Today is the anniversary of the birth of Robert Bruce Thompson.
It’s also the anniversary of D-Day– the Normandy Invasion… my wife has a relative buried there as do far too many.
Today raise a toast to “Absent friends”.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
Nick
My Dad led his squadron of B-17s on multiple bombing runs starting days before D-Day and not ending until well after the area beyond the beaches were well secured. He would never say how many B-17s were lost. Imagine doing a minimum of 3 runs a day. The only sleep they got was when they returned from a run and the ground crew reloaded, refueled, and “repaired” the aircraft.
My Dad led his squadron of B-17s on multiple bombing runs starting days before D-Day and not ending until well after the area beyond the beaches were well secured. He would never say how many B-17s were lost. Imagine doing a minimum of 3 runs a day. The only sleep they got was when they returned from a run and the ground crew reloaded, refueled, and “repaired” the aircraft.
Every hole was important for the ground crews to note carefully. A prof in college, at the tail end of his career in the mid-80s, talked about how holes on the skin of surviving bombers would be marked on a large model at the plant. Additional armor went where there weren’t holes on the model, gradually improving the survival rate of the planes.
My dad was only 10yo on D-day, and then he missed Korea (his brother went) and was too old for Vietnam. He did his time, and used the GI bill to pay for his engineering degree but never deployed.
My cousin, who we called “uncle” was a veteran of the Pacific theater.
In a couple more years they’ll all be gone. Everyone who remembers first hand the horrors of that widespread war will be gone. That’s when we will get another. Because no one remembers, and that’s what we uplifted monkeys do.
n
My dad was a damned coward. He never served. Too young for WWII but old enough for Korea. What kept him out was having children. At first it was one child, then two to stay out of Korea. Thus I am only 11 months younger than my older brother. He was humping my mother in the hospital as soon as my older brother was born to get that second child. He was physically fit and there was no reason for him to stay home other than the family.
Myself and my two brothers are Vietnam veterans. We did what my father never did.
Perhaps not. What we have from WWII is extensive video coverage, some never exposed to the public because it was too gruesome. More so with Korea and even more so with Vietnam. My older brother has some pictures he smuggled out of Vietnam when he rotated back to the states. Gruesome stuff. Hopefully that is enough for people to remember.
I get really pissed when people say some natural disaster looks like a war zone. How can they say that when they have never truly seen a war zone? A war zone is bodies, parts of bodies, blood, pieces of vehicles, the smell of gunpowder, a smokey haze, people screaming in pain, the death rattle, uniforms caked in mud and blood, helmets with parts of the brain scattered inside. Nothing compares to a war zone. A tornado is destruction, it is not a war zone.
My dad was a damned coward. He never served. Too young for WWII but old enough for Korea.
My grandfather was proud of being shot in the a** twice in Korea, retreating from the Chinese. Artillery. He could do the math in his head for the big guns, but he said he was a lousy shot with anything smaller so he always got his crew and weapon the hell out when the order came.
In a couple more years they’ll all be gone. Everyone who remembers first hand the horrors of that widespread war will be gone. That’s when we will get another. Because no one remembers, and that’s what we uplifted monkeys do.
The next one of that scale will have big nukes quickly. Austin will be a prime target for one of the big MIRVs because of the runway at ABI so I’m not fretting about my post apocalyptic existence. Until the Islamist crazies get nukes, however, sanity will prevail with the nuclear powers.
Iran in the near term will last until a carrier is at the bottom of the Gulf or even just limping back to Diego Garcia under tow. After that, some hard questions may start getting asked and the house cleaning at MacDill will commence. Trump will lose next year, possibly to Bernie, but I’m betting Tulsi Gabbard will gain traction after the public decides that 20 years of drunken perverts running “wars” and cavity searches at airports (just wait) is enough.
The Iranians know this. Hopefully the Pentagon does too.
Happy birthday, Bob! Let’s see, he would be ?? hex years old… My head hurts. Seriously, I hope he is pleasantly surprised with his present situation.
Regarding comments about Android yesterday, I agree that outside of Google’s own devices, OS updates are often slow to appear. Also agree that the apps are constantly updated, often with changes most of us would rather not have. My point was that the OS seems pretty solid, in spite of living in a polluted world. I use my phone as a small tablet for a lot of purposes, and am very pleased with it, but I only see a tiny slice of the whole picture.
