Sunday, May 29, 2011

Thursday, May 26, 2011

the future generation..........

We can have no '50-50' allegiance in this country. Either a man is an American and nothing else, or he is not an American at all.
Theodore Roosevelt



    This bothers me greatly...how as a society do we allow people to flaunt our laws?   Any other country is expected to uphold their border as a sovereign right, but we as Americans are expected to allow illegals to cross our borders, and flaunt their illegal status and have no repercussion.
      I am a student of history and I like to study the Roman empire, the Roman had immigration issues with the Huns for a hundred years coming over the frontier.   I see signs in both English and spanish, I understand businesses doing this, I understand it is smart because they buy stuff also.  I do have a big problem with government doing this however;  English is the language of America and it is the glue that holds us together as a society.    Now I see us fracturing along ethnic lines, the glue that holds us together is fading.  We have immigrants that come over here having more pride in their former land than as Americans.  They use our systems against us, our sense of fair play.   I have no problem with LEGAL immigration, they come here to make a better life and become part of the American experience.  Now we have people that come over here to abuse our laws and take advantage of America. 

I got this off yahoo news
About 50 students walked out of class at Douglas County High School to protest Georgia's new law cracking down on illegal immigration and a policy that bars illegal immigrant students from the most competitive state colleges and universities.
The students — a mix of illegal immigrants and others who support them — walked out around 2 p.m. Wednesday, many carrying signs and chanting.
They said they want to raise awareness of the situation of illegal immigrants who have grown up in the U.S. after their parents brought them here as young children.
The school's principal, who watched the protest from a short distance away, declined to discuss any disciplinary action that might be taken against the students.
A similar protest was held last week at Pebblebrook High School in Mableton.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011







 I got this from The Hill
The Transportation Security Administration is too worried about "political correctness," according to a Republican lawmaker.

Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.), a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said TSA is too politically correct when it chooses which passengers to search at airport security checkpoints.

During a recent trip, Broun said he saw TSA pat down an elderly person and a child, but not a man he himself deemed suspicious.

"I walked through … right behind me there was a grandmother — little old lady, and she was was patted down," Broun said on C-SPAN's "Washington Journal."

"Right behind her was a little kid who was patted down. And then right behind him was a guy in Arabian dress who just walked right through. Why are we patting down grandma and kids?"

Broun did not specify any other reasons the man looked suspicious other than his dress.

Broun said in the interview that the TSA needs to focus "on those people who want to harm us.

"We have to identify those people — we do that through human intelligence, we do that by trying to get into the inner circle," he said. "Focus upon those individuals, not on the general public. Unfortunately, I think the Department of Homeland Security has been focusing on the general public and have been afraid of political correctness.

"We've got to forget political correctness," Broun continued. "We've got to start focusing on those people who want to harm us as a nation."

homophobia versus islamaphobia..which is the dominant P.C

This article from The Gates of Vienna, and it cuts to the heart of so much of the issue. How leftism, and political correctness really are snakes that eat their own tails. People call Geert Wilders, “Far right wing” attempting to link him to Nazis and racists as popular myth makes them right wing somehow. But Geert has been vocally defending the rights of people like the ones in the article below, as well as many other minority groups who, up until the ascendancy of Islam in the Netherlands, nearly defined Dutch liberalism and now are in full retreat in some areas.
Eeyore for Vlad
The Netherlands has long been in the forefront of tolerance and support for the rights of gay people. With its institution of homosexual marriage and widespread public disapproval of gay-hatred, the Dutch have led the way for the rest of Western culture.
In recent years the cultural enrichment of major Dutch cities has caused an upsurge of violence against gays by Muslim immigrants. This trend — which has become too large to ignore completely — highlights one of the major contradictions of politically correct Multiculturalism.
According to Multiculturalism, the culture of “brown people” is above criticism. Any negative observation about their behavior is evidence of “xenophobia”, and also “Islamophobia” if they are Muslims.
According to Political Correctness, any hostility towards gays is evidence of “homophobia”.
So what happens when Muslims attack gays? Which doctrine holds the trump card?
Well, we all know the answer to that one by now — tolerance of Islam trumps everything else. Gay rights, women’s rights, children’s rights, the rights of Jews or Hindus — all are cast aside when they come into conflict with the accommodation of Islam.
Because of the cognitive dissonance induced by this contradiction, the issue of Muslim gay-hatred is generally ignored in the media. Stories of Muslim violence against homosexuals are excluded, or disguised by omitting a full description of the perpetrators. The problem is swept under the rug as much as possible.
Sometimes, however, the incidents become to egregious or too numerous to avoid, and pop up in the press. One such story was published today by :NIS News
Harassed Gay Couple Taking Police to Court
Utrecht — A homosexual couple is demanding damages from the government because the police allegedly refused to take action against Moroccan youths who systematically threatened them.
The men suffered multiple harassments. For example, their car windows were broken, ‘homo’ was scratched on the car and a brick and fireworks were thrown at their window. The couple made a police report for all these matters, but the police never took any action, says their lawyer Yehudi Moszkowicz.

