Law of Unintended Consequences and F-35 H8ers.

Hillarity ensues.

My apologies for not posting more, but I’m swamped with higher priorities and will continue to be for a while yet. There’s been a lot going on that I’d like to really get into the weeds on with some in depth posts. Those can sit for a bit without harm and I notice the internet seems to do just fine with most of the ‘news’ without me having to add my 2 cents worth. It does seem others often have things covered pretty well.

But here’s a little story breaking that I haven’t seen anyone pick up on yet….and it is just too delightful to let lay unnoticed and unloved.

Flashback to the A-10 Fanbois Faction whining up a delay in the A-10 ramp-down to retirement.

Then remember how the AF bluntly stated this delay will impact the F-35 by hindering the training-up of the maintenance force. (Those bodies gotta’ come from somewhere, y’ know.)

Recall how there’s a whole bowl of granola (what ain’t ‘flakes’ is ‘fruits and nuts’) trying to ‘stop’ the Vermont National Guard “Green Mountain Boys” from transitioning from the F-16 to the F-35. That Sprey-hosting crowd is currently pursuing a lawsuit that has so far soundly lost every court challenge, but they keep appealing their ‘lost’ cause. They even snookered a local city into helping subsidize their antics and they just asked for and received even MORE ‘joe public’ money. (How do most of the citizens feel about that ongoing rent-seeking, eh?

Enter last week’s unsurprising announcement that the F-35 will be based at Eielson AFB (well OK, many Canadians were probably shocked because they’ve been told for years that the F-35--or any single engine fighter--isn’t any good at operating over vast expanses of cold nothingness). Buried on metaphorical Page 2 of that Eielson announcement has the AF accelerating the deployment of F-35s to the Green Mountain Boys at their Burlington VT ANG base.
 
This, as you can imagine has the ‘Stop the F-35’ snowflakes in a very unhappy place.

So why is the AF accelerating the F-35 basing in VT?

“The accelerated timeline is intended to help the Air Force address a shortage of active-duty fighter aircraft maintenance workers, officials said.” (link)

Like I said, the bodies have to come from somewhere.

If the AF can’t transition the A-10s out of the fleet at the needed rate, that pretty much leaves the F-16’s having to speed up their conversion pace to make up for it.

Bottom Line: 'A-10-forever' Anti-JSF faction has hosed a 'NIMBY luddite' Anti-JSF faction.

Sweeeeeeeeeet.

BTW: The Green Mountain boys don’t fly out of a backwater grass strip in some idyllic mountain meadow. They fly out of the very nice and relatively busy Burlington Int’l Airport, where jetliners fly in and out with far greater frequency than the ANG does it's F-16s and soon to be F-35s.

'That's All Brother' Update

Like most stories that come out in the mainstream media, they seem to never come out with all the important details just right. I'm following the 'That's All Brother' saga as it unfolds, and in the wake of the CAF's VERY successful 'Kickstarter' campaign, some more pieces of the backstory surrounding the rediscovery of this historic C-47 are coming to light.

Now, according to this article-- which also mentions 'That's All Brother' will be on static display at the EAA's annual Oshkosh fly-in, the aircraft company that 'found' the plane in it's turboprop conversion queue, didn't just 'find' it . 'That's All Brother' had been tracked by an individual who served in the same unit after the pilot of 'That's All Brother' in postwar service and it was this gentleman-- an Air National Guard 'boomer'--in addition to the conscientious crew at Basler Turbo Conversions was instrumental in making the right people aware through personal perseverance:

Matt Scales was serving in an Alabama Air National Guard unit when he learned one of his unit's former members — Donalson, who died in 1987 — had flown the lead plane in the D-Day invasion. In 2007 Scales tracked down the unit Donalson served in during the war and searched the unit's history. He figured it would end there because most military historians didn't bother to record tail numbers.
But Scales and fellow military historian Ken Tilley hit the jackpot. Donalson's unit historian wrote down his D-Day plane's tail number: 42-92847. On a lark, Scales looked up the tail number in the FAA's database and got a hit. It was privately owned by a man in Arizona who was excited to learn his plane had flown on D-Day.
Scales, again, figured that was the end of it. He continued working as a boom operator in an air refueling wing and as a police officer in Alabama. Three years later he decided to check the database again and learned that by then the plane had been purchased by Basler Turbo Conversions in Oshkosh, which repurposes old DC-3 and C-47 planes into modern aircraft.
Randy Myers, director of production and engineering at Basler, had seen "That's All, Brother" with its Vietnam gunship paint parked at the airport in Waupaca years ago and made an offer to the Arizona man. Myers wouldn't learn of the D-Day connection until much later.
Once Scales realized it was at Basler, he contacted museums and aviation preservation groups to see if any were interested in saving the aircraft that led the D-Day invasion. None were, and Scales figured his quest had finally come to a dead end.
But last year a blogger mentioned the combat history of the C-47 parked in the boneyard behind Basler. Smith, of the Commemorative Air Force, thought his group was the perfect fit to save it. It exchanged a C-47 in its collection for "That's All, Brother" and began fundraising for the restoration.

