Voice from the Noise

Here and There

2012-01-30T07:20:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the lack of posts. As some may realize I am commuting between my Home in PA and a worksite in the Czech Republic. I spend more time there than here rotating every couple of weeks back to the U.S. for a short time and I return.

I could qualify for citizenship here in the lovely Brno.

The travel takes a lot out of me and the work here well; let’s just say it’s not anything like working on aircraft and getting dirty on a flight line like in the good ole days just a few years ago.

The flying to-n-fro and living in hotels (although the same one) has eaten away at my desire to write. I don’t know what it is, but the feeling is just not there most of the times. But I won’t give it up, I’ll just post at the reduced rate.

Now all this living abroad has now made me an expert on living and life in Europe. Let me tell you, there is no better way to learn the culture than to live in it for an extended period. None of that arm chair analysis, I am talking man on the street or trolley, tram, train and diesel fueled automobile.

More to come in future posts on the differences in lifestyles and life expectations between us Americans and the Europeans. And there is a lot of difference and we should all hope we don’t go any more in this direction.

Here is a start:

Behold my latest trip here and the air fare. This is what my company paid for a round trip (Economy by the way) between Philly and Prague. Note the actual Air Fare is a mere $226.00 U.S. Dollars.

Oh yeah, dear reader, that big whopping $620.70 is all the taxes heaped onto this international ticket. Those Taxes have only recently gone up to accommodate this new “Carbon Trading” scheme that has been enacted here in the EU Zone. All aircraft flying into and landing in the EU Zone are now required to pay this Carbon Offset tax and it only this year went into effect on flights originating in North America (the U.S. Air Carriers all ganged together and sued the EU but of course lost).

This adds another $31 dollars minimum to a flight from the U.S. Now I don’t pay this tax, my company does but when you look at all the taxes how in the hell are you going to try and spur any kind of tourism to either continent with taxes that make a trip like this outrageous in cost.

Look at that up there, the airline flight is a mere $226.00 and we are not talking some cut rate airline, this is a British Airways flight. These guys actually earn that money: they feed you and keep you in booze the whole flight. They prowl the aisles with water and juice all during the flight not like a U.S. Airline I know that will go without nameless here ( Delta) who feeds you and then they disappear until its almost time to land. And I mean disappear; they must have some secret under-the-floor retreat they all hide in because they go away leaving water a juice out for you to serve yourself. But not BA, those crews actually serve the whole time you are with them.

Anyway, I don’t see how one can trigger tourism when you pile on the taxes and meanwhile the aircraft manufacturers are going out of their way to build more and more fuel efficient aircraft yet they get hammered on the carbon output on a flat rate not at all based on how little impact their new engines are on the environment. The government fools here don’t understand the market side approach that would incentivize the reduction of carbon output. But no, it’s all done it that socialist way where everyone shares in the misery.

In other news: There is no Global Warming!! What you say, look at this chart:

I stole the chart from Weasel Zippers and they got it from this article right here. From the UK Daily Mail no less!!

Yeah it appears that there has been NO warming over the last 15 years which means that there has been no so called “Greenhouse” effect from all the Carbon Dioxide accumulating up there in the stratosphere. The article further states that a mini-Ice Age just may be a coming our way too.

Wow, where did I hear that before? I remember now, when I was back in the early ‘70’s and they had just got DDT black listed to save Bald Eagle. You remember that whole Rachel Carson think where she determined that the Bald Eagle has suddenly developed thin egg shells triggered by the ingestion of this evil toxin (even though Bald Eagles in Alaska had the same problem of thin egg shells but the use of DDT was not wide spread up there at the time) . So to save the symbol of the country we had to ditch the one chemical responsible for the saving of literally millions of lives by its use of killing mesquites.

But I drift; back to the “Ice Age” that was all the rage back in the ‘70’s. Yeah, it was even a time cover story.

This is the April 8th 1977 cover of Time, but the hype started years before. In June of 1974 time ran its first article about the coming ice age (“Another Ice Age?”) and Newsweek followed with a story its own on the same subject (“The Cooling World”) in their April 28th 1975 issue. Oh the humanity.

What was old is new again, just think Time and Newsweek both can save themselves some money and republish both those stories and not pay a real journalist to actually you know fact check or anything just like their Political coverage!!

I wonder where all that Carbon Tax money is really going? Do you think they are really going to use it to plant trees or to suck CO2 out of the sky and sequester it down deep inside ole Mother Gia?

No, I think they are using it to line their pockets the rat bastards. This whole Global Warming/Climate Change/Carbon Dioxide is one big scam designed to take money away from those of us that have it and turn it over to politicians who will do with it as they please.

What a load of crap.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Student Loan Money – 2 easy 2 get

2011-10-29T02:24:00.000-07:00

One of the few complaints that is making sense coming out of the “Occupy Wall Street” crowd or OWS as a short cut, is the complaint that many young people are carrying a huge debt load after they graduate from college or university, if they graduate at all. Of course, none of them are looking inward and questioning what they were in college for in the first place, I mean how many MBA’s do we really need out there when it is always “Math and Science” that the work force needs. And how many of these idiots took courses either on their own violation or at the hands of Administrators that were absolutely stupid courses like, “The Art of Walking” or “Daytime Serials”.

I bet one regrets spending $15,000 dollars on the course “Science of Superheros” now that you have to actually pay back that tuition money. With interest!

The problem with the OWS crowd is that they want a Bailout of their financial responsibility; they want Big Government@ to pay for their little dalliance in higher education. A free pass from the magical money coffer that most liberals seem to think is theirs for the taking. To be spent on all the social ills in our society, a redistribution of the wealth created by the actual working class.

The big problem as I see it is that money to go to secondary education is too easy to get and has been for many, many years. I say that knowing full well that my Daughter went to university on credit basically extended through her parents (me and the Good Wife). My wife and I are the proud holders of a note that is almost as hard a hit on us financially as the mortgage on our house! But it was the only way for her to get a Degree. And all the loan approvals were done on-line with little or no fuss.

All guaranteed by our mutual relative, Uncle Sam. And that is the root of the problem as far as I can see. With Big Government@ back-stopping all the loans there is very little reason for a bank not to loan the money out, no matter how long it takes someone to graduate if at all, or how many dumb or stupid classes they are made to take, no matter how much the school charges for the course in the first place.

With no one saying "NO" to incoming student’s colleges and universities have had no reason to hold down costs. So, little by little the cost has gone up, courses are added even for no other reason than Political Correctness and the final tally are college degrees that are over inflated. Tuition that is obscene and out of control. Observe the below chart.

Source: http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2011/07/higher-education-bubble-college-tuition.html

That is a real bubble there folks, propped up by yours and my tax dollars. And almost no one is talking about this.

If there was no rich Uncle ready to back any one that came along needing a loan WITHOUT any collateral as backup, then people would either do without going to school or they will be dammed careful where they went and what courses they were taking. People would be shopping with their wallet and maybe even standing up to the school Administrator that was trying to get people into worthless classes or study programs that lead nowhere (like Women or Black Studies).

The lack of perspective new students knocking on doors would mean someone would have to do without a fancy lounge or tenure or a room full of staff. The school would have to justify the tuition and maybe even put on some cost controls.

Schools would actually have to compete with one another for the limited incoming students and maybe just maybe they would go back to actually forcing teachers/professors to actually you know, teach. In my time in university I was never once taught by the professor, some under graduate or other lackey always gave the lectures and passed out the exercises.

With no pressure to hold down costs they schools have gone wild and the graph above shows this. How soon before this bubble bursts? Not soon enough.

HT: http://mjperry.blogspot.com/

BT: Jimmy T sends.

9/11: My Observations

2011-09-12T02:09:00.000-07:00

I did not put up anything to acknowledge the 10th anniversary of 9/11, sorry but there was plenty of stuff out there for us all to wallow in and a fair amount better than anything I could say. But it is now 9/12 and time for that other shoe to drop. That is to say: How I really Feel about this event?

I am embolden by blog buddy ASM-826 who ran a series entitled "How I Feel Now" wherein he discuss' his feelings regarding the whole Anit-American sentiment that triggered this event. He is still angered over it and quite frankly, so am I.

Now, most people that come here know that I have had at various times two Son’s in the military over this last 10 years. Both joined after 9/11 (in fact Son #1 was due to leave for Basic Training that very Tuesday but that was stalled a couple of weeks, but that did not deter him, he still joined and serves to this day) and one has in fact deployed into combat in Afghanistan (he went to Iraq as well but his battalion did not see action). Those were trying times here in the Swamp.

Skin in the game and all that.

Yeah I know, we went overseas and broke a lot of china in faraway places, hoping to change regimes and the hearts and minds of people who would be our enemy. And for the most part we have been successful; there is now a democracy in place in an Arab/Muslim country for the first time in history, no small feat. I hope they can hold onto it.

We have also toiled diligently in another hell hole of the world to little affect. It seems the people of Afghanistan don’t really care who runs the country so long as they are left alone in their poverty. That is how it has been for many centuries no need to change it now even if it is for the better. Mud huts, no electricity or running water – no problem. They have their goats.

To them I say “Hasta La vista Baby, don’t choke on the dust.” The graveyard of kingdoms is populated by the walking dead; we need not bother them anymore.

But, what really has been simmering inside me all these 10 years is the simple fact that the Arab street and those who “claim” to love Islam have simply not refuted what has happened. Look, they had a grievance of some sort, why not appear before the UN or in the Haig and register a complaint. With all the America-Haters in the UN I am sure they would have raised a stink and with Political Correctness running wild here there would have been a change.

But to fly large aircraft filled with innocent people into buildings for sole purpose of killing Americans is reprehensible. It is beyond the pale. And yet, what did the Arab Street have to say when this occurred?

Well, here it is, video from that very day 10 years a 1 day ago.

YES, that’s right. They were celebrating, dancing in the street. I saw those images live when they were first broadcast. They did not re-run them however on network TV in the states. I am sure they were not shown yesterday on the 10 anniversary either? (Unfortunately, I am in Europe again and missed all that build up however the BBC did carry the NYC 9/11 Memorial live.)

Here they are again; take a good look at this because this is really how they feel about us Americans!

And I need to point out something here that is not obvious. These people were dancing and carrying on even though they did not know who committed the attack. All they knew at this instant in time was that a whole lot of Americans were dying. And they were happy about it.

Take another look:

These folks were celebrating the simple fact that we were attacked, that Americans were being killed, they did not even know at this point who or why.

Now, riddle me this all of you Arab/Muslim defenders, why would anyone celebrate when the most charitable peoples in the world are attached? The people who saved the world from tyranny not just in WW-II but who do you think kept the Soviet Union at bay all those years? Hmmm? You really think the Saudi’s could have held their own against the Red Army marching in and taking over?

And when Bangladesh is swamped by massive tsunami who is the first nation there bringing water purification systems and medical personnel into the disaster zone. I’ll clue you into a simple fact, it was not any of the Arab or Muslim nations, it was us, the United States of America. That same military that you found so reprehensible you had to attack us over is the very military that is all too often on the spot saving lives of those in need after a natural disaster. Without asking first if those very people are friendly or what their religious beliefs are, they simply go in and take care of business.

No folks, I will stew a good long time over this. Maybe forever or until every last Muslim his has been killed or has converted over to something other than Islam.

And you don't want me as President because I would have brought a real war to the Middle East and it would not have been pretty at all by a long shot. But vengeance would have been had because that is all those people understand. Might makes Right.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Oxygen Thief OR Idiot with a Passport

2011-07-14T11:59:00.000-07:00

You have all heard the phrase “The Ugly American”, well how about the “Stupid American”. So, I'am checking into my flight at the Prague Airport for my return home after 2-weeks of slaving away making the Dome project work. I was tired and homesick, really tired of living in hotels and eating rich foods with little exercise.

So, I am in line going through security at the departure gate. They do it differently in Europe; actually they do it differently in Germany and England too, not just the Czech Republic. Here you get an initial screening interview where you check in your baggage. They ask you questions about what your baggage and what you are taking onto the aircraft. They specifically ask you if you are aware of “Prohibited” items and if you are not, they will tell what they are, reading from the list. Jut to be sure.

They ask if you have any of these items on your person or in your hand baggage. Hand baggage is the luggage you are taking onto the jet with you or simply your “carry-on”.

If you have traveled even a little bit you know what these items are: weapons or anything that can be used as a weapon, glass items, anything that will start a fire, flammable liquids, liquids in more than 4 ounce container or more than a quart in total.

After that initial interview you can proceed to the gate where they put you through the actual screening. This is the part where all your stuff is X-rayed and you go through the metal detector. At least here you don’t have to take your shoes off, but you do have to pull the laptops out (yes that is plural, your humble scribe travels with no fewer than two laptops, sometimes more), empty your pockets and remove the belts.

Again, I am going through the screening, I got all my stuff laid out in the bins and a guy ahead of me sets off the metal detector. He has to step back and get a ton of items removed and put in a small bucket for X-ray, a huge key chain, watch, bracelets, necklace, a belt with metal studs all around and he had a nice pair of sun glasses on a strap hanging off his neck but onto his back. Mr. Hipster was also wearing a jaunty little hat that he was told more than once to remove.

So, he gets the up close and personal pat down which basically stops the flow on my line. We were early and there was not a lot of people waiting. Just me in fact, anxious to get home. When they are done with the pat down on the Hipster I am waived through. No problems for me. I pass right on through.

I cannot however collect my things because all the security Agents are now busying themselves with examining Mr. Hipster’s hand baggage. Yes folks, this guy is one of those that makes you wish you were not an American.

They pull out of his stuff a set of glass beer glasses not mugs mind you but they were tall, the kind that would hold a liter of beer, something maybe Paul Bunyan would drink from. Then out comes a set of shot glasses, they are nice looking, heavy set with a blue dollop in the middle of the base. Then a Lighter, one of them Zippo’s: the Agents all take turns thumbing it on getting a nice flame off the thing. Zippo’s are the best you know. They also pull out a small can of the lighter fluid for the Zippo and boy they are sure going to need it because they called over a Supervisor and he too flicked it on a few times, marveling at the flame.

Out of a pocket on the backpack they pull out 4 or 5 wine puller tools. “I collect those”! says the Hipster Duffus. They only look at him with contempt and pull out the small knife blade that is attached to each.

Then out comes something wrapped in paper and taped up pretty good. They use the knife blade on the Wine pullers to cut through the wrapping and they pull out a bottle of Moskovskaya which is a kind of vodka sold here. I think it’s actually Russian but it can be used for not just getting drunk, it can clean carburetors, thin paint and disinfect wounds.

The Hipster Duffus must have had a party planned because it was a full 500 ml size bottle. But that was not the capper.

Out of a cardboard box they pull out a tall bottle with a long skinny neck. It looks like one of those Olive oil disperses you see at fine Italian Restaurants. Only this one is quite large. And it has a very clear liquid in it, with a kind of rope that is immersed into it. The top is all sealed off with wax and then a plastic wrap.

It’s a Lamp. You know the kind you ignite and use for illuminating a room. The clear liquid is pure alcohol and the rope is the wick. Several of the Security Agents look at him while holding the bottle up at him. “I was told this was safe to bring on the plane. All this stuff is supposed to be ok.” He said.

Now, I am standing there waiting patiently hoping I would be asked my opinion of what they should do. You know, some time in a Turkish prison may do this Duffus some good. A good beating with his contraband items or at the very least they should pull his boarding pass and make him go home via another means of transportation where Motivic Cocktails are not prohibited.

The Supervising Security Agent looks at all the stuff and then to the Duffus he says: “Sir, we must speak with you about all these things you have here. These things, they are,,” he stops for a moment thinking of the English word for what he wants to say. “Criminal” I say under my breath, several of the Agents look at me with little smiles on their face. Duffus also gives me the look that says “Don’t give them any ideas.” “Irregular.” The Supervisor says.

They gather his stuff into several bins and march him and his stuff to an interview room.

I start getting my stuff together and packed back where they belong. The Czech Security Agents are all gabbing in Czech, I am sure it is about the Duffuss. They smile at me as I am preparing to leave the area: “Thank you sir for your patience.” One says to me.

“You know, you guys could always keep him here.” I say. They all laugh with me. “No, we have many of our own.” The one says to me as I depart. I wave to them and shake my head.

This guy is using up good oxygen and he is an American! They should test you first before they give you a passport.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Obama's War on Oil

2011-07-07T12:53:00.000-07:00

How important is the Oil Industry to the national economy? Let’s look at a few facts.

First off Oil as it turns out is a very useful base product. From a single barrel of oil (42 gallons) you not only get gasoline (19.36 gals) which we all put into our cars but they also refine Diesel fuel and Jet fuel. This accounts for only about 33 of the 42 gallons in the standard barrel of oil.

Graphic above taken from the U. S. Energy Information Administraion (http://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/)

That remaining 9 gallons of oil is used to make many, many items. They are called “petrochemicals” a byproduct of distilling oil further is the production of ethylene and propylene. These are the backbone of the huge petrochemical industry.

Ethylene and propylene are used to produce plastics. Plastics in many forms have literally revolutionized our lives. Used in everything from cookware to blood bags, from computers to carpeting. There is virtually noting that does not benefit from the many forms of plastic.

The petrochemical industry employs more than 7 million people in this country this is over and above the 2 million jobs directly related to oil and gas production (these are the oil and gas field jobs, and those employed in the first tier refineries).
Plastics includes: bottles, laminated table/counter tops and flooring,, appliances, toys and medical equipment (including artificial joints, prosthesis as well as the tubing and surgical equipment). More than 1 million people work in the plastics industries and increases as a component of the national GDP by more than 2% per year.

Derivative oil based products include asphalts, dyes, waxes, lubricants and the base for paints and of course tires (car and truck) which are all “artificial” rubber.

Cosmetics include all the dyes, colorants and aromatics which are re-applied to other plastic or derivative (in the case of color agents of paint).

All of these industries are included in that 7 million job count. All of these products are directly affected by the price of the barrel of Oil. The pain of high oil goes beyond the gas pump that we all feel.

Begging to curry favor with the far left the Obama Administration has embarked on a considered effort if not to destroy the Oil Industry at least to hobble it to the point of near non-existence. The Administration is vested in high energy prices as a way to make Wind and Solar (supposed “Green” energy) more attractive.

The Administration has worked hard to restrict access to both oil and natural gas fields where many new jobs would be created. At the same time, drawing oil locally or at least in this hemisphere would reduce our multi-billion dollar to Middle Eastern nations for their oil. Witness the near total ban on re-opening drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and all the effort this Administration has expanded in trying to keep oil drilling a thing of the past in that region. All to the detriment of the many tens of thousands that depend on those jobs.

At the same time the EPA is on the way to adopting regulations that would restrict the development of new oil and gas fields, new and improved refinery plants which all would spur new jobs and reduce the cost of the raw material to the many industries that we rely on, not just the gas for our cars.

All of these initiatives pushed by the Administration (High energy prices, restricted access to the raw resources itself and the overreaching EPA regulations) is a concerted effort to cripple the oil and gas industries. With little or no regard to how the public feels or to its needs. No one can deny that high energy prices ripple into the fabric of our society.

That barrel of Oil is used many times in our integrated economy so that the high price must be factored into the ultimate cost of items purchased by the consumer many times. Not just in the transportation of the finished product to market, in many cases the actual manufacturing of the product is done in plants or with methods that rely on oil or petrochemicals.

There is no questioning that we are an oil economy. The fact that the Obama Administration is at war in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Pakistan, Semolina (albeit a low yield, low intensity) he is also at war with the Oil and Natural Gas resources within this country.

We are blessed with enough of both to make the country completely independent of foreign oil. If only the envorowinnies would let us.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Fun -n - Games with the Air Force

2011-04-15T12:47:00.000-07:00

Ok, I am back. And why not come back having fun at the expense of the Boys-n-Blue, the USAF. A crew from the 411th Aircraft Maintenance Unit (an F-22 unit) beat out all commers for the highly prized "Weapons Loader" competition held at Edwards AFB. This 3-Man Person Crew from the 411 Aircraft Maintenance Unit (AMU) beat out all other competitors for the distinction of best Wewpons Loaders for the First Quarter of 2011. There is a long and drawn out history of quickly and safely loading aircraft with the weapons of war. An important skill and a competiton started before the Korean war during the very infantancy of the USAF. More here. What’s so funny You say? Well, when you read what these guys were actually doing you too will be saying “WTF” and I am not talking about winning the Future either. Look, way back when this competion started there was a huge need to quickly reload aircraft with the munitions necessary to prosecute a war. We are talking about dozens of bombs, rockets and even a few missiles were part of the war load on the old workload aircraft in the way back. Your FB-111s, F-4’s, B-66, B-58’s and the F-100 series of aircraft, these things could carry some iron. The competition described in the above dispatch from Edwards AFB was for each 3-person crew to load a single AIM-120 missile onto their target aircraft.. One, 1, uno, a single missile. And I am talking it was actually hauled around and held up to the aircraft using a spotting dolly, a self propelled one at that. In my day you loaded bombs the old fashion way, with a friggin hernia bar! Picture taken from MidwaysAircraft.org website. I amsuspecting this is a test load because of the Civilians doing the loading and the lack of markings on the weapons shapes. The Yellow bar they are gripping is the hernia bar and it is used to help load the store to the aircraft rack. On the really heavy stuff we would put a harnia bar out the back end of the bomb too and get several more knuckle draggers to lift the shape to the rack.