humor, hardcore saudi group form a facebook about women driving

SOMEBODY'S GONNA GET A BEAT DOWN!
 I got this from here 


SOMEBODY'S GONNA GET A BEAT DOWN!
Oh shama lama ding dong and a Muhammad Ali to you infidel dogs! It is no secret that Muslims gave the automobile to the world because of our superior Islamic intelligence. Most of the great race drivers have been Muslim jihad drivers. The great Bobby Allahson, Buddy Burqa helped establish the infidel redneck sport of NASCAR to further Allah’s will!
But today, the Imam is going to preach some ol’ time Islamic beat down religion to all the dogs who call themselves women that think Allah ever intended them to drive a vehicle! Women were never intended to drive cars. Or camels. It is forbidden. That is why Allah, through his prophet Mr. Goodwrench Muhammad (may a new set of Craftsman tools be upon him), invented the stick shift! The stick shift was too complex for the feeble mind of women to grasp! Evil western infidels invented the automatic transmission with Satan’s help and it has all been downhill since!
Haven’t Muslims worldwide witnessed the horrors brought to mankind by western women at the wheel? First, women begin to believe they should be equal (as if!) and allowed to drive. Bwahahaha! Then they start to listen to Satanic western music blaring in the vehicle loud enough to wake the beheaded. Next, women will begin to endlessly talk on cell phones with their friends while driving. Oh, my infidel friends, how women drivers will gab about wanting to buy the latest burqa from the Giorgio ArBombi collection and other vain and evil topics while at the wheel. Before long, they will be putting on infidel face paint while doing all of the above at the same time! It’s enough to make Allah cuss!
This is what we know from the prophet Muhammed. Allah created man and woman. He made man superior to women. Allah made women inferior so they could not drive vehicles. Or camels. As we have seen in the Big Satan, infidel women dog drivers are not able of driving automobiles because they are incapable of driving in one lane and arriving to their destination without a trail of death and destruction. Western infidel women drivers leave behind so much death and destruction, they should be Muslims! By the way, Angry White Imam will behead anyone who swerves in my lane!
The infidel woman might ask the husband why Allah does not allow women to drive? The answer is simple. “Because Allah knows best!” Smack! It is correct to educate your woman.
Then, you may tell her that it says in the blessed Koran in the book of Maserati:
Oh, it is the foolish infidel who will allow a woman to command a camel,
especially if the camel has an automatic transmission and a stereo.
It is an unwise fool and infidel who permits his woman to crash his camel into a wall
because the vain woman is incapable of shutting the hell up on her cell phone for even a minute to drive the camel.

