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

Monday, February 28, 2011

PIG Dumb Criminals/Flat Liners

The first one up is a doozy. Enjoy the Monday update from PIG Gazette!
Flatliners and other neat stuff from PIG!

EAS issues in Montana

I grew up on the Hi Line. My hometown is served by Essential Air Service carriers. There is a change coming this month. Great Lakes is giving way to Gulfstream International.
This article in the hometown paper raises eyebrows. The Beech 1900D commuter aircraft has been around for quite awhile. And the last one delivered was around ten years ago.
But I have concerns over maintenance as related to safety of flight. I am an aircraft mechanic. It bothers me. It the aircraft is not safe, it does not fly.
Safety issues with new EAS carrier to Havrre and Eastern Montana

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Just felt like it, OK?
But I do like it.
Borrowed from my Facebook friend, Amy.
All American Girl!!!!!!!!

Fuel prices

Getting out of hand!
This is the link to gasbuddy.
AAFES Gas Station on Edwards AFB price today
3.65
Yup. On Station!

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Hot girls from St. Louis

Hot girls,City,St. Louis,theBrigade,Merica,Pretty, theBRIGADE
Eye Candy from the Gateway City!
Don't act surprised! I like them pretty girls!

Holy S$^@! Benny Boys as Flight Attendants!

Got this one from CDR Salamander. What happens in West Pac stays in West Pac.
Geez! What the bleep is going to happen next?
Jane Fonda for sainthood?
Good Liberty Stories?

Who is going to Afghanistan first?

Who Is Going to Afghanistan First?


Boudreaux, the smoothest-talking Cajun in the Louisiana National Guard, got called up to active duty. Boudreaux's first assignment was in a military induction center. 

Because he was a good talker, they assigned him the duty of advising new recruits about government benefits, especially the GI insurance to which they were entitled. 

The officer in charge soon noticed that Boudreaux was getting a 99% sign-up rate for the more expensive supplemental form of GI insurance. 

This was remarkable, because it cost these low-income recruits $30.00 per month for the higher coverage, compared to what the government was already providing at no charge. The officer decided he'd sit in the back of the room at the next briefing and observe Boudreaux's sales pitch. 

Boudreaux stood up before the latest group of inductees and said, "If you has da normal GI insurance an' you goes to Afghanistan an' gets youself killed, da government pays you beneficiary $20,000. If you takes out da supplemental insurans, which cost you only t'irty dollars a mons, den da governmen' gots ta pay you beneficiary $200,000!" 

"Now," Boudreaux concluded, "which bunch you tink dey gonna send ta Afghanistan first ?"


From a friend of mine. It is seriously funny!

From my Sister. Sad News

Go with God SPC Pilgeram
Just go read it.
Close to home.

Traitorous Teachers, Union Whiners, and Democratic Fleebaggers

From Canada Free Press.
Pretty amazing when the Canucks get it and our MSM does not. The slugs who were so vicious to SSGT Maschek are of this class.
I have this education and I am spoiled rotten and my mommy and daddy said I am sooooo special. I have nieces and nephews like this. Sad indeed.

Traitorous Teachers, Union Whiners, and Democratic Fleebaggers

Appendix:Glossary of U.S. Navy slang - Wiktionary

Appendix:Glossary of U.S. Navy slang - Wiktionary
Just for laughs. And it has a rather large share of bad words!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

Two Years Today



The above is the emblem of the outfit in Wichita that I was laid off from on 26 February 2009. Then came all that time out of work. Until the 9th of November, when I began out here at Edwards.
Two Years already?!?!?!?!

Super King Air 350

Built these babies along with the other King Air Models including the MC-12W Liberty  ones.
There was that little go around with the kidney in September, also.

Boston Maggie Update: 400

Had a bit of a small downturn. But things are on the move up.
http://bostonmaggie.blogspot.com/2011/02/400.html

Friday, February 25, 2011

Sean Linnane: A Hundred Thousand Million Miles from Home

http://seanlinnane.blogspot.com/2011/02/hundred-thousand-million-miles-from.html
A title like that is sure to make you curious.
It is an excellent read.
Remember that thing on perspective back when?
Insert it here with minor changes.

A little ditty from April. She is the Hyacinth Girl. On the co conspirators list over there.


Anyway, as much as equality is fabulous in theory, the repeal of DADT will simply open the floodgates for people who believe they’ve got something to prove, just as many gay couples who weren’t ready got married just because they could. And I’m sorry, but just because you can join the military as an openly gay person doesn’t mean you should.