LIKE THIS: Oh and that is not the birghtest part of this, seems there were only TWO crews available for the competiton. The F-22 crew that won it all here and a Crew from the F-35 JSF Aircraft Maintenance Unit. All the other possible participants (F-15, F-16, B-1, and B-2s) well they were all busy, something about having to put aircraft in COMBAT, you know, out fighting 3 air wars all at once.

Yeah, you can keep that fancy and expensive F-22 here in CONUS fighting for prime space and per diem money at Air Shows while the rest of Air Combat Command is out you know, in COMBAT. And you can keep your SORRY ASS excuse for why the most formidable fighter known to mankind is sitting this one out. Hell, the B-1 and B-2 crews are flying from CONUS to Libia and back. Why not simply put some F-22's in Italy? Who knows, I am sure there is some lame ass reason for needing specialized basing and maintenance on site to keep it here. Good deal on that at some where over $400 Million bucks an airframe.

Oh, its good to be back. By the way, my dearly and most recently departed Father was in the Air Force and my SN1 serves today with the Indiania Air National Guard. But still, easy pickens!!

BT: Jimmy T sends.

My Father is Gone

2011-04-04T12:48:00.000-07:00

Sorry to have gone silent for so long here about. My Father passed away on the 27th, ravaged by Cancer for more than a year he was stubborn to the end but had wasted away to nothing like the Giant of a Man of my Youth. He and my Mother were the center of the Taylor universe. Some of us had orbits that were close at hand (my Sisters and their Kids) and others such as me (me alone in all truthfulness as I am the only family member that lives outside of the Rio Grande valley) the orbit was much greater however no less important in the gravity they imposed on us all. I am quite simply, lost. I was prepared for this, warned in the end that the time was near. My Father refused to talk to either me or his older sister for mainly the acknowledgement that each conversation was his last. I will cherish my last visit back in December last year and how well he was doing. He was brought back from the brink by the Sisters tending and minding to him for almost a year. There was always at least one of the Sisters in his company. A true feat and measure of their Love. Dad, as he was known to me was 78 years old when he passed; joining my Mother where ever it is one goes at the end. Together they had 7 Children, 18 Grand Children and 15 Great Grand Children. They did a superlative job on all of us, each independent and driven. Each successful and doing well with values embedded in us by two of the finest parents anyone could ask for. Dad was put to his final rest in the National Military Cemetery in Santa Fe. He has a corner lot that looks out over the Sangre de Christo Mountains. A fine spot not too far from the shoulder of the road I was born on. I weep still and its been a week. How will I make it from here. BT: Jimmy T sends.

Wind Power Blows

2011-03-22T13:12:00.000-07:00

This is why I don’t want one of these in My Backyard! Nuke Power Plan, fine I have one of those (our locale here in the Swamp is inside the 10-mile radius of the Limerick Generating station).

Can you imagine what it takes to put out a fire way up there especially in a rural community where the Fire Fighters are volunteers and equipped with vehicles more equipped to handle structure fires. My township only a few years ago invested in a Ladder Truck that allows the volunteers to get up to the third floors, which is the size of the largest structure in about 100 square miles of here.

And what about all the toxic gas given off by the burning of the fiberglass turbine blades? I hear that stuff is really bad for you.

And since I am a “real” environmentalist I despair at the deaths of defenseless and innocent Birds that are killed by the hundreds of thousands (in this country alone) by Wind Turbine blades.

Victims of Green Idiots:

I read somewhere that more than 1 million birds are killed in Spain alone and that country is only the size of Texas. And did you hear how many real-money-paying Jobs were killed by that Green revolution there!! Yeah, 2.2 real jobs are lost for every Green Job created and since the Government has to subsidize those Green Jobs the true impact is far greater since you have to seize more Tax money from the Working to funnel into the subsidized Green Job to keep it around. As soon as that Government money runs out, the Job ends and the person with that Job goes on Public Assistance.

That is another great benefit to the Green Revolution that no one wants to talk about.

There are lawsuits a plenty filed by Environmental groups trying to stem the tide of Bird Deaths. It’s almost comical. (More here and here.)

Now the reason for this post is all the bad press that Nuke Power is getting thanks to the Lefty-Media and their willingness to exploit the horrific incidents in Japan with the Fukushima Nuke Plant. The Media has been using anti-nuclear proponents as on-air experts on the Nuclear Power industry then using the air time to bash that industry. Their effort is to kill this industry and make sure not another nuke plant gets an operating permit in this country.

All the while, the Government Green Winnie’s led by the Dear Leader hisself pushes “re-newable” and wind energy. None of that works. Not unless you carpet the country with Wind Turbines and Solar Panels. And I mean carpet because at the efficiency rate of Wind technology (a mere 35%) you need many tens of thousands to replace the Nuke output.

And oh by the way, Wind Turbines do not reduce countries Carbon Output. The Dutch and now the Germans have released data that show for all their efforts to build and install Wind Turbines they have not reduced their Carbon foot print by “a single gram”. So, there goes that excuse.
Then there is the noise pollution, the shadow pollution and the stray voltage issue (I kid you not, cattle have been killed by the stray voltage generated by the turbines which are not properly grounded or their Earth Grounds become disconnected).

And every now and then the towers collapse.

Jeez, these things are as troublesome as a fair election in Chicago!!

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Strike Eagle Down in Libya

2011-03-22T08:45:00.000-07:00

A USAF F-15E Strike Eagle fell out of the sky over eastern Libya. The Eagle was assigned to the "Madhatters" of th 492nd Fighter Squadron out of Lakenheath, England.

The aircraft was felled by mechanical failure not enmey action and the Crew is safe. One having been recovered by a USMC TRAP Team using a MV-22 Osprey. The other crewman was found by people on the ground friendly with the push to oust the current regime and he was returned to another Allied CSAR crew.

Here is video of the crash site which shows clearly the aircraft is an F-15. The amazing part is that one of the AIM-120 Air to Air missiles survived the crash and people are standing around it like is was just another part of the aircraft.

Scary.

TRAP: This is what the Marines do that the USAF calls CSAR (Combat Search and Rescue): TRAP is Tactical Recovery of Aircaft and Personnel. My son who was assigned to the 1st Battalion of the 5th Marines was assigned to a TRAP team when he deployed on his MEU several years ago. Story here (My Son was actually part of this training evolution). Back then he performed this action out of either the MH-53 Sea Stallion or the CH-46 Sea Knight flown by the Heavy squadron in his MEU. They use the MV-22 for that now due largely to its impressive speed and range.

I am a fan of regime change in any country that has a history of killing Americans which this regime fall into. I wish the PresBO had handled this differently and was actually putting the U.S. in a Leadership role in this as oppossed to what will be a supporting role. Had we done this three weeks ago I am sure it would be over by now.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Class Warfare – Haves versus the Have-More

2011-03-08T14:00:00.001-08:00

It’s on full bore there in Wisconsin. The Haves are besieged by the Have-Mores’ who are led by Democrat Cowards. The Haves or the Voters put in office this last November a full team of Republicans. In one election cycle the Voters replaced the Majorities in both the State General Assembly and the State Senate. And they were not done there either oh by the way, replacing their Governor with a Republican, flipping one Congressional seat from “D” to “R” and a long standing Senator (Russ Feingold). This was complete repudiation of the left leaning and took the state from a stalwart Blue to flaming Red in one fell swoop.

But this is not interpreted by the Have-Mores as an indictment of their policies and priorities. Oh no, that election had nothing to do with what they want and they want More! So the Public Employee Unions are out in full force demanding More and More. They even have that Human Eating Machine and Communist Pig Michael Moore out stumping for them.

Watch the video at your own peril as his rant is beyound what a normal American would think is right and may subject you to projectile vomiting!

The Have-Mores are demanding more of the wealth that the Have’s just don’t want to give up to those that are actually living better than they are since the average Public Union employee has an overall compensation package that is superior to the average person in Wisconsin enjoys. In fact, the average is higher than even the National average. But they want even more!

They have flooded the TV airwaves and Radio stations with attack ads complaining about those evil Republicans and the agenda to end the reign of the Have-Mores and especially Collective Bargaining. They call it a “right” but in fact it is a privilege and the way it is used in Public Employee Unions it is actually a money laundry scheme. Whereas the Union members surrender a portion of their wages to the Union leadership who siphon some of it off to compensate themselves richly for their services and then take a majority of what is left of those Dues and spend it buying DemocRat politicians. Once they get a political rat bought paid for and in Office they use that person to ‘negotiate’ new benefits and compensation to those Union members that are much better than the private sector. This includes a lavish Pension plans, way more than what the average person in American can expect ( A Bureau of Labor Statistics report in December found the average state-local government worker earns more than $40.10 an hour in salary and benefits, or almost 50 percent more than the $27.88 an hour earned by the average private worker). They get a better Health Insurance Plan completely paid for by the Public not the Union or its members. All the while the Union does not make payments to the Pension Trusts funds with those dues. The result, the Unions Pensions plans all around the country are way underfunded.

Even now in the heat of this battle the DemocRat Politicians are taking their orders from the Unions.

And that is the next battle ground. Who pays for all those pensioners that will not get any money when what little the Unions have left buying politicians run out? They want to keep as many DemocRat politicians on their payroll as possible to ensure they keep getting public payouts from higher taxes and bailouts.

Enough is enough. The Republicians in Wisconsin should hold their ground and not compromise on this issue, they will never get their financial house in order if they don't get the Unions working for them instead of the other way around.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

And the Winner Is: Suprise!!

2011-02-24T15:51:00.000-08:00

It's Boeing! Yeah, I am caught surprised as well. I never figured those USAF Pin Heads would have done this and award to Boeing what will be at least $35 Billion dollars in aircraft. Boeing pitched a "Next Generation" Tanker built on the 767 airframe. They build something similar that is in operation with Japan and Italy. They need to ramp up quickly and get these airframes in the air.

Good on them, in these economic times it makes all kinds of good sense to keep this program at home even if a lot of it is built off shore and brought here for final assembly.

I expect there to be some legal gymnastics and I hope it is held to a minimum and that Boeing gets moving building these aircraft. The Boy's in Blue could sure use them as those KC-135's are very long in the tooth. They must cost a bundle to repair and maintain and most are older than the Wing Commanders much less the actual air crews.

Not sure what I am going to write about in the future, this was good fodder!!

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Profiles in Courage – Wisconsin Senate Fleebaggers

2011-02-24T06:30:00.000-08:00

Fleebagging from Wisconsin

Meet: Tim Carpenter (D – Coward)

District: I represent WI – 3 and the 4th Bar Stool from the left in the Tilted Kilt Pub

Time in Service: This is my 3ard Term as a State Senator however I spent 18 years in the State Assembly and now 10 days of service in Exile.

Time to run to Illinois: 1 hour 25 minutes, no one knows US 41 like I do!

Escape Route: I shot down US41 from Milwaukee to just outside Zion and once across the state line I leisurely drove across to Rockford stopping in Harvard to hit the potty and press the flesh.

Personal Message: Happy to serve the 3ard District even if from a Bar Room stool in the Tilted Kilt.

Stay tuned for more Profiles in Courage, next episode - Fleebagging from Indiana!

/snark OFF

I was once elected to public office and served 7 years as an elected official of my community. Never, ever did I cut and run like the 14 Democrat cowards from Wisconsin or the many in Indiana. I faced hugely unpopular votes but stood before the crowded meeting room and expressed my thoughts and then voted. I did not run from the responsibility entrusted to me, I took the heat and moved my community forward. To compare anything that these guys do as being "Democratic" or as part of our "Democracy" is to slander all the good works performed by true leaders in governments all around the country.

These Girlie Men are Cowards. Ture Cowards.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

KC-X Tanker Wars - Award in Sight

2011-02-23T08:59:00.000-08:00

The USAF may announce as soon as tomorrow 24 February, the winner of the long delayed and protested replacement for the KC-135. There has been a lot of activity in recent weeks. Each competing company has submitted updated cost proposals and rumor has it that EADS has the lowest raw number.

Supporters of the Boeing aircraft tried to get the USAF to throw out the model they are using to “equalize” the cost differences between the two radically different sized airframes being proposed. The Boeing supporters feel that the model (called IFARA or Integrated Fleet Air Refueling Assessment model) bends in favor of the larger airframe. This model was devised to level the playing ground but some folks think that not enough of a penalty is assessed to an airframe that would require a substantial additional cost to the Air Force in the form of building larger hangers and reinforcing runways, taxiways and ramp area for the larger and heavier aircraft.

Plus, EADS being a less-than-for-profit business affair can set the price of each airframe with no consideration of making a profit since the partner governments that own the parent company (Airbus) are primarily concerned with jobs the ultimate cost can be way less than an airframe much smaller than the A330 they proposed. This makes for a huge bias towards the EADS bid and this huge award going overseas.

And I know, EADS claims that they will open another production line here in the US but I think what they will do is simply set up a facility where they only fit-out a completed tube with the classified communications gear this aircraft will have to have installed. So, there will be jobs here in the US but they will not be nearly what are being claimed in the EADS propaganda.

So, stay tuned. A legal crap storm may break out as early as Friday!!

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Cho-cho’s and Bull Crap

2011-02-09T11:56:00.000-08:00

During the State of the Union PresBO spouted off about wanting more High Speed Rail lines built into the country. Not sure why, these are fundamentally wrong for the United States except for moving heavy freight, which happens right now on many sets of tracks. How many of those can one turn into a high speed passenger service? None.

This has come up again lately, the Vice-Dunce Biden rode his ole rail line back up to Philly yesterday to hold a presser on the federal government’s desire to pour $53 Billion dollars into more high speed rail lines. Who are they kidding, that kind of money won’t cover the cost overrun on a job of this scale.

Look I don’t care how these guys are selling it; profitable rail service does not work here in the US. Observe the map below: Yeah, that about tells the story. This country is way too big for affordable rail service. Just look at how much money we as taxpayers loose every year on AMTRACK ($5 Billion last year). They lose more than $20 bucks a passenger and on some routes it would be cheaper to run the train with no one on it at all since the conductor/ticket puncher would not be required. And this is not the Acella, word is that monetary loss is much higher on that service. The only reason AMTRACK stays open is the simple fact that it goes to Washington DC.

The sad fact is that the administration is clutching at straws for Job Creation. They aren’t cutting it. This whole idea is as flawed as the idea of renewable energy from the wind or solar. It would be better to burn wood at least you can grow that back and burn some more.

Much like the building of Wind Mills for electric production, most of the steel will come from off shore. Those large props that are used to capture the wind on those windmills come from Germany or Holland. They are not made here. Those large transmission gear assemblies that are used to steer the rotating props to the electric generator, yep made off shore. Even the generator for the most part comes from off shore.

The truth is we don’t have this technology here anymore. It is all imported.

Do you think it will be any different for building a Rail system? I don’t. The Steel Industry long ago fled this country and most of the steel used in rail lines today, even on AMTRAC come from Korea. The Passenger Cars, those fancy ones on the Acella line that hauls Bidens big ass around on come from Germany (Siemens AG). The only part of a massive Rail system that will be U.S. built may be just the locomotive. A GE locomotive would be getting my vote seeing as how they are in bed with the PresBO.

Not until the US congress straps on some Balls and passes a Buy America provision for any project that uses Taxpayer money there will be no Job creation. This should have been a stipulation of the many Stimulus projects. Instead, at the urging of the Administration the congress passed a Union worker provision. Proving once again it is who you sleep with that counts.

Sorry, Green Jobs, FAIL. Renewable energy, FAIL. Public Employee Unions, FAIL. Ownership of GM, FAIL. High Speed rail, FAIL.

This crew has no clue, all those Harvard, Yale and all the Ivy League schooling and they are still lost. Maybe, just maybe they should go out and get a real job to see what it is really like, own and operate a business to see just how jobs are created in this country. Not dreamed of on the black board in the cloistered halls of academia.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Mother of a Commute : Ice Road Trucking in PA

2011-02-03T03:04:00.000-08:00

Obligatory comments on the weather. We have had weekly (for the past 6 weeks) storms that have caused many problems around these parts. Especally for the daily morning commute. I have a 26 mile drive over farm country on a couple of two lane roads which is normally a peacefull drive if not lovely. However, when you add a whole lot of snow and now ice, well that peacefull and lovely get replaced by nerve racking, scary and downright dangerous. Still lovely though. Here are some pictures:

This is what I woke up to a little over a week ago, this was the 26th of January. This was maybe 14 to 16 inches of new snow. The great climate scientists of our day had predicted this to be a "rain" event. Here is what my Pond and back yard looked like over this last weekend. The blow hole there is made from a bubbler I have in the pond. My Koi are down there somewhere, they have survived 15 years of winters and we have had worse so I am not too concerned. Here is what I faced yesterday morning. This is what 1 Inch of ice looks like. That driveway slants down too by the way. It was completely covered in ice. I could not open the doors on the car as they were iced over. This is the tree in our Front yard, it is laden with ice. As the wind blew you could hear little snapping sounds of ice breaking. Later in the day it was all falling off and by 5:00pm the ice was completely off the tree.

Below is the Blue Heron "force field" deployed over the pond to defend the pond from the feathered devils that enjoy the Koi who cannot flee for their lives. The netting is solid with ice and heavy too. The pole on the left of this photo that holds up the left corner would eventually pull out of the ground and the nets would lay down on the top of the frozen pond. I'll have to dig the pole a new hole and pour in more cement to hold it down. Or I could pull in thoes nets and risk the open and free feeding of the Blue Herons, I am sure they would appriciate the free food.

Here is one of the roads I travel on to get to work. Of the 26 miles I travel about 24 of them are over roads that look like this. Its a pretty drive when the road is not covered in snow or ice.

This mornings drive was broken up with some debris, here a huge brand off that tree was blocking both lanes. I got out and draged this out of the way. It was heavy with both its raw size and with ice.

Oh the lovely site out the window in the area that is called Greshville Village. It is lovely.

White knuckle driving all the way, took a little over an hour. The power was out in the immediate area where my Work is and the power company had no idea when they couuld get around to restoring it. So I worked off my laptop for about 4 hours before they let us go home. It was actually getting cold in the building and with no estimate that power would return there was no point.

The dirve home was much less dramatic since we had a temprature change of some 7 to 10 degrees. By night fall the roads were all dry.

The long range forcast shows another storm coming our way for tomorrow night (that is long range around here). Just in time for the weekend. I'll be able to sleep in and not worry about the drive to work.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Congress Making Sausage : Buring Trash

2011-02-01T11:38:00.000-08:00

Many years ago I served my little community here as a Township Supervisor. Supervisors are elected officials and tasked with “running” the day to day activity of each of the many political subdivisions known here as Townships. Most of the people in the state of PA live in one of three classes of Townships. There are also Cities (there are only 3 in the whole state by the way) and Boro’s or Broughs as well.

My county alone (Montgomery) has 62 such subdivisions of various sizes and shapes. Within each the Supervisors are charged with hiring and firing of the Municipal staff, organizing and monitoring the various departments such as the Road Crew, Police, Administrative staff and the Sewer Plant if you are lucky enough to have one of those.

It is a daunting task and very underappreciated by the residents who go about their lives not realizing that 5 members of their community decide on virtually everything that makes their little community different from the next one down the road. Issues like Zoning, Subdivision and Land Development, construction standards for their roads, sidewalks and street light placement to tasking of the Police to patrol one area over another. There are standing committees that help with some of this; we had a Sewer Board, a Planning Commission for land development issues, Parks and Open Space committee, a Recreation committee and an Environmental Advisory Board.

One of the interesting aspects is that the make-up of the Board is by lay citizens from within the community. Our Board was made up of 5 unique individuals. One was a truck driver/mechanic, another was a retired State Trooper, another was a Butcher and yet another owned and operated a junkyard. Consensus building was sometimes a struggle, getting an idea sold across the diverse backgrounds of all the Supervisors were a challenge. An example was one effort I championed was to buy and install for our office staff (there were 9 Administrative staffers) a modern office computer system complete with laser printers and an actual office network. We had the money and the need. The staff was using clunker IBM workstations on an arcnet. It took some work, comparing different computers to models of trucks to convince the truck driver or likening an Ethernet to the turnpike and other roads for the Trooper to understand. It was but only item in what were a universe of needs that we addressed.

Another interesting aspect was everything a person in that position gets exposed to. I never knew anything about how a Municipal Sewer system worked but today, I can tell you the difference between an Circular Anaerobic digestion system and an Oxidation ditch system. The same with how roads are built and maintained or how a tract of farm land is turned into a single family housing development. It was always a learning experience and then of course applying some decision making skills.

To gain some structured knowledge and to help spread the experience around the Association that represented Township Supervisors all across the state of PA held training courses and seminars that we could attend. Many of the seminars related the changing of environmental laws or federal laws that are passed and then flowed down onto the Townships for us to figure out how to implement (like curb cuts into sidewalks after the ADA was passed). Some of the seminars were designed to teach the newbie how a road is built and how to go out and buy those large trucks that push the snow around in the winter or how to conduct a negotiate a contract with your Police union or even how to hold an effective meeting.

They were all helpful and I attended as many as I could. One I remember well and recent news items have pushed that one lesson to the fore.