I used to chuckle when Jerry P railed about changes in computing. I agreed with him. I wish some things would never change, but the world is against me. I fondly remember my office IBM AT 6 MHz computer that never skipped a beat. I got loads of work done on it, and sometimes wish I could go back to that experience. That is about as likely as driving a Model A Ford on the freeway. Ain’t gonna happen. But I might want one for driving around town. Fun!
I forgot to post we are staying in the Herbert Hoover Presidential Suite at the Coralville Marriot. And…meh.
Regarding comments about Android yesterday, I agree that outside of Google’s own devices, OS updates are often slow to appear. Also agree that the apps are constantly updated, often with changes most of us would rather not have. My point was that the OS seems pretty solid, in spite of living in a polluted world. I use my phone as a small tablet for a lot of purposes, and am very pleased with it, but I only see a tiny slice of the whole picture.
I’m more aware of the frequency of Android security bulletins since I started compiling the OS monthly for my “coporate free” phone. Except for Nexus devices, things are pretty grim with regard to OS updates for now.
If Apple’s board has a collective brain fart and buys Tesla, I’m sure Tim Cook will make sure Motorola phones receive more regular OS updates after he becomes the new CEO at Lenovo.
Biden Pile On! I stand by my prediction that Plugs will be out of the race this Summer.
The polls showing him beating Trump in Texas may give him another month in the sun.
https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/1136285225632370688
For those unfamiliar with the law, the Hyde Amendment prohibits Federal funding for abortion procedures. Free stuff for all!
Today raise a toast to “Absent friends”.
Bob and Dr. Pournelle are sorely missed.
@RickH — What’s the current status of Roberta Pournelle?
whoops, brain fart, the below applies to Barbara, not Roberta…
@greg, she does a daily entry at her blog linked on the right. Stop over and say hi.
She’s currently lifting far more animal food than I’d be comfortable with… (small dog, small food bowl, small poops.) and working on the garden and yard. She also does FAR more cleaning and laundry than I’m comfortable doing 🙂
n
Biden Pile On! I stand by my prediction that Plugs will be out of the race this Summer.
ProgLibTurds are already pointing out Plugs’ flip-flopping. If he craps out, the Dumbos have no chance of grabbing the White House.
Regarding Mrs. Pournelle: I can only surmise she is doing OK. Alex (son) renewed the jerrypournelle.com domains last week, and mentioned that he also processed $4k of donations from the site, and that it was all earmarked to ongoing support of Mrs. Pournelle.
Other than that, I don’t know. Alex occasionally posts on his FB account.
As for Jerry’s site: it still gets a few visitors, and a few condolences. I keep everything updated there.
Hopping over to Barbara’s site to express kind thoughts on this day. It’s here, for those that want to stop by: https://www.fritchman.com/diaries/thisweek.html .
My Dad took me, my son, and three of my nephews to France in 2009. One of the things that we did was visit two of Normandy beaches and the cemetery. Crosses and Jewish stars as far as one could see. The entire place is totally incredible and overwhelming.
I know two WWII veterans still. They are both 95 years old now. The wife’s oldest uncle (European war) and the father of a close friend (Pacific war). I have not seen either of them in several years but I know that they are still getting around. My friend’s father is talking about building a retirement home in Abilene, Texas at the moment. They have both told me at one point or another that they were surprised to survive WWII between close encounters with Japanese Zeros and German Panzer tanks.
For the first time in a long time, all of the reservoirs on the Brazos River in Texas are 100% or more full. In fact, two of the reservoirs are still releasing almost 40,000 ft3/sec (cfs) into the Brazos River that runs just 300 feet away from my house.
http://www.brazos.org/About-Us/Water-Supply/Drought
I don’t get it. While I don’t know who the candidate will be yet, I don’t doubt that they’ll put forth a strong candidate. With a chance.
Hopefully, the economy will be strong enough, and we’ll be inured enough, that Trump will win a second term. (Incumbency counts for something.)
On the other hand, the ONLY poll I pay attention to is the one conducted on election day. None of the rest have a snowball’s chance in that place of being correct.