Hmmm!
Link to the entire post is here:
the Hyacinth Girl. Out of Time 

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Cold Fury Sends: In recognition of “greatness”

In recognition of “greatness”
Mike's take on things as they are, relative to the incompetence of Oblunder

In case you think you have it bad.

The link is to Boston Maggie.
She is getting treated for cancer. Her blog is a journal of sorts about it.
With all the ups and downs. Makes what I went through a cake walk.
Feeding Frenzy Pays Off.
I read this one every other day. Got to. And I say a short prayer for Maggie. Not eloquent or fancy, just to pray for her to get better.

KC-X tanker contract awarded to BOEING; designated KC-46A :: Air-Attack.com

KC-X tanker contract awarded to BOEING; designated KC-46A :: Air-Attack.com
Done Deal. Well with the way things have gone in the past, who knows.
But it is a tough sell these days.
I have a feeling we may get the Airbus/EADS consortium on the "we wuz robbed!" bandwagon.
Who knows. But hopefully it is done with.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Cicero

“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague.” 
~~Marcus Tullius Cicero

CDR Salamander: Retro Wednesday-Prowler and Growler

CDR Salamander: Retro Wednesday: "Where they belong - in the air. Thanks T-Murph."
This is a set of five photos. The Grumman EA6B Prowler and the McDonnell Douglas EA18G Growler. The old and the new in Tactical Electronic Warfare.
And I do use the original company names.
Northrop did not have anything to do with the Prowler, it is all Grumman.
The Growler is the ECM platform on the FA18F airframe. McDonnell Douglas came up with the Hornet.
But being ticked off at My Navy is not the point here.
They are really neat looking airplanes!

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Those four Americans Murdered by Somali Pirates

From Fox News. It is the only one I can trust along with RWN, American Thinker and a few others.
These four were brutally murdered by sea going camel jockeys.
The appropriate response would be for our Camel Jockey in Chief to realize that he is an American and get off his cowardly, suck up, apologizing ass and order the Navy into action.
Stand off their ports. Open fire. If it moves blow it to hell.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/02/22/americans-aboard-yacht-captured-pirates-reportedly-killed/?test=latestnews
I have another very derogatory name for those folks in the middle east and north africa and it is very inappropriate. And I am civilized after all. Well to point anyway.
Find pirates. Kill pirates. Shoot them down like the scurvy ridden dogs they are.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Got this from Facebook and Elliot.org

This one is rich. TSA workers not allowed in the establishment.
I wonder what Big Sis Fat Janet Nappy thinks? Yeah. Right.
I gotta hand it to them when it comes to balls!
http://www.elliott.org/blog/why-does-everyone-hate-the-tsa-lets-count-the-reasons/

Translated for your enlightenment!

A good one from my friend Kate. She has a most excellent blog, An Ol Broad's Ramblings! It is on the co conspirators list over on the right. Go check it out sometime!

Sean Linnane: WOUNDED IRAQ VET JEERED AT COLUMBIA

Sean Linnane: WOUNDED IRAQ VET JEERED AT COLUMBIA
Ive League students. Still stupid as they were in the sixties and seventies.
I wonder what the admission requirements at Columbia are? Must have a block for raving lunatic or idiot maggot?
Gotta wonder.
I guess the parents of the current schmucks are proud from the days of Vietnam.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Tom Petty - Free Falling - Official Music Video



I live in SoCal, sort of. The Mojave Desert. About two hours from LA. The San Fernando Valley is just over the mountains on the Fourteen Freeway.

Code of Conduct of The American Fighting Man

CODE OF CONDUCT FOR THE U. S. FIGHTING MAN
1. I am an American fighting man. I serve in the forces which guard my country and our way of life. I am prepared to give my life in their defense.
2. I will never surrender of my own free will. If in command, I will never surrender my men while they still have the means to resist.
3. If I am captured, I will continue to resist by all means available. I will make every effort to escape and aid others to escape. I will accept neither parole nor special favors from the enemy.
4. If I become a prisoner of war, I will keep faith with my fellow prisoners. I will give no information, or take part in any action which might be harmful to my comrades. If I am senior, I will take command. If not, I will obey the lawful orders of those appointed over me and will back them up in every way.
5. When questioned, should I become a prisoner of war, I am bound to give only name, rank, service number and date of birth. I will evade answering further questions to the utmost of my ability. I will make no oral or written statements disloyal to my country and its allies or harmful to their cause.
6. I will never forget that I am an American fighting man, responsible for my actions, and dedicated to the principles which made my country free. I will trust in my God and in the United States of America.