The Koran states the only purpose that allows women to drive automobiles is for them to be used as martyrs in suicide mini-vans. Allah figures he might as well take out a few infidels because women drivers are going to crash anyway! And Chinese women drivers can be used as weapons of mass destruction! Chinese women drivers may be too brutal for even us brutal Muslims to use against infidels! Only Allah has the power to destroy equally as a Chinese woman driver.
So the Imam’s message for all Muslim men (and even you weak infidel male dogs) is to teach your woman the true meaning of the religion of peace. In other words, beat her like a Jew if she even thinks of heading off in your pick-up or camel! If she persists, tell her you are about to do some yard work and dig a hole out back and are having some rocks delivered. That should deliver the loving message from her husband that she will never drive a vehicle! And Allah will bless you!
The Angry White Imam has created an infidel Face Book page for all wise men to join to pledge to beat the bejeezes out of their women if she asks to drive. It is reported here on the infidel Jew Andrew Breitbart page.
So the Imam will leave you evil, infidel swine to go carry out the trash and do your ‘honey-do’ lists in an attempt to keep the peace in your abode as slaves of your western women. There is one song, and one song only, that they Imam listens to in his ride and that is the “Dance of the 1000 Imams!” But you infidels probably could have guessed that! Shama Lama!

Monday, May 23, 2011

monday music

I am a big fan of the 80's and I decided to start monday music.   I know...bad pun, bad pun


                                                                  
  This isn't the exact video, but the song is my favorite song..  It is Don Henley " The boys of summer: from the LP "Building the perfect beast"

Oh Crap..here goes our retirement....

I have heard rumbling that the gov't is considering seizing the trillions in private retirement accounts to help cover the massive deficits.  And I am surmising that they will cloak the language in the class warfare that the democraps love" the filthy rich is keeping their money and we need to distribute it in the name of fairness".  And since there are more people that depend on the gov't for money and food, the "have nots" will look favorably on such actions since it will benefit them in the long run since it keeps their pet entitlements funded.
      Ireland is talking about a small tax for 4 years.....Have you known a gov't tax to sunset?   Income tax was supposed to end after WWI, well it is still here.  The gov't gets used to the income stream and it will be permanent.  I would be furious, my wife and I have scrimped for years to fully fund our retirement since we have the belief that social security will not be there when we get old.  The politicians after spending us into bankruptcy by plundering social security and burdensome entitlement programs, will then take my hard earned money to keep funding the freeloader society that is prevalent today and that seems to be a core democrap support bloc. 
    I got this from here

    Would such a seizure finally get the American people to realize that they are the the vassels of the state and not the masters?

How long before Uncle Sam hits private pensions to balance the public budget? It’s quickly becoming a reasonable question to ask.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is ringing alarm bells across Washington, D.C., warning of a disastrous outcome if an agreement to raise the debt ceiling is not made soon. “A default would call into question, for the first time, the full faith and credit of the U.S. Pensions, Federal Government, Debt Ceiling, Retirementgovernment,” Geithner wrote in a letter Friday to Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo.

After weeks of such warnings, the United States has hit its $1.43 trillion debt ceiling hard. In response, GOP leaders have demanded cuts in federal spending equal to any increase in the limit while maintaining a strong line against tax increases.

As Congress squares off over a debt ceiling vote, Treasury is scrambling to find cash in the couch cushions. One of the ways it will scare up extra money is by putting off saving for the retirements of federal workers — in effect, short-term “borrowing” from public pension funds.

By suspending investments into the civil service retirement and disability fund, as well as putting off reinvestments into another big retirement bucket known as the G-Fund, Treasury could “claw back” up to $202 billion, estimates Reuters. That sounds like a lot, but it’s just 10 percent of the $2 trillion the agency says it needs to stay afloat until after Election Day 2012, and it will have to be put back.

Holding off public pension payments could be cast as prudent short-term scrambling to avoid a serious problem with U.S. Treasury holders. Taken another way, such moves could instead be seen as the first step toward an eventual tax or outright seizure of private savings in tax-favored retirement plans.