It was a seminar on making Law. Yes folks, we as Township Supervisors are tasked with making laws. It was a necessary evil I assure you and none were done lightly. From the training seminal was one important lesson, which was has stuck with me. It was a discussion on consistent application of the law. The concept that all valid laws have to apply to all persons falling under its jurisdiction in exactly the same way. There can be no equivocation, no shade of grey, no waiver or exemptions. Laws that sustain challenge contain no ambiguity and are applied the same way in each happenstance. Laws are struck down if they are judged “capricious or arbitrary”.
Let us examine this a bit more:

Legal Dictionary:
Ar-bi-trary
1: depending on individual discretion and not fixed by standards, rules or law; founded on or subject to personal whims, prejudices, etc; having only relative application or relevance; not absolute

Ca-pri-cious
1; governed or characterized by impulse or whim; lacking a rational basis; not supported by the weight of evidence or established rules of law

Why has this struck me at this time? Well it was this: Waivers for Favors: Big Labor’s Obamacare escape hatch

This is an article by Michelle Malkin on waivers granted by the department of HHS to companies and Unions requesting exemption from the Patient Protection and the Affordable Health Care Act (PPAHCA) commonly known as Obamacare. It’s a huge number; almost 1 million Union members are exempt from Obamacare (list here) despite their hard work lobbying to get it passed.

There are almost 800 companies (story here) with active waivers granting exemption to more than 2 million people.

HHS reports that 50 applicants have been denied and no one knows how one group or plan is approved for exemption and another is denied. Do they grant them based on who has contributed money to their favorite Democrat cause? Is approval contingent on how “friendly” you are to the Administration?

You see, this is the problem when you invite exemption from a law you worked so very hard to get passed. Once you start exempting people, especially without that exemption process being spelled out in the same law, you get questions about the Law itself. How much of a “whim” is the law? How capricious is the law? It is applied in an arbitrary fashion? How consistent is it against the population it is to govern?

By virtue of the fact that the exemption process is a secret and not public, that so many are being exempted out and especially their own supporters want out this bill should be junked. It is capricious or arbitrary and not enforceable on the rest of us. It should be repealed or struck down altogether.

Once during my 7-years as a Township Supervisor I had to vote on a law banning the open burning of trash in the backyards of homes here in the Swamp area. Sounds like an easy piece of legislation to draft and vote on, makes sense in this modern age all that health and clean air stuff. But you would not believe the blow back. So many people came in asking what the hell were we thinking, banning the burning of trash! The meeting room was filled the next regularly scheduled meeting night, standing room only in fact (more 70 people came out). This was a big deal, we normally only get 4 or 5 folks out when we raised taxes or jacked up the sewer fee. Hell, when we laid off a Police Officer we only got three people in there to complain. What the hell were we thinking, banning the burning of trash!

They all wanted exemptions. They all wanted to keep their burn barrels. They wanted no part in the mandatory curb side service mandated by state law (the State recycling law forced municipalities that reached a certain population density to go to the curb with their trash).

We said no. I said no. If the law applied to one of us, it was going to apply to us all. And so it was, and is today here in the Swamp.

That one law may have been why I was a one term Supervisor. You take a stand and you take your lumps. We can only hope this will be true of PresBO as well.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Careful What You Wish For

2011-01-28T08:04:00.000-08:00

Protesters took the streets to confront security forces loyal to the government. Beating and killings go on for several days while the security forces try to put down the riots and protests spread. The Protesters coordinate their activity via twitter, email and they broadcast what they see over You Tube and Facebook. This was the news in 2009 coming out of Iran. To get control of the ground game the Iranian government shut down the internet and the phone system. (Story here.) This killed the movement that could have brought real reforms to this tyrannical government. But they had the ” Internet Kill Switch” and they used it.

Today, the news is same but over in Egypt. Mass riots and protests over the sitting regime. These protests started out small but news and coordination between protesters was conducted via the internet. This allowed the protesters to mass their forces against the Riot Police and security forces arrayed against them. Well, until the Egyptian government shut it all down. Again, they had the “Internet Kill Switch” and they used it.

So here we have the US Senate considering giving the President the same thing. How is this not an outright violation of the First Amendment? Why are they even contemplating this? Are they not satisfied taking over GM, Health Care, the Financial System and the Corn Crop?

I think this is as much a push to control the masses as all those other bills that are coached in helping the people. There can be no good to come from giving the Government control of this modern equivalent of the printing press.

Tyranny in any name is Liberty denied. Even by our own Government.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Tanker Wars - Update

2011-01-28T07:04:00.000-08:00

Time for some KC-X Tanker news. The original a time frame for the award of this long awaited program has slipped into February however; this could slip as well since the Senate took up hearings on the program.

Specifically the Senate is looking at the inadvertent release of proprietary cost data from one bidder to another. So, no telling how much this meddling will cost the program. Now, that is not to play down the seriousness of a release of this nature but to keep the wheels on this apple cart you have to find out if the data actually caused comprise. A forensic examination of the computer system used by an EADS Administrative employee was conducted by the Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center. They determined that a single page in one document was opened for 3 minutes. EADS claims that the people only looked at the data for about 15 seconds and claim no harm no foul. But they did move this person to another area not related to the KC-45 program which is the aircraft in their offer to the Air Force. Boeing testified that they did not open their set of data which was supposed to go to EADS. It seems their Administrative employee was smart enough to look at the labeling on the CD’s and see that it was proprietary to EADS and stopped. Bigger story here if you want.

In other news Boeing bowed out of the Indian Indigenous Tanker competition claiming they wanted to focus on the USAF KC-X program. Yeah, maybe they don’t want to get into another pissing contest over the size ambiguity in these requests for Tanker aircraft. The two aircraft the KC-767 and the KC-45 (based on an Airbus A330) are nowhere near the same size standard and since Airbus had so much help funding the building of the baseline aircraft it is very hard for Boeing to compete. I can understand that, if you are given the airframe for free you undercut anyone else trying to bid against you that had to pay for their fuselage out of their own pocket, and since no one seems willing to penalize Airbus for these illegal subsidies (to the tune of $200 Billion dollars, per the WTO) then you should walk. (WTO Story here)

Over in EADS land they had some interesting news. During a test of their A330 MRTT aircraft their much vaunted advanced Boom fell off. While in contact with an Spanish Air Force F-16. Both aircraft sustained damage and both returned safely to mother earth. I am sure the flight suit in one aircraft had to be changed, when you see that huge boom apparatus falling on you while you are at 15,000 feet I am sure you leave spots in the poopy suit. From Flightglobal is the big story but here is a quote from airbus:

”The boom detached at the root of the structural mast," says Airbus Military, responding to questions from Flightglobal. "There is no damage to the boom attachment, nor is there any significant damage to the [aircraft's] fuselage," it adds.

Photo from Airbus/EADS.

Meanwhile later in the month: “The Airbus Military A330 MRTT successfully passed fuel to receiver aircraft using the Fuselage Refueling Unit (FRU) for the first time.” (Source is Flightglobal, again) The FRU is the hose and drogue unit that is mounted on the aircrafts fuselage centerline (it is also equipped with wing mounted hose and drogue units). This is good news; Airbus had been having a lot of trouble getting the FRU to work. I guess getting that pesky Boom thingie out of the way really helped.

Well, I am sure Lawyers are circling just waiting to be called in and for Protest fire support in both camps. Even with an award today this program is far from over.

Shame on the DOD and USAF for doing such a lousy job all around on this program. Like the vampire that it has been it is almost time to put a steak into it and end all the misery.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Thanks to http://www.alert5.com/ Great site for up to the minute aerospace and military aviation news.

China Relations: "Will You Kiss Me?"

2011-01-18T16:26:00.000-08:00

So, the President of China is in town. No doubt looking over the collateral for those massive 890 BILLION dollars of notes they hold on us.

Our PresBO is holding a "working" private dinner with the US Banker and I hope he stays to the completion of the meal.

This brings this very funny SNL Skit to mind. Still appropriate after more than a year, funny how the items important to PresBO and the Left is still on their agenda today. Too bad for the Left as the Chinese can completely ignore us as it is we that owe them and they could if they want collapse our economy. So we have to play nice.

Or at least buy them Dinner and a Movie! Enjoy the video, it is so funny.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Height of Hypocrisy Part 2: MSM and Tucson Shooting

2011-01-17T06:23:00.000-08:00

Ok, I’ve tried to avoid this as long as I can. I have the full body condom on to protect me from all the crap flying around and there is plenty to go around folks.

First: whatever happened to the ole axiom of “Look before you Leap”? No, none of that folks, let’s just start shooting off at the mouth regarding why a lunatic unleashed himself at a political rally. And when the facts start coming out, despite all evidence to the contrary stay with your story line and prove the other old axiom “It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.” So there is no doubt that the MSM (ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, NPR, CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, the Washington Post, etc., and this smacked ass Paul Krugman) are fools.

The true hypocrisy is the raw number of examples of Left Wing loonies that have either spoken violence on their political opponents or have actually done violence (great summary here). But the MSM blames Sarah Palin? What is up with that?

Ok, they think Sarah is the most dangerous person (man or woman) on the right so they have to destroy her. And boy oh boy are they really working overtime to do that. They are not even slowing down to connect the dots. They think all of us out here are just as deranged as they are to see connections between this loner nut job and Sarah Palin’s target map of vulnerable Democrat congressional races.

Opos, not this map, this is the map put out by the Democrats of vulnerable Republicans, but you get the idea, you know crosshairs and a bullseye have the same meaning.

Hyppo’s!

Second, why is that Paul Krugman guy not in jail for his part of the Enron business? Oh no, they give him a Pulitzer prize and I guess his crap don’t stink. That prize I guess, is like a “Get-out-of-Jail-Free” card which allows you to say anything without fear of retribution by your peers. Oh well, that whole “Peer Review” think is all a big scam anyway after the ClimateGate affair. So, you help run a company into the ground, loose tens of thousands of people their lives fortune and you get a Pulitzer Prize. Same as that Nobel Prize, which has now been degraded to do nothing or lie about what do do and you get the Peace Prize. What a joke.

Lastly, the only thing that makes sense here is what I call the “rope-a-dope”: what is going on that they don’t want you to notice? Yeah, while we are all wagging about this nonsense no one is watching the store. So what else is happening that we really should be paying attention to?

Let’s have a look at headlines that we missed while the Left had its collective head up its Ass (and all of us on the Right just stood around pointing and laughing at them):

- Barrel of oil is over $90 bucks a pop and the Gallon of gas at the pump is over $3.00: what no outcry, by the MSM? No nashing of teeth by those Lefty Elitist that want to nationalize the oil companies? When will they start their bitching, when gas gets to $5.00 a gallon?

- Jobless Claims go up. That little dip in the unemployment rate was just a blip. Yeah, keep telling us things are getting better we live out here where we see this stuff first hand.

- Foreclosures still going up, more on the horizon. Yeah, hand in hand with high unemployment is the fact that housing construction is a major job producer but with the foreclosures at depression era levels, you have those record jobless rates.

- Half of all states now are suing to STOP Obamacare. Yeah, with the changes in State Houses in November last in places like Oklahoma, Ohio, Maine and Wisconsin joining in the lawsuits looking to end the this monstrosity!

- Tastykake in financial trouble – say it ain’t so. The Keystone States beloved sugary snacks may go the way of the DoDo. Yes, the Tasty Baking Company that puts out the best baby cakes known to mankind are swimming in red ink. All thanks to going Green. And I am not talking Eagles Green either folks, I am talking they drank the cool aide and converter their massive plant to a “Green” plant and you guessed it folks, it’s not working out. They are losing money hand over fist. Can’t a diabetic get a break here!! When I go off the sugar wagon I don’t want to settle for anything but the best.

Ok, that is plenty for now. Get back to watching the Republic go to hell in the handbasket!!

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Height of Hypocrisy Part 1: The Two Faces of Nancy

2011-01-05T06:49:00.000-08:00

Height of Hypocrisy Part 1: The Two faces of Nancy

That would be Nancy Pelosi the old and last Speaker of the House. Here she spews on about how the Republicans plans to repeal the Obama-Care Bill would do “violence to the public debt and deficit”. (Story - Video below)

She also claimed that reducing the deficit was always a priority while she was speaker “It is our mantra, pay-as-you-go” she is quoted as saying in her last official presser as Speaker (story here).

Here is video:

Oh yeah, the Democrats were watching out for the deficit and keeping their spending under control – NOT! They were spending money faster than you can actually burn money in fire pits!!

And none of it was our money, all of it borrowed!

Here is a smattering of their efforts during the “Nancy Years”:

National debt on 4 January 2007 was a mere $8,670,596,242,973.04 (that’s 8.6 trillion dollars)

National debt on 22 December 2010 (last day of the 111 congress):$13,858,529,371,601.09 (or 13.8 trillion)

Increase during the Pelosi term: 5.2 trillion

And as far as “Pay-as-you-Go” is concerned here is a quote from Paul Ryan (Republican member of the House Budget Committee) the Democrats under Speaker Nancy Pelosi “have violated pay-as-you-go rules by nearly $1 trillion dollars” over the past three years. And this was in May of 2010, plenty of time for the Democrats to spend into oblivion.

At the end of fiscal year 2010 the budget was busted by $1.6 trillion dollars.
Yeah, she was watching out for us while she was running the “Peoples House”. She was watching our money go down the drain.

And the final insult may well be how she spent her last weekend as the House Speaker, she was on vacation in a $10,000 a day resort.

Your tax dollars at work.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Hiding from the Truth with Tough Talk

2011-01-04T08:50:00.000-08:00

Hiding from the Truth with Tough Talk – the Sunday talk show circuit was filled with Democrats bitching, whining, complaining and decrying the legislative agenda that the newly installed Republicans plan, first and foremost is the repeal of the Obama-Care act.

The talking heads all reading from the same set of talking points pushed forth the idea that the “people” want no going back to redress laws already passed, that they would look badly on the waste of time if the Republicans spend too much time “witch” hunting and that the “peoples” agenda was now jobs and that is what the new majority should focus on instead. The Senate Democrat leadership even sent the House a letter admonishing them not to go down the path of trying to repeal Obama-care.

This is all political theatre, posturing and pandering writ large. Now everyone knows that Bills do not become law unless they are passed in both houses of congress and signed by the President. So, knowing that the Senate will in no way bring up a Bill repealing Obama-care means this is never going to see the light of day, the House efforts to repeal Obama-care will fail.

So, why the exercise?

I don’t know why the Democrats are hanging on so tightly to something that is so horribly ugly. To say that Obama-care is not popular is an understatement and it has not even kicked-in yet. We are not yet to the point where hospital services, drugs and materials are being rationed and that is on the way folks, you can be sure. Just ask anyone under the care of the Indian Health Service. They know it first hand and live by the idea that you don’t get sick after June because that last fiscal quarter there is no more money to pay for all those services. No matter how important.

I guess the Democrats don’t want to lose their handhold on that Social Utopia they all want for us here in the U.S.A.

Meanwhile the Republicans I think are simply trying to put the Dem’s on the record – again. Getting House members to vote puts them in the position of having to take sides. Only those in protected congressional districts can vote against repeal without worry of voter retribution. The others who have to actually work to keep their jobs will have to pick a side. How many will that be?

But a Bill once passed by one House does not die unless it is voted down by the other House and I think this Bill will sit there on the Books of the 112th Congress waiting for opportunity. Who knows if there will be a power shift in the Senate, attrition or retirement of a few key Democrats and that house changes hands and right there sitting waiting for a real leader will be this repeal Bill. One could only hope.

The truly amazing thing here is that the Democrats have completely forgotten that the elections back a mere 2 months ago were all about stopping this maniacal agenda they are on. The voter’s message any way you measure it was for exactly what the Republicans are doing. How is it they don’t see that?

I guess being a Liberal in these days and age is what it would be like to be in a persistent vegetative state. A political coma as it were.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Time for some Space

2010-12-30T07:07:00.000-08:00

As anyone who frequents here knows I am an Aviation Buff. Well, having worked in the field for most of my life maybe “Buff” maybe an understatement. I also feel that going into space to be the natural next step in aviation.

I love the Space program and support most of what they do; I don’t think NASA should be involved in all the Climate stuff which is better left to NOAA and the NWS.

That being said, here is a link to a terrific series of pictures shot by Astronaut Douglas H. Wheelock who was recently the commander of the International Space Station (ISS). He took these photo’s while living and working in the ISS, they are incredible.

After that first batch, go here for More!!

BT: Jimmy T sends.

2010-12-23T07:18:00.000-08:00

According to USAF personnel the exact cause of the first combat loss of a CV-22 Osprey may never be known. Right now the AIB or Accident Investigating Board for the crash is leaning on blaming the pilot for the crash however, one of the investigators seems to feel the aircraft itself has some blame as well if not completely. See Story here.

Be it power loss or Pilot Error (the usual when a crash cannot be explained) there are mixed opinions on the exact cause which may never be found largely because the aircraft went down in a combat zone and had to be destroyed after everyone was pulled out of the aircraft (16 wounded and 4 KIA including the pilot at the controls).

Now normally that would be the end of the story but, the question of the engine problem kept cropping up especially since the stock V-22 comes equipped with an extensive in-flight monitoring system designed to store away not just engine operating parameters but also flight control inputs and many other environmental and flight characteristics that would easily clear up this conflict. Designed to fit in the handy “crash proof” container. So, where is this magical black box? Was it not retrieved along with the Crypto gear and other high value and classified avionics from the aircraft carcass prior to it being intentionally destroyed?

Yeah, well actually it was left behind.

In this story from Defense Tech they relate the story of how the box was seen but left on the ground with the aircraft wreckage because it was not on the master list of items to retrieve prior to aircraft destruction. Left behind and it had all the answers or at least more clues. Destroyed or stolen either way it was not brought out of the field.

Quoting from here (emphasis added):

Several rescue and salvage crews failed to grab the critical device because the incident recorder was not among the items listed for recovery at the crash site, according to Harvel. This was apparently due to a translation problem between U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Air Force manuals for the V-22.

AFSOC inherited instructional manuals — called “Dash-1s” — for the CV-22 from the Marine Corps’ MV-22B units. It was necessary to translate the manuals from Marine piloting and maintenance jargon to USAF terminology, but the translators made a few mistakes, Harvel says.

“Somehow in that translation there was nothing in [the AFSOC manual] that showed this aircraft had a FIR,” he says.

“They had absolutely no idea.”

As a result, he adds, the FIR “was never on the list to get that off the airplane” after a crash.

Ok then, it seems like there is a problem here with not having Translators available to the USAF to clean-up their manuals. Now, where does one go to get a Marine Translator? Well, maybe the Navy has them since they seem to have Marines on some of their ships, maybe the White House has them to spare also since they fly the President around in a Marine Helicopter. It seems to me that finding a Marine Translator would have been easier than say, a Klingon Translator.

And let us ask some other more poignant questions, if not more sincere. How many years has the USAF been flying the CV-22? I did some digging and found that the first production CV-22 was delivered to the USAF at Edwards AFB in September 2005. This particular aircraft was a version of the MV-22B that the Marines use but equipped with RADAR and IR equipment that the Marines do not use. The AFSOC received its first production fully combat ready aircraft in March of 2006. So the USAF had 5 years to get this “translation” done and the AFSOC had more than 4-years to figure out all that specialized Marine jargon and find the USAF equivalent terminology.

What a shame.

Now back to some snark. In the world of the US Military the Marines are labeled as the most serious organized killing machine in the world however, no one and I mean NO ONE in the US Military family claims them as the smartest. Not by a long shot. In fact I would guess that the USAF would claim being the smartest because they get all the latest gear and have found a way to keep from actually getting dirty during war time. So the USAF would claim to be the smartest. Yet, they can’t figure out Marine jargon? And they have had 4 to 5 years to carry those nasty dirty Marine manuals over to the nearest Navy base and ask them for some help with the Translation. / Snark off.

If people had not died and the fact that the AIB is willing to impune the reputation of the Pilot that died in this incident this would be laughable. But the whole AFSOC should be ashamed for not catching this and more importantly, using “translation” of a brother service’s jargon as the excuse. Especially since there are several Standards and Specifications that detail the use of acronyms and abbreviations used in the development of military documentation.

Back home here in the swamp, we live with a Marine and being a former Squid I know how to translate so that my wife and the mother of said Marine has a way to communicate without too many hand signals. I am available to the USAF to assist them in any further “translations” that they may need. Just saying.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

First Flight - Powered by Wright

2010-12-16T13:28:00.000-08:00

First Flight – Powered by Wright: Today, 17 December back in 1903 Orville and Wilbur Wright successfully flew a heavier than air vehicle powered by an engine. The two brothers operated a bicycle business in Dayton Ohio and were both skilled machinists. Their life hobby of kite flying led them to a Kitty Hawk North Carolina beach with a hand built man-sized kite or glider that would evolve into the powered Wright Flyer.

From their workshop in Dayton their in-house Engineer custom built the engine that would be used in the Wright Flyer because engines of the day did not have the power to weight ratio required for “heavier-than-air” flight. They used spruce wood in the construction of the vehicle for strength and its workability. They would have to “sweat” parts into shape. This is a process of using forms and steam to press the wood into shapes other than straight. They also crafted their own geared sprockets to transfer the power from the motor to the two propellers that would push the vehicle. The wings were covered in “Pride of the West” muslin that was mostly used in women’s undergarments.