A link from my good friend Kate

Concerning the translation from California to Texas!
It is funny and at the same time almost scary.
Texans translate! Courtesy of Olbroad's Ramblings

From Richard Sharpe!

A link from about Murphy! That Murphy!
http://sharpessortie.blogspot.com/2011/02/murphys-law-of-combat-operations.html

Canadiens at Flames - 02/20/2011 - NHL.com - Game Previews

Canadiens at Flames - 02/20/2011 - NHL.com - Game Previews
The Heritage Classic!
My Beloved Canadiens in Calgary to play the Flames.
Outside.
McMahon Stadium. Home of the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League.
And I am a CFL Fan, folks!

An observation from the Hyacinth Girl

Simple, eloquent and direct.
Link is right here to here post.
The Hyacinth Girl has this to say
She has a very unique take on things. Very Unique but worth it!

Saturday, February 19, 2011

BIGGEST SHIP EVER FOR AUSTRALIAN NAVY

BIGGEST SHIP EVER FOR AUSTRALIAN NAVY
Got this link to a interesting post by Sean Linnane, The Strombringer himself.
The good guys down under are getting some serious hardware!

Alaska Livery on the Horizon Q400s

Airliners.net has the first pics. The Horizon branding is going away. I hope the special university liveries stay with minor changes. Those ones with the NW schools on them are really sharp!
But enjoy!
Q400 in Alaska livery with the Eskimo

Friday, February 18, 2011

Just Plain Stupid: .Sheila Jackson-Lee Explains Why ObamaCare Penalty Is Not a Penalty | Right Wing News

Sheila has either been doing some really good drugs or is just plain stupid. I had to read through this one a couple of times. She is that rambling of a person.
Drugs? Possibly. Left turds do like them hallucinogenic ones ya know!
But a friend of mine says Sheila is just plain stupid. I can go with that one! 
Sheila Jackson-Lee Explains Why ObamaCare Penalty Is Not a Penalty | Right Wing News
When  you read this, I do believe you will go with the just plain stupid. And unfortunately, there is no penalty for being stupid. Well other than the 111th congress and our new CinC.

Exile in Portales: Yup. It's Gonna Be HARD.

Exile in Portales: Yup. It's Gonna Be HARD.
Buck's most excellent take on the budget problems facing all of us.
He uses Wisconsin as an example but it could be applied to the Not So Golden State, where I live and work.
And I am a federal employee. I have been here about fifteen months. I got lucky. Got the job at Edwards after being out of work for eight months in 2009. I am still getting things caught up. And I am not a member of AFGE. Won't do it. I will not go crying to anyone or any entity.
Glad to be working. And as the lowest paid guy at our flight, glad to be working.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

The VC-10!

An entire website for this beauty from England. Sad state of affairs with the United Kingdom these days. Moonbats, commies and camel jockeys every where screwing things up.
I saw one at Frankfurt in July of 1968 and one at JFK in February of that year. BOAC colours. Beautiful jet.
A Little VC TENderness!!!!!!

A real beauty! Yes indeed!
USS Wichita CA45. The vessel is used in the header. Just for info in case anyone had questions.

22 Ways to Reuse an Altoids Tin | The Art of Manliness

22 Ways to Reuse an Altoids Tin | The Art of Manliness
For all you old wrench turners out there!
Admit it. I do. I have had as many as a dozen in my toolbox in the past.
Handy for that small stuff we need.

Today's weather here in California City

The link is to Weather Underground. Kind of Blustery!
Conditions and Forecast for California City!

Lara Logan of CBS's Beating and Sexual Assault

From Atlas Shrugs. Pam Geller is one you all should read, on a regular basis. Along with Ann Coulter and Mary Katherine Ham, this one is a regular for me.
Read the post at the link.
Atlas Shrugs on Lara Logan
Just read it. Make up your own mind.
Me? Get all Westerners out. Evacuate the Copts to Israel and maybe to some European Countries. Then get the major antiquities out with Dr. Hawass and the others who do history so well.
Then smoke check the place. Napalm, Fuel Air Warheads. Stuff like that.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

What leadership doesn't look like

From Betsy's Page. A snippet follows then the link to her full post on the subject.
I would say the dear lady has the cinc by the stacking swivel with a pair of vise grips!


