Happy Hour

"IF A LIFETIME CAN BE LIKENED TO A DAY, THEN THIS IS HAPPY HOUR!"
BUCK PENNINGTON

Mother, Mother Ocean

Mother, Mother Ocean, I've heard you call
Wanted to sail upon your waters since I was three feet tall
You've seen it all, you've seen it all
Watched the men who rode you, switch from sails to steam
In your belly you hold the treasures, few have ever seen
Most of 'em dream, most of 'em dream
Yes, I am a pirate, two hundred year's too late
The cannons don't thunder, there's nothin' to plunder
I'm an over-forty victim of fate
Arriving too late, arriving too late

Yoda

"Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not. For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is."
―Yoda, to Luke Skywalker

Counted the Stars

Counted the stars on the 4th of July
Wishing we were rockets bursting in the sky
Talking about redemption and leaving things behind
I have these pictures and I keep these photographs
To remind me of a time
These pictures and these photographs
Let me know I'm doin' fine
We used to be so happy once upon a time
Once upon a time
But the sun sank west of the Mendocino County Line
And the sun sank west of the Mendocino County Line


""SOME SEE A GLASS AS HALF FULL, SOME SEE IT AS HALF EMPTY, I JUST WANT TO KNOW WHO’S DRINKING MY RUM."
Rumbear

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Unity before Diversity Gerald Butts

Facebook friend. This is good. Copied in it's entirety.

The following is a copy of the letter I sent to another member of my local Tea Party group in response to the question, "Can Muslims Be Good Americans?"   My Friend,   The following credo applies not only to Muslims, but to all minorities in this country. I have been ridiculed and laughed at all of my life for my beliefs. The Tea Party is a Godsend for me at the age of 53. I will try to state my life long beliefs as clearly as possible.   This country was founded by WASP's. White Anglo-Saxon Protestants. They are NOT superior to anyone. They just happen to be the founders of our society. They gave us a common culture; language, rule of law, faith in God. English, the Constitution and the Bible. This is the cornerstone of our society.   No matter how you arrived in this country you MUST adhere to its culture if you wish to be part of it. You are free to leave. Slavery was wrong. It is over. Forget about it. If you are still upset. Just leave.   The founding fathers lived under the tyranny of the British Empire and I believe they TRULY comprehended the evils of slavery and genocide. I TRULY believe they wanted to build a new nation where "all men are created equal".   The final conclusion is that every individual citizen must swear sole allegiance to the United State of America. This excludes people who have loyalties to any other culture. America is its own culture. When you come here and swear allegiance to it you leave behind any ethnicity you had. You are no longer British. You are no longer African. You are American. FIRST and ONLY.   If muslims, blacks, hispanics or any other group refuses to give up their previous ethnicity, they cannot be Americans. If they continue to live in our society as separate cultures then they are traitors guilty of treason and subject to any punishment the rightful citizens of the United States impose upon them. The time has come for Americans to declare their distinct ethnicity on the pages of history. So help me God.   your friend, Gerri    

Blog: Hard Hearts and Honor from American Thinker

Blog: Hard Hearts and Honor

Courtesy of Ann Kane.
Is the Muslim father who killed his six daughters out of "honor" representative of Islam? Does the political ideology of Islam give the dad of the family the right to kill his daughters because they go against custom and have boyfriends?
The rest is at the link above.

Truth- In short form...

From Old NFO. Good blogging friend to me and the one and only Snigs!
This is short and to the point.
So do yourself a favour and head on over and check it out.
Six short sentences that say it all:
http://oldnfo.blogspot.com/2011/07/truth-in-short-form.html

Friday, July 29, 2011

Air Force Civilian Maintainers!