Their observations of their kite and glider flying led them to question some fundamental precepts of aeronautics such as they were back in 1903. The two men constructed miniature airfoils representing wings and propellers (more than 200 in fact) and tested them in a hand build Wind Tunnel.

Picture Above: This is a replica of the wind tunnel that the Wright Brothers built and used to test airfoil designs. Their precise calculations and measurements led to new understanding of lift and airfoil shapes and to control of those shapes during flight. Picture from the Virgina Air and Space Muesum in Hampton Virgina.

Doing so, they re-wrote the book on lift and their new designs were vastly superior to others of the day. This led to successful flights of a manned glider and eventually the Wright Flyer.

Picture to right: This is the 1902 Wright Glider with Wilbur suspended in the middle of the frame. They used a crude trapase contraption to "warp" the wings and shift the balance of weight or Center of Gravity to manuver the aircraft. This glider was produced directly from the research conducted by the Brothers using their wind tunnel. It proved the design and the men moved towards adding power to the airframe. Picture taken from Wikipedia, source unknown.

Moreover, their analysis led them directly to discovery of control mechanisms to be used while airborne for the turning of the aircraft, control of assent and of course decent as well. These were important touches; many others were flirting at the time with flight in heavier-than-air machines. But it was the Wright Brothers who pioneered controlled flight in a heavier-than-air machine.

Both men were self taught in both business and aeronautics, neither attended college nor did either have official credit for finishing High School. They would operate several aviation business building aircraft and a Flying School. One of those early students was a fledgling pilot by the name of Henry “Hap” Arnold who would rise to the rank of 5-star General in the U.S. Army commanding the Army Air Corps during World War II and who would eventually be the first head of the U.S. Air Force.

Picture Above: First flight at Kitty Hawk with Orville at the controls. That is Wilbur running along side. This first flight was a mere 120 feet and lasted 12 seconds. The Brothers would fly three more times that day before a wind gust destroyed the aircraft. Library of Congress Photo orginally taken by John T. Daniels (US Coast Guard).

Their original companies survive today as part of the Curtiss-Wright Corporation which is still producing cutting edge avionics and aerospace products. Humble men they were, neither ever married and today are celebrated as pioneers of a remarkable industry.

Ride in any aircraft today except for a Hot Air Balloon and you are a direct beneficiary of the hard work of the Wright Brothers.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Tanker Wars/KC-X Winner - Airbus?

2010-12-07T23:13:00.000-08:00

In todays Tanker Wars update we have this breaking news - Airbus is the apparent winner of at least the technical side of the competition. Here is the Story. The upshot here is that Airbus scored many points on the larger size aircraft they proposed than Boeing did with their KC-767 Next Gen tanker proposal.

The competition now goes down to cost and my thoughts are that Boeing doesn't stand a chance. Despite the A330 being a much larger aircraft to build and correspondingly higher costs to build, Airbus will still out bid Boeing. Remember folks, Airbus is NOT in this competition to build aircraft or to make a profit, the partner governments which fund Airbus simply want to keep people working building aircraft in Europe. Even though Airbus claims they will spend huge money building a "post" production facility in the USA, it will only be a token effort in the end because they really only want to keep europeans employed with this effort.

Boeing on the other hand has to make a profit and they can not compete against a business model that does not.

Plain and simply, our air borne war fighters will be taking gas from an aircraft built by socialists!!

Its really too bad that the US defense industrial complex could not defend itself from a hostile takeover of this magnatude. What next, will the next Air Force 1 be an Airbus?

BT: Jimmy T sends.

2010-11-24T11:41:00.000-08:00

A lot of the reason that my posts here have tapered down to near once a week is that I have been traveling a lot over to Europe. It seems like every other week I am on my way to either the Czech Republic or to Norway for a week or so then I return.

So, having logged more than 70,000 miles since July (all in coach/economy) I have some recent experience going through the security apparatuses on both sides of the Atlantic.

First off there is a huge difference between what we are put through here in the US and what they do to you in Europe. Even though the rules regarding “Probable cause” and “Search and Seizures” are radically different the two sides of the pond they seem more sensitive in Europe than here in the US. And that goes for Germany too, by the way.

Also, they don’t make you take off your shoes over there, only here in the US. Now what burns me is that the shoe bomber originated over in Europe so you would think that we (the US) would make people originating over there and flying into the US have their shoes checked? At least I would given the “attack” came from the Easter side of the Atlantic.

Same with the underwear bomber.

Another thing, they do not automatically pat you down, if you go through the magnetometer and it alarms you can expect to get the hands on inspection. And yes they do the random “secondary” inspection where you are taken into a room and they swab your carry-on and parts of your cloths. I have had that done to me.

By and large, when you see armed men (and I mean the kind with Automatic Weapons on slings) standing around out on the front curb, hanging out in the lobby and wondering around the terminal you maybe think about your situation. Do they profile, I am sure they do but they are not hung up on being Politically Correct like we are here and doing that is does not have the negative connotations like it does here in the US.

Now, I believe there are a couple of things that we should do to get away from the TSA handling all of the traveling public like we are guilty or we are criminals first.

First, Profile. Yeah put everyone through the metal detector and then pull out the most obvious people for the strip search and bore scope procedure. And I mean that, put a camera up their ass and then cat scan them. If they survive the radiation with nothing to hide, than they can enjoy the privilege of flying in this country.

Second, seal off the Borders. This is huge sore point but we need to keep everyone out of this country that does not want to come in through an official entry point. And yes, we should have millions and millions of Mexican’s in this country as long as they are willing to let us know who they are. We need them here but not as an illegal. I say give them a kind of Social Security Number and vest them in our society legally. Not as citizens but as temporary workers. Throw into jail any Company Owner that hires people under the table, and I don’t mean one of those country club jails, throw them in with the wretched folk and that will be the last time they hire illegal’s.

Make the ugliest war on our enemies as we possibly can. Ignore the Geneva Convention, ignore the UN and especially ignore the PC crowd on the left and wage war so ugly and nasty that no one wants to mess with us. This whole problem with Islamic Extremists comes from the limp noodle Jimmy Carter response to the invasion of sovereign US Territory back in 1979. Had he simply nuked that place or invaded with a “Take No Prisoners” orders than I really do think these asshats would be bugging someone else. The way we fight them today is viewed by them as weakness, they taunt us with our restraint and we lose fine Men and Woman trying to placate the weasels on the left that think we might actually “offend” someone when we make war. I say bring back napalm , flame throwers and tactical nukes and kill as many of them as possible in the most inhumane way and they will leave us alone.

I am just saying.

Here is by far the best parity of the current TSA boondoggle.

Well I am off, I have in the next three weeks round trips to Orlando the Czech Republic and New Mexico and only one of those trips am I really looking forward to.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Aviation News Roundup

2010-11-15T07:14:00.000-08:00

Here is some news from the Aviation world that is not makeing too big a splash on the MSM.

Boeing 787 Troubles:

This latest in the long line of commercial haulers from Boeing was well on its way to certification and delivery to an actual paying customer however, all flight testing of the 6 test aircraft was suspended recently after a fire in the #2 test aircraft. This aircraft was on approach to land at an airport in Laredo, TX when the fire broke out in the aft electronics bay. The resulting load shedding to the redundant load center on the other side of the aircraft left the cockpit with a single flight instrument to land the aircraft. The pilot at the controls at the time of the fire: an FAA Test Pilot.

The reported source of the fire as a power distribution panel which are not like the power panels in my beloved S-3. These are highley specialized panels that are as much a computer with embedded programming on them as they are a circuit relay. The modern trend in aircraft is to be more reliant on electrical flight controls (Fly-by-Wire) instead of hydrolics or steel cables. So, there is a lot of dependance on the electricity generated onboard.

The fire was fierce enough to get insulation in the avionics bay to ignight and molten metal dripped onto the inside surface of the composite outter skin of the aircraft. That may comprimse the integreity of that material and a study of the damage is underway. The 787 structure is made mostly of composite materials so this may be one of those failures that derive a lot of knowledge from.

Airbus A380 Troubles

Airbus is also at witts end with an incident that occured late last month. A Quantas Airlines A380 experienced what is called an "uncontained engine failure". In plain speak this is an engine failure where part of the motor is ejected from the motor housing and into the aircraft. The wing in this case. The part went up through the bottom of the wing and severed hydrolic lines and electrical cables before exiting out of the top of the wing. Oh yeah, and a fuel line as well. They were very lucky that the path of that part did not include the fuel tank itself. And that is what makes an "uncontained" failure a big thing as opposed to say a simple engine failure where the parts stay inside the motor housing.

Here is a picture of the damage on the top of the wing, this is where the parts have exited the wing.
Picture stolen from some where on the internet, I forget now. Sorry.

That's a pretty ugly exit wound there folks. That discoloration in the hole on the right is a liquid leaking out that is significantly cooler than the wing itself. Like fuel. More pictures here from Airbus (they are ugly).

All operators of the A380 grounded their aircraft pending the results of the investigation which centered on an oil leak. Many of the operators have commenced to removing the Rolls Royce Trent 900 engines which on inspection indicated an oil leak of some kind.

This was the second time in a very short period of time where a Rolls Royce motor has had this kind of failure (the uncontained type), the first being a test engine for the Boeing 787, a Trent 1000 motor. This engine was on a test stand when the failure occured. The 787 is offered with two different motors which operators can select so Boeing is not in a pickle over the problems over at Rolls Royce. Similarly Airbus sells the A380 with a different motor but customers decide which motor they want and they usually pick one from a manufacturer with whom they already have motors in other aircraft.

Eclipse back on its Feet

Eclipse 500 taken from the Eclipse website.

Good news from my home town, Albuquerque. Eclipse Aerospace took over ownership of the former Eclipse Aviation which went into bankruptcy. The new company has focused on getting a support and logistics train up and running for the 260 odd aircraft delivered before Eclipse went under. In a program they call "Total Eclipse" which the primary goal is to buy back aircraft, re-furbish them to a single production standard and then resell them.

They are doing gang busters in this effort having completed more than 50 aircraft and now there is talk of possibly opening the production line and building new aircraft. What a good deal that would be.

And that's not all, they have gained certification from the FAA for Flight into known Iceing conditions and for flight above 40,000 feet. These are big.

In a perfect world these guys get back to going strong and they can open the production line again. Whis is a wonderful concept for an aircraft and represents a fundemental change in building aircraft. Me things the previous owners bite off more than they could chew.

In other Eclipse news Sikorsky Aircraft recently bought an equity stake in Eclipse Aerospace giving Eclipse a much needed infusion of funding and major corporate stability. What is in the deal for Sikorsky? Who knows, maybe they want to make a tilt rotor version of the Eclipse 500 aircraft. Works for me.

USMC to "Harvest" more Bad Guys

The USMC deployed the first and only KC-130J aircraft with the "Harvest Hawk" modification installed. This modification gives this particular aircraft some teeth that your normal refueling aircraft does not have. The Harvest Hawk modification includes a 4th generation EO/IR Ball that gives them a great picture day and night of activity on the ground and a laser capability as well (for range finding and target desigination). The teeth in the system is the addition of 4 Hellfire missiles mounted on the outboard wing pylon and 10 each Griffen GPS guided Air to Surface missiles. The Griffen is a smaller sized missile than the Hellfire and uses the GPS to home in on a position. I knew nothing about them so I did a little digging, here is something on them. These are mounted on the Cargo Bay ramp allowing for the system to be removed in a case where the aircraft is needed for purley cargo purposes. A neat trick.

The Misguided Children have done what they do best: adapt, improvise, overcome and then kill the enmey.

China C919 to Compete with Boeing and Airbus

Huge air show over in China of all places, the Zhuahai Air show 2010. One of the exhibitors is Comac, the Chinese National Aircraft builder, the Airbus of China and just like Airbus they are owned by the government. Their big news, they are going into production on C919 single asile passenger aircraft. They announced that they have advanced orders for over a 100 aircraft and will deliver their first "revenue" aircraft in 2016. The aircraft will carry between 150 and 190 passengers and is designed to compete with the Boeing 737's and the Airbus A320's.

Picutre of a C919 full scale mock-up as displayed at Zhuahai 2010. Picture taken from rediff.com.

Comes with a pretty nifty glass cockpit and a Heads Up Display. This is interesting on two points, the first is that it is another government sponsered enterprise competing with Airbus. Like Airbus making a profit is secondary in their business planning. This is another massive Jobs program and more importantly it is their graduation onto the world stage of techonology. No longer do they only mass manufacture toys and trinkets. They are capable of making passenger aircraft all on their own.

Picture shows the C919 cockpit with HUD's and a line of Glass Flat Panels that seems to go on forever. Two of them in fact. The engine monitoring system are in flat planes also. Picture taken from rediff.com.

This brings up the second point, that is how much of this knowledge they learned at the hands of Boeing. Yes, Boeing had a huge hand in teaching the Chinese how to build that aircraft. Oh, they did not start out duplicating whole aircraft, but Boeing went to China many decades ago to get small parts manufactured for them in exchange for the many national airlines purchasing Boeing product. This over the years morphed into bigger and bigger parts. Whole sub assemblies of aircraft are now built there and the Chinese have turned all this gained knowledge into well, the C919.

I mentinoned in a post back last year that Boeing should have been spending all that money and energy to develop alternate suppliers in Mexico. It would have resulted in lower transportation costs and more importantly, they would not be using that knowledge against them. Oh well. Live and learn I say.

I'll have more Aviation news soon, there is a starteling Tanker Wars update coming.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

USMC Anniversary - Every Family needs to have at least one

2010-11-10T05:22:00.000-08:00

Today the US Marine Corps celebrate the day they were established. A proud day for our country and for the many families with a Marine in midst.

Ours especially:

SN2 in this picture in the way back.

We were visiting family in Albuquerque during the Balloon Fiesta.

That is his "big" sister standing next to him. They were both in awe of the goings on.

Later we would know him as the fierce defense man and sometime center man on his Ice Hockey teams.

He skated for two teams, he was the Captain of his high school team and he skated for the PA Predators, a local Club Team.

But we were proudest of him while he served as a US Marine.

Here he is in Afghanistan displaying the whimsical humor that we know and love.

He was assigned to the 1st Battalion of the 5th Marines which were deployed into Helmand province. SN2's Company was assigned to the Nawa District and the men quickly built themselves a Combat Outpost from which to patrol.

The Navy CB's came in and built the perimeter using the now famous HESCO barriers which are basically huge sandbags.

But the Marines of Charlie Company were not totally satisfied with their new digs and commenced to improve.

Here you can see them digging a shelter out of the desert. By hand.

Well, they had a lot of spare time. It's the Marine way.

Here he is patrolling in Nawa, SN2 was trained as a Mortarman and even when in the COP was responsible for the mortar squad in camp. These squads provide support to the foot patrols from inside the COP. So, he was busy no matter on Patrol or in camp.

SN2 would experience things that one only experiences while in the military. The close fellowship that comes with living with men in the dirt, taking fire from a common enemy and yes, eating things you would not have before.

Like Melons.

Growing up we could not get this kid to eat melons of any kind.

Who knew all you had to do was shoot at him and he would eat them with relish.

Like flying in strange aircraft. Here he is in an MV-22. the most famous plastic aircraft in the military inventory.

His Company wtihin the Battalion was the Air Assault Company so he got to ride in most every helocopter the Marines and Army flew. The CH-46, CH-53, H-1 Huey and MV-22 in the Marine inventory and the H-60 and the HH-47 Chinook. He did say that the H-60 Blackhawks were a much best ride of all, even over the V-22.

Here he is in an MV-22, they are being flown out of their COP and out to the huge Camp Leatherneck and eventually for their flight out of the AOR and back to the states.

Here we are with My Father in Albuquerque back in June of this year.

SN2 returned from Afghanistan and later left the Marines. A relief to his Mother and to me too, to be honest. But his time in the Corps will haunt him like my days in the Navy haunt me. Though no one shot at me during my 9 years in the Navy, I did have many a brush with death on the Flight Deck. And of course the impressions and experience you carry with you no matter what you wear.

And here he is back at home in the Swamp. He has a civilian job now and he is playing Ice Hockey again, in an adult league.

Good to have him home. Happy B-Day Marine.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Happy Ivy Mike Day

2010-10-30T18:01:00.000-07:00

Happy Ivy Mike Day – or welcome to the Thermonuclear Age Day! October 31^st (November 1^st locally across the international date line) 1952 was the day the United States exploded the first fusion device.

The actual “Mike” shot was part of the two tests code named “Ivy” test series; the other shot was called “King”. The “King” shot was notable for two reasons, the first being it was a very large fission explosion (500 kiloton yield) in fact it was the largest nuclear detonation to date and the other notable was that an Air Force Pilot was lost when his aircraft ran out of fuel while it was surveying the mushroom cloud.

But the “Mike” shot was used to confirm that a fission reaction could be used to trigger a much more devastating explosion using fusion material. The actual “weapon” was actually a huge building that housed all the apparatus needed for the fusion fuel which was cryogenic deuterium. The primary was a tried and proved TX-5 boosted fission bomb. The two fuels were separated by a rod of plutonium used as a spark plug to ignite the super cooled deuterium.

The mushroom cloud climbs to the heavens. Picture courtesy of the Nuclearweaponarchive.org

The resulting explosion vaporized the test island creating a crater more than a mile wide and over 150 feet deep. The Mushroom cloud would grow to a height of more than 25 miles and a crown width of more than 100 miles. Radioactive coral debris fell on ships more than 35 miles away and the remaining Islands that made up the Enewetak Atoll were highly radioactive as well. The explosion was sensed by seismographs all the way in Berkley California where the “Father” of the “Super” as it was called, monitored the test. That being the famed nuclear physicist Edward Teller.

The photo's at left (from the book "Dark Sun, The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb" by Richard Rhodes) shows the damage to the Enewetak Atoll. The island of Elugelab is shown before and after the shot.

The yield of the Ivy Mike shot was 10.4 Mega Tons. This was 1000 times more powerful than the bombs dropped on Japan. It is important to state again that this device was not a weapon; it really was more of a test of a concept than anything. In fact the planned “King” shot was designed as a backup for fusion weapons in case they did not work. In reality the “Super” would be proven and three years later the Air Force would be hauling around a 41,000 pound H-bomb in their B-36 Peacemaker aircraft. The new aircraft was huge in order to carry the huge weapon.

More importantly however and as an aside to weapons development is that the fusion device proved that man could create the same energy created by the Sun. This opened the door to the promise and hope of fusion energy. If only man could contain that reaction and convert it to pure energy is the hope.

An auspicious occasion indeed.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Stray Voltage - #3

2010-10-27T06:00:00.000-07:00

October Moon

I am packing today a shipment off to the Czech Republic for my next trip over there next week. Something like 300 network patch cables, DVI video lines and serial cables along with video and LAN switches that we need for the prototype installation. We get to hook everything up next week and then in following weeks we will go back and do software installation and testing (debug). I will fly there at least 4 more times before the end of the year.

Of course all that flying has triggered Airline reward levels, I went to Silver on one and I am now Gold level on another. I do try to stay on one more than the other but I do most of the domestic legs on one airline (Delta by the way) and the international flights on the other (US Air). I am hoping for an upgrade but I never hold my breath. The 8+ hour flights in Economy are pure hell.

Vote

I will be out of town for Election Day so I vote today. I have to take a half day off work and motor to the far end of the County I live in, find parking in what is one of the highest crime areas in our County and then walk over to and into the County Courthouse. The voter services counter therein assures me I can cast an absentee ballot.

I am generally against absentee voting or mail in voting but when you have to present yourself in person to an “Election Official” (not a Party Hack) I feel better that my vote will actually be counted and not stolen in some way. Like not checking ID's.

Having once run for elected office, I have waited for the tally of votes that are conducted by people who are involved sometimes not because of their desire to do good things for their community but for Party reasons. The great idea of fair elections in this country is a myth. There are so many ways to steel an election. Mail in Ballots and absentee voting are ripe for corporation as is the registration process. Run for elected office sometime and you will see every pitfall in the process.

NPR

Boy did they step into a large cow pile! Now, to be fair I am one that does listen to a lot of NPR programming. I am a fan of the both Morning Edition and All Things Considered and the Click and Clack show (officially known as Car Talk) and a Home Gardening show that is produced locally on the Philly NPR station (WHYY). Another locally produced show that I like is Fresh Air with Terry Gross. No one interviews better than Terry, no one is prepared for the subject in a segment like Terry and she has a nice voice too. Never seen her nor do I care to.

I do have a problem with NPR.

It leans way left folks, way left. I am not against that because knowing it allows me to filter it out. But, taking our tax money to operate is a different matter. If their programming was so popular it could and should stand on its own in the free marketplace.

By taking public money they have a responsibility to be middle of the road, nether left or right. And this is where the Bullshit hits the fan, the CEO of NPR when she made her public statement on the Firing of Juan Williams stated that journalistic standards had been violated. Well then, why are they not out firing more people? There are plenty of examples of NPR Commentators, Reporters and Analysis violating the most basic of journalistic ethos’s. Just the Facts! But no, they only wanted Juan out because he was on Fox News.

I do hope the threats of defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting are not simply rhetoric thrown out in the heat of the moment, the whole idea of Publicly Funded TV and Radio needs to be aired out and debated. At the very least the minimum “journalistic standards” that are a joke right now at NPR and PBS can be established which gives the FCC something real to regulate for a change.