There's lot's more of the story at the source.

Scales' enquiries and efforts are what spread awareness of the artifact and its location. And though no group responded to his personal efforts directly, it was those efforts that allowed the chain of events to unfold as they did.

Note: I wonder how much of this was also serendipitous. Scales served in the Alabama ANG, Were the resources that Scales needed to get the right tail number perhaps more readily available at Maxwell AFB, home of the Air University, in Montgomery?

    

Better Things Happen When America Has the Brains to Elect Strong Leaders

28 Years Ago Today: "Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall" 

When we don't elect wisely, we seem to experience an inordinate amount of  'bad luck'.

There's Legal Analysis, and then there's REAL Analysis

I usually enjoy Eugene Volokh's stuff. Though his move to the WP was disconcerting, I got over it.

But Volokh has a BIG swing and a miss in describing a 'growing' rationale for an argument that the Supreme Court should revist/reverse previous court opinions and enforce Interstate Sales Tax collection the way the greedy little state and local politicos/taxmen WANT it enforced.

The ' rationale' goes like this:

This argument has grown stronger, and the cause more urgent, with time. When the Court decided Quill, mail-order sales in the United States totaled $180 billion. 504 U.S., at 329 (White, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part). But in 1992, the Internet was in its infancy. By 2008, e-commerce sales alone totaled $3.16 trillion per year in the United States.

Sorry, those are RAW numbers. What does the trend look like factoring the overall economic environment.  I'm  assuming internet sales have supplanted most catalog sales:  a pretty safe assumption I believe.  And even if it's not, if someone can compare them directly across the timeline--well then! So can I.

Here's those two numbers Volokh used, lined up against GDP figures for private and government consumption and investment:

Correction: I had fat-fingered $3.16T as $3.6T , Heh. Now my point is even 'Truer'

The big number for 2008 compared to the little number in 1992 overstates the growth in interstate sales. Complaints about 'missing revenues' from politicians reeks of unwillingness to compete, and worse a certain sense of entitlement to other people's dollars--no matter what the source--to feed the allmighty 'state'.

A rising tide lifts all boats

As the 'Barf Box' at the bottom of the chart indicates, NO ONE ever seems to ever ask the question as to what entities receiving all that internet revenue spend it on -and where? I would normally presume states with the better internet-friendly tax laws would benefit most and the local governments would be happy about it. But I realize we're dealing with people whose lives are often immune to the direct effects of the real economy, and I think more than a few resent the denial of an "opportunity for graft".

And I'm not buying any argument that the Local and State governments NEED those taxes on internet revenues: All hail the rise of the "Social Spending-Entitlement-Complex...

  State and local government is THE 'Growth Sector' of government. 

When the data is on your side, argue the data....

Sorry Eugene.

Lt General Bogdan: F-35 Noise “Good to Go”

F-35 No More Noisier Than Other Fighters the VANG Has Flown

Hat Tip Spazinbad @ F-16.net

In fact, the F-35 will very often be quieter taking off than the F-16s it is replacing because afterburners will not be required for the F-35 under more weight, operational, and environmental (density altitudes) conditions than the F-16.

From AF Magazine's website (Google cached) :

F-35 Noise “Good to Go”
—John A. Tirpak  10/31/2014 

Studies of F-35 noise relative to legacy fighters will be released Friday, and will show that “on the ground, at full military power,” which is full power without afterburner, the F-35 is “actually quieter, by a little bit” than legacy aircraft such as the F-15, F/A-18, and F-16, F-35 Program Executive Officer Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan said Thursday... 

...This “real noise data” should dispel rumors that the F-35 will be much louder than its predecessors. Part of the reason is that the F-35 is “very sleek in its outer mold line, without a lot of drag,” Bogdan said. Using afterburner, however, the F-35 is considerably noisier than its predecessors, as it generates 43,000 pounds of thrust. Its noise will be on a par with the old F-4 Phantom, Bogdan reported. Although its character is different, the F-4 noise is deeper than that of the F-35, he said.

That's Great News!  

