Genetics Redux

Not quite two years ago I published a post entitled “Genetics,” which was a brief pictorial essay on the flower bed just a short distance from my door. The blooms in the flower bed were of great interest to me, especially where the color permutations on the blossoms were concerned. Now fast-forward a few months (or so) from the referenced post… whereupon some clue-free folks hired to maintain the grounds here at Beautiful La Hacienda Trailer Park came by and literally ripped out the entire flower bed… flowers, weeds and all… being completely unable to differentiate between weeds and flowers. “Well, there goes the neighborhood,” or so I thought. And it was true…as there were NO flowers in the bed whatsoever last year.

But I misunderestimated the power of Mother Nature. The flowers are back this year… in abundance. There are changes, though. The blooms don’t seem quite so vibrant, and the colors of the flowers are different. Slightly different, to be sure, but different still. Here are a few shots I took earlier this morning…

The last photo shows the flower bed in a longer view. The interesting thing about these flowers is they only open up fully in the morning. And then they close up tight as the heat of the day intensifies. You’ll also notice, Gentle Reader, that I’ve refrained from calling these flowers by their proper name. There’s a good reason for that (aside from the fact we’ve not been formally introduced): I don’t know what they are. Your assistance would be most appreciated if you know their proper name.

Finally… I really ought to get out there and weed the damned bed myself this year…before the onslaught of the clue-free “gardeners.” But… OTOH… I haven’t seen those folks around the park at all this year. Perhaps they’ve moved on to bigger and better things. One would hope.

Update: I went and read the comments to my original “Genetics” post... and found that Original Reader Becky informed me the flowers are called “Four O'Clocks.” It's a good thing my... um... fingers (yeah, that's it) aren't as short as my memory.

A Couple of Things from The Onion...

…which is really good of late. Dunno which is funnier… this:

EARTH—Former vice president Al Gore—who for the past three decades has unsuccessfully attempted to warn humanity of the coming destruction of our planet, only to be mocked and derided by the very people he has tried to save—launched his infant son into space Monday in the faint hope that his only child would reach the safety of another world.

[…]

In the final moments before the Earth's destruction, Gore expressed hope that his son would one day grow up to carry on his mission by fighting for truth, justice, and the American way elsewhere in the universe, using his Earth-given superpowers to become a champion of the downtrodden and a reducer of carbon emissions across the galaxy.

"Perhaps he will succeed where I have failed," Gore said.

Despite the child's humble beginnings, experts predict the intergalactic journey may have some extraordinary effects on Kal-Al's physique, eyesight, and, potentially, his powers of quiet, sensible persuasion.

"On his new planet, Kal-Al's Earth physiology will react to the radiation of a differently colored sun, causing him to develop abilities far beyond those of mortal men," political analyst Sig Schuster said. "He will be faster than a speeding Prius, stronger than the existing Superfund program, and able to leap mountains of red tape in a single bound. These superpowers will sustain him in his never-ending battle against conservatives, wealthy industrialists, and other environmental supervillains."

Or this:

MACON, GA—Linens-N-Shit, the nation's largest retailer of bedsheets, tablecloths, and a wide assortment of other shit, will open its new location Tuesday morning at the Macon Mall.

"We are excited to open our first store in the Macon area, and we encourage shoppers to arrive early and check out all of our great linens and shit," said Robert Barlow, the company's senior vice president. "We're proud to offer the local community the best selection of the name-brand shit you want at the prices you love."

I really, really, really can’t make up my mind. So… it’s on you to decide, Gentle Reader.

A Couple of Things From Inside the Beltway

I think it’s safe to say the love affair is over. From Dana Milbank, writing in today’s WaPo:

Barack Obama has long been his party's presumptive nominee. Now he's becoming its presumptuous nominee.

Fresh from his presidential-style world tour, during which foreign leaders and American generals lined up to show him affection, Obama settled down to some presidential-style business in Washington yesterday. He ordered up a teleconference with the (current president's) Treasury secretary, granted an audience to the Pakistani prime minister and had his staff arrange for the chairman of the Federal Reserve to give him a briefing. Then, he went up to Capitol Hill to be adored by House Democrats in a presidential-style pep rally.

[…]

The 5:20 TBA turned out to be his adoration session with lawmakers in the Cannon Caucus Room, where even committee chairmen arrived early, as if for the State of the Union. Capitol Police cleared the halls -- just as they do for the actual president. The Secret Service hustled him in through a side door -- just as they do for the actual president.

Inside, according to a witness, he told the House members, "This is the moment . . . that the world is waiting for," adding: "I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions."

As he marches toward Inauguration Day (Election Day is but a milestone on that path), Obama's biggest challenger may not be Republican John McCain but rather his own hubris.

And it’s about freakin’ time, innit? A lot of the things I’m reading in the MSM today is simply repetition of stuff that’s been said in the right-wing blogosphere for quite some time now. The upshot of all this is The Candidate is beginning to believe his own press, apparently, and that’s a great good thing for Senator McCain. “Pride goeth before a fall,” and all that.

Heh. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving guy, methinks.

Ah… but wait. There’s more. Even Maureen Dowd is smacking The Obamanon around. I got a chuckle out of this:

I asked him what presents he takes home to his daughters. “Anytime I make a stop, Sasha gets snow globes and Malia gets key chains,” he said. “Somebody is assigned to that.”

“You have a snow globe aide?” I marveled.

Now there’s as unlikely a job title as I’ve ever seen: “Chief of Snow Globe Procurement.” Or whatever it is the aide is officially called.

―:☺:―

Eye candy for political activists. Hell, it’s eye candy for the REST of us, too! I’m speaking of The Hill’s annual “50 Most Beautiful People on Capitol Hill.” Here’s an example:

Name: Brecke Latham
Age: 28
Hometown: See explanation below
Political party: Republican
Dating status: Single

Dang. Her politics are correct, too. What more could a guy ask for? In case you’re wondering… the piece has pulchitrude for the distaff side of the house, too. This IS America we’re talking about, ya know. Equal time, and all that.

And apropos of nothing… if you’ve never laid eyes on Mrs. Dennis Kucinich, you should… as she makes the cut at Number Four. That’s all and everything I’m gonna say on the subject. Except for perhaps… Yowza!

(h/t: memeorandum)

Les Frères Allman

Lots to do today, so blogging will take a back seat… priority-wise… until later today. In the meantime, here are a couple of my favorite Allman Bros tunes for you to enjoy… beginning with Statesboro Blues.

And now that we have your toes a tappin’, let’s slow it down:

“Midnight Rider” is one of those tunes that got me through a LOT of hard times in the past, and it’s a song I still turn to…frequently. I looked (however briefly) on YouTube for Gregg’s solo version off of “Laid Back,” but couldn’t find it. This particular cut is the original track from “Idlewild South,” and would probably be classified as “definitive” by those who know a lot more about music than I do. And speaking of “Idlewild South”… I could go on and on about how that album changed my life… but I won’t.

Lucky you (yet again), Gentle Reader.

Now That's A Fine Mess... A Couple of 'Em, Actually

OK, it’s from the Daily Report… but it ain’t about the Air Force, as such.

For Those Who Love McPeakisms: The Oregonian has published an ode to retired Air Force Gen. Tony McPeak, a former USAF Chief of Staff, who has opted--against what some would say is conventional wisdom for a military man--to support Barack Obama vice Vietnam War veteran John McCain in the upcoming Presidential race. The article touches on anecdotes from McPeak's early life and on his days as a Misty FAC (forward air controller) during the Vietnam War. There's more about McPeak on the campaign trail with the Obama crowd, who he says calls him to make an appearance with "about' five minutes' notice" McPeak left the Republican party, but as he describes it: "I was tossed out. I was tossed out by foolishness in Washington." Of Obama, McPeak says, "He has gut-fighting sidewalk smarts that have allowed him to prevail when people said he couldn't."

I subscribe to the “conventional wisdom for a military man” and I most certainly don’t love McPeakisms. As a matter of fact, I think Gen. McPeak might just be USAF’s worst chief of staff, ever. But The Oregonian article was interesting, if nothing else. I think the best part was in the sidebar, however, and I’ll quote:

Political: "Veterans for Bush" Oregon co-chairman, 2000; foreign policy adviser to presidential campaigns of Gov. Howard Dean, Sen. John Kerry and Sen. Barack Obama.

Note the highlighted bits; I think that’s a good sign. Let’s hope Gen. McPeak goes oh-for-three in his foreign policy advisor role, eh?

―:☺:―

This is about the Air Force, and I think it’s a great idea:

Wynne, Rethink Split Tanker Buy: The Department of Defense should consider awarding both Boeing and Northrop Grumman contracts to build new tanker aircraft for the Air Force, former Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne told the Daily Report yesterday. Wynne said in an interview having each contractor supply tankers at a rate of about 15 per year--equal to the amount that the winning bidder would provide under the current winner-take-all scenario of the Air Force's KC-X tanker recapitalization program--would be worth the extra cost. And it offers a way past the current legal impasse caused by Boeing's successful protest of USAF's contract award to Northrop in February. "I think a split buy right now is something that we have to examine," said Wynne, who stepped down June 20 amid disagreements with Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Keeping two suppliers would strengthen the industrial base, replace the Eisenhower-era KC-135 tankers more quickly, and maintain competition "well into the future," he said. The latter point is not trivial since the Air Force intends to procure about 500 new tankers overall to replace the KC-135s. Wynne said, when asked, he would support applying some of the $5 billion in added procurement funds that the Air Force will reportedly receive in Fiscal 2010 to cover the higher costs of supporting two tanker lines. "I would be willing to do that provided that the Congress supports that," he said. (For more Wynne comments on the KC-X tanker program, read Come Together by Splitting)

This is an interesting potential solution with at least two benefits. First, one would think both Northrop and Boeing would be satisfied if USAF decides to buy tankers from both companies (I have NO idea what the Europeans—read as EADS— would think about this, nor do I particularly care). Second, USAF speeds up the tanker recapitalization program, which is already something like five frickin’ years behind schedule.

But… reality tells me SecDef Gates or John Young, the point guy for the tanker re-bid, are unlikely to take the advice of a recently sacked, newly-minted former Secretary of the Air Force. Especially given the fact it was Gates hissownself who fired Mr. Wynne. One can hope, though.

―:☺:―

Quote of the Month (so far): Kinky Friedman, on Bill O’Reilly last evening: “I’m too young for Medicare and too old for women to care…” Said pearl of wisdom was just a throw-away line Friedman used to describe himself as “an older American.” And Boy Howdy, is he ever correct on the “too old for women to care” bit. Painfully so, I might add.