It can’t happen here, you might say. But it has happened in plenty of indebted countries, such as Argentina and Hungary, and it just happened last week in Ireland. Hungary seized $14 billion from private pensions, reported The Christian Science Monitor, while Bulgaria and Poland demanded partial government control of private savings.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

The New Arafat



The United States believes that negotiations should result in two states, with permanent Palestinian borders with Israel, Jordan, and Egypt, and permanent Israeli borders with Palestine. The borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps…. The Palestinian people must have the right to govern themselves, and reach their potential, in a sovereign and contiguous state…. The full and phased withdrawal of Israeli military forces should be coordinated with the assumption of Palestinian security responsibility in a sovereign, nonmilitarized state….
These words from President Barack Obama’s speech on Thursday are the most chilling message ever sent by a U.S. president to Israel, and possibly by any head of government to a supposed “ally.” It is often mentioned that, soon after the Six Day War of 1967, the then Israeli foreign minister Abba Eban referred to those 1967 lines as the “Auschwitz borders.” It is also often mentioned, as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu did after his meeting with Obama on Friday, that these borders leave Israel all of nine miles wide at one of its most populous points.
Under Obama’s dispensation, Israel is left with these borders and no others. A “full and phased withdrawal of Israeli military forces” from the West Bank means no Israeli military presence in the Jordan Valley, stipulated as essential in all Israeli military assessments, and certainly not in the West Bank’s mountain ridge, where the 1967 U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff study, as well as a 1974 follow-up study by the U.S. Army’s Command and Staff College, also viewed an Israeli military presence as strategically indispensable.
Moreover, the two parts of the Palestinian state, the West Bank and Gaza, are supposed to be “contiguous,” a demand that Yasser Arafat used to raise in Oslo-era negotiations with Israel. A glance at a map of Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza reveals that demand as little less than astounding. There is no way to make the West Bank and Gaza contiguous except by some sort of passageway connecting the two, slicing Israel in half, creating a security nightmare and a compromise of Israel’s integrity and sovereignty such as exists in no country of the world and that Obama, it is safe to say, would not contemplate for a moment regarding the United States or any part of it.
Note also Obama’s use of “nonmilitarized,” which in the lingua franca is distinctly different from the “demilitarized” frequently used by Netanyahu. A nonmilitarized Palestinian state would probably be formally denied heavy weapons like tanks and planes, while maintaining ground forces of some sort (clearly necessary, at the very least, to maintain public order). Yet, apart from the fact that demilitarization agreements have a history of crumbling—let alone in the volatile and violence-ridden Middle East—even modestly armed Palestinian forces on the mountain ridge overlooking Israel’s coastal plain could make life intolerable for the country. They could do so by:

    More here

The Nug strikes back

As I understand it Ted Nugent schools another liberal on gun control....again


What is Obummer reading.......?


I never saw this pic until a few days ago.  I have stated on many occasions that the mainstream media carried his water for him during the elections.



Senator Obama Reading Post-American World-Truth! & Fiction!
Summary of the eRumor: 
An eRumor titled "What's Obama Reading?" with a photo of Barack Obama holding the book, "Post-American World" by Fareed Zakaria.   The eRumor  implies that Obama  is a Muslim, that he is the most liberal nominee to run in history and that this book predicts the end of the United States.

The Truth: 
This short eRumor prompts several questions:
1. If this photo authentic or fabricated?
2. Is Obama the most liberal nominee to ever run for president?
3. Is the book, he’s holding in the picture, which is titled The Post-American World, a scary book written by a Muslim?
4. If it is written by a Muslim, does that make him a “fellow” to Barack Obama.
Let’s take this one question at a time.
1. The photo is authentic and according to a  New York Times Book Blog written May 21, 2008 the original photo was taken by Doug Mills for the New York Times was taken of Barack Obama in Bozeman, Montana.
2. Whether Barack Obama is the most liberal person to ever run for president is a matter of opinion but he is proudly liberal and has ranked as one of the most liberal among senators. The National Journal uses 99 key Senate votes each year to classify Senators and ranked Obama as the most liberal in 2007.
 
3. The Post-American World was written by Fareed Zakaria who is an editor at Newsweek International, has a regular column in Newsweek, Newsweek International and the Washington Post. He also hosts the weekend CNN program on international affairs, Fareed Zakaria GPS.  He was reared Muslim in India but is an American citizen and describes himself as “not a religious guy.”  In a 2008 Newsweek article about his book, Zakaria wrote, "The post-American world is naturally an unsettling prospect for Americans, but it should not be. This will not be a world defined by the decline of America but rather the rise of everyone else. It is the result of a series of positive trends that have been progressing over the last 20 years, trends that have created an international climate of unprecedented peace and prosperity."
 
4. There is no evidence that Barack Obama is Muslim although critics attempted to make that an issue in his 2008 presidential campaign. CLICK HERE for TruthOrFiction.com’s article on that issue.
Click here for New York Times blog
Click for Newsweek article on Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria
updated 10/16/08

A real example of the eRumor as it has appeared on the Internet:

This will (should) open your eyes.     What does Obama read
The name of the book Obama is reading is titled: The Post-American World, written by a fellow Muslim.   Post-America?  After America?   Scary.... !!!!!!!!!  Please forward this picture to everyone you know to expose Obama's radical ideas and intent for this country! Thanks!

Its a bird..it is a plane...it is the cost of obummercare



Employers whom the president peevishly ordered to "step up and start hiring" got more economic bad news yesterday when a study found that medical care will rise 8,5% next year, due in no small part to (surprise!) Obamacare.

The study cited three key causes adding to the cost increases. The first is the consolidation of more hospitals and physicians to meet government requirements... which reduces competition
and thus raises prices. The second is the increasing dependence on private insurance companies to make up the difference to hospitals and doctors for the habitual underfunding of Medicare (which is slated for $500 billion in cuts under Obamacare) and Medicaid. And as the insurance companies' costs go up, so do the premiums charged to employers.

The third reason is a significant increase in recession-related "stress-induced illnesses," which oddly seem to have skyrocketed since Barack Obama took control of the economy.

But it would be unfair of Hope n' Change to focus only on the areas in which Obamacare is causing costs to go up. So in the interest of journalistic integrity, we need to note that another
study has shown that many emergency rooms will not be charging more for their services in the future.

Unfortunately, it's because they're going out of business at a frightening rate... especially those emergency rooms which are most dependent on getting reimbursement from the government.
And as a result, the remaining emergency rooms must serve more patients, causing longer waits and allowing less attention.

If employer healthcare costs continued to rise at 8.5% a year as they are expected to in 2012, it would be catastrophic for the job market - but experts say that won't happen.

When Obamacare takes full effect in 2014, it will be much worse.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Ray Stevens Obummer budget video

Ray Stevens is a stnger that comes out of Nashville, I remember listening to " the Streak"  and Shriners and many other songs that were gut busting funny, now has a new video that 'splains the obummer budget plan.

Here is a classic

The 4th Amendment died today.......

What I am about to say I must make a caveat.  My dad is a police officer, some of my friends are police officers  Most of the police I know are what I call " Old School Police" the ones that treat the public with respect and serve their community to make a difference, and deal with some real crappy people and crappy situations.  I have done ride alongs and the adrenaline rush is awesome.    This rant isn't directed at them.  I have also dealth with pricks with badges, the ones that view having a badge as a power trip.  This is usually an affliction of the young ones that have something to prove and are insecure.  This rant is more directed at them.

 The 4th amendment took a major hit.  I was starting to believe that we were getting our freedoms back with the successes we have had in the past few years with the 2nd amendment.  Now we have this going on, how much longer before we have the police "drop" by to see how things are going in our houses.  This goes back to old English law, the DEFENCE of your home?  this is bringing back the days of serfdom where the king or one of his agents can drop by for no reason, barge in and you have to accept this as normal?   What is next?  First night*?  This is crap this is our government wanting to become our political master where we are at the beck and call of our betters.  Where all we do is work and provide a revenue stream for our political elites and favored political groups.and they can live off our blood, sweat and tears.   I fear that it will turn ugly as more  police decide to *drop* in for a visit for unconstitutional  reasons.  There are still enough people that will not accept this and there will be more news in the papers and other medium about shootouts with the police.  How many people will have to pay before the American people will scream "ENOUGH" and fight to restore the republic.   I don't know if that is possible anymore with the state the voting public.

Supreme Court rules that the 4th can be turned off and on at will by the police....

.Here is the obituary

8-1 with Ginsburg being the only dissenting vote.

Sad day in Amerika.

Indiana ruled last week that you have no right to defend yourself against the cops.  You get to take it to court after the fact (assuming you survive) and hope for a remedy in your favor there.

Pima County, Arizona Sheriff's SWAT Deputies said that they pulled up to Jose Guerena's house with lights and sirens blaring to do a drug investigation.  That statement defies logic.  He grabbed his AR to defend his family.  Never even got the safety off.  71 rounds fired by the police in approximately 7 seconds.  They left him lying for over an hour while he bled out.  Para-Medics were on the scene within 2 minutes but weren't allowed to help him for "security" reasons.  He had served two tours in Iraq and one in A'Stan with the Marines.  Google his name and start reading.  It'll make you sick.  Oh yeah, his wife and 4 year old son were present.   Something fishy here.

Does anyone else see a problem with any of this?  This is fucked up.


* First night is where the noble has the option of visiting the newly married bride and sleeping with her first before her husband can.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

New investments.

I got this from Here

 

Consumers and Investors Seek Protection With Guns and Gold

leadimage
05/09/11 Laguna Beach, California – Even after last week’s steep selloff in the commodities markets, the “Flight to Safety” trade is still on…big time. Gold may have retreated from its all-time high, but applications to purchase a handgun continue soaring to record levels.
According to the FBI, background-check applications for handgun buyers are on a record-setting pace so far this year. “In this year’s first quarter,” Bloomberg News reports, “the FBI’s Instant Criminal Background Check System processed 4.25 million requests on prospective gun buyers – up 16% from a year earlier.” If the current pace continues, the number of “gun checks” would hit a seventh straight annual record.
Background Checks on Prospective US Firearms Buyers
America’s gun-buying craze stands in stark contrast to the dismal trend of overall consumer spending. Bloomberg notes that spending on guns, ammo and other sporting equipment rose about 10% during the last 12 months – or more than four times the 2.5% increase in total consumer spending. Although spending on guns and ammo has been outpacing total consumer spending for more than a decade, the gun-buying trend has been accelerating during the last few months.
US Consumer Spending on Guns and Ammo vs. Childcare vs. Overall Consumer Spending
Meanwhile, Wal-Mart CEO, Mike Duke, observes that the retail giant’s “core shoppers” are “running out of money much faster than a year ago.” Since many of Wal-Mart’s core shoppers live paycheck to paycheck, they typically do most of their shopping at the beginning of the month…and less of it at the end. “Purchases are really dropping off by the end of the month, even more than last year,” Duke says. “This end-of-month [purchases] cycle is growing to be a concern.”
This troubling trend is not just a Wal-Mart thing. As a retailer that averages 140 million shoppers per week to its US stores, Wal-Mart’s “concern” is also the American economy’s concern. Wal-Mart is, as CNNMoney puts it, “a barometer of the health of the consumer and the economy. Wal-Mart has struggled with seven straight quarters of sales declines in its stores.”
Maybe that’s why Wal-Mart announced last week that it would resume selling guns and ammo in many of its stores – ending a five-year hiatus. (Handguns will not return to Wal-Mart shelves, but rifles and other “long guns” will, according to a recent press release).
Your California editor is not certain that America’s “gun boom” (pun only partially intended) means something, but he suspects it doesn’t mean nothing. Roughly 14 million Americans – about one in twenty – tried to buy a handgun last year. Another 16 million will shop for a sidearm this year. These 16 million folks certainly do not share identical motives for their purchases, but they do share an identical objective: to arm themselves. They are buying handguns in record numbers because they are feeling uneasy in record numbers.
It would be easy to dismiss the “gun boom” as an irrelevant cultural curiosity…if it wasn’t so seemingly relevant. Investors are also “arming themselves” in record numbers. They are buying gold and silver and oil and almost any other commodity under the sun. At the same time, they are also unloading US dollars in exchange for almost any other currency under the sun. The Norwegian kroner, Swiss franc, Aussie dollar and Canadian dollar are all trading near all-time highs against the US dollar.
Something serious is going on here. America’s economic recovery may be much weaker than advertised, while her economic vulnerability may be much greater than widely believed.
Confident citizens do not usually buy record amounts of guns and gold.

