09:00 – Barbara is due back from Winston sometime this afternoon. Colin and I can’t wait. She’s making a small Costco run on her way back to pick up mostly cold stuff like meat. The only LTS food I asked her to pick up was several 3.25-pound boxes of OreIda instant mashed potatoes. Yesterday I transferred what remained of the 3.25-pound box we’d just opened to 1.75-liter Tropicana orange juice bottles, ending up with one very full bottle and one very partial bottle.
For the last couple of months I’ve been expecting Trump to make a statement on healthcare. Something like:
If you like your Obamacare, you can keep your Obamacare. However, we will repeal the individual mandate and the employer mandate, so no one will be forced to pay for health insurance they don’t want. Nor will the federal government pay any portion of the cost, so whatever coverage you choose you must pay for out of your own pocket. Nor will the government force any insurer to cover any particular person or condition or to provide any particular benefit, which means coverage for those with pre-existing conditions, if available, will be extremely expensive.
It’s definitely autumn here. Cool days and nights down in the 30’s (~ 2 or 3C). We decided yesterday that the new driveway had had sufficient time to cure, so we removed the orange warning tape that had been blocking the drive and pulled the vehicles back into the garage. As I was standing out at the street end of the drive looking toward the house, it looked vaguely familiar. Then I realized that it was about the size of a standard singles tennis court, which I spent plenty of time on when I was in my teens and 20’s. A standard singles court is 27 feet wide by 78 feet long, with 21 feet between the baseline and the fence at each end, for a total of 120 feet. I got out the tape measure and measured the new drive. Sure enough, it was 25 feet wide and about 126 feet long. Now the only thing we need is fences and a net.
Being a serve-and-volley player with an overwhelming serve, I always loved fast surfaces. My absolute favorite surface was polished hardwood, because the speed and low bounce of the surface meant I served clean aces more often than not. My next favorite was grass, which was almost but not quite as fast as wood, and didn’t provide a much higher bounce than wood. My third favorite was concrete like we just had installed. It was a noticeably slower surface than wood or grass, but still much faster than Har-Tru or similar grippy hard court (green/blue/red) surfaces, and immensely faster than clay. And it had a very high bounce, usually higher than the net, which meant I could use a full Western grip off both sides and hit full-power flat ground strokes, and approach shots didn’t need to be chipped.
For future reference:
o A 1.75 liter Tropicana orange juice bottle holds at most 1 pound 15.4 ounces of Ore-Ida instant potato flakes if you tap it well to pack it down.
Nifty recommendations for Mr. Trump here:
http://thisbluemarble.com/showthread.php?t=69561
Too bad he won’t implement any of them. Or even get the chance to do so.
Off to San Antonio. MIL’s husband died last night. Notified us this morning at 8:00. Will hit the road at 11:00 for 20 hours of driving but will stop somewhere for the night.
Mr. Lynn: Text me at 865 333 712 333 9540 (ignore the threes) with your address. I may stop for an hour or two on the return trip just so I can say I met up with one of us red neck clods that post here. And let you look at my truck with the matching Line-X bed spray. Might even let you touch it. We are heading out using the Northern route on I-40 but will return the Southern route via I-10.
I’m sorry for your loss.
Here’s the problem in a nutshell:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/12/genders-divided-over-trump-in-the-us—if-only-men-voted-donald/
If only men voted, Trump would win in a landslide. But it isn’t just Trump. If only men voted, Obama would never have been elected, nor Clinton, nor Carter, nor Johnson, nor Kennedy. In fact, Democrats wouldn’t have a chance in any election.
I’ve been saying since high school that it was a historic mistake to give women the vote, let them serve on juries, allow them to hold elected or appointed office, etc. Yes, there are many sensible women out there, but the vast, vast majority are not. On average, they’re sensitive, caring people, which is the last thing we should want in a voter. They’ll give away the store and let the rest of us pay for it. Women have had the vote for almost 100 years, and we’ve been going steadily downhill since then. I want only tough, steely-eyed people voting, serving on juries, and holding office. In other words, only men.
Yes, sorry, Mr. Ray. Drive safe.
Stop by Lackland and have a laff at all the new zoomies.
While you’re in the great Lone Star State, keep yer eyes peeled for rattlers, wotta moccasins, coral snakes, Gila monsters and scorpions. Also packs of coyotes. The coyotes will block yer truck front and rear and demand snacks and ciggies.