I really, really like Kinky. So much so I actually voted for him when he ran for guv’nor of Texas a couple of years ago. Why? Coz I like his politics. Yeah, I know… I threw away my vote, and shame on me for it. Don’t go drawing any parallels between the Tejas gov’nor race and the current presidential election, though. It’s apples and oranges, if there ever was such a case.

―:☺:―

Today’s Pic: Something that didn’t make the cut last week: a right-royal mess. Pictured above is two pics of the aftermath of an exploding can of Dr. Pepper, and the clean up took me the better part of half an hour. You’d be amazed, Gentle Reader, at just how far pop/soda/coke can travel under pressure. I found Dr. Pepper inside my shower (how it squirted from in front of the fridge all the way into the bathroom remains something of a mystery) about a half an hour after I thought I’d finished the clean-up, and found a streak of same on the kitchen ceiling the following day. I previously cleaned the entire kitchen space but neglected to look up. Silly me.

So, how did that can explode, you may ask? I dropped it on the floor…the carpeted floor… while opening the 12-pack to put it in the fridge. I was holding the package on the back of the banquette (pic 001) while attempting to remove the perforated end of the box… and then…the package burst and ten of the 12 cans tumbled to the floor, one of which exploded. This was probably something of a freak accident, and it’s small beer in the general scheme of things. Which, of course, is why these photos didn’t make the cut last week when the event actually happened. This week, though, I’m scraping the bottom of the photo barrel. Lucky you, eh?

And now I think I’m gonna try and get some sleep. I’ve been up all night, yet again.

How in God’s Name Did I Miss This?

In the process of cruising around these inter-tubes I came across a piece by Byron York in today’s NRO (Go Ahead, Laugh at Obama). Excerpt:

Just a few weeks ago, it seemed nobody could make a joke about Barack Obama. The New York Times published a front-page story declaring that “there has been little humor” about Obama because “there is no comedic ‘take’ on him, nothing easy to turn to for an easy laugh.” Television comedy writers fretted that audiences didn’t want to hear anything even slightly negative about the Democratic nominee. The political press corps went nuts over a satirical New Yorker cover that wasn’t even directed at Obama.

And this was about a man who made up his own pretend presidential seal and motto, Vero Possumus; a man who, upon securing the Democratic nomination, said, “I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal”; a man who has on a number of occasions seemed to forget that he is not, or at least not yet, the President of the United States, who has misstated the number of states in his own country, who has forgotten on which committees he serves in the U.S. Senate. Professional comedians — and their audiences — couldn’t find anything funny about any of that?

[…]

Last week, Jon Stewart on The Daily Show got an enthusiastic reception from his audience with a routine about Obama’s media entourage. Stewart tossed to the team of reporters who were said to be traveling with the Obama campaign, some of whom had abandoned John McCain to cover the more exciting Democrat. They were positively giddy about Obama.

“The commander-in-chief,” said one.

“Did you see when the president hit that three-pointer?” asked another.

“Nothing but net,” said a third.

Stewart interrupted. “He’s not the president.” Pause.“Barack Obama’s not the president.”

A confused silence. “Are you sure?” the reporters asked.

Oh, and it just gets better and better. Mr. York wrote a truly great piece with this one, and that’s not unusual at all. But, that said, the absolute BEST part of Mr. York’s article was a tip about a Gerard Baker op-ed that appeared in the July 25^th edition of The Times (UK). And this lil bit of satire is a must-read for anyone and everyone who’s even the least lil bit skeptical about The Obamanon. Here are a few paragraphs:

And it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores of the Great Lakes had been laid barren, that a Child appeared in the wilderness.

The Child was blessed in looks and intellect. Scion of a simple family, offspring of a miraculous union, grandson of a typical white person and an African peasant. And yea, as he grew, the Child walked in the path of righteousness, with only the occasional detour into the odd weed and a little blow.

When he was twelve years old, they found him in the temple in the City of Chicago, arguing the finer points of community organisation with the Prophet Jeremiah and the Elders. And the Elders were astonished at what they heard and said among themselves: “Verily, who is this Child that he opens our hearts and minds to the audacity of hope?”

[…]

He travelled fleet of foot and light of camel, with a small retinue that consisted only of his loyal disciples from the tribe of the Media. He ventured first to the land of the Hindu Kush, where the

Taleban had harboured the viper of al-Qaeda in their bosom, raining terror on all the world.

And the Child spake and the tribes of Nato immediately loosed the Caveats that had previously bound them. And in the great battle that ensued the forces of the light were triumphant. For as long as the Child stood with his arms raised aloft, the enemy suffered great blows and the threat of terror was no more.

From there he went forth to Mesopotamia where he was received by the great ruler al-Maliki, and al-Maliki spake unto him and blessed his Sixteen Month Troop Withdrawal Plan even as the imperial warrior Petraeus tried to destroy it.

And lo, in Mesopotamia, a miracle occurred. Even though the Great Surge of Armour that the evil Bush had ordered had been a terrible mistake, a waste of vital military resources and doomed to end in disaster, the Child's very presence suddenly brought forth a great victory for the forces of the light.

Those excerpts might be a lil bit more than “Fair Use,” but I wanted to give you maximum encouragement to go read, assuming you haven’t read this already. Mr. Baker’s piece is new-to-me, but I’m so far behind the political power-curve I may never catch up. Or not.

We’ll see. But in the meantime, do yourself a favor and go read Mr. Baker. You could do a lot worse.

It's Just Another Manic Monday...

I’m not sure exactly what this says/means, but the AFA Daily Report is quickly becoming my major source of blog fodder, replacing my ol’ stand-bys memeorandum and Real Clear Politics… not to mention the papers. Here’s one such item, with interesting local impact:

Green Machine: Air Force officials last week signed four memoranda of understanding with the governor of New Mexico to pursue renewable energy projects that would yield up to 245 megawatts of power in the state for use at Cannon, Holloman, and Kirtland Air Force Bases. New Mexico state agencies and the cities of Alamogordo, Albuquerque, and Clovis will work with the Air Force on new clean energy projects, the service said in a release on July 25. The agreements deal with: USAF's intention to purchase green power in the state; a solar power initiative for Holloman; the creation of a plant to utilize New Mexico's abundant dairy waste; and a wind power project. Bill Anderson, USAF's energy czar, said these agreements are the first of their kind between the service and a state. The Air Force is already the largest purchaser of renewable energy in the federal government, buying nearly 900 million kilowatt hours of green power annually. Already it operates the nation's largest solar photovoltaic system at Nellis AFB, Nev.

If you followed the link to the July 25^th press release, you’ll note that two of the four memoranda of understanding are between USAF and the city of Clovis, to wit:

2. An agreement with Air Force, Southwest Biomass Cooperative, city of Clovis, and New Mexico state officials to pursue the creation of a plant to utilize New Mexico's abundant dairy waste. This may consist of a cogeneration project to generate electricity, and a bio-methane pipeline-quality gas project.

And…

4. An agreement between Air Force, city of Clovis, New Mexico state officials to pursue a wind energy project.

I’m tempted to ask the rhetorical question… “Where were the P-Ville City Fathers when all this was going down?” But I won’t. Clovis is more than three times the size of Portales and has more resources to devote to such projects. Interestingly:

The agreements did not include any details of proposed projects nor outline any financing options. Those would be developed later, as part of business plans that are due in four months, officials said.

That’s from the Clovis News-Journal. As usual, the devil’s in the details. But, that said, the renewable energy projects are great good things. And Lord knows we DO have us some diary waste that could be put to some use other than offending my nostrils as I motor by the many diaries in the area.

Oh… and have I ever mentioned we have a lil bit of wind in these parts? I have? Nevermind…

―:☺:―

Yet another Daily Report item…

Rethinking UAV Operations: Gen. Norton Schwartz, nominee to be the next Air Force Chief of Staff, said last week he would "quickly" make a decision whether the Air Force will continue its policy that pilots of unmanned aerial vehicles--the larger sized platforms that perform at medium and high altitudes and carry weapons--must be rated officers. "It may well be that a blend of rated and non-rated operators makes the most sense," he told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee in the written responses to the panel's advance questions for his July 22 confirmation hearing. The Air Force has both non-rated and rated personnel flying its diverse family of UAVs, depending on the platform. Small-sized UAVs that operate at the local level are flown by non-rated airmen. However, USAF's stance to date has been that larger multi-mission, theater-level UAVs, such as the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper, are complex systems that often involve real-time command and control and time-sensitive decision-making for the delivery of ordnance under demanding battlefield conditions. "Qualified rated pilots generally have the training and experience that is crucial to the success of this effort," Schwartz said. Further, aircraft like the Predator, Reaper, and RQ-4 Global Hawk fly in and through airspace that requires positive control of the assets based on FAA and ICAO rules. Those rules require an instrument-qualified pilot, Schwartz noted, adding that he would assess the arguments before rendering his choice. USAF has cited the availability of trained pilots as a limiting factor in accelerating the fielding of UAV assets. That said, it is still surging additional assets to support operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Part of the continuing debate over UAV pilots is the fact the Army uses enlisted pilots for their UAVs and the Air Force most certainly does not. I found the term “non-rated airmen” to be an interesting sort of dodge, in that USAF often uses the generic term “airmen” to describe both enlisted and officers as a group, much the way the Army uses “soldiers.” I can see USAF’s point about conforming to FAA/ICAO airspace rules when it comes to platforms like the Global Hawk and to a lesser extent, Reaper and Predator. The increase in the numbers of these platforms and their sharing airspace with commercial aircraft, particularly in the US, is bound to cause debate among “interested parties.” The points about “command and control” in the AOR (most especially the release of ordnance) aren’t lost on me, either.

This is a very interesting subject… in some quarters, at least.

(UAV operator console image from Protobox.com)

―:☺:―

So… it was a year yesterday when I put that lil “Visitors by Country” widget at the bottom of my sidebar, and it remains my favorite. That ain’t sayin’ a whole helluva lot, though, seeing as how I have exactly two widgets… the McCain vid and the Neocounter. But…as of just before midnight last evening we had 31,847 visitors from 137 countries. Or, visitors from places where I didn’t know there were places. I’ve had great good fun looking up the origins of some of the more esoteric places (like: Brunei Darussalam. Or Burkina Faso.), seeing as how I’m something of a geography nut. And yeah, I’d heard of Brunei before. But I didn’t realize it’s official name was Brunei, Abode of Peace. A single soul in The Abode of Peace can lay claim to something no one else in the entire country has done, not even the Sultan: they visited EIP. As can a certain resident of the Faroe Islands, Eritrea, Macau, Moldova… and so on. Fascinating stuff. As noted elsewhere here at EIP… I’m easily amused, Gentle Reader. I’m a cheap date, too.