That being me.
This shot was by the CTF Photographer one day when he simply showed up on the line.
I was watching flight controls being run through as part of the launch process.
F-16 Falcon engines put out a lot of heat as you can see.
Doing what I do.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

How to Tie a Tie: Art of Manliness

Gotta go to the link!
It is a good post.
I see guys now in their thirties who cannot tie a tie even using the four-in-hand knot.
Sad commentary, indeed.
How to tie a tie

20 cute girls with freckles Rule Five

This was a link at theBrigade.
I have the link to Regretful Morning with the pics!
And of course, one to pique your interest!


Cute Girls With Freckles

First Shot for the F-35C

Saw this one at Lex's place.
To good for a link. Short and really cool.
The F-35C taking it's first Cat Shot at NAEC Lakehurst.

Warner Brothers Studio and Griffith Park Observatory

And yes, I do have the obligatory "Hollywood" sign!












Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Obama’s ineligibility: Prepare to defend America – Time to act

From Canada Free Press.
Seems that the Canucks with values and purpose get it. And I always ask the sixty three million or so of my supposed fellow countrymen the same thing. What in hell were you people thinking! For the love of all that is true and sacred, what happened to your values system?

Obama’s ineligibility: Prepare to defend America – Time to act

Monday, July 25, 2011

Canadian Voodoos!

I found this one at the Canadian Forces website. The Canucks flew some cool airplanes over the years. And since Buck has related to us his "Voodoo Moment", I figured what the heck.
Enjoy!

Buck's Voodoo Story

I do believe you all will get a kick out of this one.
It was sort of inspired by yours truly and the picture of the F-101 Voodoo at Century Circle at Edwards AFB Rosamond Gate.
And Buck is a masterful story teller!
Enjoy!
Blog Bud Buck, The Exile in Portales!

Sunday, July 24, 2011

New Sailor Blog

The Mellow Jihadi
Had to link this guy.
Especially after reading a post where in the AF confuses a Third Class Petty Officer for a Bird Colonel.
Funny one. Got to get the locals here at Edwards trained in what PO1 means on the blue ID. That is confusing enough.
http://themellowjihadi.com/
Go and check it out!!!!!!

Sunday with the Grand Daughter

Took Bailee to the Base and Red Rock Canyon State Park.
Got some pictures for ya'all.
B-52 used by NASA from 1976 to 2004

Very first F-4C

The only two seat A-10. Actually designated YA-10B

Blackbird

From The Skunk Works

T-33 Shooting Star

YA-7D

Aardvark!

CT-39

F-84F

Gloster NF.11

Another of the Gloster

C-45 Expiditer

An H-3 variant

F-100 Super Sabre prototype

F-101B Voodoo

TF-102

YC-15, precursor to the C-17

Republic F-105. Thud!

F-106.

Century Circle Tower






The park has some really neat scenery!

This one is for Buck.

From a place called Abandoned & Little Known Airfields.
Glasgow Air Force Base. Thanks McNamara, you worthless putz.
A shot of Glasgow AFB taken in 2007.
A 12/17/07 aerial view looking west along Glasgow's massive runway.
Seems that Boeing has been using GSG for testing and flight research. There is nothing but wheat fields, safflower fields and cow pastures around. So if an airplane falls out of the sky, there is no chance of hitting anything on the ground.

http://members.tripod.com/airfields_freeman/index.htm

Saturday, July 23, 2011

More Gratuitous Plane Pr0n: Portuguese AF

These are from 301 Squadron, Jaguares.


We have a Portuguese Test Pilot here from this very squadron. These are of the Tiger Meet Jet from this past May.
Up close of the tail. 

Taking to the Sky!
I may not be a really big fan of the F-16 from my own biased seagoing point of view. It pays the bills.
But I do like the NATO Tiger Jets. And there will be the Czech AF Gripens at a future date. 