Oh, I just realized that might have been a micro-aggression.
Tough shit.
“I’ve been saying since high school that it was a historic mistake to give women the vote…”
Hater. Sexist. Chauvinist pig.
Yeah, it was a pretty bad mistake. We’re paying for it now worse than ever, too. A lotta womyn are absolutely voting for Killary simply because the v-word, period. No other factors matter whatsoever. They’d rather have a nukular World War IV than a nasty old guy who said the p-word eleven or twenty-eleven years ago.
Ann Coulter, the celeb lawyer and book writer has long said the same thing about women voting.
As has been said before about an entirely different group, “They’re not like us.”
The only part that I didn’t understand when I was a teenager was how men allowed this to happen. We’re bigger, stronger, faster, and more aggressive. Women could not have forced men to give way; their only weapon was their power of convincing us to do what they wanted. By the time I got to college, I understood how they’d used that.
I’ve always found it annoying that in recent years women go on and on about being strong and independent yet at every opportunity seem to go back to the government for protection. The pay gap is a good example, women complain that they’re not being paid as much as men for doing the same job (a lie in itself), but instead of negotiating one on one with their boss, they instead expect the government to pass laws forcing the government to set salaries. You’re either strong and independent or your not. If you are fine, if not just stop whining about it.
Fair winds and following seas @Ray Thompson and spouse.
I hear on KSFO radio this morning that WikiLeaks has the Illary kill shot ready to release on Nov. 1. They are waiting until then so that there may not be a chance to replace Illary. Illary will stroke out and die.
What will happen next is Obuttwad will declare Marshal Law and himself Potentate For Life. Janet Yellen will remove all interest controls. The Obuttwads armed Brown Shirts in all the Federal Departments will be deployed to protect DC. The banks will be closed to prevent a run. The stock market will go to zero. When the banks and markets reopen you will find all your assets now belong to the government. Your pension plans will no longer be yours. This is the start of a massive redistribution of all wealth/assets to the gooberment. Gold, silver, and all precious metals will be declared illegal for possession or trade. People participating in any underground activities will be shot on sight. The electrical grid will be inoperable as well as the internet. Only select gooberment offices will have power and communication.
And that’s my optimistic point of view.
Wow, you are a pessimist.
As I keep saying, I don’t expect anything catastrophic to happen. I see another couple decades of sliding down into dystopia. I still think the chances of a catastrophic situation are about 3% per year. Of course, that means they’re 50% by about 2030.
@Mr. Al; they seem to have learned from the other Officially Approved Victim groups that that is how you do it; get the Almighty State to FORCE other people to address your grievances, imaginary or not, and do your bidding. And it’s worked very well for them, though they still bitch about the glass ceiling and lower pay while their “sisters” are being tormented and repressed by the Peaceful Religion worldwide.
I’m somewhere between Mssrs. DadCooks and RBT. Things will deteriorate slowly in the next year or two and then accelerate. Foul winds and rough seas by 2020. Regardless of which psychopath is in the White House; it really won’t matter. Things have gone too far to be stopped now. I tend to think that Mr. DadCooks’s imagined scenario will be their desired end-state but they probably won’t get to it completely; the money is simply gonna run out, even declaring Default. They’ll do absolutely anything they can to remain in power but their days are numbered.
Unfortunately, most of us here who post regularly will be in our 70s by then or older and possess limited ability to fight a civil war. Or Hobbes’s war of all against all in the original ‘state of nature’ he talked about, lo, these centuries ago.
“By the time I got to college, I understood how they’d used that.”
Aha. Read “Lysistrata” in college, didn’t you?
Condolences, Mr Ray, and safe journey.
Almost forgot, today is the Navy’s birthday, October 13, 1775, 241 years.
Happy birthday to all my fellow sailors.
Now to salute/celebrate with a pint of grog.
“Aha. Read “Lysistrata” in college, didn’t you?”
Junior high, but I really didn’t get the full understanding until I was exposed to wild women in college
I thought they’d eliminated the grog ration a few years ago.
With Barbara away yesterday and overnight, I re-re-re-re-watched several episodes of Jericho. I’m still amazed by what a good job they did overall with it.