―:☺:―

And finally… your crass sexist exploitation moment of the day:

Guinness makes some GREAT ads, nu? (It’s a one minute vid, for those on dial-up.)

A Few Things USAF

L'enfer gèle…

While We Have Your Attention: Lawmakers took the opportunity during the July 22 Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing for the Air Force's two prospective senior leaders to air their views on the KC-X tanker battle. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), whose state the Northrop Grumman/EADS team has elected as an assembly site for its tanker, reminded Michael Donley and Gen. Norton Schwartz of the service's five-year tanker quagmire, urging both nominees to pursue a fair and speedy resolution. Donley acknowledged that DOD acquisition czar John Young, who has assumed the mantle of KC-X source selection authority, would "have all the support he needs and wants from the Air Force." Sessions also asked for assurance that the new tanker would be a flexible "game changer" that would swing from refueler to airlifter, a role for which the Northrop team contends its aircraft is well-suited. Schwartz replied, "Its primary mission will be air refueling, but we can no longer afford to have platforms that are sort of single-mission, point-mission focused." Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) maintained that USAF's original award of the KC-X contract to Northrop was at odds with Title 10 considerations that require DOD to consider the impact of every major program award on the US industrial base. Donley said he must "defer to the acquisition experts on the issues of foreign content," but he added that "we live in a global economy in which most" US companies "have international connections." Clinton asked for a "specific answer" to her question in writing, noting that she is "very well aware that we live in an international economy, but I'm also extremely conscious of the impact of decisions ... that undermine our competitiveness for the long run and eliminate jobs and thereby undermine technical skill acquisition in a way that I think will come back to haunt us."

My opening line… loosely translated… is French for “Hell freezes over” (“frozen Hell”), about which: note the highlighted bits above. It IS the proverbial “cold day” when I agree with Her Hillaryness about anything, but I agree with her on this. It’s not about the job losses, although that stings. It’s the erosion of our industrial base that worries me. We can outsource the production of underwear, Mattel toys, and even cars to the Chinese and others with little effect on our safety and well being, lead paint aside. But outsourcing your military procurement is a whole ‘nuther ball o’ wax. Aircraft production lines and the people that work on them just don’t materialize over night. Our aerospace industrial base is a complex system of people, processes, and physical plant… which must either be used or lost. You don’t keep production lines in “stand-by” mode; when the last aircraft rolls off the line that line (and sometimes the whole plant) is shut down and the people either move to another line or are released to seek other “opportunities.” “Opportunities,” such as they are, tend to be rather limited these days.

Additionally, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to grasp the fact that people who aren’t exactly “in tune” with the nation’s foreign policy just might threaten to withhold aircraft production, or spare parts, or support, or whatever… should significant disagreement between gub’mints over something like, say Iraq, arise.

(h/t: AFA’s Daily Report)

―:☺:―

Remember that recurring bitch (Or moan. Or groan.) I have about medals-and-ribbons creep in Today’s Modern Air Force? Well, Doc weighed in on my most recent rant on this subject last evening, and I wanna make sure everyone sees what he has to say:

Wasn't sure I'd find this still on the front page, but glad it is. Thought of it yesterday as I was walking down the hall in the admin bldg at the Academy yesterday. Pictures from yesteryear adorn the walls (ancient history being about the time my class came through). What suddenly struck me was the ribbon racks of the colonels in the photos with my classmates. One, two, or three rows, maybe. Seriously, one O-6 had about two--ribbons, not rows. An airman gets two ribbons for living through an induction physical these days. And these guys, I thought with amazement, probably flew in Korea and the Nam. People who think "ribbon inflation" doesn't exist need to see those photos.

You may or may not know this, Gentle Reader, but when Doc says “the Academy,” he’s talking about the USAF Academy in Colorado Springs, where he was Deputy Inspector General until a week ago today. So his comment carries a lot of weight with me, even though it’s his personal opinion and not that of the Newnited States Air Force. It’s good to know I’m not just some addled ol’ geezer who rants and raves about stuff changing for the worse. Although it’s been brought to my attention I have tendencies in this space… ahem.

Oh. And why is Doc no longer the Deputy IG at USAFA, you ask? He retired last Friday… after 27 years of service to the nation. Drop by his place and congratulate him, won’t you?

―:☺:―

And finally… some Good Stuff. Three minutes and 26 seconds on what it means to be a Thunderbird, including some pretty cool aerials:

I’ve seen the PBS show referenced in the trailer and it’s very, VERY good. As are the Thunderbirds. But ya knew that, Gentle Reader.

A Quickie

My friend Lori in SFO sends along the following:

An email from Ireland to all of their brethren in the States...a point to ponder despite your political affiliation:

We, in Ireland, can't figure out why you people are even bothering to hold an election in the United States.

On one side, you had a pants wearing female lawyer, married to another lawyer who can't seem to keep his pants on, who just lost a long and heated primary against a lawyer, who goes to the wrong church, who is married to yet another lawyer, who doesn't even like the country her husband wants to run!

Now...On the other side, you have a nice old war hero whose name starts with the appropriate 'Mc' terminology, married to a good looking younger woman who owns a beer distributorship!!

What in God's name are ya lads thinkin over in the colonies?!?

Damned good question, eh?

Farewell, Raider 21

From the Air Force Association’s Daily Report:

All Perished in Bomber Crash: The Air Force yesterday announced it had formally declared that all six airmen had died in the B-52 crash off the northwest coast of Guam on July 21. Search and rescue crews found the bodies of two airmen on July 21, and by July 23 they shifted from round-the-clock rescue operations to recovery mode. Five of the six airmen on board had deployed to Andersen AFB, Guam, from the 2nd Bomb Wing at Barksdale AFB, La. The sixth was a flight surgeon assigned to the 36th Medical Group at Andersen. The Barksdale airmen were: Maj. Christopher M. Cooper, 33, aircraft commander; Maj. Brent D. Williams, 37, navigator; Capt. Michael K. Dodson, 31, co-pilot; 1st Lt. Joshua D. Shepherd, 26, navigator; and 1st Lt. Robert D. Gerren, 32, electronic warfare officer. From Andersen was Col. George Martin, 36th MDG deputy commander. The massive rescue operations covered a 7,000-square mile area and included Air Force, Coast Guard, and Navy search teams and Guam emergency services personnel. "Losing this bomber crew has been a tragedy felt by everyone here and across the Air Force," said Brig. Gen. Douglas Owens, 36th Wing commander, and added, "I extend our sincerest gratitude to the men and women involved with this [rescue and recovery] effort." The 2nd Bomb Wing commander, Col. Robert Wheeler, said in a subsequent release, "We appreciate the military and civilian organizations who are continuing recovery efforts to bring our airmen home."

The downed B-52 flew using the call sign "Raider 21." You can view portraits of the airmen of Raider 21 at each individual link: Maj. Christopher M. Cooper, Maj. Brent D. Williams, Capt. Michael K. Dodson, 1st Lt. Robert D. Gerren, 1st Lt. Joshua D. Shepherd, and Col. George T. Martin. There’s more on Raider 21 at the Barksdale AFB web site.

Farewell, Gentlemen, and God Speed.

Satire, In Two Flavas

Well, there’s satire…

And then there’s satire:

From Vanity Fair:

We had our own presidential campaign cover in the works, which explored a different facet of the Politics of Fear, but we shelved it when The New Yorker’s became the “It Girl” of the blogosphere. Now, however, in a selfless act of solidarity with our downstairs neighbors here at the Condé Nast building, we’d like to share it with you. Confidentially, of course.

Illustration by Tim Bower.

But… but… you can only destroy a document once, to the best of my knowledge. And hasn’t Dubya already shredded the Constitution? Or used it as TP? Or to serve as “just a piece of paper” for jotting down notes to hisownself? So how come McCain gets to burn it? How does that work? Oh, yeah. I forgot. It’s satire…

(h/t: Morgan.)

Reapers Operational in Iraq

From the Air Force Association’s Daily Report:

Reapers Enter Ops in Iraq: The Air Force's newest unmanned aerial vehicle, the MQ-9 Reaper, on July 21 started operating in Iraq, offering increased weapons capability, longer dwell time, and larger intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance payload than its smaller brother the much-in-demand MQ-1 Predator. USAF sent the Reaper first to Afghanistan, where, since last fall, it has flown some 480 sorties for more than 3,800 hours, according to a July 22 release. It dropped its first precision guided munition for Operation Enduring Freedom in November 2007. Lt. Gen. Gary North, who leads the Combined Force Air Component for US Central Command, said that Predator has proved the value of "persistent stare" for gathering intel, but the Reaper close air support asset "expands beyond the concept of persistent stare to one of persistent strike." The MQ-9 provides the capability to react with precision weapons "at the exact point where the ground commander wants the desired effect," stated North and added, "It's an incredibly powerful and flexible capability."

And here’s the aircraft itself:

I haven't seen one of these yet, and I'm not sure I will anytime soon. Although the Reaper looks like an overgrown Predator, they're two different animals. We'll have Predators at Cannon, but I don't think we'll get Reapers. OTOH, I really don't know, Gentle Reader... I'm just speculating.

Back in a bit…

That "Hand-Colored" Thing...

Much of the comment on yesterday’s post had to do with that hand-colored portrait of my sister and I. I got to thinking… is hand-colored portraiture still available these days? The answer is “yes.” And here’s a lil blurb on the art I found:

About Hand Painting

Also known as hand-coloring or hand-tinting, this process has been around since the mid-1800's and for many years was the only way you could have a color photograph. The technique involves applying oil based, transparent paints directly on to a photographic print. The paint is normally then 'rubbed down' with cotton swabs until a desired effect or density is achieved. Though the use of cotton is common, there are a variety of techniques used by different artists to achieve different effects. Today, you can use digital technology to hand color images on your home computer, but most purists (like me) prefer the old fashioned method.

That’s from Ontario photographer Patrick Brown’s web site. He doesn’t publish his prices, preferring instead for you to contact him if you want a hand-colored portrait done. And… seeing as how Google Is My Friend… there’s more:

Handcolored photographs are making a big comeback lately. While the process of handcoloring photos has been around almost since photography itself, now we have many more options available to us.