Dumping on the Volt

That would be the Chevrolet Volt. This is the Obama mandated People-Mobile, the “Green” Car. Where do I start! The reviews I have read all pan the car as having very little utility. It is a 2-person vehicle even though there are 4-doors it has only a little more room than the Toyota Prius which is the front runner in the class although more for Lefty-Prestige more than anything. It will cost somewhere around $40,000 bucks which is a small fortune. The Federal Government has a tax credit that you get if you buy one to the tune of $7,000 bucks which reduces the original ownership costs down into the range where it competes with the Nissan Leaf which will debut this year as well.

Originally the Volt was to be an all electric with the onboard gas engine was to be used to re-charge the battery. The projected MPG for the Volt in this configuration was to be 240 miles. Which would have been great.

But, let’s not dance the streets too soon. It seems the gas engine will be linked to the drive wheels and be used not just to charge the battery but also as secondary dirve for the car itself. And the MPG in this configuration? A whopping 37mpg!!

Yeah that’s right, my Daughters 2005 Chevy Malibu gets better mileage than that.

This is a crying shame, all the emphasis on “Green”, going electric and not using evil Gasoline. But what do you expect from a Government Owned and operated corporation. Just remember if you buy one of these things that what you got was built by a corporation and works who think this is “close enough for government work”.

Enemies List

Yeah our President has one. PresBO does not mince words when he complains about people who oppose his proposals for “Change” to our country. They are his enemies, plain and simple. And here recently he has tried to enlist Hispanics into that mindset as well. In comments he made on Univision, which is a Spanish language TV network, PressBO actually told Hispanics to punish their “enemies” and reward their “friends” with their votes on the 2^nd of November.

Funny how he can call fellow Americans “enemies” but not call the Taliban or al Quida.

Rewriting History in Real Time

That is what PresBO has been trying to do and now Nancy Pelosi (Wicked Witch of the West) trying to do. In recent coments Nancy has made she claims that the "ditch" was so deep that they have had to "save and create" so many more jobs to make up for what was lost during the past Administration. Too bad we have proof, the job loss started when she took over running things in the House.

Graph stolen from John Lott's Website (called John Lott's website).

Too bad for us this woman will keep her job in congress. She as much as PresBO are responsible for the huge turn Left this country has taken.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Tribute to the passing of a Giant of a Man, Captain Tony Schneider

2010-10-24T19:17:00.000-07:00

A friend back in Albuquerque called to tell me about the passing of a true hero who had a profound impact on my life. Here is the obit as it ran in the Albuquerque Journal:

SCHNEIDER -- Tony Schneider, 92, passed away October 16, 2010. Those who wish to express condolences may do so at: w ww.danielsfuneral.com Tony's care has been entrusted to: Daniels Family Funeral Services 7601 Wyoming Blvd, NE Albuquerque, NM 87109 (505) 821-0010

Plain and simple it hides a huge Man and true hero, recalled to active duty in God’s own Navy.

Let me explain. I knew him as Captain TF Schneider, Naval Science Instructor. For three years he was one of two men in my High School Junior ROTC program that were Naval Science Instructors. The one was a crusty Senior Chief that came out of Submarines (SSBN’s). He was our “Military” instructor and taught us infantry drill, marching and standing in formation. We actually carried old rifles (1903 Springfield’s with lead poured down the bore) which today would make todays Public School Administrators crap their pants. But the Senior Chief was good for a cup of coffee and great modern sea stories.

That's me in the middle of the top row, circa 1973.

The real “Naval Science” was taught by the Captain. An unassuming man who preached to us Naval History, Sea Power and seamanship of all things, way out in the desert west of Albuquerque. But preach he did, three days a week we took his lectures; the other two day’s were given up to the Senior Chief. We saw everyone of the Victory at Sea movies, the good Captain had lectures designed around each episode. He was a former Naval Aviator and the oldest sea story we ever got out of him went all the way back to the day Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese. He was assigned to the USS Enterprise and flew his first combat air patrol on that day, searching for the Japanese fleet.

This is the Captain as I remember him, always the teacher, always the role model. Couldn't have asked for better.

After graduation I was one of the many that joined the Navy right out of High School. I was more than prepared thanks to both the Captain and the Senior Chief. After maybe 4 or 5 weeks into Basic training I was sent off to take the Basic Test Battery to determine what kind of school or job specialty I was to get as I was at that point in time undesignated. Once the scores came back I was sent again to see the Career Councilor to pick that Rating and to fill out my “Dream sheet” as it’s called. This is the list of preferred duty stations.

I had high test scores and was told I could go into any job the Navy had. So, I did some figuring. I wanted aviation; I wanted to work on the flight deck of an Aircraft Carrier. But deep in my mind the gears were turning. I remembered the lessons taught by that unassuming Captain. The Big lesson he taught was of how in two consecutive World War’s, the Free world had been brought to its knees because of Submarines.

But, deeper inside was a more subtle lesson, that Anti-Submarine Warfare (or ASW) had turned back the Submarine menace and allowed not just the Naval Forces free reign on the oceans but the commercial shipping which in both war’s allowed beleaguered nations to continue the Fight.

It was also the lack of any ASW that gave our Navy’s submarines free reign in the Pacific. A force that represented only 2% of the entire Navy accounted for 55% of Japan’s maritime losses (from “Silent Victory” by Clay Blair, Jr.). An astonishing figure that was allowed because Japan fielded only a token ASW force.

So it was ASW for me and in Naval Aviation there were only two ratings that were supposed to be devoted to ASW, AX and AW. The first of these is the Electronics Technician that specialized in ASW equipment, the latter is Operator of ASW equipment, he flies in the aircraft. The former worked the Flight Deck.

I filled out the various paper work requesting the AX as first priority and AW as the second. Of course the Career Councilor laughed at me saying that both schools took months to get into, the waiting list was 6-months long. He prepared me for the Aviation Boatswain’s Mate job which would have been ok since it would have gotten me to a flight deck.

But luck was with me and I was sent from Boot Camp to “A” School to learn Aviation Electronics and to further specialize in ASW equipments. I was assigned to VS-31 and their mission was Anti Submarine Warfare. Carrier based ASW.

There were other lessons learned in those steel portable buildings that were used for the NJROTC program at my high school. Lessons like getting the job done at all costs, watching out for you shipmate and that we were all serving in the finest Naval Force the world had ever seen.

All from this unassuming Captain. And who was he really?

Well, from Wikipedia (yes he has a Wikipedia entry) he was Dive Bomber Pilot (the Douglass Dauntless SBD) who flew from not just the Enterprise but also from the USS Yorktown, the USS Lexington and from Henderson Field on the Island of Guadalcanal. He was shot down once, ran another aircraft out of fuel looking for the enemy during the fighting at Midway Island and participated in the sinking of the largest battleship ever built, the Japanese Battleship Yamato. He supported the invasions of not just Guadalcanal but also, the defense of Wake Island, the invasion of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. He also flew combat mission to the main Island of Japan and was there for the surrender as Commanding Officer of Bombing Squadron 9.

This unassuming Man was awarded the Navy Cross twice and the Distinguished Flying Cross three times.

And somehow ended up in Albuquerque teaching High School Naval Science, how lucky were we!

Fair Winds and Following Sea’s Captain Schneider. You had a profound influence on my life, one I am sure you are only now becoming aware of. I missed my chance back in the summer to reconnect with you and I will regret that forever, or until we meet again in that great Ready Room of the Heavens. Rest in Peace.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Boeing versus Airbus - I Rant

2010-10-21T08:55:00.000-07:00

It’s no secret around here that I do not like EADS/Airbus (not necessarily their products) and most especially in their competition with Boeing for the future of Big Wing Tankers in the USAF (known as the KC-X program).

I have been doing some reading more and more lately on the posturing between the two companies both trying to use the press and various public meetings (Associations and Conferences) to game the KC-X in their direction. It is understandable given the shear amount of money at stake.

For many years I would not book a flight on an Airline that had Airbus products in their inventory. I did not want to take the risk of wanting to get home and riding on an Airbus aircraft. Now this was not an irrational fear, it was based on how aircraft are certified in the US versus Europe and in the general philosophy in who or what runs the cockpit and what actually fly’s the aircraft. But, with all the consolidation that has occurred in the Airline business the fleets have not become mixed (except for Southwest but they don’t fly to Europe). These issues are not why I am not an Airbus advocate in regards to the KC-X program. They are more personal and subject of another post.

But what is it that really gets me going about this? Why do I have such animosity towards Airbus? Well, it’s because they are over here competing against US companies using our system against those very companies and all the while shielded by virtue of how they are organized and their business motives in the first place.

Let me try to explain.

Boeing is a “for profit” business. At the end of the day, they have to turn a profit. They owe that money back to grow the company, to expand their capabilities, conduct R&D and build new and upgrade their existing facilities (I am sure they are getting that Green Agenda shoved up their Ass too). And they also have to post a dividend to their investors. If they don’t do these things, especially this last item, they go out of business.

They are first and foremost a business proposition whose first rule is to make more money than it takes them to operate.

EADS/Airbus on the other hand is not such a company. Their first priority as pushed by their ownership is Jobs. That’s right, Jobs. You see, EADS/Airbus is what we call here a GSE – Government Sponsored Enterprise. As such the partner governments participate simply to put people to work. They actually negotiate in which country parts of the aircraft are built to keep folks in work or when they expand they negotiate a pro-rated share between themselves.

You see the “Investors” in EADS/Airbus are governments that do not care if the company itself makes a profit. In fact when the company is losing money on a project the governments all get together and decide on how to split the bill to make up the loss.

In the long and twisted development of the Airbus A380 the world’s largest commercial passenger aircraft, the company either miss-managed the program or vastly underestimated the complexity of building an aircraft of this dimension (most likely IMHO). To the tune of $3-Billion Dollars (which increased the per aircraft price by 25%). That is a huge number by any standards. But, the governments which all share in the EADS/Airbus consortium coughed up that overrun in order to keep the Job’s created by building that huge aircraft.

And that is not the only case, the A340 was heavily subsidized and so was the A330 aircraft which is the offering that EADS has in the KC-X competition (to the tune of $5 Billion on that airframe alone). More recently, their new Military Airlifter the A400M is also way over budget and getting extra influx of overrun money. And Here!

And that’s not all folks. As part of it’s overhead expense that Boeing has to deal with is the cost of Health Care and Retirement or Pension payouts which EADS/Airbus does not have on its ledger. You see, in all 4 of the countries in the Airbus consortium the government provides both the Health Care and the Pension for the employees of the Airbus company.

How is this fair to Boeing, to the USAF or even to the USA?

Oh many will say that Boeing gets plenty of subsidies in the way of US Military contracts or offsets in local and state income taxes. But these are stalking horse arguments. While the parent company holds domain over the entire company, the Commercial and Military parts are operated as separate cost centers. Each has to perform on its own independent of the other. So, the Commercial Airplane Company gets no benefit by the Military side winning contracts. As for the deferral of taxes at the local and state level, I can’t see how that would amount to enough to even argue about especially since most of this is granted as Tax Credits which come out on a year to year basis AT THE END OF THE EACH YEAR. Not a lump sum payout as is enjoyed by EADS/Airbus.

No it’s not fair by any measure.

My personal feelings are that the US Government should not allow competition between US manufacturers and offerings from the EADS/Airbus consortium unless they are penalized for these disparities or at the very least; the US Company is given a leg up in some way.

Not sure how this will play out in the KC-X program however the USAF is in that most unenviable position of being between a very big Rock and an even bigger Hard Place. Almost no room to get it right. Read more Here it is a Report by the Lexington Institute on the impact Airbus has on the US Aircraft manufacturing business.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Weekend in West (by God) Virginia

2010-10-18T18:15:00.000-07:00

From Autumn Harvest and Road Kill Cook-Off

Well, between trips to the Czech Republic and Norway I do get time for domestic activity. A couple of weekends ago the Good Mrs Taylor and I ventured down to West (by God) Virginia to help move the Daughter from Marlington to Elkins. Her year with AmeriCorps doing work with the US Forest Service is over and she is doing a second year with the US Fish and Wildlife Service. It's good experience for her but they pay really sucks, but the tuition benefit really helps.

Anyway, after we filled the two cars with her "stuff" we attended the annual "Autumn Harvest Festival and Road Kill Cook-off". Now, Marlington is a quaint little town tucked up in the Black Mountain range at the heart of Pocahontas County in the Monongahela National Forest. It is beautiful country populated with friendly salt of the earth people. I am glad my Daughter got to spend a year in such a fine place, the experience of living in a small American village will make a huge difference in her life, she just does not know it yet.

On to the Pictures!!

From Autumn Harvest and Road Kill Cook-Off

This is downtown Marlington during the great festival itself. I read that there were more than 18,000 people here for the day including one of the candidates for Governor who showed up on a motorcycle and glad handed folks. I was in line for some road kill when he arrived, being in the opposite party as he I gave him no mind.

There were many vendors there hawking everything from pastries, taco's, paintings, antiques and even tie dyed shirts.

From Autumn Harvest and Road Kill Cook-Off

Also Quilts, lots of quilts. I am guessing this is what the women folk around these parts do in their spare time based on the huge variety of quilts that were for sale. They were all works of art and I am sure took a lot of time to produce.

From Autumn Harvest and Road Kill Cook-Off

Wood products a plenty too from bird houses with and without the NASCAR paint to slap wood furniture. Lots of wood stuff. I am guessing that while the women are Quilting the men are in the shops working with their Wood!!

From Autumn Harvest and Road Kill Cook-Off

And since we are in West (by God) Virginia you have to have something that shoots!! Here we have mashmallow shooters, just for the kids since the grownups here about are all carrying the kids should too!!

From Autumn Harvest and Road Kill Cook-Off

Now on to the food, the Road Kill. Now this stuff was given out in very small sample size cups. You paid on price (I think it was just $12.00 an adult) and you could visit and sample any of the stands that had Road Kill. You received tickets too that you used to "vote" for the best beast chow.

This place got into the theme they presented even the cooks and handy-men dishing the chow were dressed up for the part, very classy.

From Autumn Harvest and Road Kill Cook-Off

This place was offering a wild Boar Stew and the stock was prepared with sassafras root, here is proof!!

From Autumn Harvest and Road Kill Cook-Off

The pancake at this place was really good but the venison sausage was tasteless.

From Autumn Harvest and Road Kill Cook-Off

All in all the Road Kill was interesting. Besides the Venison and Boar there was some Bear, Frog Legs and some Pheasant (although by the time we got in line they had shifted over to handing out plain ole chicken). After the Eats were done we loaded up into the two cars and headed out
of town towards Elkins which lies less than 90 miles north of Marlington. Now, usually a ride that short would take no more than 2-hours but Amanda had other plans!!

Here you can see Amanda briefing the Ole Man on our route. She had a Fores Service map that was to die for. I had one of the free DOT maps handed out at the road side rest. Can you say Map Envy!!

From Autumn Harvest and Road Kill Cook-Off

Here are a couple of shots from on top of the Black Mountains. In the one picture I am pretty certain you can see Virginia way out there in the distance.

From Autumn Harvest and Road Kill Cook-Off

This is the Ranger Station that Amanda worked out of for most of her year down here.

From Autumn Harvest and Road Kill Cook-Off

While driving up Rte. 92 we happened upon this huge metal object out there in the woods.

From Autumn Harvest and Road Kill Cook-Off

Upon closer inspection, yeah its the very large radio telescope at Green Bank. More on this place in a future post. It is an immence structure all built on a wheeled track that allows them to not only aim the telescope in elevation but also in azmiuth as well. And when I say huge, the dish is 100 meters by 110 meters (that's 330 feet by 360 feet).

From Autumn Harvest and Road Kill Cook-Off

The Good Wife got a kick out of the little Alien sign, they do lease out time on this beast to SETI and that is what they are all about.

From Autumn Harvest and Road Kill Cook-Off

Windmills were all the rage as well. These were really close to the road which ran on the top of the ridge line in the mountian complex north of Elkins.

From Autumn Harvest and Road Kill Cook-Off

We saw these on our drive north back to PA.

You can see another stand accross the valley.

From Autumn Harvest and Road Kill Cook-Off

All in all a nice weekend. I love the moto that they used for the state, "the Wild and Wonderful" and both are true.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Breaking Barriers

2010-10-14T08:42:00.000-07:00

It is 14 October 1947, in the still cool morning at Muroc Army Airfield the modified B-29 is positioned over the loading pit (a large trench in the ground that allows for the attaching of the test article onto the aircraft belly) it's payload ready. Strapped to the belly of the "mother" or carrier aircraft is the experimental aircraft dubbed "Glamorous Glennis", the Bell Aerospace X-1 aircraft. Painted all in orange (easier to be found in case it crashed out on the desert), shaped like a 50 caliper bullet and equipped with a rocket motor built by Robert Goddard himself the small crowd gathered once again to attempt what up till now had been impossible. Or at least possible and living to tell about it.

Going faster than the speed of sound. Breaking what was known as the Sound Barrier had been attempted many times before, mainly by accident and always in failure, fatal failure in fact.

A Bell X-1 aircraft being loaded onto a B-29/B-50

carrier aircraft. Circa 1951. (NASA Photo)

Not today.

In amongst the crowd that had gathered that October morning was a gregarious Air Force Test Pilot. A war veteran having fought in the skies over France in the P-51 Mustang. He was shot out of the sky once and evaded capture for several months, assisting the French Reistance in the process. Once back in Allied hands he was re-instated to flight status and eventually shot down 11 enemy aircraft including 1 ME-262 Jet aircraft. As an Air Force Captain and Test Pilot Chuck Yeager had earned a reputation of being both through in flight test and evaluation but also of having no fear.

It was Yeager's turn in the X-1. He would not fail.

Today is the anniversary of that milestone; controlled and sustained flight above the speed of sound. Most people know of this event only from the Book and movie named "The Right Stuff". The movie accurately depicts the dangers of early flight testing at what was Muroc Army Airfield. Today it is called Edwards Air Force Base home of Flight Testing for the USAF and NASA which operates the Dryden Flight Research Center from the same dry lake bed.

Edwards AFB and NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center on the edge of Rogers Dry Lake.

From this testing we learned so much that has advanced flying that today more than 10 million people will be in the air flying point to point, today in one day. Maybe only Electricity, indoor plumbing and the motor car are the only other items that have advanced the human condition more than manned flight. And much of the success of understanding the bounds of flight have come from that one flight in October 1947.

Not so much the raw intelligence gathered from the flight data, but from the Man and Men who came later, in subsequent flights of other "X-Planes", who would not back down at the unknown.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

USN Birthday

2010-10-13T09:05:00.000-07:00

Today is the anniversary of the “Commissioning” of the US Navy. Creation of the Navy was by vote of the Continental Congress on this day in 1775, to create a “Navy Committee” and to include the equipping of two ships and a crew for each (up to 80 men each). Back then the size of the ship was determined by the number and size of the guns emplaced on each. These ships were to carry 10 guns each. The entire lot was under the command of General George Washington who had previously commissioned three schooners to serve under his command as the Commander in Chief of the Continental Army. So, in a sense the “Birth” of the Navy happened before proclamation by the Congress.

Almost lost in the discussion of this day is the name of that first ship. That would be the “Alfred” named in honor of Alfred the Great. Yeah, we were pretty imaginative back then, seems this particular Alfred was the King of Wessex. The “Alfred” was actually purchased by the Naval Committee of the Continental Congress and fitted as a man-of-war. Previously the “Alfred” had been known simply as the Black Prince a merchant ship owned by the Willing, Morris & Co. based in Philadelphia.

The First ship in the Navy, USS Alfred.

As the Black Prince the ship had made two voyages to England. On the return of the last trip the Black Prince brought with it information regarding a pair of unarmed Brigs that were heavily loaded with armaments to be used by British land forces. It was this intelligence that really triggered the commission of the Navy by the Continental Congress. Shortly after this, the Black Prince was procured and converted to serve as the Alfred.

By the end of the month of October Congress would requisition additional ships carrying more guns (up to 36), all of these early ships were commissioned to serve from companies or individuals that actually owned the ships. The commission was basically a lease program where the Continental Congress rented the ship out for the duration of the war, unless the ship was actually lost in battle. In this case the Congress paid for the ship outright.

Once in hands of the Continental Navy the ship was outfitted with its complement of Guns and armament. After November of 1775, Marines became available and were loaded onboard as well, giving each ship a naval infantry capability.

Born in this time were many famous ship names, the Lexington, the Ranger, the Enterprise and of course the Constitution (still serving today oh by the way). Also, one of particular importance to me was the USS Independence.

The original USS Independence was a commissioned brigantine that served off New England but was captured by the Royal Navy in early 1777. The next Independence was a 10-gun sloop commissioned by Congress in 1777 which was lost in 1778. Then there was the first “ship of the line” in 1814 named the USS Independence. “Ships of the line” were called that because of the battle tactic of lining the ships up broadside to the enemy and then opening fire. Ships built for this kind of warfare were built to take a pounding and to dish out a pounding. This Independence carried 90 guns.

Ship of the Line USS Independence.

She would later be re-rated to 54-guns and be re-classified as a Frigate and serve on and off for 98 years. She was finally burned (or fired in appropriate terms of the day) to recover metal scraps in September of 1915 .