I then decided to rewatch Survivors, the 2008 BBC edition. I’d watched at least the first several episodes when it was first available years ago on Netflix streaming. They now have both seasons, all 12 episodes. It’s a TEOTWAWKI pandemic series, but of course BBC had to ruin it by making it more “diverse” than the original 1975-77 version, which had absolutely crappy production values (as in even using defective cameras), but was much better written. I was able to watch only a few episodes of the original many years ago. It was released on DVD back 15 years or so ago, but I don’t think that was available for region 2. I’d like to get the discs (or files) for the whole series, but no one offers them for sale and even the torrent sites don’t have them. KAT might have had them, but with it gone a lot of rare stuff is also gone. Any ideas?
My condolences Mr. Ray. Travel safe.
for Killary simply because the v-word, period.
Saying “period” and “v-word” in the same sentence is a microaggression, sir. I’d expect no less from a proto-ape. I’m sure you are on Coffin Illary’s hit list. Next you’ll be talking about “blood coming out of everywhere.” That doesn’t apply to Cankles. Nothings come out of her crusty **** in a century.
Scott Adams’ blog is a good read today:
http://blog.dilbert.com/post/151737656851/the-era-of-women
@RBT said: “I thought they’d eliminated the grog ration a few years ago.”
Yes, they did, but I didn’t 😉 BTW, my “grog” is double Jack Black neat.
RE: “Obuttwad will declare Marshal Law and himself Potentate For Life”
And his Marine protective detail will take him into “protective” custody while the Speaker of the House declares himself Conspiritor in Chief. As the coup plays out.
“Junior high, but I really didn’t get the full understanding until I was exposed to wild women in college”
I had a very memorable outing with a college girlfriend, who invited me to a university production of Lysistrata, original Greek style (nude and oiled players). It certainly brought out the wild woman in her…
Pirate Bay has Survivors 1975 E1-4, but only one leecher shows. You still might get that much.
https://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4089002/Survivors_BBC_1975_episodes_1_to_4
Thanks. I’ll give it a try.
Here is the meat of the Scott Adams post. Basically, Trump is toast.
“The Era of Women”
http://blog.dilbert.com/post/151737656851/the-era-of-women
“If the latest groping/kissing allegations against Trump hold up – and I assume they will, based on quantity if not credibility – it won’t matter what Wikileaks says about Clinton. She will win easily.”
…
“I feel some relief about that. The next four years are likely to be some of the worst in our country’s history. The Republican establishment will make sure of that because a failed America is in their best interest in the short run. Four years from now they want to offer their chosen savior (Paul Ryan). Trump would have a good chance of bullying the Republican establishment as he has done so far. Clinton, not so much. She’ll be buried in scandals, both real and imagined.”
“Men had a good run. We invented almost everything, and that’s cool. But we also started all of the wars and committed most of the crimes. It’s a mixed record to be sure. Now it’s time for something different, apparently.”
“Hillary Clinton is all yours, ladies. She and her alleged rapist husband are your brand now. Wear them well.”
While you’re in the great Lone Star State, keep yer eyes peeled for rattlers, wotta moccasins, coral snakes, Gila monsters and scorpions. Also packs of coyotes. The coyotes will block yer truck front and rear and demand snacks and ciggies.
You forgot 14 ft long alligators:
http://www.chron.com/neighborhood/dayton/article/Dayton-gator-could-be-biggest-ever-captured-in-9967334.php
They prefer chickens.
tRump is toast until the “killer” Wikileaks email. Then six guys will come forward on how tRump raped *them* and on and on and on. If Cankles doesn’t croak, we’re doomed. Doomed, I say! Work your voter obfuscation plans, cishetero male peeps!
With all due respect to Adams, there’s no such thing as the “Republican Establishment”. The Establishment has nominal Democrats and Republicans, but they’re all progressives.
That’s one reason I actually hoped Cruz would win the nomination. I think he actually is the loose cannon that Trump is being cast as. I dislike and mistrust his religious tendencies, but I’d sooner have someone like him in office than either Clinton or Trump.
With Barbara away yesterday and overnight, I re-re-re-re-watched several episodes of Jericho. I’m still amazed by what a good job they did overall with it.
I keep on meaning to watch Jericho but they never show it on DirecTV, I have a standing record order on my Genie. I think that I saw it available on Netflix so I need to look there.
I’ve been watching the new show “Aftermath” on the sify channel. It is ok, not bad XXX horrible. It seems to be about the Rapture but the initial event malfunctioned and Gabriel’s horn was not heard.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5797772/
Off to San Antonio. MIL’s husband died last night. Notified us this morning at 8:00. Will hit the road at 11:00 for 20 hours of driving but will stop somewhere for the night.