The time-honored way to do this is to print photos on fiber-based paper, not photo paper, and tint with photo oils. There are a couple of sites with excellent information, and other books on this subject, so I'm not going to go into the process further. It's still a good way to do this, but my book, "The New Way to Handcolor Photos With Pastel and Other Media," is about new techniques.

With advances in technology, and the new ways in which we print, including what we print on, you now have a nearly unlimited palette with which to work. The book is about photography, but I think it will be useful to scrap bookers, collage artists, fine artists, hobbyists, and digital artists, as well.

The above was taken from Marlena Montaney’s web site. Ms. Montaney owns Smiling Dog Studio and works primarily in pastels.

I only went two pages deep into my google search, but that was more than enough to confirm the art form is alive and VERY well. I’d seriously consider having a hand-colored portrait done, were I still in the family-raising bid’ness.

As parting shots on this subject… check out these four 100-year-old Russian hand-colored photos. Simply amazing stuff, then and now. And this site has a collection of Russian hand-colored post cards titled “Moscow – 1890.” Here’s one such… a shot of the Kremlin and St. Basil’s cathedral.

I’ve stood beneath that tall white tower on the quay overlooking the Moskva river, Gentle Reader. And ya know what? Aside from the motorized traffic, that scene looks pretty much the same today as it did 100 years ago. Amazing, that.

All Over the Map

So… I mentioned this past Friday I remembered two addresses from my childhood, and I put up a post about one of them… 3 Rue Mozart. The other address I remembered was 41 Bahçelievler Yolu, Ankara, Turkey. And I spent literally hours yesterday with Google Earth and Google Maps, unsuccessfully looking for that particular address. It doesn’t exist, to the best of my knowledge, and I suspect the street was renamed at some point in the nearly 50 years since I left Ankara.

I had some clues to work with. First, my house was about a ten minute or less bike ride from Anıtkabir (Atatürk’s Tomb, pic on left... click for larger), which is arguably the most recognizable landmark in Ankara. Second, my house was across the street from a major university…which I believe was Ankara University. But, my…oh my… how things have changed! Back in the day, the house I lived in… an apartment building, actually… was one of about four apartment buildings on “our” side of the street, the rest of the neighborhood was empty lots. The university was still in the process of being built (or added on to), and there were no trees to speak of, except for very young saplings. There was lotsa brown grass, though… Looking at the Google Earth pictures one can see that’s certainly not the case today, 50 years later. My neighborhood, which was expanding rapidly back in 1957, is now established. There are large trees on the university campus, and not many vacant lots can be found in the general vicinity of where I lived. Which is not surprising, given the population of Ankara was only 453,000 in 1955; it’s up to 3,763,591 today.

The Google Earth screen-shots:

Metropolitan Ankara (overview)

My neighborhood (red arrow; the profusion of blue dots is Anıtkabir)

I was nearly 12 when my father was transferred directly from Paris to Ankara, without passing Go. “Go,” in this case, meant a trip back to the US before continuing on to my father’s new assignment. The family had just spent three years in Paris and Mom was homesick. She desperately wanted to go home before we went to Ankara, but that was not to be. I strongly suspect my father bribed her into acquiescing to the direct move, sweetening the deal with a promise of an extended vacation on the Riviera and northern Italy. He delivered on his promise, and we spent two weeks in Nice/Cannes and vicinity (including Monte Carlo) before driving down to Livorno to turn the car over to the Navy for shipment to Istanbul. In the meantime we toured northern Italy, including Pisa and Florence. My best memory of Italy was climbing the Leaning Tower of Pisa, which is almost guaranteed to give one vertigo. My father and I climbed half-way up the tower, but he didn’t want to go all the way to the top, unfortunately. Mom and my sister stayed on the ground…

So. We turned the car in to the port people in Livorno and took the train to Rome, where we spent a few days doing all the touristy stuff one does in The Eternal City… including being blessed by Pope Pius XII… our family and about 15,000 close friends others gathered in St. Peter’s Square when the Pope made his weekly appearance to bless the crowd from his balcony. From Rome we flew to Athens, where we spent another few days with Air Force friends of my father… and did more touristy things. I’m pretty sure Dad did a little bit of work while we were there, too, but my memory is hazy in this space. From Athens we flew to Istanbul and then on to Ankara, which would be home for the next two years.

And what a home it was! If you think Paris is exciting, Gentle Reader, you should have been in Turkey during the mid- to late-‘50s. Everything, and I DO mean everything, seemed exotic to my parents, my sister, and I. The language. The food. The clothing. The architecture. Every-freakin’-thing. And the BEST part was the fact Americans were generally and genuinely well-liked. There was no militant Islamic movement, and no terrorism…at all. For me... as it was in Paris, so it was in Ankara... when it came to “getting around.” Except for the fact I rode my bicycle to most places I wanted to go, or rode the bus. And I had a lot more freedom, too, in the sense my parents allowed me to go further a-field, as long as my journeys were in some sort of group… usually friends.

Today’s Pic: My sister Norma and I. This photo was taken by a Turkish portrait photographer during the family’s stay in Ankara, and is hand-colored in the style prevalent at the time. The artist got the colors wrong, too, as my shirt was tan, not green. Mom blew a gasket over this lil detail, but she bought the pictures anyway. (Yeah, the pic is a re-run. I originally posted it in March of last year.)

One of My Boyhood Homes

I got this idea from Becky, who posted Google Earth pics of the street where she grew up… as background to one of the strangest dream stories I’ve read in quite a while. The idea, such as it is, that occurred to me was “could I even remember the addresses of my childhood homes, and if so, would the house(s) still be there?”

Well… I remembered two addresses right away, the first being “3 Rue Mozart, Sceaux, Seine, France.” This is the house my parents and I lived in for about three years, give or take a couple of months. My father was stationed in downtown Paris… in a small non-descript sort of building on Avenue Kléber, just a stone’s throw from the Etoile, aka L’Arc de Triomphe. His workplace was in keeping with his mission, as he was in the USAF’s Office of Special Investigations (OSI). His building was actually an apartment house, and there were no signs or other indicators that the building was an Air Force installation. “Air Force office” would probably be a more appropriate term than installation, come to think on it. But, I’m digressing. What my father did has no bearing on what we’re on about here, other than the fact his being stationed in Paris was why I was in Paris. But, then again, that’s everything, ain’t it?

So… what you see in these Google Earth screenshots (as always, click for larger) are…

Metropolitan Paris.

You can see a placemark over my neighborhood, which was on the south side of the city. The actual city of Paris is within the boundaries of the ring road, which is quite visible in the screen shot. I went to school at Orly Field, which you can see in the lower right quadrant of the screenshot. I lived in Sceaux, but one street over was the village of Bourg-La-Reine, which was where the metro stop was. More on that, in a moment.

Second: My neighborhood.

Sceaux and Bourg-La-Reine.

The salient feature of the neighborhood is the Parc de Sceaux, which I’ve talked about a little bit here. The park is quite large, as you can tell from the screen shot, and was only about a six minute bike ride from my front door. I spent many, many hours riding my bike through that park and playing “cowboys and Indians” sorts of games… which were mostly Americans vs. Germans, Big Bang Two style. Keep in mind, this is around 1955 or so, and World War II wasn’t something a kid read about in history books. World War II was recent history back then and my father, and all my friends’ fathers, fought in it. There was also physical evidence of the war that hadn’t been cleaned up completely in the intervening ten years. Not so much in Paris, which was relatively unscathed by the war, but certainly visible in London (where we’d moved from) and MOST certainly visible in Germany, where the family vacationed. Digressions ‘R’ Us…

And finally: the house I lived in:

3 Rue Mozart, Sceaux. Second house on the left, with the three cars parked in front.

The amazing thing…for me… is that I recognize the street quite well. Even MORE amazing is the fact the vacant lot across the street from my house is STILL vacant, even though 50+ years have passed. That “vacant lot” isn’t as vacant as it seems, or at least it wasn’t when I was a child. The lot is (or was) actually a very large garden, with vegetables and fruit trees, and it looks like the garden is still tended today. The garden was owned and tended by my boyhood friend Christian’s grandparents when I lived on Rue Mozart, and my family was the recipient of a lot of goodies that came out of that garden. Christian, a young French boy my age, was one of my partners in crime. My two other closest friends, Tommy Wallace and Skipper Amey, were the sons of US military families that lived in the area… and there were only three such families, including my own.

I mentioned above that I would say more about Le Metro. The metro was my friends’ and my ticket out of the ‘burbs and into The City. Now, being as how we…all of us boys… were only ten years old, we had limits placed upon us by our parents. We were free to ride our bikes all over the neighborhood(s), and were allowed to venture as far as the Parc de Sceaux. Everything else was “off limits.” But… we were boys. Very imaginative and a lil bit daring boys, too. Tommy, Skipper, and I figured out how to read the metro maps, locate the places we wanted to go (this being our favorite destination), save money from our allowances for train tickets, and actually travel into the city for the day… and get home by mid-afternoon. Without ever being caught. Which we did about once a month throughout my final summer in Paris. Years later I told my parents about our adventures and they were suitably horrified. Well, Mom was, anyway. Dad just kinda smiled a little bit, and I can’t help but feel he thought “That’s my boy!” But he would never have said something like that in front of Mom. And he would of beat the livin’ daylights out of me, had I been caught back then. But, Hey! I wasn’t.

Those clandestine trips into Paris are the things I remember most about living there. There are other things, true, but one never forgets one’s very first taste of independence, no?

Yet Another Purloined Vid...

... this time from Phlegmmy. Here's “Western Spaghetti.” You might wanna jot down the recipe for your next soirée.



I particularly like the post-its butter. Pretty cool, eh?

If it seems like I’m incapable of creating content of my own of late, you’re more right than wrong. I may be back later with (as Jim sez) “more better stuff.”

Chair Porn

NOT work-safe, IMHO, and that's mainly because of the soundtrack (which is sure to draw attention, should you have your volume turned up). There's no human nudity involved, but there is some violence... if ya wanna call it that. But it IS funny. (You may not think so, Becky.)



The hat-tip goes to Blog-Bud Morgan, once again.

Random Notes

OK, I’ll admit it…they ARE cute. At times. Here’s nearly four minutes of cat-cuteness:

See, Gentle Reader? I may not like cats, but I CAN appreciate them in situations like this. As long as they stay in other people’s houses.

