just doing my part to keep America #1

U.S. most armed country with 90 guns per 100 people

interesting headline at the link above.
one of the things that jumped out at me was the following:

France, Canada, Sweden, Austria and Germany were next, each with about 30 guns per 100 people, while many poorer countries often associated with violence ranked much lower. Nigeria, for instance, had just one gun per 100 people.
bolding mine....

i wonder why they don't just go in and pop this bastard

quote: Security officials told The Associated Press that Mahdi Army gunmen, loyalists of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, attacked guards around the two Karbala shrines that were under the protection of the Badr Brigade, the armed wing of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council. endquote

read the article here

now call me a radical if you like, but what the hell are we doing? it's obvious to even the most under-informed that this country isn't really in it for victory.
the press and the libs are clamoring for surrender, and the military and the government are paying way too much attention to them.
any casual scholar of current events in Iraq will recognize al-Sadr is a shit stirrer of epic proportions.
wait until a big event, where he is surrounded by is lieutenants, and drop one of those really expensive bomb thingies in the middle of the gathering. fixed that problem.
and to be sure we aren't perceived as taking sides in the sectarian issues in country, do the same for the leadership on the other side of the conflict.
if you are serious about fixing the problem, you don't let the problem run around agitating.
seems simple to me. to me, this is nothing more than an expensive live version of Whack-A-Mole. every time one of these dirtbags stands up and says "go kill so and so in allah's name", he should get a whack from another one of those expensive bomb thingies.
but then, i'm kind of an absolutist. i think if you go to war, you should absolutely do everything you can with maximum force to both win, and get the hell out.

i know i'm going to catch hell from my wife, BUT

read the article

today's gun related email

exactly as received by email. and i agree with them all!

"Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow for those who do not."
~ Thomas Jefferson



FIREARMS REFRESHER COURSE


1. An armed man is a citizen. An unarmed man is a subject.

2. A gun in the hand is better than a cop on the phone.

3. Colt: The original point and click interface.

4. Gun control is not about guns; it's about control.

5. If guns are outlawed, can we use swords?

6. If guns cause crime, then pencils cause misspelled words.

7. F ree men do not ask permission to bear arms.

8. If you don't know your rights, you don't have any.

9. Those who trade liberty for security have neither.

10. The United States Constitution 1791. All Rights Reserved.

11. What part of "shall not be infringed" do you not understand?

12. The Second Amendment is in place in case the politicians ignore the others.

13. 64,999,987 firearms owners killed no one yesterday.

14. Guns only have two enemies; rust and politicians.

15. Know guns, know peace, know safety. No guns, no peace, no safety.

16. You don't shoot to kill; you shoot to stay alive.

17. 911: Government sponsored Dial-a-Prayer .

18. Assault is a behavior, not a device.

19. Criminals love gun control; it makes their jobs safer.

20. If guns cause crime, then matches cause arson.

21. Only a government that is afraid of its citizens tries to control them.

22. You have only the rights you are willing to fight for.

23. Enforce the gun control laws we ALREADY have; don't make more.

24. When you remove the people's right to bear arms, you create slaves.

25. The American Revolution would never have happened with gun control.

oh, this is so funny on so many levels

sometimes i feel like i've lost the ability to converse in english, especially around people that don't work in the same building as i do. watch, laugh, then figure out what it is they are lampooning. this could have been done is sacramento, speaking spanish with english subtitles.

the latest screed on immigration

i'm on about 2 gazillion mailing lists of folks of every stripe and political persuasion. most of the stuff i get by e-mail is either very old and dusty jokes, or some rant about political issues. most get deleted within the first two sentences. some i pass around to those very few that don't get all this stuff cluttering up THEIR email in boxes. hmmm, does that make me part of the problem????. anyway, i've been the recipient of many many missives decrying illegal immigration, most of which is pure crap.
this one i find too frightening to dismiss.
read or ignore. i'm not trying to change anyone's point of view. i checked out the snopes link, and it's the real deal.

Information you should know:

A conversation between a Customer and Bank of America Bank:
The Bank: Bank of America, can I help you?
Customer: Yes, I want to cancel my account. I don't want to do business with you any longer.
The Bank: Why?
Customer: You're giving credit to illegal immigrants and I don't think it's right. I'm taking my business elsewhere.
The Bank: Well, Mr. Customer, we don't want to see you do that, but we can't stop you. I'll help you close the account. What is your account number?
Customer: (gives account number)
The Bank: For security purposes and for your protection, can you please give me the last four digits of your social security number?
Customer: No
The Bank: Mr. Customer, I need to verify your information, but in order to help you, I'll need verification of who you are.
Customer: Why should I give you my social security number? The reason I'm closing my account is that your bank is issuing credit cards to illegal immigrants who don't have social security numbers. You are targeting that audience and want their business. Let's say I'm an illegal immigrant and you've given me a credit card. I have a question about it and call for assistance. You wouldn't be asking me for a Social Security number, would you?
The Bank: No sir, I wouldn't.
Customer: Why not?
The Bank: Because you would have pressed '2' to speak in Spanish. We don't ask for that information when calling in on the Spanish line.