This is not what leadership looks like. This is what political opportunism looks like. WSJ explains the cynicism in Obama's budget proposal.
How unserious is this budget? Although the White House trumpets $2.18 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade, those savings are so far off in the magical "out years" that you can barely see them from here. More than 95% of the savings would happen after Mr. Obama's first term in the White House is over, and almost two-thirds of the promised deficit reduction would arrive after 2016. Pretending to cut deficits by pushing all real cuts into the future is Budget Flimflam 101.


From hard experience, we know that what matters are the cuts and reforms a White House is willing to make now. The Obama budget doesn't cut a penny from the deficit in the last seven months of fiscal 2011. Over the next three years—through 2013—the spending reductions in this budget add up to a paltry $20 billion net, out of a projected $3.5 trillion deficit. That's a 0.57% reduction in red ink and less than what the feds spend every two days.


As for Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and other entitlements, which account for roughly 60% of federal expenditures, the proposed savings are close to zero. The President would allow these programs to continue on automatic pilot, meaning they nearly double to $2.7 trillion in 2021 from $1.4 trillion in 2010.


Every serious analyst agrees that the time to fix these retirement programs is before 75 million graying baby boomers start collecting the benefits and voting as beneficiaries rather than as net payers. Meanwhile, Medicaid spending would grow by 115% over the next decade thanks to that renowned deficit reducer, ObamaCare.


The proudest White House boast is that its budget would cap domestic discretionary spending at current levels for five years. These are programs ranging from NASA to the Washington Metro to school lunch programs to wind turbine grants, which overall and including stimulus expanded by more than 80% in Mr. Obama's first two years. This spending freeze would cut these programs from 2011-2013 by a grand total of $14 billion.
Ah yes, change no one can believe in - simply keeping on doing the same thing, only more of it.



http://betsyspage.blogspot.com/2011/02/what-leadership-doesnt-look-like.html

A lot of smoke and mirrors. The smoke is being blown up your ass and mine. And I don't like it one bit.

Monday, February 14, 2011

The roll out of the 747-8I

This is a really sharp airplane. I have seen the freighter version during testing at Edwards. The lines are very clean and it just looks really damn good!
Follow the link to airliners.net
/Boeing-747-8JK Roll Out at Everett

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Ducks at Oilers - 02/13/2011 - NHL.com - Recap

Ducks at Oilers - 02/13/2011 - NHL.com - Recap
Hiller gets a shut out in his return from the DL.
Now in first place in the Pacific Division.

Kings blank Flyers!

Jonathon Quick stopped forty shots for the shut out!!!!!!!
1-0 Kings!
http://www.nhl.com/ice/recap.htm?id=2010020843&navid=sb:recap
Game recap at the link above!!!

Super Hornet COD?

Pinch made a comment on a picture I put up on Facebook yesterday. It was the new and old jammer aircraft one. Prowler and Growler.
Since the Navy has moved to the Super Hornet platform as it's multi-role everything, he wondered how long it would take for the Navy to want a COD based on the E/F Hornet airframe.
So if any of you reading this know how to do that sort of thing, I would appreciate any and all attempts.
They would be posted here and at my other blog listed on my blogroll. And I am sure Pinch would do the same.
This is a just for fun thing. Life is now to the point where we make fun of our New Navy!

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Canada Free Press: Here A Sin, There A Vice And Liberals Want To Tax Them All

Here A Sin, There A Vice And Liberals Want To Tax Them All
Both sides of the perpetually indignant.
Boy, we sure have a lot of worthless assholes in this country. And party affiliation does not matter. A religious zealot and a liberal one are pretty close in make up.


Religious and political liberals who thought it was their birthright to regulate our lives to the hilt plowed onward

An observation

"Peace begins with courageous leaders who are willing to identify and define our enemy and their objectives, because political correctness has no place in our national security strategy." Lt. Col. Allen West

Blast from the past

Since we are celebrating the Centennial of Naval Aviation, I will, from time to time put up pictures relevant to my career in that most illustrious Air Arm.
Starting with a shot of a hangar that was my workplace for a 22 month period.

This was the home of The Tigers of VT-26.

For a while after the shut down of NAS Chase Field it was used to manufacture modular buildings. I saw that on CNN shortly after I retired.
This was the first Naval Aviator training station closed as a result of Graham-Rudman-Hollings. That was the first act that commenced the butchering of our forces.
My Daughter, Rachael, was conceived in Beeville. It was good times for the first Mrs. ORPO and I. 
I will always have a place in my heart for Chase Field and Beeville.

The old and the new.