―:☺:―

Life intruded on blogging yet again today, helped in no small part by the fact I didn’t roll my tired ass out of bed until after 1100 hrs. Well, that’s not entirely true… I got up at 1030 to light off the coffee pot. But I went right back to bed for another forty winks until such time as the coffee pot was done doing its magic. I poured that first cup, answered the overnight mail, and hit a couple of my daily reads while the caffeine oozed into my system. I swear to The Diety At Hand that I can actually feel myself getting mentally sharper as that happens…almost on a minute-to-minute basis. Or as sharp as I ever get, anyway. (coffee cup neon sculpture available here)

I had to cut the morning routine short, however. I poured my second cup, drank half of it and then hit the shower. I finished that second cup while getting dressed and then was out the door and off to my appointment with Dr. Thompson. It’s always such fun to go visit with Dr. Thompson and staff…and I mean that seriously. Everyone (and I DO mean everyone) in the office is so very friendly, the doctor’s two youngest children are playing quietly around about the place (while being oh-so-cute), and the idle banter back and forth between all concerned is just very pleasant. Quite unlike any other dentist’s office I’ve ever been in, anywhere.

Today’s appointment was for a follow-on MRI, which was done expeditiously and professionally. I continue to be amazed at the level of technology employed by dentists these days, and the MRI machine is just one example. Dr. Thompson’s technician and I spent a few minutes reviewing the images after the process was complete and she took the time to explain to me exactly what we were looking at. As I said, amazing stuff! And then I was gone… in and out in about half an hour, all told.

―:☺:―

I ran out to the base after leaving Dr. Thompson’s place to do a little light shopping (beer-run!) and to pick up a scrip at the base pharmacy. The folks at the Class VI store are beginning to irritate me… they’ve been out of Trippel for well over two weeks now and I bought their last sixer of 1554 today, as well. Apropos of nothing, you should chase that “1554” link, Gentle Reader. There’s quite a story behind this beer, which is better than good… it’s excellent. Not quite the “beer of choice” these days (Fat Tire remains King at El Casa Móvil De Pennington), but good enough that I drink at least six a week.

The line at the Class VI was pretty long, so I struck up a conversation with a captain in a flight suit who was in line in front of me. He remarked on my “USS Monterey” hat, saying the Navy has done a good job of updating their organizational ball caps. I agreed, we chatted a bit about the Navy (his father was Navy), and then I asked if he flew C-130s. “No,” sez he, “I’m a Predator pilot.” “Wow!” sez I… “You’re the first Predator pilot I’ve ever met!” I told him I’d read Pred-pilots are having a hard time of it these days, what with the stress, pressure, and all. He waved it off, saying he really enjoyed his job and the things one reads about Predator pilots these days are exaggerated. By that time he had paid for his two cases of Mountain Dew (no stress, eh?) and we said our good-byes. One can learn a lot in a three-minute checkout line conversation, Gentle Reader.

―:☺:―

So. Back home. It’s nearly 1600 hrs as I finish this and I’ve yet to make the rounds. Guess I better get started, eh?

"This is How We Roll in India"

NO comment... other than this is a 51-second video, so even people on dial-up can enjoy. I use the term "enjoy" rather loosely, of course.

Taking a Break...

... from my busy day to go outside and sit under the awning in a rainstorm.

The view from under the awning.

Another view - that gray lump in the foreground is Miss Zukiko

This might seem oh-so-mundane to you, Gentle Reader, but let me assure you: it's NOT. It usually rains sideways here on the High Plains of New Mexico, which is to say our rain is almost ALWAYS accompanied by high winds. Not so today... the rain came straight down, at least at the beginning of the storm. There was no wind to speak of, and so my awning remained in the down position and I was able to sit outside with a cigar and a beer and enjoy the front end of the storm. That lasted all of about 15 minutes, until such time as the wind arrived and drove me inside.

Here's one of the first pics I took when I got outside:

You can plainly see that my sitting position is right on the edge of getting wet. And I DID get wet, once the wind came up. But it sure was nice while it lasted. There's something that's just so very clean and peaceful about sitting out in the rain... the air is fresh and cool, and the rain seems to wash away all but the most persistent of bad thoughts. In my case, anyway. YMMV.

And speaking of rain... we've had a lot of it (relatively speaking) the last three days. That's a Great Good Thing, Gentle Reader.

Obama and Iraq

So… Senator Obama publishes his “Plan for Iraq” as an op-ed in today’s New York Times. And, as might be expected, the ‘sphere erupts in comment. Here's some of the best I’ve read in this space today, beginning with Uncle Jimbo, writing at Blackfive:

(Ed: Quoting Obama’s Op-ed)

But this is not a strategy for success — it is a strategy for staying that runs contrary to the will of the Iraqi people, the American people and the security interests of the United States. That is why, on my first day in office, I would give the military a new mission: ending this war.

And there you show why you are unfit to be Commander in Chief. You don't even understand the fundamental concept of war and you would give the military a mission that doesn't exist. You want them to "end" the war which to you means simply pack up our toys and come home so your kids don't have to see those awful stories on the news. Well let me make one thing perfectly clear to you Senator. You can't end wars, you either win them or lose them. Your shameful naivete would endanger the lives of every military member worldwide. Once oue enemies know we have a clueless muppet at the helm, they will be empowered to act without fear of retribution.

Hmm. That sounds a lil bit familiar, nu?

And then Captain Pete Hegseth, who served in Iraq with the 101st Airborne Division from 2005 to 2006, and is the executive director of Vets for Freedom, weighs in at National Review Online:

As someone who monitors the Iraq-war-policy debate closely, I was puzzled to open the New York Times and see an oped authored by Sen. Barack Obama entitled “My Plan for Iraq.” Besides the seemingly moderate tone — and calling for an Afghanistan “surge” (an idea I agree, and one proposed by Sen. Joe Lieberman in March) — not much in the piece is new or newsworthy. In the final analysis, the oped is another dogmatic addendum to Obama’s “withdrawal at any cost” position.

In fact, just one question entered my head when I finished reading: Why now? Why would Sen. Obama — or any legislator, for that matter — write such a piece before visiting the country for himself, seeing the situation with his own eyes, and speaking with commanders and troops who actually know what’s going on?

It strikes me that only someone who is signaling no interest in consulting with commanders on the ground would spell out his “plan” for Iraq just one week before he visits the country for the first time in 918 days. Only someone who is arrogant enough to believe he always knows best would outline his Iraq policy before once meeting one-on-one with General David Petraeus.

The only conceivable answer to the question is that Sen. Obama believes he can capitalize on Prime Minister Maliki’s recent comments about a timeline for U.S. withdrawal. Maliki’s comments, important primarily because they demonstrate increased Iraqi strength and confidence, have been diluted by the fact that he didn’t actually call for a timeline after all. All withdrawal talks will be tied to conditions on the ground.

Yeah, the timing is strange, innit? Obama is going to Iraq this week, so why release an op-ed today, which amounts to nothing more than the “same ol’, same ol’”? Why not wait until next week… a mere eight or ten days… when the op-ed could have included the words “I’ve just returned from Iraq, where I consulted with General Petraeus and other commanders on the ground…”? Is there more here than meets the eye? Is this op-ed a way for Obama to re-focus the nutroots after his FISA vote? Or, are they (the Obama camp) just totally confused? Dean Barnett, writing in The Weekly Standard’s “The Blog:”

On Iraq, Team Obama has become stuck in a quagmire of confusion. On Meet the Press yesterday, leading Obama surrogate Claire McCaskill said that Obama’s 16 month surrender plan in Iraq is a “goal” and added it would be “irresponsible for a commander-in-chief to set a date in stone.”

And yet today, the titular head of Team Obama took to the pages of New York Times and declared:

We can safely redeploy our combat brigades at a pace that would remove them in 16 months. That would be the summer of 2010 — two years from now, and more than seven years after the war began. After this redeployment, a residual force in Iraq would perform limited missions: going after any remnants of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, protecting American service members and, so long as the Iraqis make political progress, training Iraqi security forces. That would not be a precipitous withdrawal.

That sounds sort of “set in stone” to me. Meanwhile Obama is trotting off to Iraq this week with “Republican” Chuck Hagel in tow to lend the voyage some military bona fides. Hagel’s the guy who long ago called the surge, “The most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam." Then again, I guess Hagel still makes a far more credible traveling companion than Harry Reid would.

And what’s the purpose of this trip? Ostensibly to talk to the commanders so Obama can further refine his plan which isn’t set in stone. Unless you like it as is, in which case you may consider it set in stone. Until further notice.

There’s much more in the “Required Reading” entry linked above, including some comment on that Barry – Michelle New Yorker cover that’s causing a lot of buzz elsewhere today. Even though it’s off-topic for this post, I liked the following:

It (ed: the cover) doesn’t mock the Obamas – it mocks idiots who see the Obamas as the type of people who burn the American flag in their study while engaging in a terrorist fist-bump.

Not everyone has gotten the joke. My favorite reaction to date has come from Pandagon.net, the blogging home of Amanda Marcotte, the Edwards campaign’s controversial blogger that you may remember from last year. Pandagon is home to perhaps the shrillest version of feminism on the web, and yet the site’s Jesse Taylor responded to the cartoon with a lecture on humor. “The hallmark of good satire,” Taylor scolds, “is that it’s good enough to perhaps be taken credulously by those who aren’t too swift, but also ridiculous enough to show that whoever does take it seriously is a bit slow in the head. This is not good satire.” Strident and perennially outraged feminists posing as the arbiters of good humor? Take it from one who knows – if those comments were themselves intended as satire, they would be the equivalent of satire gold.

Going even further a field… Barnett’s comment about the oxymoron-ish nature of “feminist humor” struck me as particularly observant, if not unique. There are NO more humorless people on the face of God’s Green Earth than supposedly “radical” feminists. OTOH, Barnett makes a pretty convincing case that BHO is just as humorless. And that’s not a Good Thing in a leader, Gentle Reader. Particularly one who aspires to leading the entire Free World.

So… we end with a massive digression, eh? But… if you’re in need of more and better comment on The Obamanon and his “Iraq Plan,” there’s all these guys (via memeorandum, some of which already linked above):

Firedoglake, MoJoBlog, The Carpetbagger Report, Washington Post, The Swamp, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, The New Republic, Marc Ambinder, USA Today, Informed Comment, The Trail, The Moderate Voice, MSNBC, Taylor Marsh, TownHall Blog, Comedy Central, Think Progress, Newshoggers.com, Weekly Standard Blog, TalkLeft, Political Radar, Swampland, democracyarsenal.org, The Reaction, Pajamas Media, Commentary, Matthew Yglesias, The Corner, Hot Air, Riehl World View, Booman Tribune, All Spin Zone, protein wisdom, The Glittering Eye, Needlenose, BLACKFIVE, Democrats.com, The Strata-Sphere, Veterans For America, MyDD, GregsOpinion.com, The Washington Note, Gateway Pundit, Confederate Yankee and Political Machine

That ought to hold ya for an hour or ten.