Mr. Lynn: Text me at 865 333 712 333 9540 (ignore the threes) with your address. I may stop for an hour or two on the return trip just so I can say I met up with one of us red neck clods that post here. And let you look at my truck with the matching Line-X bed spray. Might even let you touch it. We are heading out using the Northern route on I-40 but will return the Southern route via I-10.
Sorry for your loss. I will do so. However, I would advise staying on I-40 back and forth as I-10 is freaking horrible in Texas and Louisiana. When the new I-14 is finished in 2020+, I would take that.
Yeah, Jericho is on Netflix streaming. They only made about 1.33 seasons of it.
Actually, the whole government conspiracy thing was a distraction from the real plot of a small town doing what they needed to survive a terrorist attack that detonated small nukes in 20+ cities nationwide. I could also have done without the whole Blackwater (cutely renamed Ravenwood, geddit?) thing.
But there’s a lot to think about there. These poor folks have to get through the aftermath of a nuclear attack, followed not long after by an EMP attack, followed by a pandemic virus. Geez.
Jericho is very good. Survivor is also on Netflix streaming and seems at least OK.
I dug “Jericho” and also “Revolution,” which didn’t last very long, either.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolution_(TV_series)
In Real Life things would/will be a lot messier and peeps will be cussing a LOT more and we’ll see more rapes and violent home invasions. In our real world coming we can also expect more musloid “lone wolf” attacks all over the country and more wacko “lone gunman” scenarios.
Just got back from the vets meeting; our psychiatrist/psychologist moderater was not there today so we ran it ourselves again, per usual, which actually seems to work better for some reason. Not to take anything away from him; he’s been a real good guy and rarely pipes up, mostly listens, but will offer instant advice or help if it’s necessary. We made him an Honorary Combat Vet, because he IS a decent guy, but also after listening to our shit for a couple of years now, he’s acquired Secondary PTSD.
Anyway, one guy’s well is running dry and he has ongoing heart troubles but they’re being dealt with; another guy has cancer but is also getting help and about to start physical therapy; a third vet has had, and is having, horrific family issues with his clan down in Georgia and now his daughter and grandkids are moving up here and in with him around T-Day and he’s extremely worried and stressed. She’s apparently a heavy drinker and he won’t allow booze in the house. One teenage granddaughter claims to be gay now.
I told him if the shit is getting too heavy at the house and he wants to get away for a day, slide on up here and take a fucking break. He was good with that and may take me up on it, I think. Ex-jarhead with MAJOR issues swirling around in his head; little guy about half my size but one tough fummamucker; used to hang out with the Allman Brothers in the early days.
Meanwhile no one has got back to me yet about my MRI and x-ray results, and I’d like to see what’s what and if anything can be done before I drive down to MA and CT next week.
And I read and signed my life away again on more paperwork for the Fed job, as they continue with my background check, certain to fail me at some point soon. Taxes will be the death of us. I guess if you had/have tax problems, even though you’re dealing with them and fixing them, you’re a security risk. Despite vet and ex-cop status and otherwise pure as the driven snow. And they were Mrs. OFD’s taxes and tax filings that set this whole shit-storm in motion a few years ago, not mine. But you know how it goes, never the twain shall part, etc., and we are one, etc., etc. She dealt with my boozing and PTSD; I guess I can deal with her tax mess. ‘in sickness and in health during times of bad shit and good shit…etc.’
Went and got the flu shot at lunch time. The pharmacist at Walgreen’s said that it is fairly potent this year and expect to run a fever for a couple of days. BCBS paid the $32 cost.
Also asked him about the shingles shot. He still does that and the age without a prescription has been dropped from 60 to 50. The cost is $235 and BCBS does not pay a penny. He said to wait a month after the flu shot. One of my partners is a ten year leukemia survivor (you don’t see many of those !) and got shingles on his leg and face during his third round of chemo. He described shingles as pure agony.
“EIA: US oil production, global oil inventory revised upward for 2017”
http://www.ogj.com/articles/2016/10/eia-us-oil-production-global-oil-inventory-to-rise-in-2017.html
“In its October Short-Term Energy Outlook, the US Energy Information Administration forecasts US crude oil production to average 8.7 million b/d in 2016 and 8.6 million b/d in 2017. Forecast production in 2017 is almost 100,000 b/d higher than in the previous forecast, as a result of changes in modeling methodology applied to the Lower 48 states excluding federal Gulf of Mexico.”