I provided "snopes" for doubters:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/immigration/bankofamerica.asp

Now .
I hope the following 14 reasons are forwarded over and over again until they are read so many times that the reader gets sick of reading them. I have included the URL's for verification of the following facts.

1. $11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each year. http://tinyurl.com/zob77
2. $2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens. http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html
3. $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens.
http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html
4. $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary school education for children here illegally and they cannot speak a word of English! http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.0.html
5. $17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
6. $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
7. 30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
8. $90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal aliens for Welfare & social services by the American taxpayers. http://premium.cnn.com/TRANSCIPTS/0610/29/ldt.01.html
9. $200 Billion Dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal aliens. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
10. The illegal aliens in the United States have a crime rate that's two and a half times that of white non-illegal aliens. In particular, their children, are going to make a huge additional crime problem in the US http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/12/ldt.01.html
11. During the year of 2005 there were 4 to 10 MILLION illegal aliens that crossed our Southern Border also, as many as 19,500 illegal aliens from Terrorist Countries. Millions of pounds of drugs, cocaine, meth, heroine and marijuana, crossed into the U. S from the Southern border. Homeland Security Report: http://tinyurl.com/t9sht
12. The National Policy Institute, "estimated that the total cost of mass deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion or an average cost of between $41 and $46 billion annually over a five year period." http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute.org/pdf/deportation.pdf
13. In 2006 illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances back to their countries of origin. http://www.rense.com/general75/niht.htm
14. "The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One Million Sex Crimes Committed by Illegal Immigrants In The United States ". http://www.drdsk.com/articleshtml
The total cost is a whooping . $ 338.3 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR

a nice submarine slideshow

i found this slide show while snoopin' and poopin' around the web getting my daily fix of news. 60 submarine related images, including a japanese and a couple of russians. nicely done. i don't know if it is squirreled away somewhere else. it's on a tv news website, no less.
Here's the link

a beautiful summer dinner

i knew i was going to be playing bachelor for dinner tonight. di went with her mom for the day, and won't be back until late. so what's an enterprising and hungry man do?
stop at his favorite local produce market, that's what.
you big city types that wow and brag about how fresh produce is at various venues have a lot to learn about fresh. if i grew it myself is the only way to get any fresher. my fruit stand/produce market sits square in the middle of one of the most fertile areas in the world, with one of the most hospitable growing climates imaginable. this place does so much business that the turnover dictates that the evening's items were picked today. that fresh.
so i picked up some corn, a green mango variety i've never tried before, some still warm from the trees white nectarines from the grove about a 1/2 mile away, and some other staples like chipotle hot sauce.
dinner: 3 ears of very fresh sweet corn, butter, coarsely ground sea salt, a surprisingly sweet and wonderful green mango, and a to die for ripe and luscious white nectarine.
if i was a 10th grader writing a back to school english essay on why i love summer it would have at least one paragraph similar to this:
"I love the summer. Not just because I can run around in shorts, swim in the lake, or stand around the bbq kettle while the steaks grill. I love the summer because the sweet corn grows tall and juicy, the stone fruit trees ripen and yield their crop of dazzling beauties. I love the warm breezes that blow through the orchards and pick up the heady perfume of ripening peaches, scenting the evening with a rare and non-purchasable incense. I love the drone of the honey bees, flying in search of their next burden of pollen. The late evenings on the new back patio, enjoying a cold beverage, discussing the day's events with my lady love. These are some of the reasons why I love summer."
so here are a few pictures. as always, click for a choice of larger images.

This was taken using only natural light filtering in through my light tube sky lite at 6 in the evening. another reason why i love summer!

fooling around with camera settings and working on some macro techniques. i like that you can see the melted butter and sea salt on the kernels.

stolen no more!

our diesel jetta is back in the fold. "Only" cost me $280.00 to pick it up from the towing company. no damage as far as we can tell. whew.

F-22 video

considering i have a small part in the structural integrity of this aircraft, my interest is warranted. But even if i didn't have anything to do with this guy, this video is damned cool for those of us that love "airplane noise".
here is the email i received today, with a link to a video put out by the air force (it's on an air force website). i don't know if you can appreciate just how amazing this aircraft is, but holy shyte, i would not want to have to go up against this critter in a dogfight, considering what it can do.