Sunday's Small Stuff

Just one man’s opinion… but Joshua Khan at InventorSpot.com published a list of “The Top 10 Best Sports Logos” this past Thursday. Here’s Numero Uno:

Best Sports Logo #1. A Simple Design That Established A Team

Despite its prestige logo, the Detroit Red Wings were known as under other names, such as the Cougars and the Falcons. But in 1932, a millionaire named Jim Morris (sic) bought the team and decided to name it after another organization. Norris decided that the “winged logo” was perfect for Detroit as they are the Motor City.

The organization the turned around as the Detroit Red Wings made the playoffs for the first time a few years later and won the Stanley Cup in 1936.

As I said: “one man’s opinion.” Don’t shoot the messenger, even if said messenger agrees completely with Mr. Khan’s selection. The Winged Wheel: Best. Sports. Logo. Ever.

(h/t: Kukla's Korner)

―:☺:―

Ya know how I’m on about all that fruit salad that decorates the chests…to overflow… of our illustrious military members these days? Well, SN2 sends along a four-slide PowerPoint presentation with “Forgotten Navy Ribbons.” Here's the first slide:

(click for larger)

I’m thinking these ribbons haven’t been forgotten at all, they’re just “pending approval” by the Navy’s Uniform Board. I assume the Navy has such a board, but I really don’t know. The Air Force certainly does. In the interests of full disclosure, I don't think the AF Uniform Board is the approval authority for ribbons and medals... they're just the guys who tell ya how and how not to wear your decorations.

Just a quick note about this slide: Being the Language Nazi I am and will always be, I was appalled at the many usage and grammar errors on the four-slide presentation. Just because one is creating humor doesn’t mean one shouldn’t take the time to proofread their work. Or, if one has doubts about one’s expertise in this area, get someone else to proofread. It doesn’t take a whole Helluva lot of time, ya know. And yeah, I could have corrected the errors in the presentation before I posted this. I still have PowerPoint on my PeeSee, after all. That fact should make ya wonder, Gentle Reader.

We Are SO Deprived...

...when it comes to creative (and humorous) teevee advertising in this country. Via Blog-Bud Morgan, here's a lil over eight minutes of allegedly banned advertisements...



OK, some of the ads ARE American, and I've even seen a couple of 'em on teevee myownself. But the umbrella/condom and Ikea "new bed" ads simply cracked me up, and I've never seen those on MY teevee, and likely never will. Why can't we have humorous entertainment in our ads? Enquiring Minds wanna know...

USAF's Dark Clouds... and a Silver Lining

Both of you frequent readers know I’ve been saddened and chagrined by the negative press the Air Force has been getting in the last year or so, and a lot of that bad press was brought on by the Air Force itself. Things like mismanaging a multi-billion dollar tanker procurement, unknowingly flying “live” nuclear cruise missiles under the wings of a B-52 from North Dakota to Louisiana, and nuclear surety issues in Europe, all of which contributed to the recent firings of SecAF and USAF’s Chief of Staff. USAF is truly beginning to look like “The Gang that Couldn’t Shoot Straight” if you believe everything you read, and most of what you read in this space is fact, not opinion. But USAF is doing some things right.

Enter Mike Dunn, President and CEO of the Air Force Association (and a retired USAF three-star). In a relatively short piece published by the AFA yesterday, Mr. Dunn takes on the Air Force’s critics. His lede:

When a company doesn’t meet its earning numbers, it is popular to look at management for someone to blame. Over the last few weeks numerous articles and editorials have been featured in the press about the “downfall” of the US Air Force – a Service besotted with so-called systemic, cultural, leadership, ... and even moral problems. The way this story line goes is the writer bundles every perceived “wrong-doing” – often over many years – into a big package and applauds DOD leadership for firing the Secretary of the Air Force and the Chief of Staff. (“Everything” being tanker selection process, nuclear issues, lack of focus on today’s war, “next war-it is,” the number of UAVs deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, officer pilots versus enlisted pilots, etc. Some media even add in the tanker lease contract, proselytizing at the Air Force Academy, sexual assaults at USAFA, and a host of others). Usually the author throws so much mud on the wall, it is difficult to refute much of what is said … and trying to point out the many inaccuracies only brings more attention to pieces which have titles like: “Clean up the Air Force.” Also, most publications limit responses to 100 words or less. And with so many items to refute, it is impossible to do so.

What follows is a point-by-point refutation of some of the criticisms leveled at the Air Force…not all, but some. Two key accusations cited in almost every negative article I’ve read lately concerns the availability of UAVs in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the ever-popular whipping-boy, F-22 procurement. First, on UAVs:

Third, the supposed AF bias against UAVs is often cited as why the AF is not paying attention. Again, the facts don’t bear this out. It is important to remember that it was the AF which embraced the Predator … this after the Army refused to field it. It was the AF which modified it to add anti-icing capability so it could fly in the winter over Bosnia, the AF which modified it to carry Hellfire missiles; the AF which designed and built the distribution system to ensure the intelligence got to the warfighter; the AF which repeatedly called for increased production and a second line. Every Chief of Staff in the last 10 years has sought increased numbers of UAVs – and it was the AF which fielded both the Global Hawk and the Reaper. The AF has 88% of its UAVs deployed to the AOR … this as opposed to the Army, whose Ops concept is to organically assign them to its fighting units – only 30% of which are deployed. And … the AF has beat the DOD requirement for 21 CAPs. They now have 23 CAPs – two years ahead of schedule. [For more see: http://www.afa.org/EdOp/edop_5-6-08.asp]

And about the F-22:

Fourth, is the AF’s strong advocacy of the F-22. This is true. The Service believes that the tasks given to it by DOD requires this advanced technology. We’re heard lots about why the AF should stop buying F-22s, but nothing about DOD changing its defense strategy to reflect a different threat set in the future. In fact, an attempt to do so was non-concurred by every member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff [see: http://www.afa.org/GatesApproves.pdf]. Moreover the critics often cite the expense of the F-22 and compare the performance of the F-35 favorably against it. Both are factually inaccurate. The F-22 flyaway cost is about $130M and it has a much better capability than the F-35. The more relevant question is what is the cost of all the conventional systems required to penetrate denied airspace to accomplish what one F-22 can accomplish? The answer is the F-22 is a bargain in that regard. Most critics don’t know it has an air-to-ground and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capability. Likewise most don’t realize the F-35 costs are likely to grow. [For a short tutorial on why we need the F-22, see the film at this site: http://www.afa.org/MPEG/Air_Supremacy.asp]. Secretary Gates says the AF has not even deployed the F-22 to Iraq with the implication that we don’t need it. The fact is that the theater commander has requested the F-22, the AF has agreed, and the Secretary has refused to send it forward … reportedly for fear of scaring Iran, but more likely because if he did approve that request, the value of the F-22 would become very obvious, validating the demand for the F-22. Further, this “test” of whether a weapon system is worthy is a false one. There are lots of systems which are not deployed in Iraq … e.g. nuclear subs, P-3s, ICBMs, etc etc. It is clear that the F-22 is needed for the future, and if we stop building it, we will wished we had not … much like we did when DOD made the AF stop buying the B-2. (Ed: links left as found)

There’s more at the original link in my second paragraph, above. There’s some stuff in Mr. Dunn’s piece I didn’t know, and I’m fairly well informed about things USAF (for a guy over 20 years removed from active duty, that is). Mr. Dunn points out that there are good things going on in the Air Force right now and the Air Force is indeed carrying its weight, perhaps more than its weight, in the nation’s current wars.

Even though “things” may not be as bad as they seem, my take-away from Mr. Dunn’s article is that the power struggles in the Pentagon are very intense at the moment, and are likely to get much MORE intense as time moves on. Perhaps not as intense as the Revolt of the Admirals, but pretty danged close. Except this time the shoe is on the other foot, and it ain’t all about one particular weapons system. There are serious “roles and missions” discussions going on right now in the Pentagon and amongst our most senior civilian leaders. These discussions will affect the shape and structure of our forces for the next 20 years and beyond. The Air Force’s most senior leaders need to make their case, both within and outside of the Department of Defense, for the importance and relevance of airpower in our present and future conflicts. I think Mr. Dunn’s piece is a good start.

Terrible News

Lin, the proprietress of Creek Journal, lost her life partner and best friend Terry (aka Mark, on Creek Journal) to a heart attack yesterday. I received the news this morning in an e-mail Lin sent late last night.

I'm simply stunned and overwhelmed. Life, and our relationships, are so very fragile and ultimately transitory. Say a prayer for Lin today and keep her in your thoughts, please.

(The characters are Japanese kanji for sadness; sorrow; grief. This post will remain "on top" for the day. Scroll down for updates.)

Yet Another Meme

Jim The Suldog tagged me with this one…

The meme has the following rules:

1 – Write the title to your own memoir using exactly six words.

2 – Post it on your blog.

3 – Link to the person who tagged you.

4 – Tag five other bloggers.

Hmmm. A memoir. Is that like an armoire, only smaller? Or bigger, as the case might be? So… after giving this much thought (really: ten minutes worth, at least) I came up with a few options. First:

Bikes. Broads. Beer. That was IT!

But that makes me sound like some sort of n’eer-do-well “Wild One” type. Which isn’t entirely true. Close, but not entirely true. A variation on that theme occurred to me:

Wine. Women. Song. Other stuff, too.

Nah. What about:

There and Back Again. Many Times.

Nah, again. I think Tolkien owns the copyright, anyway. So… there’s this:

A Life In Shades o’ Blue.

That’s getting closer! USAF blue, EDS blue (It’s a color. Really. I had a swatch pinned to my cube wall, once upon a time.), Da Blooze, and too MUCH blue in later life. But I think it's waaay too...ummm... cute. So, we finally came upon this:

Celebrating 60 Years of Absolute Mediocrity!

Hey! Does that work, or what? But I think it’s too self-deprecating. So… the winner is…

Bikes. Broads. Beer. That was IT!

Never second-guess inspiration.

Now for the five tag-ees…

Jenny

Jay

Doc

Susan

Phlegmmy

Feel free to play along, even if I didn’t tag ya! You know you want to...