The F-4 started flying out of the Burlington VT  airfield in 1982 (preceded by Canberras, Delta Daggers, Scorpions, and Starfires) and were replaced by the F-16s in 1986. That makes the F-35 the quietest jet since 1981 to operate out of Burlington. To help the 'Stop the F-35 in Vermont' crowd (website and Facebook no less!) disseminate this awesome good news faster, I've created the following graphics to drive the good news 'home':

The F-35 has a lot shorter takeoff roll than the Phantom, so it will get to higher altitude than the Phantom before getting to  the end of the runway. I also see this phenomenon regularly at Carswell JRB compared to  the JRB's F-16s and F-18s.   

When the F-35 takes off out of Carswell, only the deeper note, and the fact that the sound does not linger tells 'your ears' that an F-35 is taking off instead of an F-16 or F-18

At Burlington's 335 ft altitude and 44°28′19″N latitude, the F-35 won't need afterburner as much as the aircraft that came before it. 

 What This Means 

Overall, the residents of Winooski can expect to be more annoyed (noise times the number of airfield operations) by the airliners currently operating out of the Burlington VT airport. Just like 'now'.

Soooooo... 

When the next "bioregional decentralist", "writer/satirist" and/or "delicate flower of Yankee womanhood with a profound lack of respect for authority" starts 'going off' about the Green Mountain Boys'  new F-35s, just tell 'em:

Also, because there is NO  'Divine Right to Stagnate' (but we won't get into that).  

Update 2 November: The 'noise report' summary is now  out:

If you were too lazy to look at the notes, the blue background data is 'old' data, the white background data is 'new' data.

Looks like I'll need to do another chart for 'Approach and Go' (airfield pattern work). In the interim. an 'artist's concept' of what a 'Stop the F-35; reaction might look like:

I suppose 'some' might think I'm being a little hard on what they see as good  'civic minded citizens'. If so, that 'some' obviously never really looked at the drivel the Stop the F-35 Vermont website and Facebook page proffer. Socialists, Luddites, Aging Hippies, NIMBYers, and Opportunists --all on a bus to 'Nowheresville' man! AKA 'Rabble meets Rousers'. 

An Object Lesson in the Utility of High Capacity Magazine Weapons in Self-Defense

Hat Tip Instapundit.

The proof is in how TODAY a woman came to be disarmed after firing her revolver six times at an attacker, hitting him five times. She decided she had to flee before the attacker figured out she was out of ammunition.

The incident happened at a home on Henderson Ridge Lane in Loganville around 1 p.m. The woman was working in an upstairs office when she spotted a strange man outside a window, according to Walton County Sheriff Joe Chapman. He said she took her 9-year-old twins to a crawlspace before the man broke in using a crowbar.

But the man eventually found the family.

"The perpetrator opens that door. Of course, at that time he's staring at her, her two children and a .38 revolver,"

Read how it all went down here.

What if she had stayed in the house?

It would have been a race against time if she had stayed: would he have realized the chambers were empty before he lost consciousness if she had stayed instead of running to a neighbor's house?
She shot the intruder with a .38 caliber revolver (example of common type) . Since 4 if the 5 hits had exit wounds, I'd guess they were shot at close range and/or were +P ammunition.

What if there had been two or more intruders?

She would have been out of luck, ammunition, and ideas.

This is also a lesser object lesson in  management of ammo consumption. Something extremely difficult to do unless you consciously train for it in the long term, and unless you are one cold-blooded sociopath, adrenaline will probably overwrite the training the first time you need it.

Bottom Line:

In a firefight, no one EVER wished they had fewer rounds of ammunition.

Another Mil-Spec AR-15 Build Project: This One Was a Gift

Obviously. I'm Glad I Did it WHEN I Did It.

JD Machine Stripped Lower from SOG Armory
CMMG Lower Parts Kit
M4 Spec Adjustable Stock
DPMS 5.56 16" A3 Upper w/ 9:1 twist, standard front sight/gas block and Flash Suppressor
MBUS Gen II folding rear sight.

Just Before  Gen II rear Sight Came in the Mail

As much cr*p as I've read over the years about DPMS fitment and quality, I've found their 'uppers' very much a 'good value', and they sit very well on JD Machine lowers.

BTW: I've updated mine a bit since IOC was achieved:

 Additions: Magpul 'MOE' stock, ambidextrous safety and charging handle, and LED light.

The LED light I can operate with my right thumb while aiming and illuminating varmint of the two or four legged variety at a pretty good distance without washing out the green laser.

Gun Control

As chance would have it, yesterday was my Texas Concealed Handgun Law training course and qualification.  Two nights before, I was studying the latest Texas CHL manual online, and wincing as I went over the parts that delineated the 'gun free zone' areas, and thinking, in the wake of the Oregon mall shooting, in most cases it is pretty stupid to create what is actually a 'target rich environment' zone for the sick and twisted who would try and commit mass killing of innocent others.
While the rest of my family spent the day trying to avoid all the 'news' and constant revision thereof, concerning the elementary school killings that happened the day before, one of the first things we covered was WHY Texas was a CHL  'shall issue' state. Surprise! It was largely the result of  a mass killing, the Luby's Cafeteria Massacre on October 16, 1991, in Killeen, Texas, and the efforts of one of the survivors, Suzanna Gratia Hupp. Ms. Hupp's story and energy in making the laws more protective of the individual was a powerful weapon. Her testimony before Congress even managed to subdue the perennially pompous a** Chuck Schumer for a time:

Time will tell if Chuckie starts bloviating again as if the above never happened.

This was my Target and Scoring Used

Texas uses the B-27 target for qualification:

This is the Course of Fire:

Stage 1: Twenty shots (20) will be fired from 3 yards.
A. Five (5) shots fired in a “One Shot Exercise” 2 seconds allowed.
B. Ten shots (10) fired in a “Two Shot Exercise” 3 seconds allowed.
C. Five (5) shots fired in 10 seconds

Stage 2: Twenty shots (20) will be fired from 7 yards – fired 5 stages.
A. Five (5) shots will be fired in 10 seconds
B. Five (5) shots will be fired in 2 stages:
  1. Two (2) shots will be fired in 4 seconds
  2. Three (3) shots will be fired in 6 seconds
C. Five (5) shots fired in a “One Shot Exercise” 3 seconds allowed.
D. Five (5) shots fired in 15 seconds.

Stage 3: Ten shots (10) fired from 15 yards – fired in two 5-shot strings.
A. Five (5) shots fired in two stages:
   1. Two (2) shots fired in 6 seconds.
   2. Three (3) shots fired in 9 seconds.
B. Five (5) shots fired in 15 seconds.

This was my 'grouping':

IMHO, not bad, especially since the 50 rounds represent about a fifth of all the rounds I've put downrange with this weapon. I've decided it shoots a 'tidge to the right and will be adjusting the sight appropriately.

This was my 'score':

Texas only records Pass/Fail. The 249 out of 250 only serves to make this shooter cry in his beer. 'Dang! So close...'.  I took comfort in acing the written though.

The above is an example of  'Gun Control'

BTW, Have you heard? Evidently the Oregon Mall shooter only shot two people before he took his own life BECAUSE he was confronted by a person licensed to 'concealed carry'. 

 

Memorializing Memorial Day

For those who "have fought the good fight" you will find us....

Flying the Flag....

Remembering the Fallen....

Honoring our Dead....

Vote Republican! It's like doubling your car mileage!

That should be a 2012 campaign slogan for the GOP. (Update Below)

I went down  to the Gulf coast and back yesterday for a memorial Mass and burial of my Aunt who was also my Godmother. That meant a lot of time on the road to think of many things related to the trip and life in general.

It also took two refills of the gas tank. On the second tank, it hit me that this trip would have been less than half the cost (~$50 instead of over $100) if President Obama's energy policies had never existed or if they are reversed. I don't care what his motives are, but the end result was the same.

From a consumer $ point of view, it's the same today as if my car was only getting 11-12 mpg in 2007.

From ThePeoplesCube

My line of thought was undoubtedly fed by conversations with relatives after the burial ceremony, three of whom have jobs with the oil and gas industry and another looking to get into the business.

P.S. In case someone is so inclined: Spare us the 'Peak Oil' BS.
Even so-called 'Ecologists' unreasonably fear the long term availability of oil.  Other energy sources will make sense when oil REALLY (vs. artificially) gets scarce. What scares 'Ecos' (smarter ones anyway) even more is the possibility that Western assumptions underlying oil production may not be correct.  Yet another science that is unsettled.

Update 5 May 12 for a commenter.

An Investor's Business Daily article briefly summing up the most cogent points here.

A nice graphic illustrating much of same from the Senate GOP:

If there is an unsupported assertion in these sources, prove it.

No 'Fox News' involved. I just ordered Jonah Goldberg's new book The Tyranny of Cliches . While  attempting to disparage information on the presumption that it comes from a certain source is Circumstantial Ad Hominem , the continued use of the logical fallacy should be considered rising to the 'Cliche' level. --I wonder if the 'Fox News' cliche made it into Goldberg's book?

Footnote:  I'm not against careful use of cliches. Truth told too often can become cliche as well as falsehoods. They serve as a convenient shorthand in discussions as long as those discussions do not involve an argument. But one discovers over time that while a 'true' cliche can be adequately supported by additional explanation and detail, a falsehood hiding in a cliche will be destroyed by same.  