“Charles Schulz, Snoopy, and D-Day”
http://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2019/06/06/charles-schulz-snoopy-and-d-day/
“On June 6, 1993, Schulz drew a comic strip that had little visual relationship to anything that had previously appeared in “Peanuts.” In three grim panels, the cartoonist depicted the eerie silence at the outset of the D-Day invasion. One panel looked atop the beachhead at the Nazi bunkers, where hidden soldiers were ready to fire down on the Allied troops below. The next panel surveyed a Higgins boat carrying a crew of faceless soldiers to a murky landing site. And the final panel revealed Snoopy dressed as a G.I. crawling up onto the beach at low tide. The lone words on the page read: “June 6, 1944, To Remember.””
“Pelosi tells Dems she wants to see Trump ‘in prison’”
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/05/pelosi-impeachment-1355435
This is a shameful woman. She wants to start a civil war in the USA.
Hopefully, the economy will be strong enough, and we’ll be inured enough, that Trump will win a second term. (Incumbency counts for something.)
The Dems are too stupid to present a clear contrast with Trump. And, for the record, I don’t see Cory Booker as a clear contrast.
Another “war” would pretty much seal Trump’s fate, however.
“Charles Schulz, Snoopy, and D-Day”
“For Better or For Worse” used to feature some pretty good WWII tributes on Canadian Remembrance Day over the years. I haven’t kept up since she retired, un-retired, re-retired, and whatever it is she does now with the strip.
My Dad would be 93 now. He lied about his age and joined the Marines when he was 16. Shipped to China or somewhere and he always said he was on Okinawa when the flag was raised. And all the pictures you see were staged for the press /after/ folks had their first shower in a couple of months.
Then a few years of whatever and he went to Korea. He never really talked about any of it, and after some time as a recruiter, he went to ‘Nam. I’m pretty sure he was there when Kennedy was shot. Seven year old me didn’t grok why Mom was crying in front of the TV. I was eight when someone that looked like him came home. Pretty good with a belt, gotta say that. It wasn’t my Daddy, it was mean and somehow everything was my fault. He quit the Marines a couple of years later in ’65? and we moved to Mobile from Oceanside. (Talk about culture shock!) I turned 10 in October ’67.
Dunno, a lot is sorta blurry before I was nine and a couple of months.
Was it worth it? Not my call. He did what he had to do. He earned a couple of Purple Hearts and a Silver Star and I think a Bronze Star. I remember him saying that Combat Time counted as time and a half, so when he retired it was with 32 years credited service. Mom has TriCare For Life, so she’s taken care of. Her van, that she can’t drive, has Purple Heart plates. Hey, $7 a year vs about $74 outta my pocket. Don’t get mad and say “You’re cheating the system”, it gets at most 30 miles a month.
I’m pretty sure that my Dad and RBT and OFD would get along wonderfully. Give them a couple of beers and sit back to listen to the bull stories. 🙂
No mowing today. I rained a half inch last night and the humidity is crazy. No breeze, at all.
Seat padding? The mower seat. My seat isn’t well padded. Now, the eight pack in my belly is another thing…. well insulated now.
I bought the mower in 2002. Sheesh. It’s still “the new one”.
I’ve replaced the blades a few times. Three of the four tires. The mower deck belt last year or year before. That’s about it. Oh, and the carb about 10 years ago. But that project included adding a fuel shut off valve and a filter. So it’s run dry after every use.
It used a cup of oil yesterday. On knee high grass.
We may be missing those veterans more than we think, as Europe may be getting sportier. I saw this story when it first came out but now you have to search for it.
https://www.france24.com/en/20190603-german-local-politician-killed-with-shot-head
From Mr.AtoZ yesterday:
Nope, water vapor is the number global warming compound in the atmosphere. Not green !
When we seed the clouds, we’ll get more aqua out than what went in. It’s like a carbon credit, except for water!
I forgot to add that this will be much cheaper than your New Green Deal solution. Only hundreds of billions of dollars instead of trillions of dollars.
It’s only paper, Comrade, we’ll just print more fiat!
Commies have an answer for everything.
Crazy Eyes 2024! “President For Life”
Yup, Crazy Eyes 2024 !
It used a cup of oil yesterday. On knee high grass.
My 2005 Ford Expedition 5.4L V8 uses a quart of 5W-20 oil every 2,000 miles now. Not bad since it has 207K miles on it. It needs to go in for a new set of plugs now since at least one is dead, it starts missing and stumbling when the second stage of the fuel injectors opens at 4,000 rpm. I told my wife that and she asked why I am driving a 340 hp truck like it was a sport car ?
Wow, someone has started shooting politicians?