Inverted... And Other Complaints

Yesterday was a total bust for me. Mind you, nothing bad happened… nothing happened at all, actually. I’m in yet another one of my circadian rhythm upside-down periods. As a matter of fact, I’d be the quintessential out-of-time, off-the-beat White Boy if you needed circadian rhythm to dance. Wait… I AM the quintessential White Boy when it comes to dancing, so…never mind. So, there I was yesterday morning, watching the sun come up after being awake all night and trying to decide whether to (a) put the coffee on and blow this sleep thingie off altogether or (b) go to bed. I opted for Plan B and slept until 1300 hrs. The upshot of all this is the day was truly GONE after I’d finished my “morning” coffee, which was just after 1600 hrs (it takes me at least three hours to drink that whole pot, ya know).

And today? Only slightly better…awake until 0300 (or so) and up at 1100 hrs. The Boys tell me not to worry about this because I’m retired, aren’t I? I have nowhere to be, nowhere to go, no one to answer to, and all that (TSMP’s final words of the day to me… more often than not… were almost always spoken as I laid asleep on the couch: “Come to bed, Buck”). But I DO worry. Being out of phase with the rest of the civilized world isn’t a Good Thing, in my book. And it’s definitely raised havoc with my blogging. Which, of course, begs the question: “Well, if you’re up all night, why not blog?” The answer is similar to what any whiny, petulant two-year old would give: “Because I don’t want to!” (You may add a couple of imaginary foot-stomps to increase the street-cred of that statement, if you like. I did.)

{sigh} This, too, shall pass. I think.

―:☺:―

The weather has been strange over the last 48 hours, as well. The sky has been cloudy all day for the last two days, and that’s very unusual for my home on the range. Cloudy… as in a continuous, horizon-to-horizon cover of dark gray, low-scudding clouds that threaten rain but never deliver. The radar picture around Portales these past two days has shown lots of precip all around us, but not ON us. The constant cloud cover has made it unseasonably cool, too. Our high yesterday was only 80; today it’s supposed to be 74. The average temp for this time of year is 91. So, it’s nice to get a break in one respect, but it would be nicer yet if the coolness was accompanied by rain. It would be perfect, as a matter of fact.

―:☺:―

We seem to be on something of a bitch-moan-complain roll here, so let’s add one more thing. I finally received my Detroit Red Wings 2008 Stanley Cup Champions Locker Room T-shirt (yep, that’s the full title) last week, which was ordered from NHL.com the day after the Wings won The Cup. I’m not complaining about how long it took the shirt to get here… I expected some sort of delay, as the shirt was back-ordered the day I bought it. Nope, it’s the quality of the shirt, or lack of same. First of all, Honduras (where the shirt was made) must be a veritable Land O’ Giants, coz I’m swimming in my Medium sized shirt, which appears to be half again as large as other “medium” tee shirts I’ve bought recently. That’s bad enough, but the neck hole is also waaay too large, resembling a woman’s scoop-necked blouse rather than a tee shirt. And the shirt hasn’t even made its first journey to the Laundromat yet.

I have a feeling this will be one souvenir tee shirt that will last, mainly because I won’t be wearing such a poorly-made garment much, if at all. I hate it, and I mean really HATE it, when this happens.

OTOH, SN1 has no complaints about his shirt… which is different than mine. Maybe I’ll buy one of those.

―:☺:―

OK, enough personal bitching. Let’s get on to some bitching, nation-wide. The Obamanon’s widely-commented on “move to the center” continues apace. Now that Barack has pissed off the loony-left with his apparent reversal on the FISA Bill (MFC Greenwald has a new rant on this subject today), he’s trying to make nice with the entire US military. That’s all well and good, I suppose, but Barack is gonna have a long, hard road gaining the trust he needs after making statements like this:

Obama says he’ll call the Joint Chiefs in once he’s inaugurated and give them a new mission: “End the war.” Not WIN the war, but end it. Words mean something, and Obama’s word choice on this subject doesn’t give me a warm and fuzzy feeling. Obama also says his position has remained consistent over the last few months (and years) and I believe him on this one point, at least. He’s been consistent and wrong on the subject of Iraq for as long as I’ve been paying attention to him and his speeches. And he’s certainly not above mischaracterizing Senator McCain’s position, either… when he uses words that accuse McCain of wanting to perpetuate the war. McCain is quite clear: he wants to WIN. Obama is much less clear, but “ending the war” without mentioning (or apparently even considering) the outcome…whether we win or lose… is shallow and irresponsible in the extreme.

Good luck gaining that “trust” thing with the military, Senator O. You’ll need lots of it. Luck, that is.

Boggled

So… in making the rounds today I went off to Photobucket to view the full size version of one of Abe’s fabulous photos and was startled to see Photobucket has over five and a half billion images hosted on its site. That’s billion! Think of the storage required to host that many photos, and Photobucket’s service is free… which boggles MY mind, if no one else’s. If one can believe the counter in the lower left of the screen, people are uploading over 1,000 photos per minute to Photobucket.

Simply amazing. One wonders how much disc space Google, Flickr, and other video/photo hosting sites use, eh? And how long can this sort of thing continue, free of charge? Dang, but these here inter-tubes are amazing, eh?

The pic is of a 1987-vintage IBM direct-access storage device (DASD), which could store 1.26 billion characters, and it was considered to be cost-effective at the time. I've been in data centers where there were literally row upon row upon row of these devices in a room that rivaled a football field in size. One wonders what disc farms look like these days.

Raptors Off to Ol' Blighty

U.S. Air Force photo/Master Sgt. Bill Wiseman

From the AFA’s Daily Report…

British Invasion: The F-22 fighter will be appearing in the skies over Britain for the first time later this month, demonstrating its prowess at two air international shows. Tomorrow, three Raptors from the 1st Fighter Wing at Langley AFB, Va., along with members of the F-22 demonstration team will make the trek across the Atlantic Ocean for a week-long stint. On July 12 and July 13, Maj. Paul Moga, USAF's first F-22 demonstration pilot, will treat visitors to a single-ship performance at the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, wing spokeswoman 2nd Lt. Georganne Schultz, told the Daily Report. On the following day, Moga will perform at the Farnborough International Air Show outside of London, Schultz said. The F-22s will head back to Langley on July 15, she said. The F-22 Demonstration Team is in its first full season. Last year was its debut year, but not a full season. Normally two aircraft would be sent for such a demonstration, with one serving as a backup. Schultz said, in this case, the decision was made to send three.

And what will our Brit friends see? Well, since you asked, Gentle Reader, here’s Major Moga explaining the elements of the single-ship demonstration as he puts the F-22 through (some of) its paces…

Cool, eh? The photo (taken last month) shows an F-22 out of Langley AFB, VA in formation with members of the RAF's aerial demonstration team, the Red Arrows. The Arrows were in the US last month on a goodwill tour; you can see a two-minute video of them flying over NYC here.

Validation

I received a nice e-mail the other day from a woman named Deirdre Reilly, who’s a syndicated columnist in Boston. Deirdre went to school at ENMU and still has a warm place in her heart for Portales, which is how she came to e-mail me… she stumbled upon EIP while looking for stuff on the net about P-Ville. And she was kind enough to drop us a note that said very nice things about EIP.

Deirdre recently wrote a column about returning to P-Ville after 20 years (or so) had passed, and here’s an excerpt:

A few months ago I traveled from my home in Boston back to the town where I went to college: Portales, N.M. The college is Eastern New Mexico University, a jewel of southeast New Mexico and home of the Greyhounds sports teams. I was going to be in Phoenix for a few days and had decided to tack on an extra four nights – the plan was to stay two days in Sante Fe, doing the art galleries, and then head out in my rental car for Portales, which is about four hours southeast. I had not been to Portales for 25 years and had sometimes wondered if it even still existed.

[…]

As I drove my rental car (an enormous, silver Chrysler with the world’s coldest sir conditioning) away from Sante Fe, I felt a lightness and anticipation. The miles stretched out into endless ranch scenes and dazzling skies as the weather, which had been snowy, cleared, and the sun shone brightly. I listened to everything on satellite radio – politics, jazz, gospel, you name it. Not passing a car for about 40 miles, I called my 18-year-old and said, “Hey Matt – guess how fast I’m driving?” He laughed, miles away. He felt so close, though, his voice warm on the phone. How fast was I going, he wanted to know, and yelled, “All right!” when I told him 100 mph – and no one to stop me. I hated to let him go when we signed off.

Well, now! I can certainly relate to the 100 mph stuff…driving as fast as you want is one of the Great Good Things about living in the Great Wide-Open. I should probably knock on wood (you, too, Deirdre!), because while there aren’t many cops patrolling our back roads, there are a few. And they DO write tickets. Just ask SN1… But, I digress. There are any number of reasons to fall in love with The High Plains of New Mexico, and I’m glad to know there are other souls in this world that feel as I do about The High Plains and P-Ville. Or, in a single word: validation. Thanks, Dierdre!

Deirdre also has a web site, with links to her columns and other things. Go drop in!

Disappointment

I didn’t get the memo. So, there I was Thursday night, sitting here minding my own business, wondering just why it was all the yahoos in my general vicinity couldn’t wait until the Fourth to shoot off their damned fireworks. Nope, they couldn’t wait… they HAD to blow off the inventory a day early. And then… “Whoosh-ka-BOOM! Whooosh-ka-BOOM-BOOM!” “Hey!”... sez I to myself... “Those weren’t backyard fireworks I just heard, that’s the Real Deal!” A quick peek out the window revealed that, yes, those reports actually were part of the Big Civic Fireworks Production that takes place every year at Eastern NM U’s athletic fields, just behind El Casa Móvil De Pennington.

So, I grab the camera out of the camera bag, set the controls to aperture-priority shooting, open the lens as wide as it will go, and step outside to enjoy the fireworks and take some pics. I took a couple of shots and realized things would probably go a lot better if I set the camera to “continuous shooting” rather than single shot, which is the default. I stepped back inside (where there was light) and set the camera to “continuous shooting.” Once back outside I realized immediately things weren’t going smoothly. The camera’s electronics were apparently confused by the slow shutter speed and the demands of continuous shooting, because it (the camera) wouldn’t shoot consistently in continuous mode. I’d get a burst of two or three photos and then the camera would hang momentarily in the “mirror up” position. That’s pretty disconcerting, to say the very least. And then I must have inadvertently hit a button on the camera by accident, because I realized I’d somehow reverted to single-shot mode. Frustrating. And that's the way it went for the duration of the show.