Unfreaking real. Ten years ago, I would have called you a liar to state that the USA would be producing almost nine million barrels of oil per day now.
I guess if you had/have tax problems, even though you’re dealing with them and fixing them, you’re a security risk.
Hang in there, buddy. My prayers you get the job, even if you don’t really want it. Isn’t it amazing that a scumbag like Cankles can give away Top Secret SCI information with her emails, and yet, is still qualified to be President? I bet Larry and her have a shit-load of tax problems we will never hear of because of Cloud People privilege. Just unbelievable.
“Hang in there, buddy. My prayers you get the job, even if you don’t really want it.”
Thanks, hombre. It’s a Windows shop running Cisco; lotta running around to do sandbox configs and test stuff before it goes out to whomever in the field. I am supposed to have Cisco routing and switching plus Winblows Server and “storage” for this gig. I’m not ramping up on any IT study time until I see which gig I actually get, if any of them.
“Isn’t it amazing that a scumbag like Cankles can give away Top Secret SCI information with her emails, and yet, is still qualified to be President?”
That’s how it works; the rules don’t apply to the Cloud People. Only to low-life Dirt People like me and that swabbie that got busted and sent to jail for not even a hundredth of what the creature got away with scot-free. And the Clinton Crime Family’s taxes need to be gone over with a fine-toothed comb by a battery of good objective tax lawyers and accountants. Dream on.
We got some rain here finally today, but we need the same amount and rate every single day for the next month or two before turning to snow. You would not hear me whine or bitch if it poured buckets until Xmas.
Uh-oh, almost forgot; time for my last Vermont Master Composter class online…see ya!
Thanks for reminding me I need to reschedule my Red Cross First Aid Class. Although even I don’t know what my mind thinks the link is.
I bet Larry and her have a ****-load of tax problems we will never hear of because of Cloud People privilege. Just unbelievable.
I am thinking about starting the McGuire Family Charitable Foundation and have my paychecks sent there. I’m sure that it is legal, the Clinton’s do it.
“”I guess if you had/have tax problems, even though you’re dealing with them and fixing them, you’re a security risk.””
I heard about a guy who lost his clearance because somebody claimed his wife was having an affair.
The implication, I think, was that some mere appearance of some sort of upset in the guy’s life could make him a risk. It’s a notch or two from thought-crime, but it’s easy to ratchet up from there, I’m sure.
Well we have heard about overvaluing their used clothing donations to Goodwill. One wonders what else is there that we haven’t heard about.
“Well we have heard about overvaluing their used clothing donations to Goodwill.”
Including USED UNDERWEAR. The American Spectator magazine was running a whole ongoing series about those two chiseling pieces of shit when they were in the Arkansas governor’s mansion. Plus eyewitness accounts from the state troopers and other LE personnel who had to deal with them, while Larry snuffed up truckloads of coke, ran around with hookers like an ol’ yella houn’ dawg in heat continuously, sometimes two or three at a time, including HIV-positive individuals. And ongoing dope smuggling and dealing ops out at the airport, with possible spook involvement at the Fed level.
Ann Coulter’s latest article summarizes why tRump saying pussy is a joke. Key words are: Klinton, Kennedy, Klinton, Kennedy, …..
Here is that Ann Coulter article, “CASTING CALL FOR ANOTHER ANITA HILL”:
http://www.anncoulter.com/columns/2016-10-12.html
“I’ve been saying since high school that it was a historic mistake to give women the vote, let them serve on juries, allow them to hold elected or appointed office, etc. ”
That’s a bit extreme. I think wimminz should be allowed to hold appointed office, so long as they are controlled by and sacked by men.
“I want only tough, steely-eyed people voting, serving on juries, and holding office. In other words, only men.”
By Le Chatelier’s principle, if you remove women from the voting mix the remaining men will just shift to the left to restore equlibrium… 🙁
“Women could not have forced men to give way; their only weapon was their power of convincing us to do what they wanted.”
Some bimbo ran onto a racetrack in England and got run over by a horse. The rest is history.
Denis wrote:
“…production of Lysistrata, original Greek style (nude and oiled players). It certainly brought out the wild woman in her…”
Weren’t all the players originally male? Even for the female roles? I’ll bet that got her going… 🙂
More amusing hijinks and capers from adherents of the Peaceful Religion:
http://freedomoutpost.com/connecticut-palestinian-muslim-crashes-plane-in-attempt-to-destroy-us-major-military-defense-contractor/
Like I said earlier, we can expect more of this lone wolf shit around the country from now on. This was in friggin’ East Hartford, where my remaining uncle and my cousins live, where wife will be next week, and where I will be joining her on Thursday.
Also asked him about the shingles shot. He still does that and the age without a prescription has been dropped from 60 to 50. The cost is $235 and BCBS does not pay a penny. He said to wait a month after the flu shot. One of my partners is a ten year leukemia survivor (you don’t see many of those !) and got shingles on his leg and face during his third round of chemo. He described shingles as pure agony.
I forgot to mention that the pharmacist claimed that the shingles shot is 56% effective at blocking shingles. And he also claimed that if you do get it then the case is very mild compared to without the shot.
I noted that they also have pneumonia shot. I wonder what they do not have a shot for ? I guess just cancer.
One of my old friends called me the other day and mentioned that he had a lung collapse last spring. He went to the ER and was diagnosed with pleurisy. They put a drain in his inner chest wall and re-inflated the lung. It took six months for his chest to drain. Meanwhile they had him come back in and do some testing. They did a CAT scan and found out that he has stage 4 lung cancer. He never smoked in his life. But he was a Navy officer in the early 1960s and used to do the periodic inspections of the nuclear submarines for Admiral Rickover, his boss. He would go into the submarines under construction and the asbestos insulation would be flying around thickly in the air. He was on the Thresher on her initial sea trial for about a week when they did the angles ??? and dangles ??? testing.
He is 82. We worked together from 1975 to 1981 and 1989 to 2010 when he retired for the last time (he had tried retiring before and we always tried to get him back).
“I wonder what they do not have a shot for ? I guess just cancer.”
I hope they have a shot for my back Real Soon Now. Or something.
I got my flu and shingles shots at the VA, gratis. I had questioned the viability and success of these shots with the doc and he told me that he and the entire med staff get those shots; good enough for me. I should ask about it again; wife might have to pay like you did to get the locally. We gotta get her some kind of insurance ASAP.
@lynn seemed to have a question: “angles ??? and dangles ??? testing.”
Angles and dangles is a set of extreme manuevers done shortly after submerging the submarine and at regular intervals while operating submerged. The submarine is taken through extremes of up and down, and side to side rolling motions. The object is to shake loose anything that is not properly stowed. When you are trying to be very very quiet in “unfriendly” territory you do not want anything hitting the deck or hull and giving you away. During angles and dangles the sonar folks can also tell if a bearing is going bad in a piece of rotating machinery by changes in the submarine’s acoustic signature. It has been said that a good sonar tech can pick up a fart in the engine room 😉
WRT “shots” — Costco has some very competitive prices and takes most insurance. Just ask at the Pharmacy window.
The costco exam says my hearing is bad, but not bad enough for hearing aids to be effective. Kind of good/bad news. Glad it’s not bad enough, a bit disappointed that nothing now will help. Yearly monitoring for change was recommended.
That was my prep for the week so far, and now I can put that out of mind for a year or so…
The world has certainly gone mad. Iranians shooting at our navy thru proxies in Yemen. Boris the cowboy calling all the kids home. 30 year old accusations, and “oh he kissed me when we met, and it made me feel so small.” News hacks saying “he’s delusional, we’re not working with Killarity.”
Madness.
nick
In all the time I’ve been going to the combat vets meetings up here, I’ve only run into one or two Navy vets for some reason. My uncle was a ‘Nam Navy vet on the U.S.S. Beale destroyer, gunner’s mate, Bronze Star. My dad was a Coastie when it was still part of the Navy, WWII, and my maternal grandfather was Navy, North Africa, WWII.
We’ve had a couple of jarheads here and there, couple of zoomies like me, but most of the vets seem to be Army so fah. Currently, artillery, two airborne, and one door gunner.
Thanks and a tip of the hat to Mr. DadCooks for the ongoing education and explanation of the subs; I’ve long been a strong advocate for their use as our PRIME continental defense operations and protection of our strategic sea lanes. If that means cutting the Army and AF budgets, hop to it, Mr. SecDef and Congress.
Hard stuff to read but probably true enough:
http://taxicabdepressions.com/?p=3698
One month.
Food, wotta, ammo.