Now these are really sharp looking birds!
EA6B and EA18G of VAQ-129, Naval Air Station, Whidbey Island at NAS North Island for the Kick Off of our Centennial.
100 years of U.S. Naval Aviation.
The Prowler entered service forty years ago. The Growler is the replacement and three Fleet Squadrons have already transitioned, VAQs 132, 138 and 141. I do believe 141, The Shadowhawks were the first to trade in their Prowlers for Growlers.

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

VIA THEO SPARK: GENERAL VO NGUYEN GIAP

GENERAL VO NGUYEN GIAP
From Theo Spark at Last of The Few.
Just a snippet but Giap said we had the NV beat. All we would have had to have done is kept on bombing Hanoi and Haiphong.
We did not loose in the field. We lost in our own capitol. The likes of kerry, fonda, that fat drunken teddy kennedy and the like lost that war.

From the Judge. The Administration in Contempt, Day 8.

There is a long-standing presumption “that officials of the Executive Branch will adhere to the law as declared by the court. As a result, the declaratory judgment is the functional equivalent of an injunction.” . . . There is no reason to conclude that this presumption should not apply here. Thus, the award of declaratory relief is a...dequate and separate injunctive relief is not necessary.
. . .
In accordance with Rule 57 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and Title
28, United States Code, Section 2201(a), a Declaratory Judgment shall be entered separately, declaring “The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” unconstitutional.

DONE and ORDERED this 31st day of January, 2011.

Roger Vinson

Senior United States District Judge

Monday, February 07, 2011

Kae has a funny. From Kae's Bloodnut Blog

If you are in a certain age group and in that high risk category that some of us are, this is for you.
It is the link to Kae's post on the subject. She has to go through the procedure in a few days. I have had four of them. It took my Dad at 59. I am 56. And I had my go around with Renal Cell Carcinoma in 2009. I will be getting my colonoscopy next month. Got to do the physical and refer to the scope guy in a couple weeks.
So here is the link to the post complete with video:
Figs and the colon surgery song.

Sunday, February 06, 2011

Right in a Left World: Obama’s Hope and Change? Or Sell Out?

Right in a Left World: Obama’s Hope and Change? Or Sell Out?
Lew has a good one up. This is an eye opener.
And I have about as much respect for Jimmy Carter as I do Barack Obama..............not a damn bit.
Much less as men.

Theo Spark: Sunday Totty...........

Theo Spark: Sunday Totty...........
Yeah!
I linked the Sunday Totty...................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Theo doesn't mind at all.

Anyone remember this brand?

Great  Falls Select. The cheap brand we had along with Heidelberg.
Buck may remember this brew. Or not!





Civility. From Nobody Asked Me........

This was up at this most excellent blog this morning. I figure it is worth getting out as the left has now gone bonkers on "civility" all of a sudden.
Guess the election in November has made them take a step back on the subject.....................as applied to them, anyway.
Remember this. It is the left and the drive by media that has been at the forefront of the vitriol, spittle, insulting behavior that we see on the news channels, in the papers and on such things as the Huffington Post and The Daily Kos. Not to mention the stuff on twitter that is directed at conservatives.
Stay Classy there lefties!
Nobody Asked Me........Civility

Friday, February 04, 2011

It has come to this?

Even HM and HRH are laughing at us.
Good lord, what in hell is happening to us?
Is it a joke?


It could be real for all I know. I mean Moonbeam is now in charge and his plans for us Californians bodes well................for an economic and social disaster.

It's Obama's fault! It is official!

Obama admin holding up 103 drilling permits in the Gulf
The link is to Chrissie's place. She explains it very well.

Wednesday, February 02, 2011

India: An aerospace hotbed?!

Link is to Flight Global.
There are some interesting articles here under the main post. From humble beginnings under Kurt Tank.
Aero India Showcase

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

Good Idea From Miss Mary

A how to fix the homeless problem.
Mary thought this one up.
It is part of the reaction to the health care law and the logic used to shove it down our throats.


Here's how to get rid of the homeless problem. 
Mandate everyone buy a house. 
That's what they are trying to do with health insurance.

Argghhh! The Home Of Two Of Jonah's Military Guys.. - So, this old pilot dies and goes to heaven...

Argghhh! The Home Of Two Of Jonah's Military Guys.. - So, this old pilot dies and goes to heaven...
This is good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The weather on The Hi Line

Here is the scoop from Weather Underground.
Havre, Montana is my hometown.
Kind of nice to be live in the Desert.
Today's Forecast for Havre, Montana!
At present it is a -42F.
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)