I mean, LEFT WING politicians? (since they started shooting Republicans here a couple years ago.)
n
Wow, someone has started shooting politicians?
The German politician? Probably done by one of the very same people he was trying to help.
If We Told You Neal Stephenson Invented Bitcoin, Would You Be Surprised?
I’m ~150 pp in; so far, it’s more REAMDE than Seveneves.
I had the privilege, for many winters, of playing golf with a man who was one of the Regiment of Canadian paratroopers who went in on June 5-6. He never talked much about his experiences, but did once say that within a week 50% of them were dead. My younger sister’s father in law spent time in a Stalag. He’s 95 now, with the accompanying set of infirmities, and bad feet from frostbite as a POW. In Florida, he pays no property taxes on his home, and $0 per year for a car tag. My dad had a good friend who was one of the 82nd who went in the night before. He lost his leg that night, and suffered from it every day the rest of his life. He used his GI Bill to get an engineering degree, working for many years at Redstone. My dad was a Korean war vet, spending 18 months under fire there. Most of his time was spent using a recoilless rifle, so one ear was useless for hearing. He never had any good things to say about the place, the people, or Harry Truman for sending him there, but he had an epiphany when Seoul held the Olympics in 1988. Thirty five years after the end of the war, South Korea was prosperous, free, and nominally peaceful, thanks to the sacrifice, both blood & treasure, of the US & our allies. I never served, I would have been 4F if there had been actual conscription when I was a young man.
I’m ~150 pp in; so far, it’s more REAMDE than Seveneves.
Stephenson definitely shills for his new corporate masters, but it is more subtle.
(I’m not a Magic Leap believer. It is beyond me how that company captured the imaginations of so many really smart people, but being from Florida and very familiar with the section of the state where the company was founded, I have no doubt as to how it survives to grow into an even bigger Ponzi.)
I’m disappointed that some familiar names pop up only to be killed off without as much as a cameo. Csongor doesn’t even have much to say, and Zula (his wife) is a main character.
Oh man, do I need to re-read Reamde?
I’ve got so much stuff on my list….
n
Oh man, do I need to re-read Reamde?
I’ve got so much stuff on my list….
No. “Fall” does a pretty good job of re-establishing the characters, and the events of “Reamde” are separate from what happens in the new book.
(I’m not a Magic Leap believer. It is beyond me how that company captured the imaginations of so many really smart people, but being from Florida and very familiar with the section of the state where the company was founded, I have no doubt as to how it survives to grow into an even bigger Ponzi.)
Wasn’t aware of the existence of Magic Leap or Stephenson’s connection thereto. Will henceforth definitely be reading Fall in a new light.
Happy birthday to the late RBT.
And farewell to Dr. John: Dr. John, New Orleans musician whose hits included “Right Place, Wrong Time,” has died at 77
He’s the second N’Awlins celebrity to die this week: Remembering Leah Chase, the “Queen of Creole Cuisine”
Simply want to say your article is as a maz ing.
The cl arity in your post is simply spectacu lar and i can thin k you
are a professi onal on this subject. Fine toget her with yo ur permis sion let
me to gras p your f eed to keep up to date with approa ching po st.
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[I added random spaces so google wouldn’t find it.]
Ooo – he wants to grasp your feed. Kinky.
WTF is the goal of spam like this? The domain looks legit – has it maybe been hijacked, and will download some yummy malware?
Fred’s latest column is a decent read. The video of the Asian girl: notice the composition of the board. The girl has no chance against the racism inherent in US blacks.
The best line in the whole article: “There exists not the slightest chance of finding so many qualified minorities. If they existed, it would not be necessary to lower standards to recruit them.” This is simple truth, which is completely non-PC to admit or discuss.
@brad, I don’t know. I’ve often wondered about comment spam like that. The email addy is a female name, so if I was at liberty, I guess I’d say “grasp away”…
I edited the post and email to break up the words so search shouldn’t find it. I suspect there is some sort of pay for placement thing going on, where it’s supposed to increase google rank for the site or the person referenced in the email, but I don’t know.
This is one of the most coherent and sensible ones I’ve seen and I’m sure that’s why it got past askismet. If it wasn’t for the superlatives, and ref to my brilliant article [which is in no way brilliant] I’d think it was just a translation error. I see a lot of youtube comments from non-english speakers that are similar.
In any case, I’ll delete it later today after people have a chance to know what you referred to.
n