Functional AR Project: IOC Achieved

The hunting optics arrived today, so the Varminter/Pig Sticker is fully operational.
Took a little less than 7 months to build. Most of the time spent either deciding what I wanted, or finding wanted parts available, or waiting for parts.  With the Magpul rail covers and three point set up this way, I like the way this setup works so I've decided to forgo the forward grip for now.

Since I've discovered that an AR is never 'finished', I'm taking the opportunity to declare it 'baselined' and achieved IOC status.

New scope: AIM 2.5-10x40 with red/green illuminated reticle and green laser. Surprisingly well made, especially for the price at Combat Optical.

Model 1894 Swedish Mauser Project

Resurrection NOT Restoration

I've pretty much completed the AR project. That is to say, it is about as 'complete' as I can ever call it same (except for optics -maybe next week). This means I've got time to start resurrecting Grandma's elk rifle: a 1906 issue of the M94 Swedish Mauser Carbine. I decided to get all the hardware in hand before I specify a 'sporter' stock for it because I didn't want to lay out the cash for what I wanted, only to find out I didn't have a working action to put in it.

Untouched... since about 1960 

The rifle has not been updated since Granddad built it around 1960, when Mausers were like AK clones are today. Yesterday I received in the mail a new (really!) trigger guard with catch release and a new (really!) floor plate that I ordered last week. I'm pretty sure they are from later Swede models as they are interchangeable among the 'small ring' Mausers and the later models are more available, but they are 'new' -- the floorplate was still in preservative from sometime before the 1940s. Markings for the new parts are also appropriate for a Swede, but as you see in the photo below, I had to give up hope of maintaining matching numbers because Granddad ground down the part of the trigger guard with the floorplate latch and serial number on it when he cut down the magazine walls. I acquired the floorplate in case I needed it, but I will be able to keep the original

Close examination, reflections on my late-Father's stories about the weapon and my knowledge of Granddad tells me that he probably never had the original rifle - just the complete action. An ultimately pragmatic man, I doubt cutting down a rifle by sectioning the 'lower' and the trigger would have occurred to Granddad if it had come with usable furniture.  I suspect the stock that was on it when I was given the rifle began life as a stock for a .22 caliber rifle that he already had in hand. Add the fact that he was building it for Grandma, a petite woman, and the mix of factors probably triggered the idea in him to cut it down.

The Family and the Swede

This rifle was built 'as is' for one thing: So a small woman could lug a high power rifle all over Eastern Oregon to take Wapiti. Granddad was also on the smaller side, so I think that's why it became his favorite over time as well. It was always referred to as "Grandma's Elk Gun", but Granddad probably used it more by virtue of the fact he went hunting quite a bit without Grandma and Grandma never went hunting without him. It was hunted with almost every year for twenty-five years, and it took elk (usually two or more) more years than not-- and Mule Deer from time to time as well. Upon Granddad's death (at 91 in 1991), his rifle passed to my Father, who passed it to me. I took it hunting once about three years ago, but didn't see anything suitable for taking.

The Swede's Needs

Taking the Swede into the field did give me some insight into what I might have to do to make it a solid hunting rifle again, and one that was perhaps tailored to Texas hunting conditions. First, the Swede shoots flatter than my .30-06 out to at least 200 yds and I suspect farther.  I found out that the original scope simply did not have enough light gathering capability, so a new one will be in order. Practice firing it immediately told me the gun was too powerful for the stock. Though it has an excellent (and substantial) recoil pad, my first thought after shooting it just once was: "Dang! I thought Grandpa liked Grandma!"

The 6.5 x 55 is a lot of round to mount on an itty-bitty stock. It fits in nicely in a crowd of larger calibers. The round puts lots of powder behind a long narrow projectile spun up to high stability .

Source: Wikipedia

The 6.5 x 55 Swedish is second from the right in the picture above, between the .308 (far right) and the 8 x 57 Mauser (third from right)

Baby Steps Ahead

After test fitting the 'new' lower and 'old' floorplate, and keeping the same follower and follower spring, last night I ordered new fore and aft guard screws (old ones were 'cut down') and a new military trigger. I really like the standard two stage trigger of the Swede and as long as the mechanism behind the lever is sturdy (it is) I see no reason to go to an aftermarket trigger. After I get these parts I'll decide upon a low-profile safety: the current one is an original modified 50+ years ago by Granddad to 'work around' a scope and it looks like it needs more metal to keep it from cracking off at the wrong time and I already don't like the way it feels now.

