboard and close door on neck leaving only the head showing. Force mouth open with dessert spoon. Flick pill down throat with elastic band.
11. Fetch screwdriver from garage and put cabinet door back on hinges. Apply cold compress to cheek. Check records for last tetanus shot. Throw T-shirt away and fetch new one from bedroom.
12. Phone fire department to retrieve cat from tree across the street. Apologize to neighbor who crashed into fence while swerving to avoid cat. Take last pill from foil wrap.
13. Tie cat’s front paws to rear paws with heavy garden twine. Bind tightly to leg of dining table. Find heavy duty pruning gloves in garage. Force cat’s mouth open with small spanner. Push pill into mouth, followed immediately with large piece of prime steak. Hold head vertically and pour one pint of water down throat to wash down pill. 14. Get spouse to drive you to emergency room. Sit quietly as doctor stitches fingers and forearm and removes pill remnants from right eye. Stop by furniture store on way home to order new table.
15. Arrange for vet to make house call.
To give a dog a pill, place pill in palm of hand, allow dog to lick palm… DONE!

Leaders and Leadership

Posted on by March 6, 2013

What is leadership? What does it mean? Who do you consider a leader?

lead·er·ship (lē‘dər-shĭp’) n.

1. The process of leading.

2. Those entities that perform one or more acts of leading.

3. The ability to affect human behavior so as to accomplish a mission designated by the leader.

These three definitions are the generic definition.

1. The position or office of a leader: ascended to the leadership of the party.

2. Capacity or ability to lead: showed strong leadership during her first term in office.

3. A group of leaders: met with the leadership of the nation’s top unions.

4. Guidance; direction: The business prospered under the leadership of the new president.

These four interestingly enough revolve around politics and business.

152,000,000 hits on Google for leadership- in other words LOTS of words on leadership…

I’m going with ‘my’ take on leadership here-

A leader is one who sets the positive example. I think there are three legs professionalism, integrity, and honesty that are the basis for a good leader. The good leader knows when they accept the authority; they also accept the responsibility and the accountability of being a leader.

They may be a janitor or a General, but if they set the example, show the people who work for them that they are not afraid to get their hands dirty, willingly give credit, and shoulder blame when things go wrong; people will cheerfully follow them. These people also will make a decision; they do not hesitate to do what is necessary given any particular situation. They also have no problems admitting they did something wrong.

On the other hand, I do believe the POWER of a position or office makes people think they are leaders, when in reality they are nothing but abusers of power. They are normally the ones who take credit for anything new or important, never make a decision that can be tied to them; shirking the responsibility by pawning failure off on subordinates. Ironically, some of these people go VERY far, because they simply do not care about anything but more power and more prestige. Since these people tend to climb the ladder by jumping organization to organization, the new bosses very seldom find out about the people the climber has abused on the way up or their inability to make decisions.

In the military, Fire/Rescue and Law Enforcement leaders and leadership take on a different perspective. This is because of the potential for life and death situations; including the requirement to make decisions on the fly. Having said this, I will admit I have seen bad leaders in the military and friends have given me many examples of bad leadership in both the Fire Service and Law Enforcement.

Bureaucracies on the other hand, fear real leaders. They want to stay in their little niche, don’t rock the boat, get promoted and never make a decision… I think bureaucracies are perfect examples of the Peter Principal in action. I also think they tend to be very petty, self serving, and will go out of their way to penalize those who push a bureaucrat out of his/her little comfort zone.

Where am I going with this?

Well, I’m getting worried about America- I do not see the younger generation coming up with any real leaders. I see a lot of power hungry people, who will do anything to get more money, play every card they can to advance, and don’t care about how they treat others. When I talk to the young Sailors and Marines I come in contact with, that is a recurring theme… The military is the FIRST time they have ever had responsibility AND accountability.

I also see political correctness stifling leaders. You cannot promote a leader today without checking to see if the right numbers of whatever flavor of HR mandates and/or quotas has been met. If you don’t, you sure as hell will get sued by somebody…

I don’t see John Q. Public standing up and demanding accountability from the current leadership and ANY level… Many of the blogs I read have repeated themes of abusers of this or that system, with no leader stepping forward to make people accountable for their actions.

I’m not even going to get into the lawsuits, ACLU, and the rest of that mess…

We are at war TODAY with terrorism. It is not a country, it is individuals and organizations who flow from country to country. The stated goal is death to America, they will not negotiate, other than to gain time; they will not be ‘redeemed’ by faith; they will not quit until either we are dead or they are…

What I would ask each of you to do is to look at who you believe to be leaders, people YOU would follow, and vote them into office in 2008. Don’t believe the sound bites, really look into the candidates backgrounds and abilities.

If we don’t, I’m really afraid we will see terrorism here on a scale unlike anything the US has ever seen. Believe me, you do NOT want that to happen…

If you made it this far, thanks for taking the time to read this 🙂

Pilots will like this one… (Correction)

Posted on by March 6, 2013

My bad- I didn’t backcheck the origin of the video.

This is an interesting little video clip shot from a T-44 with an F-16 HUD doing a night approach into Aspen, CO using FLIR (Forward Looking InfaRed). What you are seeing is a split image, on the left side of the screen is the FLIR shot, on the right is the actual night visibility. Sit back and enjoy!

It’s HOT…

Posted on by March 6, 2013

Well, the Beltway is melting today… It was 95 degrees at 1000 when we teed off this morning and it only got worse. By the 9th hole, it was 97, and when we finished at 1400, it was 99. Of course this is not ‘really’ hot, but the humidity is sitting on 60%, which makes for a nice sauna.

Three of us old farts played with a young gorilla (all shoulders, no waist) today, and he did something I have never seen. He it a drive and literally buried it in the side of an Oak tree about 60 yards off the tee box! Now granted, the ball hit a spot that was obviously a little rotten, but in 35 years of golf, I have never seen anything like that. Of course, we made him play it where it lay…

So I go to the range to try to cool off… Boy did I ever… You win Scully, you’re a better shot than I am!

But I still like my BHP– so there…

Anybody out there ever read S. M. Stirling? I’m reading one of his books called Dies the Fire, and it has some interesting twists including an EMP that also makes gunpowder unusable.

It’s interesting to note how much Mother Teresa still affects us today. I have seen a number of blogs commenting on her just released letters and how she questioned her faith. It was also interesting to note how many blogs admitted they too have questions about their faith. I think all of us do, but it takes someone like her admitting it to prompt us to open up about our own fears…

I think one reason we do open up, is the relative anonymity of the blog sphere; out here, for the most part, no one ‘really’ knows who you are. You can blabber away and never really face any repercussions like you would among friends and family, or worry about someone going it to work and saying, “Did you hear what (your name here) said?”

Now having said that… There is also a significant downside out here- I know what I mean when I type something. To me it may be perfectly innocuous, but to someone else, filtered through their eyes and lives, it can be everything from irritable to viscious depending on how they interpret it.

Also there are trolls, probably as bad or worse than on most of the forums. A troll can be bounced pretty easily from a forum, but out here, it’s not that easy as AD points out in his post On Courtesy I often wondered is it envy, do we have something they don’t? Is it fear, that they might be seen as less than us? Or is it just that they want to stir shit up? I dunno…

Ah well… I’m gonna go soak my head and get ready to be stoopid again tomorrow and go to the rifle range…