So… we finally arrive at this post’s title: disappointment. I took 56 photos, 12 of which were totally black and were discarded right off the bat. I saved 42 of the remaining 44 photos I downloaded to the PeeSee but none were “keepers,” in truth. Most came out looking like this:

Which is interesting, I suppose, but it’s not what I wanted. I wanted stuff sorta like this:

And those two shots were as good as it got. Compare these two shots to the pics of the fireworks I took four years ago with my old G5; the G5 pics are much better. I think there are a few reasons for this. First, I was caught by surprise and was unprepared Thursday night. I didn’t do my homework, most especially by consulting my manual to see if there are any low-light limitations with continuous shooting. Second, the SLR’s lens is “longer” than the G5’s, which makes composing a little more difficult. Third, composing a rapidly moving subject through the camera’s viewfinder is considerably more difficult than composing on an LCD screen. The end result is lousy photos, thus: disappointment. Which says everything about the workman and little to nothing about his tools, eh?

The fireworks were good, though. Lotsa oohs, aahs, and applause could be heard throughout Beautiful La Hacienda Trailer Park, along with joyous shrieks from the very little kids. And all the local yahoos went back to shooting off their own stuff once The Big Show was over, even if it was a day early. Last night was pretty quiet by comparison, but not completely without the odd boom and whistle here and there... until well after midnight. It's a great good thing no one had to be at work today, eh?

Independence Day

The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.

He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing taxes on us without our consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

"We Ain't Got No Badges..."

Well, yes. Yes, you do. (Rant alert!) From the Air Force Association’s Daily Report:

Brave New World: The Air Force's fledgling cyber force has developed a roadmap that proposes establishing new career fields for officer and enlisted airmen that would affect some 30,000 active and 2,000 reserve personnel currently working in the cyber realm. The head of Cyber Command (Provisional), Maj. Gen. William Lord, said the new roadmap "outlines our efforts to establish cyberspace operators, specialists, analysts, and developers who grow from a basic understanding of cyberspace doctrine to experts in their respective fields." Per the plan, operators would comprise officer and enlisted airmen who would plan, direct, and execute offensive and defensive actions; specialists would be enlisted communications and information cyber technicians; analysts would include both officer and enlisted intelligence personnel with expertise in cyberspace operations; and developers would also comprise both officers and enlisted members with advanced skills in designing and modifying software and hardware. AFCYBER's initial work focuses on operators and specialists, including two new officer air force specialty codes and 15 new enlisted AFSCs. Work is still ongoing to outline career paths for analysts and developers, expected later this year, and to define professional development for the service's civilian cyber force. "We have a lot of work ahead of us still, but we know the direction we're headed," said Maj. Timothy Franz, AFCYBER chief of force development. In the works, too, is a proposed cyberspace operator badge. Officials last month noted that the command is on track to stand up this fall, while still looking for a permanent location for the headquarters. (For details on the specific AFSC's being cut and created, see AFCYBER report by Karen Petitt.)

There have been more than a few changes in the Air Force since I traded in my gub’mint-issued Blue Suit for Brooks Bros. back in 1985. Some time a while back (five years? ten years?) USAF overhauled all of its Air Force Specialty Codes (AFSCs), changing the entire system into something unrecognizable to folks who’d served previously. As an example, my AFSC when I retired was 30372… which meant I was in the Communications-Electronics field (first two digits: 30), radar (third digit: 3), technician level (fourth digit: 7), aircraft control and warning (AC&W) radar (last digit: 2). This may sound and look complicated, but it’s not. The current structure for AFSCs looks like this:

EXAMPLE: 1N37 - Operations, Intelligence, Cryptologic Linguist, Craftsman

The whole explanation of AFSC numbering structure is here, if you’re curious and/or need a non-addictive sleep aid. But I digress... and mightily, at that. My whole point was going to be this: were I still on active duty I’d be qualified (by virtue of my job) to wear that spiffy new badge that accompanies this lil blurb.

Which, of course, brings up yet another change USAF has made since I retired… everyone is now authorized to wear steenkin’ badges of some sort. Back in my day only pilots, navigators, and aircrew wore badges, specifically “wings.” There were other badges, too, but they were limited to health care professionals (doctors, nurses), chaplains, lawyers, missileers (the famous “pocket rocket”), and skycops (who wore real badges, as known and understood by the civilian population). Nowadays it takes an entire page in the Air Force Almanac (BIG-ass pdf alert: jump to page 71 if ya go) to display all the various badges USAF has authorized for wear. I counted 32, and that’s not counting the various flavors of “wings” currently authorized. When you add in all the flippin’ ribbons and medals that are authorized these days (and handed out like candy, I might add) you get airmen who have more adornments on their uniforms than an Eagle Scout wearing all his merit badges.

That ain’t right. “Whatever Happened to the Plain Blue Suit?”, indeed.

Drilling

One of the things that bugs the Hell out of me about the current “energy debate” is how our loyal, patriotic, and oh-so-concerned-about-OUR-welfare Democrats distort… nay, totally misrepresent… the issue of domestic oil drilling. There IS a Democrat Party Line in this space and it goes something like this (from the Las Vegas Review-Journal, via The Obamanon’s web site):

Oil companies, he said, already have drilling rights to millions of acres of federal land, "and yet they haven't touched it," Obama said. "John McCain wants to give them more when they're not using what they already have."

The companies ought to pay a fine on drilling rights they're holding but not using, he said.

Well, now. That Las Vegas speech drew some attention from the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal Monday:

"I want you to think about this," Barack Obama said in Las Vegas last week. "The oil companies have already been given 68 million acres of federal land, both onshore and offshore, to drill. They're allowed to drill it, and yet they haven't touched it – 68 million acres that have the potential to nearly double America's total oil production."

Wow, how come the oil companies didn't think of that?

Perhaps because the notion is obviously false – at least to anyone who knows how oil and gas exploration actually works. Predictably, however, Mr. Obama's claim is also the mantra of Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, John Kerry, Nick Rahall and others writing Congressional energy policy. As a public service, here's a remedial education.

[…]

To deflect the GOP effort to relax the offshore-drilling ban – and thus boost supply while demand will remain strong – Democrats also say that most of the current leases are "nonproducing." The idea comes from a "special report" prepared by the Democratic staff of the House Resources Committee, chaired by Mr. Rahall. "If we extrapolate from today's production rates on federal lands and waters," the authors write, the oil companies could "nearly double total U.S. oil production" (their emphasis).

In other words, these whiz kids assume that every acre of every lease holds the same amount of oil and gas. Yet the existence of a lease does not guarantee that the geology holds recoverable resources. Brian Kennedy of the Institute for Energy Research quips that, using the same extrapolation, the 9.4 billion acres of the currently nonproducing moon should yield 654 million barrels of oil per day.

There’s much more at the link, and it's all good. Whenever I see or hear the Democrats’ arguments against domestic drilling, I naturally assume they’re both arrogant and insulting. Arrogant because they truly believe they have the only answer(s) to our energy problems, and they most certainly don’t. And they (Obama, Reid, Pelosi, Emmanuel) are insulting because they obviously expect me to believe this shit. Why else would they repeat the same erroneous, discredited crap over and over and over again? And they know they’re wrong, too. Further from the WSJ:

Yet companies are not allowed to explore where the biggest prospects for oil and gas may exist – especially on the Outer Continental Shelf. Seven of the top 20 U.S. oil fields are now located in analogous deepwater areas (greater than 1,000 feet) in the Gulf of Mexico. In 2006, Chevron discovered what is likely to be the largest American oil find since Prudhoe, drilled in 7,000 feet of water and more than 20,000 feet under the sea floor. The Wilcox formation may have an upper end of 15 billion barrels of recoverable oil and should begin producing by 2014 – perhaps ushering in a new ultradeepwater frontier.

Likewise, in April, the U.S. Geological Survey revised its estimate for the Bakken Shale, underneath the badlands of North Dakota and Montana. The new assessment – as much as 4.3 billion barrels of oil – is a 25-fold increase over what the Survey believed in 1995. Such breakthroughs confirm that very large reserves exist, if only Congress would let business get at them.

All of which has Democrats sweating bullets. The leadership is desperate to avoid debating a Department of Interior spending bill, because they know Republicans will offer amendments lifting the drilling moratorium that may peel off some Democrats. Last week, Chairman David Obey shut down the Appropriations Committee rather than countenance more domestic energy production. Given Democratic energy illiteracy, this is a fight the GOP can win if it keeps up the pressure.

Sweating bullets, indeed. Some Blue Dog Dems are already raising red flags to the House leadership. Like this (from yesterday’s The Hill):

Lampson penned a letter to House Democratic leaders last week asking them to chart a completely new course.

“The rancor and incivility with which this debate has been waged thus far has overshadowed the true policy concerns we must address and is unacceptable to the American people who look to us for leadership and solutions,” Lampson wrote. “We will not be able to accomplish anything, let alone lead our nation to energy independence, if we are unable to have a civil debate and are unwilling to allow all options on the table.”

But Lampson’s plea may have — at least for the time being — fallen on deaf ears.

The same day Lampson issued his letter, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) declared her caucus united and ready to fight against Republican efforts to open up more coastal areas to exploration.

Representative Lampson is from Texas, by the way, a Big Oil state. And he is vulnerable this coming November, too. So…some Dems get it, especially when there’s “enlightened self-interest” at work, eh? I mean… look at the tea leaves. The puzzlement is in the Dems steadfast refusal to change their policies. OTOH, it’s just that ol’ Democrat arrogance, ain’t it? They’re right and damn the facts or what Americans think.

Business as usual.

Happy Birthday, Canada!

Our friends in The Great White Up get a three day jump on us when it comes to national celebrations. I don’t have a problem with that… none at all. I DO have a great admiration for Canada and things Canadian… most especially Labatt’s, Molson’s, and that greatest of ALL Canadian gifts to the world… hockey.

I want also want to thank Canada for their contributions to the fight in Afghanistan. The Canadians have fought valiantly and nearly unnoticed, for the most part, outside of their borders. And they have suffered casualties that, in proportion to their population, far outstrip the casualties American forces have taken. I shudder to think how we Americans would react if our casualties were proportionate to those of the Canadians.

Thank You, Canada. And Happy Birthday!

Girl image purloined from The Toque. The flag image was taken from a generic google search…

Why I Dislike Cats, Part I

Update, July 3 @ 1725 hrs: Doc, in comments, sez I need one of these:



Now that's a Capital Idea! Wouldn't work too well on a convertible, though.