Fast (super-cruise*) and stealthy, and integrated avionics are cool, but what’s really impressive is the F/A-22s low speed stability and maneuverability. In the late 40s and to early 60s aeronautical engineers were going nuts on how to shape intakes to handle both subsonic and super-sonic air flows, without stagnation or compressor stalls. Supersonic in itself was a big challenge because you had to use shock waves to slow the intake air mass to sub-sonic before it hit the compressor blades, or they would stall. The engineers figured it out, but the solution was keeping a lot of air going in the front end to make sure the all hot air kept going out the back end. As you watch this Mach 2 airplane suspend motionless in air and do tail slides, be aware of the truly amazing performance of the engines and intakes.

Some used to think the Su-27 / Su-31 “Cobra” maneuver was the epitome of 3rd to 4th generation fighter maneuverability. That snap maneuver doesn’t hold a candle to what this two-dimensional vectored-thrust fighter with fat independent horizontal stabs can do at low speed. There must be far more tricks up its sleeve in the high subsonic dogfight speed range.

The video is about 5 minutes long but the last 30-40 seconds are priceless.

Airshow Langley


ACC recently approved the Raptors new DEMO profile. This was the first show. Five minute video.

Watch the elevators of the airplane in this demo. They work independently.
It also has vectored thrust.

ACC = Air Combat Command (for the non-Air Force folks)


*Supercruise: The F/A-22 can sustain ! superso nic flight without the use of fuel-gulping afterburners.

another in a long line of least dignified deaths

so you have a 10 month old camel you got for your birthday because you like exotic pets. your 10 month old camel decides that your 60+ year old female frame is just what he needs for a girl friend.
dieing by being crushed by an amorous camel trying to "hump you" classifies as an undignified death if i ever heard of one.

it's official, our car was stolen!

here's a first. i made it 53 years without a stolen vehicle. not any more!

broad daylight, right out of the parking lot at Arden Fair Mall in Sacramento. Di went Nordstrom's to buy a dress for her son's wedding, and when she came out..... gone.
bummer

sailing under the bay bridge

sailing under the bay bridge
Originally uploaded by bothenook

some days the San Francisco Bay is too beautiful for words. Sunday was one of those days. so instead, here's the equivalent of 1000 of those pesky word thingies.
click on image for other size options, as always

USS Seawolf reunion news

here's the latest news from the reunion committee. Our reunion will encompass SS-28, SS-197, SSN-575, and SSN-21 boats....

Shipmates, Family and Friends of USS Seawolf,

We are now less than two weeks away from the Reunion . If you haven’t made your reservations for the Banquet PLEASE DO SO IMMEDIATELY. I need to know how many people will be attending the Banquet in order to give the Conference Center the # of meals to prepare. PLEASE go to the Seawolfpack.com website and sign up for the banquet NOW. DO NOT WAIT UNTIL YOU ARRIVE to let me know you want to attend the banquet.

Also, if you haven’t made your lodging reservations yet, there are only a few rooms left at the Silverdale Beach Hotel and the Hampton Inn. If you can’t get reservations at either, send me an email and I’ll try to find other Hotels with rooms in the area.

Finally, if you are still trying to decide if you want to come, (and I know many of you are) I ask you to decide to “JUST DO IT”. The more shipmates that show up for the reunion, the better it will be for all. Don’t wait for the next reunion; you never know what the future may bring for any of us.

I look forward to seeing all of you here for the SEAWOLFPACK REUNION 2007.

Regards,

Dave Brink, Seawolfpack Association VP

shark attack

beach0031 click for size options
Originally uploaded by bothenook

here's a great way to spend a saturday afternoon. hook up with friends, drive to the beach, have lunch, and then fly kites all afternoon.
Jerry's shark kite was pretty neat. it was about 8 feet long, and when flying could be seen for miles.

the boycot of israeli universities, and my school's response

first of all, here it is, over three weeks since i last made an entry. it's not that i didn't and don't have anything to say. it's just that there are so many issues that have me so spun up that every time i sit down to blog, the only characters i end up typing look a lot like $*&)(#)@Q*#*&$%)@#_! so rather than just swear a ton, i gave it a pass.

BUT!

one of the things that has really really chapped my hide this last week or so has been the move by "the new British University and College Union" to boycott israeli schools. this is an unadorned and undisguised attempt by the wackjobs in academia in britain to appease the growing islamoshitbag population in their country.
i'm proud of the 300+ signatories on an open letter published by the president of Columbia University calling on the U and C Union to also boycott their schools. there are several university of california campuses (campi ?) that participated by signing along with many other institutions of higher education throughout the U.S. one very glaring exception was my own campus. it's truly a sad day for those of us staff members that believe in the fundamentals of education and free thought. for shame.

for a copy of the NYT open letter, follow this link .

oh, and i promise, i'll be back.

i've been watching the site meter slowly climb to a milestone. i've had over 97000 visitiors with well over 133,000 page hits since i started using the counter. imagine that. i know there are sites out there that get that kind of traffic in hours, not over a couple of years, but still! hell, if i had anything of interest to say, i'd have gone over 100,000 in weeks, not years! thanks for visiting!