Friday, July 22, 2011

Kansas politicians, business leaders, aviation workers protest Obama's comments on business jets

Used to live and work in Wichita, in the aircraft industry. Got laid off right after the three stooges deemed corporate aircraft to be "evil." You know, obama, pelosi and reid, who have access to the 89th Airlift Wing at Andrews AFB.
This is from the fishwrap of record for Wichita and Sedgwick County, Kansas. But it has implications for the entire country.
Kansas politicians, business leaders, aviation workers protest Obama's comments on business jets
Kind of refreshing to see a union take Teh i Won to task, isn't it. I didn't think the IAM and AW had any character at all. But possibly some of those workers, some of whom I may know, have finally seen what is at stake.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Stolen from PIG!!!!! From The Twilight Zone!!!!!!

TALES FROM THE TWILIGHT ZONE• • • • • •
• • • • • • • • • • • • •
When, exactly did we get detached from objective reality and transported to the Twilight Zone, where every day is 'opposite day'.
Welcome to the inversion region of the Twilight Zone, PIGsters. If you're a regular visitor to this particular flight from objective reality, you're familiar with the rules of engagement. If you're a first timer, the inversion region of the Twilight Zone is a plane of existence where up is down, left is right and every day is opposite day.
Opposite day might be an understatement, because the world all around us is stranger than that. How strange? Very, but you don't need to take our word for it. We the PIGs believe that the best way to wrap our minds around this plane of existence where everything is inverted, is to cite a some examples:
Lead From Behind
Messiah Barry's entire political career can be summed up in one word "present". It worked for him in the Illinois State Legislature. It worked for him in the United States Senate, and come hell or high water, he's going to make it work for him at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Prove it, you say? No problem. Consider this exchange between ABC News Nitwit, Jake Tapper and Barry's press secretary, Jay Carney:
TAPPER: OK. The House is passing something that many observers feel would never pass the Senate and the president has said he would veto. The Senate is passing — the McConnell-Reid plan, it's not clear that that could pass the House. The Gang of Seven plan, it's not clear that that could pass the House. Would this not be an opportune time for a president to lead and say, this —
CARNEY: Leadership is not proposing a planfor the sake of having it voted up or down, and likely voted down because it is — look, you know how this town works and how Congress works. If an individual, whether Democrat or Republican leader, steps forward and says, this is my plan and solely my plan, it makes it a lot harder for that plan to be the basis for a bipartisan compromise. (National Review Online, emphasis added)
Barry demonstrates his Leadership skills by doing nothing? Seriously? That doesn't even make sense in the Twilight Zone.
Narcissism University
When Mexifornia's Elected Tormentors sealed the state's fate with its latest budget deal, one cost cutting move yanked money out of the U.C. system's budget. Faced with that inconvenient truth, the Ivory Towers in the U.C. System were confronted by some tough choices.
UCSD eschewed the rational adult approach, which involves preserving core academic programs by trimming off the fat, and the fluff. Instead, UCSD officials poured more of their limited resources in to the fat and the fluff, by lopping off core academic programs.
Gone: The master's program for electrical and computer engineering. The master's program in comparative literature. Courses in German, Spanish, and English Literature. A trio of prestigious cancer researchers who were lured away by Rice University. The researchers are also taking their coffers filling government research grants.
Retained: The Chancellor's Diversity Office, Associate Vice Chancellor for Faculty Equity, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Diversity, the faculty equity advisors, the graduate diversity coordinators, the staff diversity liaison, the undergraduate student diversity liaison, the graduate student diversity liaison, the chief diversity officer, the director of development for diversity initiatives, the Office of Academic Diversity and Equal Opportunity, the Committee on Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Issues, the Committee on the Status of Women, the Campus Council on Climate, Culture and Inclusion, the Diversity Council, and the directors of the Cross-Cultural Center, the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resource Center, and the Women's Center.
Added: A Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI). UCSD also added 'a new campus-wide diversity requirement for graduation. The cultivation of "a student's understanding of her or his identity," as the diversity requirement proposal put it, would focus on "African Americans, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, Hispanics, Chicanos, Latinos, Native Americans, or other groups" through the "framework" of "race, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexuality, language, ability/disability, class or age."...' (The City Journal)
At UCSD, the graduates may not emerge with any marketable skills or knowledge, but if anyone needs a politically correct, diversity bonkers, narcissist you're in high cotton. An obsession with immutable traits takes precedence over the well-rounded education? Seriously? That might make sense in the Twilight Zone, but it's a steaming load of politically correct crap, in objective reality.
Invaders Rewarded
When it comes to Uncle Sam's immigration policy, 'inversion' is an egregious understatement.
Skilled, highly motivated, individuals who want a shot at the American Dream, are punished with years on a waiting list, because they played by the rules and sought entry through the FRONT door as LEGAL immigrants. Unskilled, disease ridden, crime infested, Border Jumping Scumbag parasites, who are looking for all the freebies they can grab, get rewarded with amnesty, and a fast track to citizenship.
The same kind of inversion is at work in the Sanctuary City of Angels, where the police policy of impounding the vehicles of drivers without licenses is only imposed on legal residents of the USA. Border Jumping Scumbags are excluded from this rule of road warrior engagement.
Crime Pays