The next USS Independence was a steamer that was built in 1918 and served until the end of WWI when she was decommissioned and placed in storage. It would be re-commissioned in 1930 as first the “City of Norfolk” as a merchant ship serving in the US Merchant Marine fleet. Later in 1941 it would be converted into an armored troop ship and commissioned into the Navy as the USS Neville (AP-16).

In August of 1942 the CVL-22 was launched as the USS Independence, a light Aircraft Carrier. This ship was the first of a new class of carriers built on converted cruiser hulls making them fast and maneuverable compared to the Heavy Carriers that were the state of the art in that day. This Independence would serve in eight battles as part of the many fast carrier strike forces the Navy put to sea. In the end of its service life this hull was used as a target vessel for Atomic bomb tests during the Operation Crossroads test series. This Independence survived two blasts without sinking and was towed to San Francisco for analysis and testing. She was extremely radioactive but still sea worthy. After the testing she was decommissioned and scuttled in 1951.

Replacing her in name would be the CVA-62, the USS Independence that I would serve aboard. Launched in May of 1958 this USS Independence would serve for 40 years being de-commissioned in 1998. I would serve onboard this Indy (as we called her) from early 1976 to the middle of 1978 (my Air Wing being moved to the newly commissioned USS Dwight D. Eisenhower) making two deployments to the Mediterranean.

For me this ship was home and played an important role in my young Navy life.

Today the USS Independence (LCS-2) that serves in the Navy is a Littoral combat Ship sporting a trimaran hull design that is supposed to be capable of making 40 knots. The Littoral Combat ship concept is based on being able to bring the substantial naval power into the shallow or inshore areas.

When I think of the Navy Birthday I think of my time on the Indy, celebrating with surf and turf (a traditional menu in the General mess) and powdered eggs. I loved those days.

Happy Birthday Navy. (more historical goodness on the link, just click to go there)

“Without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive.” - George Washington

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Christopher Columbus - No Love Here

2010-10-12T07:59:00.000-07:00

We are not big fans here in the Swamp of Christopher Columbus. By that I mean Me in particular. Despite being of partial Spanish decent I do not take any enjoyment in that Columbus stumbled onto the so called “New World”.

Map of the New World by Munster, Circa 1550 AD. Stolen from the Hargrett Library web site (http://www.libs.uga.edu/darchive/hargrett/maps/neworld.html)

The discovery by Columbus was more of an accident than anything and the advent of Europeans in large numbers to the America’s was a huge travesty since they came looking mainly for plunder of one nature or another. Even the puritanical Puritans on the Mayflower did not arrive on North American shores without at least some debt that required the plunder of the New World as retribution. And my Mothers People were never the same again.

Now, the so called New World was a tad backward compared with the European model. The natives did not use the wheel in too many things, they did not work with hard metals, they did not know how to forge iron but they did work in gold and silver into jewelry. There is no doubt about their IQ as we pretty much use their calendar today and some of their time tables were accurate right up to when computers became available to calculate large numbers. They had no knowledge of gun powder or fire arms of any kind, their disputes were handled on a more personal nature. As a result large scale warfare almost never happened unlike in Europe where warfare was a way of life for many peoples.

The Natives did know their environment and despite large numbers of population they did not degrade or deplete too much of the earth around them. The population of the Natives of the New World has always been in dispute, somewhere between 30 and 60 million. Since they were not immune to diseases native to Europe and Africa there were large die off’s of Natives spurred by first contact. In most cases the disease spread ahead of the European’s who observed and recorded what they say and wrote the history of the America’s. The Natives depleted by the disease were recorded as not being here at all.

And that folks is my rub. Most history of the Natives of the America’s has been written by those who came here and had no background on the culture and society that was present on “discovery”.

Many names for the People’s are derived not from their own name but from what the Spanish, French or English took to calling them. Ask the Navajo, the Sioux or the Blackfeet what they were called before their contact with Europeans. I know where my Mothers’ people get their name. The Apache’s did not call themselves Apache, that name was derived from the Zuni Indian word that the Spanish called the people. Seems the Apache did not care too much for the Spanish on their horses, wearing all that armor, pushing religion on everyone they came upon. So the Apache fought the Spanish, attacking them where ever they came together. And the Apache roamed almost the entire southwest so there was a lot of contact, none of it good. The word Apache is the word for Enemy which is what the Spanish called the people.

So, I guess I have an identity crisis in full bloom here. The Spanish is shamed by their involvement with the Apache side. And I can’t even tell you how much conflict there is from my Father’s side of the ledger.

So, I skip celebrating the Italian who came here for the Spanish crown and the Holy Roman Empire. IMHO his only positive contribution to the World at large was in being brave enough to continue west on the ocean in hopes the world was not flat.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Tanker Wars Update - Long Overdue

2010-09-29T16:38:00.000-07:00

It’s has been awhile since I have said anything about the Air Force Tanker Competition or KC-X as it is known. Well, not that anything is going on right now but here is a quick and dirty summary of activity on this huge contract that I have been holding onto.

First, the proposals are in and the Air Force is busy studying and evaluating them. They received two, one from Boeing pitching their Next Gen Tanker (a modified KC-767 based on the version they are building for Italy and Japan) and another from EADS/Airbus.

The EADS offering is a KC-45 the A330-304 MRTT aircraft that they are selling to Australia and Germany. In fact, the German Air Force (the Luftwaffe) just recently took delivery of their first MRTT aircraft.

There was a proposal submission that was not accepted that has created some news. A California based company; US Aerospace Inc. threw in with the Russian aircraft manufacturer Antonov to propose an all new built aircraft tentatively named the AN-112-KC. This aircraft was going to be built to US Air Forces specifications, even though the USAF did not publish any, they wanted to buy something off the shelf, in the Ukraine and then flown to the U.S. for finally assembly. Story here and here if you wish to learn more, there is not much out there.

The US Aerospace Inc./Antonov proposal was 5 minutes late. It seems that the “courier” that was carrying the proposal to the Contracts desk at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base got lost after getting through the Main Gate delivering the proposal after the Bid Closing time. They have filed a protest with the GAO. (Story here.) Now I have been there dropping off a Bid Proposal for contracts of several thousand dollars, nothing like a $30 Billion aircraft manufacturing contract. I think I would have camped out in an RV right out in front of the Contracts Office. Shame on them. They feel so strongly in their position that they have submitted a second Protest, just to be sure they get heard. (That story here.) If they had shown this kind of attention to the original bidding process they would not have required all the legal activity now that only slows things down. The GAO is scheduled to rule on the Protests in early November however they have made a ruling on some of the claims made by US Aerospace Inc. Specifically, the GAO has dismissed the “bad faith or intentional agency misconduct” charges that US Aerospace made. Their claim was that the Gate Guard intentionally gave them bad directions from the main gate to the Bid submittal desk in the Contracts building. (Story here.) Can things get any more funny?

Boeing KC-X News:

Boeing is bidding the KC-767 that they had bid previously, but it appears they are changing the cockpit design but details are scarce. The rumor is that some format of the all new and state of the are cockpit that is being put into the new 787 Dreamliner will be put into the NextGen Tanker. The question really is how much of it will go into the KC-767, all or a portion thereof. (Story here.) This would be an interesting blend considering the need to install a fair amount of Military equipment that the civilian market does not worry about, like UHF radios, TACAN’s, PAR ILS systems and of course secure encryptions for the voice and data communications. They are answering most of these issues on the Navy’s P-8 aircraft which is a military configured 737 that will see service as an ASW aircraft (replacing the P-3). Time will tell.

Here is a story about how Boeing is out talking up having their ability to reduce it’s currently Bid price on the Tanker package if the USAF puts out a “Best and Final Offer” to the two bidders. They have left themselves some room to move their offer lower putting pressure on EADS/Airbus. Since the EADS/Airbus is a much larger aircraft, and presumably much more expensive to build the pressure is in forcing the issue to lower pricing. So the Boeing PR machine is out talking this up in hopes of getting the USAF to issue a BAFO.

EADS/Airbus responded that they have room in their bid to trim some of their pricing too. (Story here.) But right away Congressman and Senators sensitive to the Boeing bid complained that EADS/Airbus would be “dumping” their aircraft in order to gain the contract. This is the policy of bidding at a price well below of what it costs to build. EADS/Airbus has responded by stating they will not build the USAF tanker under the actual cost that it takes to produce (that story here) saying that they have a lot of cost capacity because of them building these aircraft for other countries.

Sometimes a manufacturer will do that in order to win the contract and then they nickel and dime the government for cost increases. This is known in these parts as the Lockheed Business Model and I refer you to the F-22 and F-35 programs for how well that works, which it does but surely leaves a bad taste. Especially if you are the taxpayer!

EADS/Airbus News:

Besides the above story on EADS/Airbus not spiking their pricing on their Tanker offering is this bit of unusual news. The UK’s Parliaments’ Public Accounts Committee criticized the UK’s Ministry of Defense for signing a $16 Billion dollar deal to lease Airbus A330 tankers from a consortium that was formed to specifically sell and lease A330 tankers to European military organizations. Ouch, that’s got to hurt. (Story here.) The deal was for 14 of the Airbus tankers over a 10 year period but the committee complained that the deal was not good for the UK because the aircraft will not have the protective equipment necessary for taking any aircraft into a war zone (you know like Afghanistan). Now you make that aircraft huge like an Airbus A330 and you got yourself a nice fat target so I would guess they are going to need a lot of extra’s on that bad boy and none of this is factored into the $16 billion cost. Oh well, live and learn. I once leased a car a long time ago and that was the last time I’ll do that. Must really hurt when you lease an aircraft!!

And if the above is was unwelcome news there is more for EADS/Airbus to contemplate. The WTO has ruled that both companies have received what they are calling “illegal” subsides. In the case of EADS/Airbus the subsides came in the form of “Launch Aid” which is money given to Airbus from the various sponsoring governments in the EU that prop up Airbus. Launch aid is money given to Airbus when they overrun the development of their aircraft which apparently happens on every aircraft they have built. The running total is a whopping $200 Billion dollars. (Story here.)

Meanwhile, the WTO ruled Boeing has been receiving “preferential” treatment by the U.S. Government which they translate into a prohibited “subsidies” to the tune of $24 billion dollars. (That story here.) The WTO claim is that contracts with the U.S. Government and even the tax breaks given to the many Boeing Plants around the country by both local and State governments has translated into “aid”. Maybe so.

But there is in my mind several critical differences between the two which I don’t think the EU leaning WTO understands, first of these is the issue of Launch Aid. When Boeing runs out of money when trying to bring a new aircraft to market they go back to their investors and raise the cash they need privately. In Europe, Airbus runs out of money they go back to the sponsoring governments and request however much they think they need and that is what they get. This is a big difference and continues even with their latest aircraft the A400M (which is a military cargo aircraft) and the new XWB-A350 commercial airliner (which is to compete against the Boeing 787). So they don’t feel the pain like Boeing does since Airbus has no “skin in the game” so to speak, Boeing wagers stocks in the company and their own profitability. Not so Airbus.

Another difference is that any defense work Boeing wins in this country is done in a robust competitive market. That is not true in Europe where a lot of competitions are open only to European companies or if an American company is bidding they must have some kind of European company participation (called an offset). I am working a job that has a contract with a European Government and there is a 40% offset requirement meaning, my company has to spend 40% of the total value of the contract with companies in Europe. We don’t require that here in America, in fact the only “Buy America” provision passed by congress is for Fasteners (screws, nuts, bolts and rivets) and Electrical connectors. Oh, and by the way, Allies of the U.S. are exempt from this requirement so only U.S. manufactures such as Boeing have to buy American made fasteners and connectors while Airbus can populate their aircraft with parts made in China. Nothing like shooting ourselves in the foot but that’s what we get with our Congress.

There is a movement afoot to force the USAF to take into consideration the WTO rulings on the EADS/Airbus offering (that story here) but my guess is that this will be challenged and further delay the awarding of this contract. All the while the USAF racks up huge costs in flying this very old aircraft. In 2002 the cost of maintenance per flight hour was $11,000 per hour on this aircraft and with a 6.2% increase per year for that you can only imagine what it costs today to fly and operate this aircraft. So any delay in replacing this aircraft is a huge cost to the USAF. (Numbers come from this report.)

It’s time for the US to adopt a Buy American provision that covers something like this even if it means there is only one bidder. It is time for the FTC to stop these big defense companies from buy each other out, which is why we are down to the one company that builds large fuselage sized aircraft in this country from 4 or 5 we had back 20 years ago.

Anyway, folks, that it for this version of the Tanker Wars update. A little long but there is a lot here.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Shore Patrol – Charlotte Ameale, U.S. VI

2010-09-27T13:24:00.000-07:00

I settle into one of the long benches on the outside of the boat, at the risk of being sprayed with sea water but I like the fresh air and the view into port. I am wearing my whites, the Ice Cream-man outfit that all of us sailors hate but since we are in the Caribbean wearing Blues is out of the question. The boat I’m riding is one of the ships 60 foot U-Boat (the U is for Utility) and is used to haul sailors from the ship anchored out in the harbor to Fleet Landing. This is something all the big ships have to do since we can’t tie up to a pier, we draw too much draft as they say or in plain English, there is too much ship below the water line to get in close to land.

The Modern CV is just too big to pull in and tie off to a civilian pier, well for the East Coast Navy that is. The West Coast Navy can drive right up to the pier in the deep water ports of the Western Pacific. Not so for us serving on the Atlantic. So, to get ashore for Liberty we carry are own ships to haul us into to town. The 60 foot U-boat can carry as many as 120 sailors although you really don’t want to ride one when there are that many onboard. We also carry smaller 45-foot boats that carry upwards of 60 men. But I digress.

I am in the First contingent to go ashore but not so much for leisure but for duty. You see, I am going ashore as part of the required Shore Patrol cadre that is put ashore first to secure Fleet Landing and then to fan out into the nearby community and enforce the strict behavior guidelines expected of all the ship’s crew. This first Shore Patrol party is some 25 strong and our watch will commence when we first step off the boat and last for the next 12 hours. By then, sometime in the night we will be replaced with a smaller crew who will patrol through the rest of the night. Another party of 20 or more will come ashore at mid-day to repeat the cycle. Only on the last day will there be a staffing change, it will double on that last day to ensure everyone is collected and of course to control any recalcitrant members of the crew.

This is my favorite Shore Patrol assignment, First day in port, first shift. That first day is always long but you get off the big Boat ahead of the horde and there really are not that many drunks on that first night, most of those will be hunkered down in hotel rooms and not out on the street where we in uniform have to handle them. It is the last night in port when you seen dozens of drunks. So, I volunteer for that first day/night this way I don’t have to take the chance of being assigned on the last night.

We anchored off the Island of St. Thomas; the U.S.S. Eisenhower has come to the tiny town of Charlotte Ameale. The waters here are beautiful blue (not that greenish color off shore of the US) and the Island itself is small. There are more Islanders than sailors on Ike but not by much. We have been at sea for almost a month having left Norfolk for one of the many Training periods that we do prior to deployment to the Med. We will get 3-days here for R&R (or I&I depending on your take and monetary capacity) before we head back to the NOB.

The U-Boat ties up at what will become Fleet Landing; it’s just a spot on a pier that the Navy will use to load and unload the visiting sailors. We form up into two loose ranks, all 25 young sailors in white uniforms, the only distinguishing items that make us different than the many boat loads that will follow are the Black and Yellow ‘SP’ arm bands and the duty belts with our night sticks attached. It is 11:00 am and our watch starts, for the next 13 hours we will patrol the streets of Charlotte Amalie keeping the Ike’s crew in line, or at least giving the pretense that we are doing so. Four men are assigned “Beach Guard”, they stay behind to “guard” Fleet Landing. This small force will double when Liberty for the majority of the crew ends at 2300 hours (11:00 pm). Fleet Landing becomes a wild and woolly place when hundreds of drunk and near drunken sailors show up at the last minute for the ride back to their floating home. Very few are granted overnight Liberty and as a result they all have to be back on the ship by Midnight (Cinderella Liberty).

I am always happy to be assigned street duty instead of Beach Guard. The rest of us are given instruction by the OIC – Officer-in-Charge. Today the OIC is a Bull Ensign who is attached to one of the Light Attack Squadrons (A-7’s). Our instructions are to pair off and patrol the streets we are assigned. We are to be a presence at every place Sailors congregate. This means the Bar’s and night clubs. And there are plenty of both here.

My partner and I head off to the 4-Block area we have been assigned. There are 6 drinking establishments in this area and we stroll into each. At first there are only locals or visiting tourists in each place we go into. We are greeted warmly be each proprietor, they are happy the big ship is in port, lots of money to be made. The Ike and her Air Wing (CVW-7) comprise nearly 6000, all men (this was back before women were assigned sea duty on Ships) and all with money in their pockets from more than a month at sea.

We are offered drinks and told if we need anything simply ask. They are quick to endear us to them, they know that later when one or more of the many Sailors that visit their establishment will eventually wear out their welcome, it will be those of us on Shore Patrol that will remove the belligerent and especially the ones who get violent. And there will be those I am ashamed to report, a lot of Ugly Drunks in the Navy. So right now in the heat of the day each establishment is our best friend and we accept the offer of a coke on ice or lemonade. Later tonight we will be the ones they turn to keep the peace and restore order when things get out of hand, that when not if.

Slowly the composition at each place we visit changes. From the 2 or 3 locals at the start, each place gets a small contingent of sailors. They are easy to pick out in their uniforms (required on the First day of Liberty). By late afternoon it is mostly sailors in each place. After the sun goes down each place will be overflowing with sailors, all drinking. At first we are ignored as we go into each place but as the night wears on and more beer is consumed I pick up the occasional derogatory comment towards us, the SP. We are not liked by those who would embarrass the uniform. And each who will knows this and their comments are warning shots prior to their losing all civility. Yet they continue and later more than one will be forcefully removed and escorted out into the hands of a patrol van used to return them back to Fleet Landing.

For the first 5-hours we patrol, up and down our streets. Occasionally swapping beats with the pair of SP’s from another area, just to break up the monotony. Around 4 or 5 pm we stop to eat a dinner, it feel good to get off our feet even if for a short time. By 6:00pm we are back on the beat. It’s crowded in every place we go into, we move around circling the inside of each place. The noise loud and smoke from all the cigarettes is thick, we make a pass and depart, moving on to the next, and then the next.

Around 9:00 pm the OIC rounds us up along with the pair working the next area over from us. He asks us for a SITREP (Situation Report) and we report that all is calm now. Things could turn ugly or not, we tell him which bar is the most popular, the one with the most sailors which bear watching.

He accepts our reports and then gives us new orders and instructions. A certain “area” has been declared OFF-LIMITS up near the top of the hill on the fringe of the village. We are to join two others on the way there and cordon off this “area”. We are to patrol the two roads which front this “area” as the back is an undeveloped area and not illuminated. All sailors are to be turned away.

We leave immediately on foot walking up the streets and crossing through the entire village. Once on station we see that this “area” is a single house, it is the village Whore House.

We meet up with the two that are there and we deploy along the two roads, one has a side walk, the other is simply a road that continues up into the darkness and the top of the hill. We have a commanding view of not just the Village below but the harbor as well. We can seen boats tied up in the marina and our very own Ship, sitting at anchor maybe a mile out. The lights on her Island structure clearly illuminate the 69 that is her hull number, visible even this far away.

The First Class in charge assigns my partner and I to the harbor side of the house, we will patrol the side edge on the road. This side is dark; there are no street lights on this side. The house itself is huge and one of the few multi-story buildings we have seen, it’s 3-stories. The front has a large porch at the main entrances with a walkway down to the sidewalk. We walk from the very dark area at the back to the front and back again. We watch carefully for the approaching Sailors, they stand out in their whites so it is easy to pick them out at a distance.

We turn many away, sending them back the way they have come. Almost all question the need to quarantine this one house but we have not been availed of the reasons why it is now off limits.

After an hour or so on station the uniforms thin out, fewer and fewer as word gets out that this place of out of bounds. But on the edge of the darkness we see a lone white suited man approaching. By his silhouette we can tell he is a Sailor, the Dixie Cup hat is a dead giveaway. He plods on towards us; I watch closely, there is something familiar in his gait. It is the slow, methodical plodding rhythm in his walk that I recognize. Long before this man gets to the light I know who it is and I maneuver to intercept. Better to be turned away by someone you know.

As he gets closer and steps out the darks side of the road and crosses into the area directly in the light we can see him plain as day. It is who I think.

“Hey Phill!” I call out. Phill turns to me ignoring the approach of two other SP’s patrolling from the front. I wave them off.

Although he is a First Class and in uniform I refer to him by his first name, we are not strangers.

“Jimmy Tee” he says back. The emphasis on the Tee tells me Phill has had many adult beverages before making the long trek up the hill.

Phill is one of the First Class Petty Officers assigned to the same Shop or Work Center that I am assigned. We had several in fact (4 of them) in a 22 man work center. He was one I had first met while in A-School, before we had been assigned to VS-31. He was what we called a “re-tred” having been in the Navy and then gotten out. Upon re-enlistment he changed his professional designation into the Electronics field and that was where I met him, undergoing Electronics training. He was the only Petty Officer in the barracks; I was a lowly airman at the time. In the years I had known him I had learned a lot. His specialty was understanding people. His management of our shop and our tremendous work load was done with little bickering or argument which accompanies the management by the other First Class’s in the shop. Phill understood how to work the People side and from that he got more out of his crew than anyone else. It was his study of each of us as individuals that made him so effective as a First Class.

“Good evening, beautiful out don’t ya think?” I say. Phill smiles and turns to face the same way I am, we are looking out at the harbor. Ike is in the distance. We stand as two shipmates admiring the view, our home of the last 14 months or so. My SP partner stands back a bit, standing back out of the way.

“Yes Jimmy T, it is nice out and she is a lovely site.” Phill says. We stand there admiring the view. Phill then turns slightly towards me, leaning into me searching for privacy.

“I guess you are here turning all of us horny bustards away?” He asks. That is classic Phill, straight to the heart of the matter.

“Afraid so Phill.” I reply. He pursues his lips and shakes his head.

Phill is legendary for his ability to stay on the ship. On our last Mediterranean cruise he went ashore once in the entire 6-months we were deployed. His one chance for that most intimates of human contacts and we are there to turn him away.

“Ah, Just like my Navy ya know, deprive me of one of the few pleasures I seek.”

“Sorry Phill.” I say. “That’s Ok Jimmy. Not your fault. I guess I’ll head on back down there.” He says as he steps off. “Yeah, see you in the ship.” I say as he departs. Phill starts down the hill, his slow plodding walk, no hurry, no worry as he has said to me many times. He slips back into the darkness. I return to my partner and we resume our short walks in the dark.

We continue in this manner, stopping those that are obviously Navy and you can tell them easy enough, sending them back down the hill. For the next 90 minutes we work the side walk and street. All the while I think of Phill, his impact on me over the years. His simple charm and keen insight into men and their physiology, he is only one of two people I have known from the state of Idaho.

Around 2300 hours the inbound traffic is almost non-existent. There is not enough time left to come up here and still make it back to Fleet Landing by midnight. We stay on station waiting for relief or termination of the assignment.

Then, the front door to the house opens. We hear the laughter of women spill out with the opening of the door. A man steps out, he is dressed all in white and once out on the porch he turns back to the open door, he bows and waves, the door closes. He then turns to head down the long walkway out to the road, he places the ubiquitous Dixie cup hat on his head, he is one of us, an Ike crewman.

As he walks towards the road I notice the step, the sway and the methodical plodding gait. It could only be one person. I smile to myself in recognition of who this is. I maneuver to intercept him before any of the other SP’s get to him. I am not sure if there are standing orders to report anyone who had broken through the cordon, it would be better to handle this myself just in case.

“Phill, Phill, Phill.” I say when he is close. “Ah, Mr. Taylor. We meet again.” He says. “Yes we do.” I reply.

“I last saw you as you were working your way down the hill, how is it you are now exiting this out of bounds establishment.” I ask.

He smiles back at me, mischievousness in his eyes, or maybe it was bliss.

“Well you see, Jimmy T, knowing my Navy the way I do, I got to thinking just how serious this cordon of these fine facilities was. I thought I’d have a look and see for myself. So I took a stroll around the back and well, none of you guys are back there. So I figure “what the Hell”, I don’t get out much. I deserve this and you know all of these places have back doors.”

We both chuckle.

“In my Navy’s infinite wisdom no one thought to cover the rear. And now I fear it is too late to do anything about it, especially in my case.”

I laugh and say “You are right Phill, it is late. You better get going before you miss the last boat back to the ship.”

Phill smiles at me, give me a mock salute and proceeds on down the hill.

That was vintage Phill I thought as I watched him amble down that road into the darkness. The most striking part was not his being a whore-monger or even embarrassed by it, no lots of us in the Navy did that and you can’t besmirch a man for wanting to satisfy his more prurient needs. No, it was the way he always referred to the Navy as “His Navy” or “My Navy”. Phill had always taken ownership of the great big thing. The Navy. For him it was never that the Navy was right or wrong, it was his Navy and he was either right or wrong right along with it.

All these many years I had worked for and with Phill, I had mentored under him. His stubborn way of following each Maintenance Instruction no matter how trivial or mundane was legend in our shop. How he never took the short cut we had all practiced and documented in our Shop Gouge package. We laughed when he would fill out the document discrepancy reports or the “Anymouse” Form to report a hazardous condition, there were so many we always thought how could you document each and every one, but not Phill. He was steadfast in doing it right or as he would say, “the Navy way”. And as I stood there and watched him descend back down to our mutual home on the sea, it occurred to me what he had been teaching me all these years. Teaching all of us who would learn. It was ownership. I t was my Navy too, it was why so many called me a “lifer” despite any proof to the contrary, it was why I choose to go ashore on the first day of Liberty in uniform. To walk the streets as an example for the civilians to note as much as to take care of the Sailor who would need us, good or bad.

Yeah, I might walk with a purposeful and fast gait but some of Phill had rubbed off onto me. A little bit of his Navy.

The other 4 SP’s approached me; we all stood there in the street in a loose circle. “Was that guy a First Class?” someone asked, pointing down the hill with his thumb.

“Yeah” I say, “and one of the best in this man’s Navy!”

BT: Jimmy T sends.

C-17 Near Disaster

2010-09-24T06:25:00.000-07:00

Scary incident here (by Amy Butler of Aviation Week) a C-17 with 176 Pakistani refugee's on board (they were escaping the recent flooding) was struck by Lightning causing massive systems failure, including the loss of all 4 Engines. Yeah, I'll bet it was very quiet in the back of that aircraft while it soared around.

Fortunately the crew nursed two engines back to life and the aircraft made a safe landing. Good on them, there were a lot of folks on that airlifter and this was a humanitarian mission. This would have looked ugly had that big airlifter augured in. I am glad the boy's in blue kept that beast in the air if even for a short time.

I wonder how many new flight suites were needed by that Flight Crew?

BT: Jimmy T sends.

New Name - Same Stink

2010-09-17T08:26:00.000-07:00

Ok, so "Global Warming" was not working out for the insane Left in the world. With all the revelations from East Angelica University and what is now known as "Climate Gate" the Lefties renamed the great wealth re-distribution plans to "Climate Change". PresBO's Science Czar went one step further and is now referring to this as: "Global Climate Disruption."

"White House science adviser John Holdren urged people to start using the phrase during a speech last week in Oslo, echoing a plea he made three years earlier. Holdren said global warming is a "dangerous misnomer" for a problem far more complicaated than a rise in temperature." (Link to story here and another one here.)

Now they can use this phrase to justify all extremes in climate as having been caused by humans, American humans in particular since we use up so much of the Earth in our daily lives. This is the same smacked Ass that wants to "de-develop" the United States economy in order to reset it to "much more equitable distribution of wealth."

Yeah more of that communist agenda, Central Planning and governmnet ownership of bisness (GM = Yugo, you do remember the Yugo?). I thought all of that failed? Did I miss something here? Did all these academics, because that is where all these Lefties that are advising the PresBO come from, they surly don't come from the real America, miss the massive failures over in Eastern Europe? Did they miss the Soviet Union de-evolving into simply Russia and a bunch of independent countries?

The Left in this country is to be feared and we all need to do what we can to marginalize them in our political system. They are driving us towards Failure and this Holdren fellow is twisting science to justify that failure.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Waste of Money and Good Intentions

2010-09-15T07:19:00.001-07:00

It gets worse and worse, the more we find out about the massive stimulus package passed last year by the "desperate" congress and President to save the country. Here is yet another morsel:

"(CNSNews.com) – the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), spent $823,300.00 of economic stimulus funds in 2009 on a study by a UCLA research team to teach uncircumcised African men how to wash their genitals after having sex." (Full Story Here)

Yeah, there you go, our Tax Dollars at work. Just what we need here in the good ole, USA, clean dicks in Africa!

Can you say: Wate of Money!

Now, I understand that AIDS is a huge problem in Africa and they really need help over there with their health care. I mean, it's the cradle of man and all that, where we all came from, but do we have to spend non-existent US Dollars on this? Really, do we? This is money and debt that should have been spent on something of value here in America, but no, they had to pass this 2300 page bill before anyone could read it and parse out the waste.

All to give PresBO and the idiot democrats a victory and a way to legally pass out money to every pet project out there, regardless of the payback to the country. You can't possibly tell me that clean dicks in Africa are worth the initial outlay and the debt payments on that loan (since we don't have the money it has to be borrowed and paid back).

Why can't we clean dicks here in America instead, at least that way there would be an immediate benefit to Americans, is that not what the "stimulus" bill was for? We could get unemployed Porno Stars to help with this and actually create a job or two and guess what, who knows more about cleaning that equipment than all those Porno Stars!! I say give them the $800K and cut them loose.

Ah, well they have almost a Trillion dollars to throw away. Reminds me of this old Onion piece, it never gets old.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Land of the Sheep, Home of the Compliant

2010-09-14T11:05:00.001-07:00

Letter to America's Health Insurance Plans Trade Group:

"there will be zero tolerance for this type of misinformation and unjustified rate increases." Kathleen Sebelius, Commissar for Health and Human Services

Here is yet another example of the thugs at work in our current form of government. Instead of a Republic we have this mutated form of a socialist-democratic-communist conclave. A group of America hating central planners who's only experience seems to be in academia, who are trying to think for all of us out here in the "workers' paradise".

How many more examples are needed for the general public to wake up to what these people are doing to our country, and the MSM does nothing but sit on the sidelines or worse in the case of at least MSMBC, they are helping them. MSMBC = Pravda!!

The real shame is that they are doing this right in front of our eyes. PresBO has appointed his shadow government in the form of Czars to help pull the strings without the consent of the Governed and completely usurping the Congress. That whole gaggle in the capitol building is now irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. PresBO only needs them in name only.

Where will it end? I hope we can end the coop this November. It's too bad it has gone this far because some of this stuff is just too hard to back out. We will be stuck with it for better or worse.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Krista Branch

2010-08-18T19:00:00.001-07:00

I found this song a while back: "I am America". I liked it, and held onto the link, You might like it as well. I may buy the T-shirt she sells on her website.

Krista sings motivational and patriotic songs; they are worth listening to as well as this one. Here is another one: "Remember who We Are" another great song and a great title.

Krista has a powerful voice and I love her eyes (and I do mean her eyes). She looks a lot like Linda Carter in this video and if you know me you know I love her!!

Krista's home page is right here.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Radio Check

2010-08-18T13:09:00.001-07:00

Lots of banter out there regarding the Call Sign of a certain Naval Aviator (story here). It even drew Lex into the discussion and he has several stories about his time in and around the bizarre ritual of naming Naval Aviators. Everyone that comes here regular knows I was a naval aviation ground pounder. While I had the opportunity to ride onboard the occasional War Hoover flight I was not one of the brothers that wore wings on their chest. Still and even I like what I did and would not trade it for a life of flying.

We had our share of odd Call Signs in ole VS-31. My first S-3 flight was piloted by a "Major Two-Dog", he was our Maintenance Officer and I was aboard for a maintenance call for a computer that would only fail while airborne. We also had a "Sun Dance" and a guy they called "Bullpup". The most odd was a Pilot we had that went by the call sign "Elsie" as in the cow on the cover of glue bottles.

All us guys in maintenance never knew how the names assigned and never did we use them except when that particular person was not around. Another interesting side note, we had enlisted aircrew in our squadron (about a dozen or so). They also flew however they were not given call signs. I guess they were not on the radio enough to warrant getting one. Too bad because our crop of AW's were a gas!!

Anyhow, the whole bent on this for me was to steer the occasional reader to Dos Gringos website and to their song "The Legend of Shaved Dog's Ass", which is a really cool call sign!! Enjoy!!

BT: Jimmy T sends.

SSA Birth Day

2010-08-13T11:45:00.001-07:00

Let's all not celebrate at once Folks!! Today in 1935 the President signed into law the Social Security Act enabling Congress to spend yours and my hard earned money on items that they deem more important than "Old-Age Benefits". Today, that SSA pays out more money than it takes in every year by $41 Billion dollars, there is no real trust fund and those who retire in the near future must pray there are enough works making payment for them to draw monetary benefits.

Yeah, I am bitter. The Government was never meant to handle my retirement and in a perfect world I would have an option to join the sheepale and put my money at the disposal of the Congress of the USA or take my money and be responsible for my own "Old-Age Benefits". Just recently the Board of Trustees for Social Security and Medicare presented the public with their actuarial report for 2010 which predicts a rosy picture for SSA. What a pack of lies, when you look at who the Trustees who put together the report you have to laugh but it makes you understand why they paint such a nice picture for SSA's future. They are all political appointee's of the Obama administration and the Managing Trustee is none other than Timothy "Turbo Tax" Geithner! Yep, the Sectary of Tax Dodger Treasury himself. Its no wonder that the American Academy of Actuaries put out their own report highlighting the assumptions used by the Trustees to project the financial condition of SSA. Look at that here, but it ain't pretty. They put people in jail for running ponzi schemes (can you say Bernard Madoff) but not the Sectary of the Treasury.

This fund will soon be broke, penniless and not able to provide even modest payouts. They are already talking about raising the employee and employer participation rate, increasing the retirement age by 7 to 8 years and doing means testing (allowing benefits payouts to only those that have nothing instead of those who only ask for their money back).

But, 75 years ago today the Do-Gooders struck once again removing a little bit of what made Americans different then other peoples of the world, self reliance and personal responsibility. This trend has continued to this day with more and more people just waiting for the Federal Government to wipe their Ass.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Iron Curtain – Berlin Wall

2010-08-13T08:09:00.001-07:00

Today is the day back in 1961 that the Berlin Wall was started in what was then East Germany or more properly, the Eastern Sector of Berlin. At first the barrier erected were simple obstructions that prevented the free movement of people between Eastern Sector Berlin the open and free Western Sector of Berlin (and then escape further to Free Western Germany or other countries in Europe that were open to refugees). No one it turned out wanted to into the Eastern Sector except maybe spies but a lot of civilians (almost 4 million) had streamed out of Eastern Berlin and the Russian (known back then as the Soviet Union) controlled Eastern Block countries.

The original simple barriers were later replaced with an actual 12 foot tall wall that ringed the Western Sector of the city (87 miles worth) sealing off any hopes of people leaving the east to the west. This would be expanded upon with demolition of buildings near the border and the construction of more than 100 guard towers, an open lane and yet another fence on the inner perimeter. This created a kind of no man's land or a Free Fire Zone between the two. Between 100 and 200 people were killed trying to escape the east through these barriers.

I wonder why? Was not the communist run socialist paradise not good enough for them?

The whole of the Iron Curtain was used to seal the Eastern Bloc countries off from the West, entrapping people to live in the Centrally Planned communist run countries. Although each country had its own head of state, they were considered puppets of the masters in Russia. The Cold War was fought here and on the high seas as well. Most of the Cold War was a spy or covert war but it did heat up every once in a while. Usually it was someone sprinting across the no man's land attempting to get into the West.

There were no instances of people trying to escape the West into the East.

Pictures here and some history here. Picture above taken from "The Lost Border" by Brian Rose with my thanks!

BT: Jimmy T sends.

First to Fight

2010-08-12T05:10:00.001-07:00

A little know fact but to maybe the Native American community but today is the anniversary of the end of what is traditionally known as the first Indian war here in the America's by the assassination of the leader of the Indian revolt. The year was 1676 but the fighting started between loose bands of Indians and British Colonists (living in what is now Rhode Island) a year earlier. The exact cause of the fighting is still in dispute and claims of murder and cattle killings abound. But what is known is that Colonists put to death Indians who were incriminated in the murder of a native convert who was sympathetic to the English. It made no sense but the English needed to make a statement, thinking the Indians would return to their villages. However, the popular leader of the Indians, known as Metacom used these events to bolster his cause to unite the many Indian tribes and rise up against the white pestilence English. It ended when Metacom was killed or more properly assassinated ending the bulk of the fighting that threatened to end the Eastern colonization of North America. Known as "King Phillip's War" for Metacom who was the leader of the Pokanoket Indians and successfully rallied the Wampanoag Federation of Indians.

King Phillip was the name applied by the English to Metacom who's father helped the original Plymouth Pilgrims survive their first winter. This favor was returned with the bloody fighting that ensued some 55 years later. There were massacres on both sides most notable among them was the "Great Swamp" massacre conducted by the English against the Narragansett Indians. More than 500 native's were killed, most were women and children. Another shame is that Indians taken prisoner by the English were either executed or taken to Bermuda and sold as slaves.

Hard fighting lasted a mere 18 months however it was two more years before an actual treaty was signed. This little know war set the stage for future relations with the Indians and is generally considered the reason why so many Indian Tribes would ally themselves with the French during what became known as the French and Indian War.

The English would never fully trust the Indians nor would the Indians trust the English in their dealings together.

There were other wars with the natives here on the East Coast (the fighting with the Powhatan or the Pequot pre-date this war) but this one had the momentum and organization between Tribes to have an actual impact to colonization in what is known as New England (Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island.

However it failed. Today you can go to a casino in Connecticut operated by what remains of one of these tribes. Most of the other tribes have since become extinct.

More here and here.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Paying the Freight

2010-08-09T11:06:00.001-07:00

My daily read over at Capre Diem and I found two items that I knew in my heart but had not statistics to nail to. The good Professor Perry has a rich graphic on the sky rocketing College tuition problem and actual figures on what costs the government mandates when you employ someone and its effects on small business.

Tuition Bubble:

As a debtor to a huge college loan (the same as my first house in fact), I had always felt that the Student Loan Guarantee program actually hurts this country more than helps. The reason is simple supply and demand violated by government meddling. First, if someone can't afford tuition they don't go to school or they go where they can afford. Under the "normal" rules of supply and demand, the school that priced itself out of the market (by high salaries or by handing out scholarships to moron athletes) they would suffer and have to do something. You know, make themselves more competitive. If someone steps in and mucks with this very delicate system like, let's say guarantee's the loans for anyone that wants' to go to school, no matter what the costs! Well then there is no motivation on the school to hold down those costs. The result:

Yeah, look at that curve; it's like the space shuttle climbing into orbit. Just can't wait for the crash!! It frosts my shorts that the average semester costs to go to an average school here today, is more than what it costs for a whole degree back only 20 years ago. And as long as the government continues to guarantee the loans that line will continue to climb up or until a crash occurs. Can't happen soon enough as far as I am concerned, especially now that the Executive branch convinced the Congress to take over that market completely, they can steer these loans to only those people they want and into fields they think the country requires. Can anyone say, Central Planning? Yep

Employment Pain:

The good Professor Perry points us to a Wall Street Journal story about what it costs to actually create a job today, what with all the mandates pressed down from that holy pedestal of Congress and the Administration. They detail a 33% surcharge to employ anyone in this country all attributable to government program requirements. That's a whopping high number. In a salary of $44,000.00 it costs the employer a total of $74,000.00 once all the taxes, fee's and surcharges are added into the mix. And this includes all sorts of stuff like Unemployment, Social Security, Medicare and all other sorts of rules and regulations. It's worth the read and makes you wonder who in his right mind will spend that kind of money in overhead to hire someone for what amounts to be a minimum wage job.

The sad part is that the Democrats and PresBO are not done with their work and continue to whittle away at our once dynamic business and industrial base. One job at a time.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Stray Voltage – Part 2

2010-08-04T08:23:00.001-07:00

More stray thoughts to contemplate if you have the time.

Government Motors – the Volt

I heard today that a Camel is a horse designed by a committee, well the Volt is the Green Car designed by the ruling Political Class!! It has virtually no redeeming value except to slow down the flushing action occurring in the once great state of Michigan. A state run by Democrats and Unions I'd like to point out. The Volt at a mere $41K is way more expensive than the Nissan Leaf ($33K) but less than half as much as the Tesla all electric car (at $100,000 bucks) so it fills a vital niche. Of course don't go factoring in all the subsidies and bailout money that GM required to stay on its feet long enough to put this beast out. Those costs factored in and this is one expensive vehicle. Rumor is that GM will only make 10,000 of them and considers this as a kind of prototype-production run. They have a lot of work to do, the range is horrible, the cost is way out of line and of course the styling and its interior layout leads a lot to be desired. But what do you expect from the Motor Company run mainly by Government Bureaucrats and Union leaders. We only have ourselves to blame for giving government this kind of power.

Social Security

Almost no one is talking about this, but I found this interesting article in the New York Times of all places. I don't know when the last time it is that they complained about the Social Security issues facing the nation but my guess is that it has been a long time. They had an interest in getting Democrats elected and bringing up Social Security during the election process would have complicated that effort. Now with the die case towards the Republicans taking over congress or at the very least control of the House, the Social Security problem becomes their problem and it is now time to beat on them with it. Had they been on board 4 or 5 years ago when Bush wanted to privatize a portion of total as a test case we could be looking at maybe a real definitive way to save this benefit for future generations. But instead, the liberals running the MSM helped bury the issue and now we have it rotting out under us. Who will be getting benefits payments remains to be seen. This is one program that is in dire straits. I don't know that it can be saved.

Working for the Man – The Leftist Man

Some cross-posting between different Blogs regarding a Washington Post article about the Bush Tax Cuts, that article Five Myths about the Bush Tax Cuts. Bruce McQuain takes it apart point by point here. The smartest point to be made is in the Legal Insurrection posting by William A. Jacobson and I'll quote "These Democratic talking points reflect the fundamental disconnect: It is not your money. I think the American people understand that point. The government works for us, not the other way around. You either believe it, or you don't. The Democrat Party doesn't."