No 'Bubbas' in These Parts

Granddad was an outdoorsman his whole life, and we were raised with the now somewhat quaint idea that firearms were weapons and 'weapons = tools' --- Tools that were to be used and not merely conversation pieces fondled every so often. In preparing to resurrect the family treasure (for that is all it will ever be -- Granddad engraved "Mc" on the receiver and barrel) I did enough research to discover there is a whole corner of the virtual world filled with keyboard commandos who denigrate anyone who builds a Mauser, especially the rarer of the type such as the 1894 Swede, in any other configuration than 'restored'. They often refer to treatment of weapons in other than their 'approved' manner as being 'Bubba'd". 

They can pound sand.

If they believe vintage Mausers should be restored perhaps they should buy them all and restore the weapons themselves. Their opinions of what others do with their property is of no consequence. This rifle was, IMHO not a prime example of type when Granddad probably rescued it from the scrap pile. It has now been a functional no-frills hunting rifle most of its life. THAT is the heritage of this weapon that I intend to faithfully honor. (Well, maybe a 'frill' or two).


        

File under: “For He So Loved the World”

Sustained by Faith...

This is totally ripped off from my favorite Photostream and posted here because it deserves better commentary (which would include ‘none’) than the comment it got out right out of the gate from some crass 'Putz' at the source.   (original size)

Happy Easter to all

Nature Fakers (Enviros)

They've been around longer than most people realize.
I was just telling someone this week why, as a lifelong Conservationist, I hate Nature-Faking  'Environmentalism'. In the future, I'll just refer them to the link.

Merry Christmas To All GIs Everywhere

(Bumped: Originally posted Christmas Eve 2007 & time hasn't changed a thing)

Just after Thanksgiving every year I start thinking about how Christmas in the military can be a little different than the average American’s. Maybe it is because when you join up, you gain another family to think about: and you think about them every year, whether we’re at war or at peace.
I get particularly sappy about it I guess, because I worked my first 10 Christmas Eves and Days.
My first Christmas Eve with my new family was when I was still in Basic Training. We were far enough along in the program that on “non-training” days we had some liberty in the immediate area of our WWII-era barracks (only the wusses were in the 1000-man dorms at that time ~wink). We actually built a Christmas tree of sorts, out of 7-Up and Coke cans on a picnic-type table while waiting our turn to call home from an adjacent bank of payphones. I spent my first Military Christmas Eve sitting around the aluminum can tree exchanging family Christmas traditions and stories.
My second Christmas was when I learned about “SP Augmentees”. I spent 12 hours guarding a stateside bomb dump with a brick (radio) and an empty M-16. The single guys pulled ‘the duty’ on Christmas Eve and Day so the married guys could be with their families and the married guys who “didn’t party” pulled the duty on New Year’s Eve and Day. It was a ‘win-win’ for everyone. For the next eight years it was usually the same thing. In Alaska and Iceland, the Godless Soviets liked to exercise the Air Defense Intercept Zones on holidays -- So we’d spend Christmas building, fixing, and hauling weapons to the flight line or, if we were lucky, we’d just spend all night plowing and re-plowing the road between the munitions storage and alert facilities IN CASE the Bears came to town. Now in the end we weren’t getting shot at, and we were always pretty thankful for that. But we knew it could have been different any time some world leader cleared his throat or tripped over his own feet.
The public tends to forget how close we came to Armageddon several times over the length of the Cold War, if they ever noticed at all, and the American Military is what lets them get away with such poor situational awareness and a peculiar forgetfulness. As our brothers and sisters now serving can attest, a lot of the Public doesn’t really like to think too much about how dangerous the rest of world is, and some of the less gifted in the populace actually think it isn’t that dangerous of a world at all.
Thank you to all of those now serving EVERYWHERE for joining and becoming part of the continuum: forever protecting the appreciative and the oblivious alike and without reservation. May you have a most merry and memorable Christmas with many, many, more to come.
(original photo was ABC News)

Occupy Fort Worth A Total Bust So Far

Or: 'Dude! If you are bald or gray ditch the ponytail - you're creeping out the children!
First - I'm not going to dive into the cognitive dissonance required for people to blame 'Wall Street' over the housing bubble bust  or the crap economy the last couple of years,  yet do not Grok the link between the Crony Capitalists and the Socialist-Left Democratic Party--Whom they SHOULD be blaming for most of our problems (with a relatively minor role played by the Quislings of the irritatingly clueless Republican Establishment).  I'm going to write a blurb here about the people involved in this 'Occupy' farce. A farce which I believe that when all is said and done, will be shown to have been blown all out of proportion, and someday someone will admit as having had the express purpose of furthering the Leftist subversion of America.