If you wonder why a talentless group of gold diggers - the Kardashian sisters - are rich and famous, wonder no more. In this case, the smoking, opposite day, gun is a now deceased shyster, Robert Kardashian. His claim to fame - and his legacy - is helping a murdering bastard named O. J. Simpson get away with it. For the loin fruit of the poisonous Robert Kardashian tree, the rest, as they say, is tawdry television history.
Rational adults think that, through stupidity, malice, or neglect, Casey Anthony played a critical role in the death of her 2 year old daughter Caylee. Despite a mountain of circumstantial evidence, an O. J. jury refused to convict her of anything, including manslaughter. Although she's reviled by many individuals, Casey Anthony will never be punished for her role in Caylee's death. Instead, an infuriating inversion has this vile creature on the fast track for riches and a life of leisure.
Crime doesn't pay? That might be true in some planes of existence, but not in this region of the Twilight Zone, where every day is opposite day. Crime pays handsomely, here, thank you very much.
A Christian nation gives preferential treatment to ISLAM.
The First Amendment's prose about supernaturalism - Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion - is clear enough that even the relentlessly clueless understand it. Despite its clarity, it is stretched to the breaking point, by atheists, secularists and assorted other pests who deem a nativity scene on the courthouse lawn a dire threat to our liberty, somehow.
Inversion sets in, when the flavor of supernaturalism is Islam, a belief system which is saturated with political overtones. Unlike Cross Cultism, which is viewed with suspicion by the church vs state purists, Mecca Mania is not only tolerated, it is given special treatment by Elected Tormentors. The Establishment Clause is scuttled by officials who turn a blind eye to outbursts of sharia law in places like Dearbornistan, Minneapolis, and Seattle.
Technically, 'Congress' didn't perpetrate a law that established Mecca Mania as the official state religion. The Islamikazes are doing their own 'establishing', by intimidating local, state and national officials into letting them get away with it. It's called Dhimmitude which involves an attitude of concession, surrender and appeasement towards Islamic demands. The USA is an officially 'secular' nation, whose population is overwhelmingly Christian. By allowing Mecca Mania to establish itself, America takes opposite day inversion to the limit, and beyond.
An Enemy With No Name
America is at war, but our Elected Tormentors refuse to name the enemy. America is at war, but our Elected Tormentors steadfastly refuse to name, or discuss, the belief system which motivates the enemy. America is a nation at war, but, instead of moving against the nations that assist the enemy, our Elected Tormentors target our allies instead.
At America's points of entry, security officials intentionally ignore individuals who might be affiliated with enemy. Instead, while potential terrorists are given a free pass, security officials obsess on patting down infants, rug rats, senior citizens, nuns, people confined to wheelchairs, and assorted other individuals who, by any rational standard, pose no threat.
A military strategy that appeases, and/or ignores, the real enemy, while it targets its friends and allies only works on opposite day, and I wouldn't bet the farm that it will work then.
Capitalist Commies
One of the most startling examples of this inversion region of the Twilight Zone can be found in the marketplace. In this bizzaro world, opposite day has outdone itself, by making the COMMUNIST Chinese better capitalists than the capitalism espousing Americans. Furthermore, the COMMUNIST Chinese are much more adept at fiscal discipline than we are. In fact - and this will make your head spin - the COMMUNIST Chinese, who own a large chunk of Uncle Sam's debt, just got done harshly criticizing the Obama Regime for its out of control spending and complete lack of fiscal discipline.
Proving what a strange world this is, a staunch Demoncrat supporting capitalist - Steve Wynn - just got done verbally eviscerating Messiah Barry for his destructive economic policies. As far as I can tell, the only capitalist who thinks Barry's economic policy is spiffy is that America despising troll, George Soros.
The Commies are better capitalists - closer to the free market ideal - than America? How the hell do I get out of here?
Until We the People can put an end to this inversion...until We the People can put opposite day out of our misery, permanently, we are well and truly screwed.
We must put an end to schools that spend all their time grouping individuals based on their immutable traits.
We must put an end to schools that place emotions (self esteem AKA narcissism) ahead of intellectual development.
We must demand that our Elected Tormentors, at every level, exercise real, no shit, leadership instead of kicking the can down the road, hoping the 'problems' resolve themselves, somehow.
We must reward the immigrants who take the time and trouble to enter the USA through the FRONT door, by kicking out the line cutters whose idea of the American Dream is a handout.
We must take off our blinders and see Islam for what it really is, a belief system which tramples everything that stands between it and its stated goal: world domination, by any means necessary.
We must stop kidding ourselves that Islam and individual liberty are compatible.
We must stop pinning a 'saint' label on moochers, looters, and parasites.
We must stop pinning a 'sinner' label on achievers, American Dreamers, and rugged individuals.
Where do we start? Where indeed? We need to make 'a government of, by, and, for the people' more than a catchphrase. We need to pink slip the fossils who have been in office too long. We need to put an end to the indoctrination assembly line (America's Educrap system) which plugs in a starry eyed, eager to learn, tyke at one end and poops out a glassy eyed, politically correct idiot with self esteem at the far end. Most important of all, we need to drive a stake through the heart of political correctness and its Moonbattery, by reasserting the fact that the basic social unit in America is the INDIVIDUAL, not the GROUP.
I've had my fill of opposite day. It's time to drag this once great nation back to objective reality, where it belongs.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled program: How my fat ass and a sex tape helped my sister, Sasquatch, defy the odds, by landing a husband without Hell freezing over.