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Two Americas in Congress

There's a "dual standard, one for most members and one for African-Americans," said one member of the Congressional Black Caucus, speaking on the condition of anonymity. This is in response to ethics charges being brought up against Charlie Rangle and Maxine Waters. Couldn't happen to two more deserving members of the house except maybe that ass-bandit Barney Frank or that Winer guy from New York (you would think the two of them would hook up or something eh). Oh hell, there are a bunch of them that need to be drowned in that swamp Nancy Pelosi promised to drain. I guess that's a hard job with so many of her fellow Dem's clogging the drain.

Read more: Here

That's all for now!!

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Beginning of the End – 3 August 1492

2010-08-03T10:29:00.001-07:00

Started this day in 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail from Spain on a mission to discover a new trade route to what was known back then as the Far East (India and China). He would land in what are known today as the Bahamas and what they, the Europeans would call the "New World".

Now being part Native American I do not look upon this day or the actual holiday celebrated as Columbus Day (12 October) as a good thing. Anyone that knows the real truth about "American" history knows that there was a flourishing civilization here in the America's (both North and South) that did not need "Discovery". In North America alone it is estimated that there were between 5 and 20 million Natives liveing here when Columbus stepped ashore on El Salvador (here is a link that tries to explain the large split in numbers). In a short 308 years that population would be as few as only 260,000.

That's right, an actual Genocide occurred here in the "New World" at the hands of the many Europeans that would come here. Now to be fair, not all of this was the evil killing of those who would not convert to Christianity (and there was plenty of that) or even those who would not leave a particularly nice area and were killed off for those lands (re. the Pequot War). No the majority were killed by disease brought here from the "Old World" that the Natives had no immunity to. Measles, Influenza, Small Pox, Whooping Cough, bubonic plague and several others did the dirty work but end result was the same.

The few to survive the genocide today live in abject poverty; they have been completely debased having no power to speak of and a future as bleak as the last 200 years have been.

And "they" celebrate the arrival as if it was a good thing. Not me.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

The Start of a New Age – the Atomic Age

2010-08-01T18:54:00.001-07:00

Photo from: Trinity

August 2^nd, 1939 a letter written by a prominent scientist and sent to the U.S. President would trigger events that would change the world as we knew it at the time. It would end 6 years later in the now more or less famous expression "Now I am become death, destroyer of worlds" uttered by J. Robert Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer was the civilian administrator of the "Manhattan Project", he was the chief scientist and conducted the activity of several hundred scientists situated in more than a dozen sites around the country. Major General Leslie R. Groves actually ran the project coordinating the construction of many dozens of sites of extreme complexity, he coordinated security with his own force of MP's and coordinated the activity of what would become the 509^th Bomb Squadron which would carry the first two atomic bombs into action some 6 years later.

But on this day, Albert Einstein wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt on behalf of his good friend and fellow scientist and refugee Leo Szilard who had developed on his own the idea of the "Chain Reaction". Believing that the Germans were working on a chain reaction explosive device, Szilard pressured his friend Einstein to write the letter of introduction. From this letter Einstein described "A single bomb of this type carried by boat and exploded in a port, might very well destroy the whole port together with some of the surrounding territory."

The President would heed the warning from Einstein and establish the "Uranium Committee" that would be the start of the eventual "Manhattan Project."

Significant to these events but lost on most is the fact that this letter and several others written later by Einstein and also by Szilard are their only activity with the building of the Atomic Bomb here in the United States. Most people think of Einstein as the father of the Atomic Age however in my opinion this is not true. J. Robert Oppenheimer or Enrico Fermi or even Edward Teller are more properly the "father" of this whole new age in humanity. The funny part of Einstein's participation, again lost to most is the fact that his letter triggered the development and later he would write to the new President Truman urging him not to use the devastating new weapon.

How the worm turns, it seems the Germans were many years behind in their development of their bomb, conducting only "heavy Water" experiments when the war ended. The Japanese were even further behind. The Russians however were right on our heels owing mostly to the numerous spies who were infiltrated into the Project from merry ole England, a place that before the great War was friendly to communists. They in turn were sent to the U.S. to help with the "Manhattan Project" and leaked what they learned to what would become the Soviet Union.

But today, that letter of introduction written by Einstein started humanity on a road that we cannot depart. For good or bad.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Votes for Felons NOT the Military

2010-07-29T07:34:00.001-07:00

Anyone remember all the trouble with counting absentee ballots from deployed military during the 2000 election. This seems to have triggered numerous campaigns to strengthen the Liberal/Democrat Party hold on voting in this country which includes the George Soros funded project to elect Secretaries of State who would be sympathetic to Democrat candidates. Also, several laws were passed to help get the Vote from deployed military counted. One of these laws was a law sponsored by Texas Republican John Cornyn that required states to mail out military ballots 45 days before an election in order to ensure they would be received in and counted back in the home district.

Now it seems the Obama Justice Department has other priorities, Felon's need to vote before the Military. This story by the washington times shows how PresBO and his puppet Attorney General (Erick "America is a Coward" Holder) are intentionally sabotaging the vote of the military. Here are a few snippets:

"..the Department seems to be encouraging states to apply for waivers so they won't have to follow that law. More than 17,000 Americans serving overseas were denied the vote in 2008 – but, presumable because military personnel are thought to lean conservative, the liberal Obama administration is in no hurry to correct the situation."

And..

"The Justice Department is so unenthusiastic about military voting that its website still lists the old requirement for a shorter 30-day military voting window, rather than the current 45 days. On the other hand, the Justice Department has no legislative mandate whatsoever to involve itself with helping felons to vote, but its website devotes a large section – 2,314 words – to advising felons how to regain their voting privileges."

Go read the full article, it is frightening.

Yeah, get those hardened criminals the rights that the Men and Women in Uniform are fighting to protect and deprive them of that same right. What are they going to do next, Voting Rights for the Dead! Let us not hold our breath!

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Death and Taxes – IRS Close Up

2010-07-28T11:40:00.001-07:00

Immediately before my latest trip to New Mexico to visit my Father I had the pleasure of an IRS Audit. The IRS does not call these "Audits" any more; they prefer "Examination" instead. The "Revenuers" were interested in my Business Deductions for tax years 2007 and 2008. It was brutal, lots of hair splitting and reading between the lines of the Tax Code.

While winning here and there I lost more often and had to give up many deductions. More importantly the IRS is considering disallowing all my business deductions en-total. They can do that because they have only two tests to determine a viable business from a hobby and the business owner has nine (9) tests to prove it is viable. We will have to see.

This episode simply illustrates how complex the tax code is and to what lengths the Fed will go for revenue. Despite having paid enough taxes in both years to buy a nice 4-door automobile they wanted even more. They use the convoluted tax code to pull this additional revenue to their advantage and if you are not intimately familiar with it you are toast.

This is the same agency that will administer the bulk of Obamacare. Yep, I can't wait to be called in for an Audit and leave bleeding in reality from both the wallet and from the proctologic Examination given at the same time.

Ain't progress fun.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

100 Years of Scouting

2010-07-28T06:26:00.001-07:00

I have posted here in the past about my time in the Boy Scouts of America. Although I never made Eagle Scout, I was in Scouts for a very long time. I joined the Cub Scouts and worked my way up the chain of badges, Wolf, Bear and then Lion, all with the appropriate number of arrowheads. I also participated in other workshops held for young boys that are used to prepare you for the Boy Scouts such as a Weblows.

Once graduating from the Cub Scouts I moved on to Boy Scouts and worked my way from the raw Tenderfoot to Life Scout. I was also selected by the Leaders of my Troop to be the very first Scout from my Troop to be a member of the secret Order of the Arrow, a sect of Super Scouts within the Scouting organization. I was proud and wore that pocket flap badge with pride. I also tended several Baden Powell conferences which taught leadership skills to the young men who attended. My troop crossed the Grand Canyon (Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim) and we hiked the Santa Fe Trail, earning the 50 Miler award (Afoot - Afloat). That same troop did community service projects in every venue.

I had 21 merit badges which was the minimum required for Eagle however my Troop disbanded when the Scout Master who was in the Air Force was transferred to an Air Base in Alaska. It never stood up and I moved on.

The impact of scouting on me personally is easily seen. Many people comment and assume that I was a Boy Scout in the past and I have even been asked if I was an Eagle. I always tell the folks that inquire that I was in fact in Scouting but never made that final mark. It haunts me to this day.

Scouting and my Parents made me the Man I was when I joined the Navy. I am fiercely independent and resourceful: to this day I carry a multi-tool on my belt, I can my own veggies grown in a garden I plant and tend through the year. When I lost my job last year, I took it upon myself to go out and find a new job, I did not wait on our Government to provide for me and my Family, it was my responsibility.

I am a Scout, I may not wear the uniform any more but I hold all the values taught me those many years that I spent in both the blue and green uniforms. I, to this day remember and can recite the Scout Oath and the Scout Laws.

Though I wish to comment on the fact that our President has chosen to go to New York and raise money for Democrats and tape an episode of the TV talk show The View instead of attending the 100 year anniversary celebration of Scouting at Fort AP Hill, I will not; the simple fact that he chose between the two tells you all you need to know about what kind of Man he is.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Life and Times – More Life Please

2010-07-27T13:14:00.001-07:00

I have been spending some time out west with my family. My Father is desperately ill suffering from both a bleeding ulcer and cancer. The cancer is the small cell stuff in the Lungs, spleen and the liver. It is an especially aggressive variety having appeared and spread in a matter of a few months, he was clean and clear back in March but by June he was two legs into the grave. The bleeding ulcer is actually the ailment that has caused the most problems as it is responsible for his lack of an appetite resulting in a dramatic weight loss. Something like 100 pounds since March, maybe more. And this before the chemo treatments.

He was taken in to the hospital a couple of weeks ago when he started bleeding out; this was when they caught the ulcer. Treating it at the same time as his first chemo treatment may not have been smart but they needed to get started on the cancer since it was moving so fast and causing his liver to shut down. The chemo did reverse that and he is home recovering however he looks like death warmed over. A very sad sight indeed.

A year ago at this time he visited us here in the Swamp. He flew out with two of our nephews (Grandsons #7 and #8 for him out of 9, I can't count the Granddaughters) and a niece (I can't count the total of Granddaughters, there are so many I have 4-sisters and one Brother all mass producing). Back then he was vital and vigorous. He handled the all day flying that it takes to go from Albuquerque to Philadelphia (stopover in DFW, no one fly's direct to Albuquerque from Philadelphia) in good humor even with the three young one's in tow (they are good kids). And we took them to Gettysburg and Washington DC for touring. Both places require a lot of walking and in the July heat it was hard on all of the visitors, even some of us residents of the area. Of course the humidity did its trick but the Good Wife and I did a good job keeping everyone hydrated carrying bottled water in coolers filled with ice. My Father trudged around the National Mall stopping for the occasional smoke. I stayed with him while the Good Wife took the point with the kids. He never complained.

Now, today he needs help standing up, uses a walker to get around and requires more meds than I can count.

Bless my Sisters, all of them. They are the true angels in this story. One of them has been with him since his health took the dark turn some 8 weeks ago. They have some flexibility in their lives right now to accommodate having someone there every day and another that spends the night with him. He is never alone. Even when he was in the hospital one of them would spend the night in the room with him just so that he would have a familiar face and voice with him in the wee hours of the night.

With their help I am sure my Father will get some of his old form back and maybe, just maybe we can get him back here for some more of that humidity torture that the Swamp area is famous for. I can only pray.

Living here in the Far East makes it very hard to get out to see my Family. Over the years my Kids have been deprived of the best two Grandparents one could imagine having. Now, one of them is gone and the other has two legs in the grave. My greatest hope is to find some way to get all of us out there to be with him. I fear time is not on my side. I can only hope that the Angles do their work and he stays with us a few more years.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Blog Fodder – News You Can Not Use!

2010-07-15T10:21:00.001-07:00

Here are some headlines that defy the usual effort to ignore. I can hardly believe what passes for Journalism these days.

Larry Hagman, Dallas's Evil Oil Baron, Goes Green!

Oh yeah this is good, you see the "Evil Oil Baron" was a TV act and who in his right mind takes advice on going Green, or Red or even Black from a person who's only qualification is simply memorizing lines out of a script. How can anyone take this "Green" movement serious when they dig up hacks like this guy to pedal their agenda? Makes sense however, the whole Global Warming/Climate Change was a huge made up story just like the JR Ewing character.

Mechanical Problem Hampers BP Effort to Shut Off Well

I thought that was the problem some 90 days ago that started this whole mess? Good grief wouldn't you think the smart money here is to simply put a huge pipe on this and run it back to shore and right into a refinery. If all that black gold wants out, give is somewhere useful for it to go. End it already!!

Politicians who tell you democracies can't slash spending are lying.

Yeah, they simply made cuts to the DOD budget thereby double-dipping in their mind, cutting spending and weakening the country at the same time. Lying, what did they find that $100 million in budget cuts that PresBO wanted out of the Federal Budget last year. Remember they held a huge photo-op showing the PresBO and his cabinet pouring over reams of documents looking for cuts to the budget. No one that is a democrat is serious about cutting federal spending because the three largest drivers are sacred cows, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Lynwood Prison Lesbians Gangs Want Lindsay Lohan

Oh this is rich. Don't those prison lesbians know Lindsay is bisexual? Hell, she might give as good as she gets if they do get their hands on her.

House Democrats hit boiling point over perceived lack of White House support.

Oh this is nice; all those commie's not getting along. I guess the House Democrats are getting tired of carrying the water for the Marxist in Chief since he has such short coat tails they get nothing in exchange for dragging the country into the Socialist Utopia. Either that or they finally run out of stuff to complain about!

Democrat Bart Stupak Accuses Pro-Life Groups of 'Politicizing' Abortion Issue to Undermine Health Care Reform

Hey Bart, what do you call trading your vote for a Presidential Promise not to fund abortions with federal money? Is that not the very definition of "Politicizing"? Of course Bart got punked by the PresBO because his little presidential Executive Order was not worth the paper it was printed on. Nothing like selling your soul to someone worse than the Devil himself.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Retired too Soon?

2010-07-12T13:55:00.001-07:00

Here is what they are catching in the Pacific coming up from Columbia:

That would be a kind of submarine. A drug runner's submarine. Here is the caption that came with the picture:

"Photo released by Guatemala's Defense Ministry on Sunday July 11, 2010. Guatemala's soldiers and sailors escort a drug smuggling submarine captured last Friday July 9 off Guatemala's Pacific coast and arrested four Colombian men on board."

That thing was 57 feet long and carrying 5 tons of cocaine.

Now, I bring this up because this thing was working its way north to the US of A. Oh, it would most likely come ashore somewhere in Mexico and the goods then transported across the border which our great Secretary of Homeland Defense is as secure as it has ever been. At the same time other senior administration officials (David Axelrod) claimed that no one had done more to secure the border than the current Administration. Yeah, just the thing you want to hear knowing all along that the border is as porous as a screen door on the submarine.

This brings to mind two rants that need to be made. The first is the bald face lying the Administration is doing regarding the poor status of the southern Border, of course the northern one is no better. Any enemy of this country can bring in whatever toxic chemical, biological or nuclear weapon right over the border. Who is going to catch them? And proof that the border is still very porous and so easy to get across unmolested is that drug lords are hauling 5 tons of cocaine at a time to the border. They feel the hardest part of the journey is not the crossing the border, it's getting from Columbia to Mexico. This submarine is proof that they are going to great lengths to get their product up to Mexico. Because this was not the only one of these captured. There have been hundreds.

The second rant is the part of about how this was discovered. By the DEA. Now at one time we had a once proud fleet of ASW aircraft and ships. The aircraft were P-3 Orion and S-3 Viking aircraft (my old Jet). The Navy owned more than 400 P-3's and they were stationed all round the US coastline (there were two main bases on each coast and one in Hawaii but they deployed detachments to many places). The S-3's numbers were vastly lower and their duty was mainly carrier based anyway but when we did Caribbean deployment we were always tasked with anti-drug missions. In later years we would deploy a squadron to NAS Key West for this function and a few times the Wings would send aircraft to South America again for the drug interdiction mission.

Today, all but a few of the S-3's are in the great desert graveyard while the P-3's are fast joining them their wings are tired and in need of replacement. There are a mere 100 or so remaining and are as we speak preparing to retire to the desert also. The Boeing P-8 will take its place however there will not be nearly enough of these to cover all the operational demands and that leaves these submarines almost a free pass to Mexico.

Until someone actually gets serious about the border or deploying surveillance aircraft to the waters off South America we will be at risk of not just the drugs but of way worse an import. PresBO wants amnesty and he will keep the borders open as a political weapon to gain support for that. Meanwhile anyone or anything can be brought across.

What the hell are we doing?

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Courage in America

2010-07-07T09:59:00.001-07:00

The PresBO administration is quick to sic lawyers on problems here in today's America. The best coordinated response to the Gulf Oil Leak was to send the US Attorney General down there with a team of Lawyers to make sure things were going smoothly I am sure. Now they have filed suit against the state of Arizona to strike down a new law that is patterned after the federal law that he will not enforce. And then there is this festering pustule:

Eric Holder, United States Attorney General on race in America, "is a country of cowards."

Below is King Samir Shabazz, the New Black Panther member that stood outside of a polling place on election day with a club in his hand to prevent white people from voting.

Here is more:

"I hate white people. All of them. Every last iota of a cracker I hate him, because we're still in this condition."

"No wonder we're not free. Your enemy cannot make you free, fool. You want freedom? You're gonna have to kill some crackers. You're gonna have to kill some of they [sic] babies."

"I can't wait for the day that they're all dead. I won't be completely happy until I see our people free and Whitey dead."

Yeah, and he gets a pass. Let a white guy stand in front of a polling place with a baton calling out in a similar manner about Blacks or Hispanics and watch how quickly that guy is put in jail. But the black radical gets a pass.

That's called "courage" by the Attorney General, Eric Holder. Real courage would have been to arrest this man and put him in prison for a very long time. But no, the AG dropped all charges on him and set him and his cohorts free.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Fighting the 2nd

2010-07-01T06:45:00.001-07:00

One of our basic rights as citizens of America is the right to keep and bear arms, the 2^nd Amendment is supposed to guarantee that the Government will not prohibit the citizenry from being able to defend itself with the force of arms. It is one of the most attacked rights by the Left in this country and is so misunderstood by both the left and the right.

It is plain to me what the framers of the Amendment wanted in passing the Bill. They had only recently fought a war against a tyrannical government and they were living in a wild country. The musket was carried by every able bodied male in this country at that time. This was what was meant by bearing arms, it was to protect them in the main but also to throw off another tyrannical government if one were to emerge.

The Left's contention is that Guns kill people and that if we outlaw them we will have peace. Now they feel this way even though there is no evidence this will happen, in fact the opposite is true. There is plenty of evidence that banning guns disarms the citizenry leaving them vulnerable to those who ignore all the laws including the taking of life. Just look at Washington DC until the Heller ruling overturned the laws in the country's most restricted anti-gun city. And at that time the city that had the most homicides as well.

Today that honor is held by the city of Chicago. And they too have the mantel of the most restricted anti-gun city in America. Well until we sort out this week's Supreme Court ruling that basically ruled that States and Cities have to abide by the 2^nd Amendment as well as the Federal.

The point of this for me is that it is time for Republican Senators to strap on some balls and stand firm on Supreme Court nominees.

When nominee Sonia Sotomayor was being questioned in her confirmation hearing she answered the question about the 2^nd amendment this way: "I understand the individual right fully that the Supreme Court recognized in Heller." And "I understand how important the right to bear arms is to many, many Americans."

Leaving little wiggle room for interpretation she recognized that the 2^nd amendment was an individual right. Now look at her position NOW as a full member of the Supreme Court and not just a nominee, as a member of the dissenting opinion she sided with the following statement: "the Framers did not write the Second Amendment in order to protect a private right of armed self defense."

This is called a two faced lie. Saying one thing to win the nomination and gain confirmation and doing exactly what she wants' politically when she is on the bench.

And now we have Elena Kagan doing the same thing. That is, saying one thing to win the confirmation. Claiming as "settled law and Heller has decided that the Second Amendment confers such an individual right to keep and bear arms," in the discussion on the 2^nd Amendment posed to her during her nomination hearings. Elena Kagan has a long history of fighting against the 2^nd Amendment. She has helped to develop several bans on weapons the most notable being the Clinton Administrations 1998 weapons ban.

She is yet another radical that is fully vested in the mutation of this country to a Socialist Democratic state similar in nature to many in Europe. She must be stopped.

There will be many cases of import brought to the Supreme Court over the course of her tenure if she were to win confirmation. Do you think she would be sympatric to a constitutional challenge to the Obamacare health care bill, I do. When asked if the congress has the constitutional authority to dictate what people eat, she stammered for many seconds before she started her response. And unfortunately the Republican who posed the question answered it for her cutting her off in the process. But the many seconds in delay in answering spoke volumes.

Republican Senators need to filibuster this nominee or voter her down outright. She is being disingenuous when she answers questions put to her by the Republicans. She will be a willing participant in the demise of what had once been a proud country.

BT: Jimmy T sends.