“… got the flu shot at lunch time. The pharmacist at Walgreen’s said that it is fairly potent this year …”
I can attest to that. I got the jab on Monday, and have been a bit off colour since. However, having had the proper flu the preceding two years running, I would willingly take the post-jab symptoms over the full-blown ones any day.
I haven’t had the shingles jab, but I would recommend it to those eligible or at risk; shingles cost my mother the sight of one eye, not to mention a great deal of pain and discomfort over years.
I’ve long been an advocate of assassination and sabotage as our primary national defense. The vast majority of Americans don’t want Iraq, don’t care about Iraqis beyond vague humanitarian wishes, don’t want the US in Iraq, in particular don’t want themselves to be in Iraq. Why should the US spend a fortune and the lives of thousands of its young men for Iraq? If Saddam Hussein was a problem to US safety or interests, offer a $1,000,000,000 open bounty for the job, no questions asked. That’s a hell of a lot cheaper than a war.
Oh, sure, “civilized societies don’t condone assassination”. Bullshit! Those are the weasel words spoken by the ruling class, the same ruling class which would be the target of assassinations as part of other nations’ foreign policy. I’m not in favor of other nations being allowed to just waltz in and kill Americans, but I am in favor of American politicians and other “leaders” being subject to assassination. Call it part of the price of power.
So the Hillary Clinton campaign is fundraising by stating she will shutdown the Breitbart web site if she wins. They say the site publishes hateful things. Obviously they have never heard of the First Amendment. I knew Hillary was completely against the Second Amendment, but the brazen assault on the First Amendment that this constitutes was shocking to me.
Update: Let me be clear. My objection is not because I agree with Breitbart and think their speech qualifies for protection. Although I tend to agree with Breitbart more than I disagree. I think that BLM crowd has a right to say things on the Internet I completely disagree with. The solution to “unacceptable” speech is not censorship but speech which is critical of it.
Well, looks like someone answered the question:
” Mercedes-Benz admits automated driverless cars would run over a CHILD rather than swerve and risk injuring the passengers inside
Mercedes-Benz Australia has answered the moral dilemma of who a driverless car would save if it was faced with running over a child or swerving into a car and potentially killing the passengers”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3837453/Mercedes-Benz-says-driverless-cars-hit-child-street-save-passengers-inside.html
Outside airbags. Government mandated of course.
Yeah, I can just see the little tyke ‘pong’ off the hood, into a building at 50 mph. That’ll help……..
n
Oddly enough, that may not be the wrong choice. I’d feel terrible, but a single child dead and a single carful injured is “better” than 2 carfuls dead. Especially if there are children in the cars.
Now I feel bad for even thinking about it that way. Where’s my safe space?
Nobody said it had to work. Just so the government saves us all. Don’t forget there will be government inspectors paid for by the evil automakers, not consumers.
I refuse to ride in a self-driving vehicle unless its highest priority is my safety. I don’t care if it has to run over an entire class of school students to prevent me from being injured.
New dictum for AI programmers, “What would Bob do.”
As Glenn Reynolds got in trouble for saying with regard to Charlotte rioters, “Run them down.”
@OFD, thanks for the compliment. As I believe I have mentioned before, my mind is not as sharp or immediately responsive as it was a few years ago. It’s frustrating how some details are foggy one moment and then a little later come through clear as a bell.
Why do you see so few Navy folks at your VA sessions? My explanation is that most of the Navy is not in the thick of the battle, face to face. I imagine you do not see many pilots either. My Dad (WWII B-17 pilot) said it was easy to put out of their mind what devastation they were doing below as they never saw the faces.
I am, of course, biased towards submarines. They can go to a lot of places totally undetected and launch a devastating land strike. We might just have had the Russians crapping their pants a few times as we surfaced in the middle of a fleet, then a crash dive, all ahead flank, deploying fizzies (a countermeasure), then sit on the bottom for awhile before sneaking out very quietly. Sometimes we wouldn’t surface but just fire up all our sonars on full power active, that would blow the headphones (as well as their ears) of the Russian Sonar Techs as well as totally mess up their screens/electronics for awhile so we could quietly drive away (the energy we can put in the water with our sonar is impressive and yes we feel and hear it in the boat). Oh, I forgot to mention that some of these operations might just have been in the Black Sea.
@dadcooks, in John Ringo’s Post Apocalypse novels (Black Tide series) the subs use active to fish… they blast a school and stun them, then collect them on the surface…
Sounds like it’s pretty powerful if true…..
n
My dad was a navigator on a B-17 over Germany during WWII, and said pretty much the same thing. But it’s easy to forget that these flight crews were actually in hot combat every time they flew a mission. As my dad said, the fighters were bad enough, but when they disappeared on the route in, the crew knew the S was about to HTF because they were coming into the flak belts.