About 'Occupy Fort Worth'

So few people have showed up for this 'epic fail', the local newspaper was able to put a story up with pictures identifying by name what looked like a significant number of people (who weren't minors) who showed up. Article with photos here.

The cross-section was cliche. They had freshly-minted college grad 'filmmakers', angst-ridden musicians, full-bore vegans, retired 'teachers', and my favorite: Geriatric Hippies. I believe I've made it quite clear what I'm most looking forward to on the Hippie Question.

Geriatric Hippie 'Jack Smith' (If that is his real name)

(Crop of Star-Telegram/Rodger Mallison Photo. Find Original Here)

Outside enclaves of idiocy in Dallas, Houston, and most of Austin, Texas has an acute shortage of the type of people who have either the time or inclination to gather and bi*** about how unfair life is. This is true mainly because MOST people understand life IS unfair. From what I can tell of this so called 'movement' to date, it is largely populated by people who made life choices that didn't turn out as well as they thought they should have. Tough. There are some involved who ARE victims of fate, I'm sure - and creating a narrative to explain away misfortune is a human tendency and therefore understandable. Just don't expect the rest of us to buy into whatever story you built around your misfortune to cope with it. I'm more interested in being supportive of friends who are in dire straits and are working through the situation without giving up. My sympathy extends as far as your willingness to help yourself. Can't find a job where you live and there are jobs elsewhere? MOVE. Don't have the skills needed? Get them. I know people that are doing both and they're not wasting time at the park looking for handouts.

Question of the day

Here.
(The comments were great.)

Answer: Yes. Yes it is.

Full disclosure: I am of the school that the best choice is the one you are most likely to have with you.

San Antonio Sucks

Wrapping up a long weekend in San Antonio, Texas on an Anniversary getaway.I lived in San Antonio twice while growing up, including the magical 1968 when the World's Fair was here. My Mother was born and grew up here. I've been back several times over the years and this time I have to say it was the most disappointing trip ever.

It wasn't the heat (105 degrees today!), it wasn't the so-called luxury hotel on the Riverwalk (Housekeeping WAS excellent btw).--- It was the 'city': San Antonio is rotting from the inside out. Between the panhandlers at every turn (Downtown AND out at the Loop 410) and crazies (Downtown) running around, the City is a shadow of what it was. I was particularly struck by the disrepair of city parks and properties, including a late 1800's stone house built by my Great-Great-Grandfather and several other buildings on the old Hemisfair grounds. My Grandmother sold the house to the city under an Eminent Domain deal for use in the World's Fair. The bars and restaurants along the Riverwalk and in the Northwest area were great, but speaking as someone who has bought nights in hotel rooms in Washington DC, San Diego, Atlanta, Tampa, and Los Angeles in the past two years, San Antonio is waaaay too proud of their hotels. Mine didn't even have non-valet parking, and the city lot across the street gouged me for a flat rate, in advance, on my last night that will require me to leave by 0800hrs tomorrow to keep from paying even more. Add to that finding just about the highest number of A**holes per square mile that I've encountered in the State of Texas, and I am left with very little reason to come back. I used to count San Antonio among my few real 'hometowns'. No more. We enjoyed the attractions we took in and our weekend in spite of instead of because of the 'city'. Thanks for nothing San Antonio, next time I'll drop my many hundreds of $ in Fredericksburg or someplace else where it is appreciated.

Update 18 June: Back home and able to post a couple of photos. Here's Great-Great-Grandfather John Kusch's house on the old Hemisfair grounds that I refer to above. The 'city' is not a very good caretaker IMHO, so no telling when and if they decide to just tear it down after letting it go to pot, so I decided to at least preseve the memory.

The city inventory description:
John Kusch, a stonemason, is believed to have constructed this 19th century, Gothic Revival house in 1885. Its interesting features include metal-clad gable roofs with box girders and simple, eave moldings. During HemisFair, it housed the “La Fonda Santa Anita,” an elegant, urbane Mexican restaurant patterned after a similar restaurant in Mexico City...

And this is how close it is to the "Tower of the Americas":

On the Death of Evil Ones: Enemies Within and Without

H/T Michael Totten posting at Instapundit.

Being military-minded and somewhat experienced in these sort of things, I find no "joy" in Osama Bin Laden's death. I do find satisfaction and relief in the way his death was brought about, and wish my brothers-in-arms in the long continuum of those who have served, are serving, and will serve, continued safety and success in this long war against those who would bring upon us another Dark Age.
On the other hand, when this guy finally croaks (hopefully through natural causes) I'm throwing a freakin' party.