Belgian Air Force Plane Pron.

This is the Belgian AF Tiger Meet F-16AM.
Nice looking Falcon. I have a soft spot for Belgium. My Paternal Grandmother's Family is from Flanders. The Flemish part.
FA87 of 31 Squadron, Belgian Air Force
I also like these Tiger Meet paint schemes. There is a website listed over on the left that will take you to some great pictures.
The link is to Airliners.net and pictures of this particular aircraft.
Belgian AF A/C FA-87 of 31 Squadron
If ya'll like this, I may toss in more shots of Tiger Meet Aircraft from time to time.

Monday, July 18, 2011

An evening at the Ball Park

Yesterday evening, I took my granddaughter to a baseball game in Adelanto, just north of Victorville. We saw the High Desert Mavericks host the Bakersfield Blaze at Stater Bros. Stadium. It is Class A ball in the California League. Nice little ball park.
Bailee had a great time and got a baseball and had it autographed by the mascot, Wooly Bully and the Rally Wizard. She did the outfield run and ran the bases after the game. The weather was great and the sun was to our backs behind the structure.









I will not go down and tell my children I didn't have the courage, the conviction, the commitment or the character to fight for this country...Don't go home and let your children down~~ LTC Allen West

Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus

‎"Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum.("Therefore, he who desires peace, let him prepare for war")" from "Epitoma Rei Militaris," by Vegetius (Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus)