Strange

Forgive me this momentary bout of introspection, Gentle Reader. But since this blog is my de facto journal I’m going to talk a little bit about a strange experience I had last night. From an e-mail I sent The Boys today:

Speaking of dieing... This isn't to alarm either of you, coz I'm fine this morning. But the strangest thing happened last night. I ate late...around 2300. I had nuked one of those Stouffer Flatbreads (steak fajitas...in name only), and had finished two of three slices when I was overcome...very quickly... with this strange "flushing" sensation in both my arms...down to my hands, which quickly spread to my neck and shoulders...on both sides. Then I got a ringing in my ears and became extremely dizzy. I quickly stood up...thinking WTF!??! And almost fell over. So, I sat back down. Then my vision began to blur and I got severe tunnel vision and was unable to focus on anything. All of this in the space of about a minute. I thought I was having a stroke. My vision almost went black, and I thought "Wow. So this is how it ends, eh?" In a rather strange sort of move, I decided it would be best to die lying down, so I moved to the couch and did just that...Laid down, that is.

As soon as I hit the couch I was overcome yet again, this time by a wave of nausea...severe nausea....violent nausea. I got off the couch, staggered to the bathroom as best I could (remember: tunnel vision) and threw up, violently, followed by about five minutes of dry heaves. My vision cleared almost immediately and the flushing sensation went away. I washed up, returned to the couch, laid back down, and immediately fell asleep.

I'm fine this morning. The only thing I can think of is severe, radical food poisoning. I base that theory on the fact everything cleared up after I threw everything up. I had NO pain, and my breathing was normal...aside from being a bit quick, because I was about as frickin' scared as I've ever been.

Weird, eh?

I’ve been thinking about this lil episode off and on all day. A couple of amplifications and clarifications are in order, though. When I said I had a “strange flushing sensation,” I meant flushing as in “warmth.” I got downright hot…which is why I described the feeling as “flushing,” as in being flushed. Second, I wasn’t all that frickin’ scared, in retrospect. I didn’t panic, I didn’t grope for the phone so I could dial 911. I did think exactly what I said to the boys in my note, i.e., “Wow. So this is how it ends, eh?”

And this is where the introspective bits come in. Why didn’t I think to dial 911? Why was I ready to just lie down and die? I’m not being melodramatic in the least, Gentle Reader. This was a serious event…with some serious danged symptoms, especially the progressive, yet quick, loss of vision and hearing. I’ve never had an episode like this in my life…nothing even remotely close. I was rational enough to eliminate the possibility of a heart attack (wrong symptoms), and rational enough to realize something was very, very wrong. Yet the only thing I thought was “so this is how it ends?”

I didn’t think about the event at all last evening after returning from the bathroom and laying down. I was simply glad my vision and hearing had returned, my temperature was back to normal, and the nausea was gone along with my dinner. My brief thoughts before falling asleep, which happened almost immediately, were about food poisoning. And that’s pretty much where I am today.

I got the UCR response from SN1: get thee to a doctor. And I will. I usually have my annual physical in my birthday month, but this weirdness will move that Happy Event up on the schedule. But I’m still perplexed over my reactions last evening.

Strange.

The Random Firing of Synapses

Apropos of exactly nothing…except for the firing-off of long dormant synapses… Here’s The Lovin’ Spoonful:

And those synapses of mine? Kind of a long story, but here’s the Readers Digest version. I was stationed at Vandenberg AFB back in ’65 when this tune was on the charts. I also entered a “DeeJay for a Day” contest run by the local radio station (whose call letters I’ve long forgotten) at that very same time. And I won that contest… drawing, actually…one of the very few things I’ve “won” in life, to be frank. “Do You Believe in Magic?” was the very first tune I played during that “DeeJay For A Day” outing. Which, to be frank yet again, was one of the most anti-climatic experiences in my life, ever. “DeeJay For 45 Minutes Sitting Alone In An Auxiliary Control Room Back-Announcing Records That I Sorta Got To Choose As Long As They Were On The Oh-So-Abbreviated AM Playlist” would be much more accurate, but I’ll spare you the details. Later on in life I became a real DeeJay at KBOK in Sinop, Turkey. Sorta.

Anyway. You don’t forget things like that.

Is This COOL, or What?

From the ever-popular Viral Videos...

Party On, Garth

A few random thoughts for starters… First (and second, and third…): I watched about an hour of the Terrible Triumvirate’s gab-fest in South Carolina last evening. It was pretty much more of the same, as I expected. The “debate” was on CNN, moderated by Wolf Blitzer, another one of those pundits/anchor people I love to hate actively-dislike. Just this on Blitzer: he sucks as a moderator, as in little-to-no control over the participants.

The situation got out of hand early, with Clinton and Obama cherry-picking negative items from each other’s voting records, past quotes, resumés, yadda, yadda, yadda, and beating the snot out of each other. Interesting, if you like that sort of thing. I don’t, and Obama got what few points were available (from me) last evening when he said “American voters aren’t interested in political sniping” or some such. The Breck Girl was feeling pretty left-out and let the audience know that, to moderate applause. Silky Pony got real old, real fast, proclaiming “eliminating poverty is my life’s mission” with every other breath. Somehow, the spectacle of a multi-millionaire tort lawyer proclaiming he’s on a crusade to eliminate poverty sticks in my craw. But his supporters eat it up, which says a lot about them, eh?

But. (heh) The biggest (heh, yet again) take-away from last night?

Hillary has a BIG ass. BIG.

That’s not a comment about Hillary the candidate, Hillary the Democrat, or Hillary the Anything Else. It’s just an observation. It’s been widely reported (although I can’t find a link) the Clinton campaign has put reporters on notice there are certain “prohibited camera angles” when it comes to photographing Hillary. CNN didn’t get the message, though, because there were several…many, actually…shots of the candidates from behind. Last night was the first time I’ve seen that camera angle, by the way, so I’m inclined to believe the “don’t shoot her from behind” stuff. To say Hill is “broad in the beam” is an understatement of massive proportions (ed: OK, enough, already.)…

Last: Watching the Terrible Trio’s repeated genuflections to MLK’s memory last evening (the debate was co-sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus) made me think of the Law of Unintended Consequences. It’s an unfortunate yet true fact that MLK’s memory these days serves primarily to warn out-of-towners which neighborhoods to avoid when visiting a strange city. As a matter of fact, I’ve never seen an MLK boulevard, avenue, or street in any American city I’d walk alone after nine o’clock in the evening. There ain’t no McMansions on said streets.

―:☺:―

The market is not doing all that bad this morning—much better, actually, than I thought it would. The Fed’s Emergency rate cut seems to be holding off the blood-bath. For the moment. The Dow is down about 140 points as I tap this out, with a couple of hours left in the trading day. As it’s said: “It could have been worse.” A lot worse, judging from the European and Asian markets’ performances these last two days.

―:☺:―

It’s been nearly six months since I put that NeoWORX widget in my side-bar…I’m talking about that “Are We Global Yet?” thingie that shows the number of visits one gets from all the different and various countries. It’s my favorite widget. It took about four months to break the 100-country mark, and the counter held at 95 countries for the looongest time, but we’re up to 110 countries at the moment. Being as how I’m fascinated with geography, the ‘net, and technology in general, I find it simply amazing that someone… anyone… from Djibouti, Estonia, Korea, or Romania would read my scribblings. But, to be real about it, they’re probably only looking for pissing stories. As I’m fond of saying: “Imagine the disappointment…”

―:☺:―

Interesting…

Some 3 billion fortune cookies are made each year, almost all in the United States. But the crisp cookies wrapped around enigmatic sayings have spread around the world. They are served in Chinese restaurants in Britain, Mexico, Italy, France and elsewhere. In India, they taste more like butter cookies. A surprisingly high number of winning tickets in Brazil's national lottery in 2004 were traced to lucky numbers from fortune cookies distributed by a Chinese restaurant chain called Chinatown.

But there is one place where fortune cookies are conspicuously absent: China.

Now a researcher in Japan believes she can explain the disconnect, which has long perplexed American tourists in China. Fortune cookies, Yasuko Nakamachi says, are almost certainly originally from Japan.

Everything you could conceivably want to know about fortune cookies… and then some. I used to save my favorite fortunes and tuck ‘em away inside my wallet. I was gonna quote you some of my faves, but I apparently went through my wallet and threw ‘em out sometime in the past. Probably around the time the fortunes proved demonstrably false, say 1998.

But, Hey! The article is interesting, and I still read my fortune(s). I just don't save 'em any longer.

―:☺:―

Today’s (From the Archives) Pic: The Second Mrs. Pennington will probably put out a contract on me for this, but…

That’s the lady as Rotary High School Exchange Student in Tokyo, circa 1972 or perhaps ‘73. She was a senior at the time and the fact she was required to wear a uniform really grated on her. And don’t she look oh-so-innocent? Heh. You should hear some of her stories about her and Best Bud Junko’s sub rosa exploits in Harajuku, Shinjuku, and other such points in Tokyo. As I said: heh. The girl knew how to party.

(Terrible Trio photo credit: AP)

Huzzah!

I’m surfing the ‘net this evening at these sorts of speeds:

Yep. My broadband connection, which I first mentioned back in March of 2006, is finally…finally! … a reality. I was loath to even mention the fact I had an installation appointment until such time as (a) Yucca Telecom showed up and (b) the installation was successful. I’m happy to report both (a) and (b) came to pass this afternoon. Yucca was on time, the installation proceeded successfully, and…

I am a Happy Camper! Yay!

No longer (hopefully) will I have to deal with stuff like this:

I know: never say “never.” But tonight I’m infected with joy and incurable optimism.

Thanks, Yucca. Better late than never.

Happy MLK Day

Hang on to your hats…it looks like the markets are in for a wild ride tomorrow. And it won’t be a fun sort of ride, either:

Global anxiety about the prospect of a recession in the United States triggered steep stock market declines Monday, pushing the Toronto Stock Exchange down more than 600 points, or 4.79 per cent, by mid-day.

[…]

The losses were felt across the board: In London, the FTSE 100 index plunged 5.48 per cent to close at 5,578.20 points. In Paris, the CAC 40 index lost 6.83 per cent to close at 4,744,45 points and in Frankfurt the DAX shed 7.16 per cent to close at 6,790.19 points, with both markets seeing the biggest single-day losses since the 9/11 terror attacks.

The European markets followed the Asian markets in posting steep declines.

In Asia, India's benchmark stock index tumbled 7.4 per cent, while Hong Kong's blue-chip Hang Seng index plummeted 5.5 per cent to 23,818.86 – its biggest percentage drop since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Ouch. The market is off nearly nine per cent already this year… and tomorrow looks like a bloodbath-in-waiting. Enjoy your Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, folks.

―:☺:―

In other financial news… I had my propane tank refilled this morning. Total cost: $31.34 for just a wee bit more than 11 gallons. Two weeks ago I bought eight gallons for a mere $22.00. It looks like it’s gonna be a long, cold winter. And it’ll be a more expensive winter, too.

―:☺:―

So. I’m seeing a lot of this sort of talk lately, as exemplified by Bill Quick:

I will not vote for any ticket headed by John McCain or Mike Huckabee. If McCain is the nominee, I won’t vote for any candidate. If Huckabee is the nominee, I’ll vote for the Democratic candidate. Yes, I would vote for BJ & Hillary Clinton before I’d cast a vote for that constitution-rewriting Christian reconstructionist theocrat in the making, Huckabee. In fact, I won’t vote for any ticket of which he is a part.

At the moment, probably the best I can hope for would be a Giuliani/Thompson ticket. I think that, absent Fred, Rudy would have the best leadership talents. My only problem is where he would try to lead us. But I’d vote for him. I’d vote, but with less enthusiasm, for a Rudy/Romney ticket, in whatever order, and I would vote for a Romney/Thompson ticket.

But McCain or Huckabee? Either one is a deal-breaker, and neither will get my vote. The only difference is that Huckabee will cause me to vote - for his opponent.

Which is only partly offset by this sort of talk, coming from William Kristol writing in The Weekly Standard:

Conservative editorialists, radio hosts, and bloggers are unhappy. They don't like the Republican presidential field, and many of them have been heaping opprobrium on the various GOP candidates with astonishing vigor.

For example: John McCain--with a lifetime American Conservative Union rating of 82.3--is allegedly in no way a conservative. And, though the most favorably viewed of all the candidates right now, both among Republicans and the electorate as a whole, he would allegedly destroy the Republican party if nominated.

[…]

So the conservative commentariat should take a deep breath, be a bit less judgmental about these individuals--and realize that there is not likely to be a second Reagan.

[…]

So conservatives might think of John McCain as our potential TR, Mike Huckabee as our potential FDR, and Mitt Romney as our potential JFK. Support the one you prefer. But don't work yourself into a frenzy against the others. Let the best man emerge from a challenging primary process. And if there is no clear-cut winner, then the delegates at the GOP convention can turn on the fifth ballot to an obvious fallback compromise candidate, one who would be just fine with conservatives--Dick Cheney!

I like Bill Kristol, always have. His “take a chill pill” advice is good advice. People like Mr. Quick, who says he would vote for Hillary rather than Huckabee, amaze me. There is at least one Supreme who will either retire or die on the bench during the next administration, and two more who are likely to retire. An administration lasts eight years at the most, the Supreme Court lasts for generations. My “eight year” figure doesn't consider the Second Coming of the Clintons as a continuation of a previous administration, and I probably should, coz the “new” Clinton administration will be a continuation of the old. Aside from the “who will bring me more dead terrorists?” question, the composition of the Supreme Court is the second most pressing issue that will be decided this November. And people like Mr. Quick would prefer Bill and Hillary over John McCain?

You have to be shitting me.

I think Huckabee is out of it, so I won’t talk about him, specifically, and that sort of kills half my argument. But the members of the “I’ll stay home if McCain is the nominee” crowd, and that crowd appears to be substantial in size, would only be cutting off our collective noses to spite their own small-minded faces. And, the Supremes aside, I have another question for the people petulantly stomping their feet about McCain… who would you really want as Commander in Chief? Billary, who presided over one of the largest draw-downs of the nation’s military and intelligence organizations in recent times, or a bona-frickin’-fide war hero?

Oh, wait…I forgot. Billary ain’t a lock, now, are they? Well, given that we know hardly anything about what Obama would actually do… absent detailed plans, policies, and the like… are you comfortable putting the security of the nation in the hands of a guy whose platform is limited to “Change!” and “Trust me?” Hell, that applies to any Democrat, actually… but it looks like Billary and Obama are the only two left standing. Whatever. Both want to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in Iraq, increase your taxes, ratify Kyoto (more accurately: its successor protocol), give us mandate a “single-payer” health care system a la the British National Health Service, and change the composition and tenor of the Supreme Court. So, if that’s your idea of what America needs, then go ahead and stay home if McCain is the GOP nominee.

Excuse me if I don’t think that’s real frickin’ smart.

―:☺:―

Today’s (From the Archives) Pic: The only photo I have… or rather, can find at the moment… of The First Mrs. Pennington in her youth. This picture is of TFMP and SN2 in our off-base apartment in Wakkanai, Japan…sometime in early 1969. Quite the sultry wench, isn’t she? (“Sultry wench” is the archaic form of “hawt,” and is in no way derogatory.) There really should be more photos from this time period hanging around somewhere, and I hope there are. About which…

SN2 and I spoke on the phone last evening and he’s going to poke around in the boxes he’s holding for me to see if there are any other photos, slides and the like lurking within. I cannot believe, figuratively speaking, all the stuff that’s missing from my photo archives. Literally speaking, it’s easy to believe… given the state of flux life was in when I collected, boxed up, and sent SN2 all that which I absolutely, positively wanted to retain. It’s entirely possible a lot of stuff got thrown out inadvertently. And that would be a shame.

On Any Sunday...

Well, it’s Sunday. Big Doin’s for NFL fans today and for masochists from all over the US, if not the world, who will tune into the NFC game just to watch people suffer. In a good way, of course. Hell, I might even watch. I watch the playoffs in nearly every other sport, but rarely pro-football. That might change today. There’s sure to be lotsa crowd shots of people in Green Bay whose sensibilities and/or sanity I question. Am I being redundant by sayin’ that? I mean…you have to be jes a lil bit “off” to live in that part of the world, dontcha?

―:☺:―

Before I move on to (arguably) “bigger and better” things…there’s this… Best comment on a blog I read yesterday:

· Comment by happyfeet on 1/19 @ 7:06 pm #
Is that different from muesli? I like muesli. Kashi is kind of like muesli plus you get interracial lesbians. Yay!

Yes, it really is a comment. There’s a link hiding up there.

―:☺:―

So, it’s Sunday. And once upon a time, in another world, another time, another season, and another life, I would be doing this:

The pic is of YrHmblScrb and several dedicated competitors on the starting line somewhere in the wilds of Hokkaido, sometime in the summer of 1969 or perhaps 1970. The time period is before motocross caught on as a Big Time Sport in the US, and is exactly the point in time when the Nipponese fielded their very first purpose-built MX bikes. Up until about 1971 (or so) if you wanted a competitive MXer you didn’t buy a Yamaha, a Honda, or a Suzuki…you bought a CZ, a Maico, a Husky, or maybe a Bultaco. European, in other words. Or…you could do as most of us did (at least those of us who raced in Japan), you bought a stock dual-purpose bike, tore it down, and rebuilt it with factory “race kits” and after-market items. Like my friends and I did with Yamaha’s immortal DT-1, an example of which I’m sitting astride in this starting line shot.

Motocross in Japan was interesting, to say the very least. Especially in Hokkaido, where the races were generally held on ski slopes, which made for fine MX tracks… what with the changes in elevation, off-camber corners, and relatively wide open straights. That was just the physical aspect of the racing… there were also cultural differences which made for some “interesting” times, not to mention great good learning experiences. And lots of drunken evenings with the local club(s) after practice on Saturday. First and foremost, though: the Nipponese were fierce competitors, and they were competitors with a great sense of honor. There was very little, if any, “dirty” racing; we were all in it for the fun of it. The “fun of it” is pretty much the way amateur racing is anyway, no matter where you go. 

Lotsa fun. And lots of memories, too many of which have faded away, unfortunately. One memory that sticks in my mind, though, is of the evening my friends and I were at the public bath in some small Japanese town after either a hard day of racing or a hard day of practice before the race. Japanese public baths are segregated by gender, with the larger baths having separate facilities for men and women. The smaller baths, however, usually only had a partition (think: movable wall) that separated the men’s and women’s areas in the large soaking bath. And that partition was less than effective. If one really wanted to look into “the other side” from your side… well, it wasn’t hard to do. 

So… there we were… several of us Yankee GI bike racers, soaking in the bath, and there she was… on the other side of the partition, doing the same thing, yet coyly coming into our view every so often. And she was pretty well-built for a Japanese woman, who are generally not known for being… um… well endowed. One could NOT help but notice, and we were certain she was noticing us, as well. But nothing was revealed, really… until one of us, and I really, truly, do not remember who… stood up and gave the lady a lil show of sorts. And she reciprocated, knocking us back on our collective asses, figuratively speaking. It wasn’t blatantly erotic or meant as a come-on, or anything else in that space…just an unobstructed 360-degree view of the “goods,” so to speak, and such very fine goods they were, too. And just as quickly as it began, it was over. She exited the bath with her towel wrapped around her and a big smile on her face. Made our day, she did.  (I’ve told this story elsewhere on the blog, but damned if I can find it…and I looked, too.)

So, anyway. I continued my racing career for a brief time after returning to the US (to Boron Air Force Station, a great assignment for a dirt biker!) and here’s a shot of YrHmblScrb after a Hare and Hounds somewhere in the great Mojave desert. The pic was snapped immediately after I pulled into the pits, and I’m exhausted…which is fairly plain to see. 

My racing days came to an end when I (a) got assigned to Turkey for a year and (b) got old and slow. MX is essentially a young man’s game, although there are classes for “Over 40” and “Seniors” and the like. But that ain’t me. It was a LOT of fun at the time…but times change.

By the way…that woman with the captivating smile behind me in the mud picture? That’s The First Mrs. Pennington. Lovely, isn’t she?

Why I Can't Be Too Hard On SN3

Or rather…why I shouldn’t be too hard on SN3, who is exactly the same age now as I was when I received this report card. “Orly Field American” was the name of the school I attended. The school was located, strangely enough, here. I'm thinking Orly Field might have changed somewhat since I went to school there. Maybe.

Looking at this report card I thank the Lord the year was 1956 and not 2006. Can you say “Ritalin?” I thought you could. While Ritalin wasn’t a part of my life at that time, I sure spent a lot of time in my room on “restriction.” You can only imagine the terror I felt bringing a report card like this home. It wasn’t the grades, Gentle Reader…they were almost good enough. Nope…it was my teacher’s comments that caused all sorts Hell to break out in my house.

As ever, click the pics for the larger legible versions.

Coming Attractions

The archives arrived in the mail today (BIG Thanks, Sam and Alisa!!)…and here are the fruits of my labors first few scans. There’s a LOT of work to be done, not the least of which is simply going through two boxes of old stuff, the contents of which are in NO earthly way…ummm…organized. And then there are literally hundreds of slides that have to be reviewed, a major project in and of itself.

So. I’d best get started, eh? In the meantime and with no particular reason in mind, other than these shots were among the first pics “out of the box,” literally… I give you:

Dad, Mom and I around 1949 or so. I was but four years old, Dad was still in his Army Air Force tans (he’s a 1Lt here), and Mom was lovely.

The Second Mrs. Pennington and I, at my retirement ceremony in February 1985. That’s my commander with his back to the camera, shaking my hand immediately after pinning the usual, customary, and reasonable Meritorious Service Medal on me. A bitter-sweet day, to say the very least. (and a damaged photo)

Three motorcycle pics, beginning with the first formal pictures of the RD-400, taken in the back yard of my house in North Bend, Oregon in 1979. These pics are followed by a shot of my RD-350LC, taken the day I sold it in late May or June of 1983. My tee shirt says “I ride the world’s fastest production 350cc motorcycle…Yamaha RD-350LC.” Note the pallor of my skin. That comes after living in Ol Blighty for three years.

More to follow…including some embarrassing sorts of photos, like this one from 1975. And yeah, I was in the Air Force...but I was on leave. SN1 on the left, SN2 on the right. Note my cool specs. We called these RPGs back in the day...as in “Rape Prevention Glasses.” They sorta worked, too.
As ever...click the pics to view the larger images.

Skewering Those Insufferable Mac-O-Philes

Courtesy of BadBob, aka b2...constant commenter at Lex's Place:


Of course I think the metaphor is...umm... just slightly misplaced. But, other than that...
There are few things in life as obnoxious as Mac people, once the conversation drifts to computers. As it invariably does in this day and age.

Update 01/19/2008: Well, now. Only 7.6% of you Gentle Readers happen to use Macs...if my Site Meter stats are to be believed. And of course, a couple of my favorite people gently poked me with "Hey! I use a Mac!"

Oops.

S'cuse Me, But I Gotta RANT

There was an interesting lil screed in yesterday’s WSJ. At the risk of being considered a “spoiler,” I’m only going to quote the last paragraph:

In the end, we have to face the fact that political intolerance in America -- ugly and unfortunate on either side of the political aisle -- is to be found more on the left than it is on the right. This may not square with the moral vanity of progressive political stereotypes, but it's true.

As with most things in life, it ain’t the destination…it’s the journey. And so it is with this particular article. It goes without saying (yet I will say it)… “Read The Whole Thing.” The methodology used to reach the conclusion stated above, as well as comparative samples of intolerance and perception on both the Right and the Left are much more than interesting…they’re instructive.

My personal experience leads me to believe intolerance on the Right is increasing, rather than decreasing. I’ve long ago given up on Liberals and their intolerance…which was one of the principal reasons for my conversion from moonbat Liberal to conservative politics over 25 years ago. While Ronald Reagan was the catalyst for my political conversion he also brought my uncomfortable feelings and thoughts about Liberals into razor-sharp focus, partly because of his optimism. Another factor was the oft-related tale about how he and Tip O’Neil, his political nemesis, could sit down at the end of the day and have a couple of drinks together, regardless and in spite of their political differences, which were as significant in their time as the differences that exist between our current president and Speaker. But…outside the realm of science fiction or satire, can you seriously envision SanFranNan and Dubya having cocktails at the end of the day? Dubya, yeah. Nan, no.

But. Let me go back to intolerance on the Right. Ann Coulter is my lightning rod in this space. Coulter routinely demonizes the Left, insults them, slanders them, etc. etc.. And she’s quite good at what she does…her use of language is excellent, her metaphors and analogies are well-crafted, but in the end? Her message only widens the political divide, it doesn’t do a thing to narrow it or reach some sort of consensus. I suspect her intent is to incite, rather than inform. And entertain, of course. It helps me to think of her as an entertainer, rather than a serious commentator. I feel essentially the same way about Michelle Malkin. Ms. Malkin is every bit as good as Ms. Coulter, and every bit as annoying, in my book. And lest you think I’m only bashing women conservatives, I’ll add Michael Savage and Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs…just for balance.

Why isn’t it enough to point out the inconsistencies, illogic, and lack of success in the Liberal approach to something, anything? Lord only knows there are enough facts on the ground to discredit most Liberal cant, and one can offer up alternative arguments…cogently and dispassionately…without resorting to insults and demonization. Demonization is what the Left is (very) good at and from my quite possibly naïve POV, we conservatives should be above that shit…waaay above it. But we’re not, unfortunately. At least in my experience.

I need more Victor Davis Hansons, Christopher Hitchenss, and Mark Steyns in my life, and much less of the Coulters and Malkins. Yeah, Mr. Steyn can be insulting as Hell when he wants to be, as can the others. But insult isn’t the stock in trade of the three pundits I’ve cited. You may not agree with their politics, but at least they don’t consider you an evil being. Stupid, perhaps, but not evil. Stupidity, after all, can be cured, and Lord knows those guys are trying.

So. I wish we, as a people and a culture… on both the Right and the Left… would start trying to see people as people. We all differ from time time, but MOST of us aren’t evil, and MOST of us want what is best for the United States of America. You sure as Hell don’t get that impression from reading the worst of both sides these days.

One other thing before I go: stop sending me all that insulting and lowest-common-denominator humor shit about the other side. I’m sick of it, and I don’t want to get sick of you. Coz I really like you when you’re not so intolerant. If the shoe fits, and all that.

And let me add: there's a difference between political humor, which can be pointed yet funny (e.g., political cartoons), and insulting, demeaning crap. There is a difference. If you don't understand that difference...or, in other words, if there's any doubt in your mind... then don't send it. To me, anyway. Thank you.

/rant

Here and There

Cannon AFB in the news…

A Reaper for AFSOC: Air Force Special Operations Command will be adding a new squadron to its roster at Cannon AFB, N.M., where it plans to move its current one-and-only unmanned aerial vehicle unit, the 3rd Special Operations Squadron. The 3rd SOS is up and running at Creech AFB, Nev., but AFSOC spokeswoman Denise Boyd says that plans already are in motion to move 3rd SOS from Creech to Cannon by June. Joining the 3rd SOS, which operates MQ-1 Predators, will be an AFSOC MQ-9 Reaper UAV unit, according to the just-released USAF roadmap for new system allocation (see above). Boyd did not specify a timeframe for the Reaper unit standup; however work is under way in the next few years to prepare permanent maintenance and hangar facilities to house ground control stations and UAV airframes when they return from Southwest Asia operations. AFSOC got its first 21 MQ-1s last May and some UAV-trained personnel from Air Combat Command to jump-start its UAV operations.

-Marc V. Schanz

It’s hard to tell an MQ-1 from an MQ-9 just by looking. But the Reaper ain’t just a Predator with more ordnance capacity— the Reaper is quite a bit larger and has much more power and range than the Predator.

Oh…that “roadmap for new system allocation” referenced in the quoted news item? It’s here (four-page PDF) and it’s interesting, not so much for what it says…but for what it doesn’t say. In the words of the Air Force Association:

One Last Word: Although senior Air Force leaders won't say so in so many words, the service's new bed down roadmap (see above) is a map of constituencies and effectively puts members of Congress on notice that if they want an Air Force mission in their district, they better support the buying of the new systems. If they don't, and inventories continue to shrink, the missions—and the bases, and Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve Command units associated with them—will surely go away.

I suppose the military has always been political. But the military as a whole (not just the Air Force) seems much more so these days, and “senior leadership” is pretty blatant about it, too. But then again… they have to be.

For my “civilian” readers… if you go read that bed down document… the way to tell an Air National Guard and/or Air Reserve Base from a Regular Air Force base is to look at the name of the facility. If you see “AFB” in the name (e.g., Cannon AFB, Davis-Monthan AFB)…it’s regular AF. If you don’t, it’s either Guard or Reserve. There are exceptions, of course, but not many.

―:☺:―

Got a few hours to kill and want a laugh or six? Then go peruse the “Best of Dilbert” among other comic strips here. 837 separate strips, at 100 strips per page. That’ll keep ya amused for an hour or three.

And there isn’t a single solitary soul in corporate America who hasn’t related to Dilbert at least once in their working lives. Not one. Most especially in IT. (h/t: Morgan)

―:☺:―

The WX about the time I woke up this morning…

Need I say more?

―:☺:―

From The Smithsonian Magazine:

"We are all of us resigned to death: it's life we aren't resigned to," novelist Graham Greene once wrote. A growing number of Americans of all ages are embracing that idea by renewing a resolve to live life to its fullest.

Exhibit A is the recent popularity of "life lists"—itineraries of things to do and places to go before taking the ultimate trip to the Great Beyond. Bookstores brim with titles such as 1,000 Places to See Before You Die, 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die and—for the high-minded—Fifty Places to Go Birding Before You Die. A cottage industry of Web sites has also popped up, enabling life list enthusiasts to exchange ideas ranging from learning Japanese to getting a tattoo. Now even Hollywood has gotten into the act, with the release this month of the film The Bucket List, in which two cancer patients, played by Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, break out of their medical ward and embark on a life list road trip that includes dining on expensive caviar and gambling in Monte Carlo.

Life list experts (yes, there are such beings) advise people not to set themselves up for disappointment by trying to accomplish too much. (When's the last time you completed your daily to-do list?) With the entire world to choose from, the maxim "so much to do, so little time" takes on added meaning.

To that end, the staff of Smithsonian—as diverse a group of travelers as you're likely to meet—put their heads together to come up with an exclusive list of 28 places the Smithsonian reader might wish to visit before …it's too late. Some of the sites are portals into the past—ancient cities so well preserved that visiting them is like stepping into a previous century. Others feature feats of engineering or sublime works of art—or, in the cases of the Taj Mahal and Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater, both. Travelers can visit temples and churches so breathtaking they must have been built with divine inspiration. For the more adventurous, we offer rewards beyond mere sightseeing—from a three-day hike across the Grand Canyon to a ride along China's Yangtze River.

The list is here…and you’ll not find a more eclectic list, assuming you’re in to such things. Another great thing about this particular list is there are links to thumbnail sketches of each and every place…such as the Zen Gardens of Kyoto and The Great Wall. And unlike a lot of these types of lists… I have some work to do. I’ve only “done” a third of the places and things on the Smithsonian’s list. I might add one or two places from their list before… it’s too late. Or not.

―:☺:―

Today’s Pic: Sort of a re-run. I posted a similar photo of a storm approaching P-Ville about 45 minutes before sunset; this is another shot from that same series of photos I took this past June, right outside my back door. My only door… actually… but it’s in the back of the RV.

The Other Side of Hip-Hop

Via the inimitable Chap...


Well, now. Who knew?

It's Always Sumthin...

Mystery explained…sorta. “Mystery” in the sense of why all those hits yesterday from LockMart on the F-15 situation. There was this lil blurb in AFA’s Daily Report this morning:

Juggling the Numbers: Building F-22s at a faster pace is one option under review as the Air Force mulls how to mitigate the impact of having about 40 percent of its F-15 air superiority fighters sit idle, reports the Fort Worth Star Telegram. Maj. Gen. Mark Shackelford, director of Global Power Programs in USAF's acquisition shop, told the newspaper that one possible course of action is to consider "should we or could we accelerate the rate at which we buy F-22s." He added the caveat, however, that it remains "too early to speculate" on the decision. USAF is in the midst of a multiyear contract with Lockheed Martin for three annual lots of 20 aircraft that will bring the fleet size to 183 in 2011. But the Air Force's leadership has been clear that the service would like permission from OSD to buy more-ultimately 381 F-22s. To acquire the remaining Raptors would cost about $40 billion at a rate of 20 per year and keep the production line active until 2019, the newspaper said. Conversely, boosting the rate of manufacture to 32 aircraft annually would cost about $5 billion less and keep production going until 2016, it said, citing Air Force figures. One impediment to continued Raptor production beyond 183 aircraft remains Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, the newspaper states in a second article. England is regarded as a staunch proponent of the F-35 over the F-22 because the former features newer technology, the newspaper said. Need we say that the two are different platforms for different roles?

I really should have made the connection last evening, which all goes to prove one shouldn’t attempt any sort of analysis after having a few. Which, of course, doesn’t mean I was physically impaired, Gentle Reader. Lord knows we would never drive under those circumstances. Now that we’re grown up.

By the way... AFA's Daily Report is available to the general public, if you're interested in newsy notes about your United States Air Force. Just go here.

―:☺:―

So, apropos of not much… I pour my first cup of coffee this morning, fire up the ‘puter and check my Site Meter stats. When I went to bed early this morning SM said I had a total of 170 visits yesterday; this morning SM sez I had 37. 130+ visits just went missing, including nearly all of the LockMart visits. WTF? Is this evidence of the black helicopter gang at work? A real, live, bona fide conspiracy? The military-industrial complex covering its tracks?

Not quite.

I fired off a trouble ticket to Site Meter and had an answer within a half-hour, to wit:

Hello,

Thanks for writing. We are having a problem with the services that handle your account. We are working to resolve this issue as soon as possible. I apologize for the inconvenience.

Thanks for your patience and patronage.

Andy
SiteMeter Support

Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: MND-895780
Category: Technical Issue
Priority: Normal
Status: Closed

Yeah…they are having problems. The missing visits re-appeared, my traffic stats have been re-adjusted to what they were when I went to bed this morning, but SM isn’t tracking today’s visits…at all. But Hey! It’ll be fixed in short order, of that I’m sure. And being a former IT guy, I know all too well that “stuff happens.”

I’ve been using Site Meter since December of 2005 and I’m pleased as punch with the overall level of service, not to mention their responsiveness. SM is the standard of the blogging world…for good reasons.

The Best-Laid Plans…

…of mice and men often go astray or are thwarted or however that saying goes. S’true, though. I really did intend to come back and put up another post today, assuming I found something of note in my aimless meanderings around these here inter-tubes. Fate, however, intervened in the form of a phone call from great good friends…inquiring if I might be free for the evening? “Well, no,” says I, “but I AM reasonably inexpensive.” Badda-da-BOOMP!

So…to make a long story short, I’m recently back from a wonderful evening out with old friends…the finest kind. We had a fair meal (Clovis being extremely short on good eating places) and great conversation, to say the very least. My friends, Ed and Bernice, were staying overnight in the Cannon AFB transient quarters on their way up to Taos and vicinity for a ski vacation. Ed, Bernice, and I go back to 1975… I met The Second Mrs. Pennington for the very first time in Ed and Bernice’s living room on Tachikawa Air Base in that same year. A Red Letter Day, if ever there was one. But I digress… the basic point is that it’s always good to catch up with old friends…

―:☺:―

So. Today was a banner day for traffic here at EIP. Nothing much to speak of in the great grand scheme of things, especially if you’re one of the Big Dog bloggers, who get more hits in an hour than EIP does in a month. But for us Small Fry…big doings. I knew something was up when I checked the blog stats first thing this morning and saw I had 75 hits by 0930, which is about 75% of my average daily traffic these days. A little poking around in Site Meter revealed something of a mystery. Nearly all of the hits were coming from Lockheed Martin Corporation, and were from Fort Worth; Washington, D.C.; and Denver…in addition to a couple from Boeing… and they were all going directly to last Friday’s post, specifically “A Grounding of Eagles.” I’m not naïve…I know how these things happen: someone reads something, copies the link and e-mails it to his buds, and they forward, and so on. Happens all the time.

But. Why would folks from LockMart be so interested in what is obviously open source material? I can understand interest on the part of folks from Boeing, as Boeing is the owner (prime contractor...since the acquisition of McDonnell Douglas) of the F-15 airframe. But then again, Boeing should be as dialed-in as anyone could possibly be on this subject. I’m including a couple of screen-caps to illustrate the mystery, including one of a visitor who spent 91 minutes on the blog and had 29 discrete page views…which is something of a record, in and of itself. All told, 64 of today’s visits were from either Lockheed or Boeing. (As ever, click the images for larger...i.e., legible versions.)

And not a single comment!

―:☺:―

To close the loop on the ELINT Crow…here’s a photo my Buddy Dan sent of his WAS jacket. I’d forgotten the bird was holding a Sapporo glass.

Pretty cool, eh? Wish I still had mine...

Another One of Those Beer Drinker Vids

...or, rather, videos that appeal to beer drinkers! This one is quite creative, to say the least.

Guinness: Tipping Point
Uploaded by Razorbuzz

Gotta hand it to Guinness. Or their ad agency, anyway. I'm not a big fan of Guinness, or any other stout, but I have been known to tip a pint or two...in the winter.
(h/t: Commenter xformed at Lex's place. And yeah: still making the rounds, I am.)

Musical Interlude

Stolen, after a fashion, from Phlegmmy… The 5 Browns doing a lil Gershwin for ya.

Phlegmmy posted “Flight of the Bumblebee,” which, speaking both as a composition and a performance, is just as good. I’d never heard of these guys before, and the premise (five pianos...on the same stage!) is just waay-cool. As is the music.

Back after the rounds are complete.

Basically Shallow and Not a Lot to Say...

Does today's post title ring a bell, Gentle Reader? It should...

―:☺:―

Of interest in today’s Air Force Association Daily Report:

Schwalier Injustice Reversed: The Air Force, in a major action, has officially reversed the 1997 DOD "verdict" against Terryl J. Schwalier, restoring his contested second star after a 10-year struggle. USAF Jan. 11 confirmed the action. According to independent sources, an Air Force Review Board recently reached the decision, noting that Schwalier had suffered "an injustice." Further, said the sources, the Air Force soon afterward issued an official order implementing the review board's decision. It is, in a sense, an exoneration of Schwalier, a USAF brigadier who had been scapegoated by the Clinton Administration and some members of Congress for alleged command failures in the 1996 terrorist bombing of Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia. The blast killed 19 airmen and wounded hundreds more. Though the Senate had confirmed Schwalier's promotion to major general before the attack, and though critics produced no credible evidence of fault on the part of Schwalier, Secretary of Defense William Cohen in July 1997 stripped him of the second star, alleging the he "could have and should have done more" to defend the Khobar complex. Cohen's action was widely viewed as an attempt to mollify political critics on Capitol Hill. Schwalier suffered another reverse in 2005, when Pentagon lawyers thwarted an earlier board reversal. AFA has long viewed Cohen's 1997 action as an injustice and issued a statement Friday about the matter. The service has already changed the general's official biography to reflect the new situation, giving his new grade, promotion date, and retirement date.

Well, good on USAF. It took a helluva lot longer than it should have to correct the injustice, let alone the fact that it should NEVER have happened in the first place. But, Hey. You just can’t let stuff like this go by without hanging someone, right? I’m thinking the hanging should have taken place a lot further up the food chain…like at the top, given the policies and such in force at the time.

YMMV.

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Another item of interest from today’s Daily Report:

Dodging Space Bullets: Two US satellites had to be maneuvered in the past year to avoid colliding with debris left in space after China's anti-satellite test on Jan. 11, 2007, The Washington Times reports. Ground controllers repositioned the Orbcomm FM 36 commercial communication satellite in April 2007 so that it would not pass "within about 123 feet" of the debris field, the newspaper reported on the one-year anniversary of the Chinese test, citing information provided by the Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg AFB, Calif. Similarly, the NASA Earth observation satellite Terra was moved in June 2007 "to avoid coming within about 90 feet of the debris," the newspaper states. The Chinese used a direct-ascent missile to ram one of its old weather satellites, spreading a lingering cloud of debris in orbit. While the United States decried the test, some lawmakers believe that too little is being done in the aftermath to protect U.S. space assets. "It should have been a call to action, yet a year later, our policies and strategies do not reflect our increasing dependence on space," writes Rep. Terry Everett, (R-Ala.) in an op-ed in The Washington Times on Jan. 11. "We need a comprehensive space protection strategy, says Everett, ranking member on the House Armed Services Strategic Forces panel.

Of course, if you read Steeljaw Scribe you already know this. And more.

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Here’s that graphic I spent over an hour looking for yesterday…the ELINT Crow. Big, big thanks and a tip o’ the hat to correspondent Ron, whose googling skills are obviously much better than mine.

Now visualize (until such time as Dan sends a pic of the real thing) the crow with a couple of beer bottles under his arm and you have the Wakkanai variation on the theme.

(Full disclosure: "Raven" is the proper term for the ELINT guys. Some folks might get upset that I've only used the term "crow" in my past postings. But a Raven by any other name is still a crow.)

―:☺:―

Today’s Viral Video is pretty cool…

And Viral Videos is a pretty cool site.

Stuff

Well. I’ll bet this lil item is causing concern in “certain circles:”

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. - When operators of sex-oriented Web sites gather at the Internext convention starting Sunday in Las Vegas, a major leak at a little New Jersey company is likely to be a big topic.

Freehold-based Too Much Media, which sells accounting software for adult Web sites, told its customers last month that a security breach on its computers allowed hackers to access various adult Web sites' subscriber lists.

Keith Kimmel of Norman, Okla., who runs two Web sites that feature porn, said the breach has the potential to embarrass.

"Would you really want a record floating around the Internet that you subscribe to hardcore bondage?" he asked.

No financial info was breached (like credit card numbers) according to the article. But later on down the page, we see this:

Jim McAnally, who has published porn on the Internet since 1993, said he'd never heard about such a serious breach in the industry.

C’mon, Jim. That isn’t your real name, now… is it? It is? Really? Well, I’ll be danged.

―:☺:―

I had an e-mail conversation with a gentleman by the name of Ron who dropped in to EIP looking for something rather specific, and something I didn’t have. Further research on Ron’s part turned up a web site (page, actually) about Strategic Air Command humor…which Ron was kind enough to forward to me and which I’ll share with you, Gentle Reader. Example:

"Hearts and Minds"
During the Viet Nam War, President Johnson proclaimed that his administration's goal was to "Win the Hearts and Minds" of the Vietnamese people, especially those sympathetic to communist North Viet Nam. SAC B-52's were then showering the country with bombs, and this resulted in the slogan being expanded to, "When you have them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow." The airman eventually realized that SAC was applying the same philosophy to them by not permitting them to transfer from the command. That resulted in this unique patch.

Ron was looking for an illustration similar to the patch above. There were entrepreneurial millenary shops all over the Far East back in the day that would whip up patches like this in little or no time…and in mass quantities, too. Every GI worth his salt had at least two or three of ‘em. When I was in Wakkanai our custom patch was a variation on the Old Crow ELINT theme that featured the Crow with his usual lightning bolts in one winged hand, two bottles of Sapporo beer under the other wing, and “Xs” for eyes. The emblem was in keeping with our collective reputation for consuming insane amounts of Sapporo (THE beer of choice) when not intercepting Soviet electronic emanations. I’m hoping there’s a pic of my hat, jacket, and/or other such item lurking somewhere in the archives…coz I can’t find one on the ‘net.

Strange, that. (Note to Dan: Do you still have a Dozo Bird hat, jacket, or some such?)

What a 21st Century Witch Hunt Looks Like

Unbelievable, yet here it is. Just watch. The four videos total about 15 minutes (h/t: Gerard).

Back story and expanded narrative here. Once you read this link, click “Main” for more.

I really wouldn’t believe it’s come to this unless I’d seen it with my own eyes. And Mark Steyn is next. Just a lil quote:

Much of Canada's press and many broadcasters are already noted for politically correct blandness. Some fear that the case can only make that worse. Mr Steyn and others hope it will prompt a narrower brief for the commissions, or even their abolition. As he put it in his blog, “I don't want to get off the hook. I want to take the hook and stick it up the collective butt of these thought police.”

And I want to help him do it. Mr. Steyn, himself, weighs in here. And do go read the Greenwald link, as well. Greenwald takes offense at the Canadian hate-speech laws, to the sock-puppet's ever lasting credit, but… true to form… he simply cannot help but draw parallels with his favorite boogey-men. Oh, Glenn… you blew your chance, Buddy.