Read his opinion piece at the link. We could play either 'Logical Fallacy' or 'Delusional Leftist Meme' Bingo with his drivel.

 Noam Chomsky. Intellect not only held captive by Ideology, but Intellect perverted by Ideology. The ultimate Useful Idiot.
If you're too busy or lazy to follow the link at the top and read Totten's Yon's comment, it was a short one:

JUST ONCE I’d like to read an article by Noam Chomsky that isn’t faux brilliant in its moral and political idiocy, one that suggests he does, in fact, live in the same world as the rest of us, but he can’t even manage it after Osama bin Laden is killed

Don't hold your breath Michael..

19 Jun 12: Correction on source who was guest-blogging at Instapundit at the time. Thanks to the commenter who just pointed this out, .

Stars and Stripes Lets the Military Down… Again

S & S has a ‘Flack’ at Misawa Air Base

As if anyone need any reminding that today’s Stars and Stripes is NOT the same paper of World War II fame, here’s a list of articles that a Stars and Stripes ‘reporter’, the delightfully-named J.D. Flack, has written since the Sendai Quake occurred.

One of these Headlines is Not Like The Other…
Can you tell which one? The list is from oldest to newest:
  • Misawa residents stock up on supplies as they await electricity 3/12/11
  • Power restored in Misawa City; base still down 3/12/11
  • American rescue teams arrive at Misawa 3/13/11
  • Base up and running, Misawa now faces off-base heating oil shortage 3/16/11
  • Misawa leaders want quick answer on how many residents plan to evacuate 3/18/11
  • First flight carrying U.S. families out of Japan expected to leave Yokota Air Base on Saturday 3/19/11
  • First military evacuation flight leaves Japan 3/19/11
  • Misawa's 14th Fighter Squadron looking to deploy to stay sharp 3/20/11
  • Misawa residents pull clean-up duty at nearby fishing port 3/17/11
  • Relief supplies rolling into Misawa 3/20/11
  • Misawa educators reach out to students as base schools reopen 3/21/11
  • Navy crews reach quake victims with life-sustaining humanitarian aid 3/23/11
  • Reagan air crews pause relief operations to decontaminate 3/23/11
  • Snow slows Navy relief efforts at Misawa 3/26/11
  • Navy races to clear port so needed supplies can reach land 3/25/11
  • Families who choose to return to Japan do so at their own risk, military officials say 3/29/11
  • Voluntary departure program: A safe haven or a free vacation? 3/29/11
 That’s right. This S & S 'reporter' managed to string together about 2 1/2 week’s worth of actual articles on what was going on in Japan in general and Misawa specifically, before caving in to the more base instincts of the ‘profession’.


Hit Piece
Flack’s latest amounts to little more than a hit piece on the families (from all the bases in Japan) who elected to accept voluntary evacuation. No deference to or insight into survivor psychology. No enquiries into the benefits to the well-being and effectiveness of the active-duty personnel who can now focus on the mission instead of worrying about loved ones. No questions as to the ‘net’ costs or benefits: the costs and benefits of maintaining a dependent population in a disaster zone with a strained infrastructure vs. the costs and benefits of getting the dependents away from the area. No consideration as to what kind of strain such a callous article might place on the military communities at Misawa et al as things otherwise return to a new ‘normal’.
The ‘article’ was apparently executed with the help of a S&S someone named ‘Sam Amrhein’, whom I suspect was the ‘juice-boxer’ doing the leg-work in Hawaii trolling for those upbeat impressions on fun-seeking ‘Quacationers’.
‘Congratulations’ to Stars and Stripes.
I hope you enjoyed the story access you had up until now, Mr. Flack, because I suspect from here on out most of the U.S. military community in Japan will be telling you EXACTLY where to put those pursed, red lips of yours.

J.D. Flack, S & S Reporter

Update 1April 23:48 Hrs: When my family in Misawa was offered the 'voluntary' evacuation (they have stayed) and I learned it was only for 'up to 30 days', I thought: "What's the use of that if the reactor situation actually gets much worse?" But I forgot about the psychological effect that the ongoing aftershocks might have until I saw this map. I was reminded of the sinking feeling I felt with every aftershock experienced after the Northridge Quake in SoCal, and the swarms of tremors we would experience at Elmendorf AFB from time to time in the mid-70s. As of this update, Japan has had 884 quake/aftershocks since March 11, and just under half of them (409) have been over 5.0 on the Richter Scale. Watch the map linked to above as the timeline progresses and tell me most people, especially the children, couldn't use a break from the shakedown they're getting and ask yourself how such a break can be oversimplified by a media outlet to the point someone could accuse them of having "too good" of a time getting away.