In retrospect, although he concealed it well, I think my dad suffered badly from PTSD even into the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s, and I suspect your dad also suffered but took pains to conceal it.
“My explanation is that most of the Navy is not in the thick of the battle, face to face. I imagine you do not see many pilots either. My Dad (WWII B-17 pilot) said it was easy to put out of their mind what devastation they were doing below as they never saw the faces.”
Nope, no pilots, though several enlisted aircrew, including me. Shit, maybe that’s also why the few Navy guys that have come by don’t stick around or only show up once in a blue moon. I hope we don’t, but I’m afraid we do; exude nasty combat vibes of some sort. Other guys say it’s true. 40-50 years later.
I would not have cared to be enlisted or any kind of aircrew on those long-ago B-17 bombers over Europe. Yikes.
Sunny w/blue skies here so fah; I wish it was raining. Hard. Steady. Nothing in the forecast. Mrs. OFD is out in the lovely East Bay of Kalifornia with the grandkids and then heading for Hartford, CT this weekend directly. I’ll see her next Thursday during my grand tour of southern Nova Anglia.
And I’m about to get an “e-Quip” online questionaire from the Feds; this will probably be the nail in the coffin of the job possibility. Whatever, due diligence.
I posted my best recollection of what my dad had told me about B-17 raids here:
https://www.ttgnet.com/daynotes/1999/1108RTDN.html#Thursday
It still brings tears to my eyes when I read it.
As I’ve said before, I’m here only because of how rugged the B-17’s were and that the P-51’s got to the front when they did.
My dad’s crew got a new B-17 one time because their old one had been so badly damaged on a raid. They took out that brand spanking new B-17 on a raid. When they got back, it was shot to shit. My dad said the crew chief yelled, “Jesus Christ! What did you bastards do to my new plane!”
They counted the holes in the plane and found 2,600 of them from machine gun fire, cannon fire, and flak. My dad said the incredible thing was that not one of the crew was even scratched.
@nick said:“Sounds like it’s pretty powerful if true…..”
I might have had fresh fish a time or two courtesy of the Sonar Techs. Nothing like a “beach”, swim, and bbq sitting in the middle of some remote body of warm water (no land in sight) in the Bahamas.
@RBT said: “…and I suspect your dad also suffered but took pains to conceal it.”
Yes he did, but his last few weeks of life were hell for him. He let it all out, reliving all the horrors. Fighters and FLAK. Limping back to base in planes that should not have stayed in the air. “Crash” landing in German territory, but managing to evade the German’s for 5-days until he got the crew, all wounded/injured, to friendly ground. He kept apologizing and saying he was sorry lost the plane (actually he brought back 3 planes that never flew again, and this one that he couldn’t bring back).
Sounds like you guys may have experienced a bit of ‘secondary PTSD.’ A lot of WWII combat vets, including aircrew, came back and kept it all locked up inside for decades, or the rest of their lives. This usually doesn’t work out so well, despite tremendous efforts to maintain it. It leaks out in countless other ways, but most often involving anger, frustration, depression, and substance abuse. You can’t just throw teenage kids or people not much older into the middle of freakishly violent combat situations and not expect some damage to them, even if not physical damage. If they don’t have that damage, they’re probably sociopaths or psychopaths. Which might fit the description of some spec ops people over the years.
Your dads’ activities sound like they’d be in DFC and MOH territory for medals.
So the Hillary Clinton campaign is fundraising by stating she will shutdown the Breitbart web site if she wins. They say the site publishes hateful things. Obviously they have never heard of the First Amendment. I knew Hillary was completely against the Second Amendment, but the brazen assault on the First Amendment that this constitutes was shocking to me.
Somewhere, sometime, I heard Illary say that Journalists should be registered and approved by the federal government. Otherwise, she thinks that they should not get the protections of the 1st and 4th amendments.
Of course, you have FCC commissioners saying that all political websites on the intertubes should be registered:
http://ijr.com/2015/05/312983-fcc-commissioner-warns-of-regulating-conservative-news-outlets/
They (TPTB) keep going after bloggers as “not protected journalists”.
That’s why at least one alt media blog offers free Press Credentials to anyone who asks.
n