Archery Story

An archery story somebody sent me 

 

 

Around age 10 my dad got me one of those little bad-ass compound bow beginner kits. Of course, the first month I went around our land sticking arrows in anything that could get stuck by an arrow. Did you know that a 1955 40 horse Farmall tractor tire will take 6 rounds before it goes down?
Tough sumbich..

That got boring, so being the 10 yr. old Dukes of Hazard fan that I was, I quickly advanced to taking strips of cut up T-shirt doused in chainsaw gas tied around the end and was sending flaming arrows all over the place.

One summer afternoon, I was shooting flaming arrows into a large rotten oak stump in our backyard. I looked over under the carport and see a shiny brand new can of starting fluid (Ether). The light bulb went off in my head...

I grabbed the can and set it on the stump. I thought that it would probably just spray out in a disappointing manner. Let’s face it, to a 10 yr old mouth-breather like myself, (Ether), really doesn't "sound" flammable.

So, I went back into the house and got a 1 pound can of pyrodex (black powder for muzzle loader rifles).

At this point, I set the can of ether on the stump and opened up the can of black powder. My intentions were to sprinkle a little bit around the (Ether) can but it all sorta dumped out on me. No biggie, a 1 lb. pyrodex and 16 oz (Ether) should make a loud pop, kinda like a firecracker you know?

You know what? Screw that I'm going back in the house for the other can.

Yes, I got a second can of pyrodex and dumped it too. Now we're cookin'.

I stepped back about 15 ft and lit the 2 stroke arrow. I drew the nock to my cheek and took aim. As I released I heard a clunk as the arrow launched from my bow. In a slow motion time frame, I turned to see my dad getting out of the truck... OH S--T! He just got home from work. So help me God it took 10 minutes for that arrow to go from my bow to the can. My dad was walking towards me in slow motion with a WTF look in his eyes. I turned back towards my target just in time to see the arrow pierce the starting fluid can right at the bottom. Right through the main pile of pyrodex and into the can. Oh S--t.

When the shock wave hit it knocked me off my feet. I don't know if it was the actual compression wave that threw me back or just reflex jerk back from 235 fricking decibels of sound. I caught a half a millisecond glimpse of the violence during the initial explosion and I will tell you there was dust, grass, and bugs all hovering 1 ft above the ground as far as I could see. It was like a little low to the ground layer of dust fog full of grasshoppers, spiders, and a worm or two.

The daylight turned purple. Let me repeat this... THE FRICKING DAYLIGHT TURNED PURPLE.

There was a big sweetgum tree out by the gate going into the pasture.
Notice I said "was". That son-of-a-b--ch got up and ran off..

So here I am, on the ground blown completely out of my shoes with my
Thundercats T-Shirt shredded, my dad is on the other side of the carport
having what I can only assume is a Vietnam flashback: ECHO BRAVO CHARLIE YOU'RE BRINGIN' EM IN TOO CLOSE!! CEASE FIRE. DAMN IT CEASE FIRE!!!!!

His hat has blown off and is 30 ft behind him in the driveway. All windows on the north side of the house are blown out and there is a slow rolling mushroom cloud about 2000 ft. over our backyard. There is a Honda 185 3 wheeler parked on the other side of the yard and the fenders are drooped down and are now touching the tires.

I wish I knew what I said to my dad at this moment. I don't know - I know I said something. I couldn't hear. I couldn't hear inside my own head. I don't think he heard me either... not that it would really matter. I don't remember much from this point on. I said something, felt a sharp pain, and then woke up later. I felt a sharp pain, blacked out, woke later....repeat this process for an hour or so and you get the idea. I remember at one point my mom had to give me CPR. and Dad screaming "Bring him back to life so I can kill him again". Thanks Mom.

One thing is for sure... I never had to mow around that stump again, Mom had been bitching about that thing for years and dad never did anything about it. I stepped up to the plate and handled business.

Dad sold his muzzle loader a week or so later. I still have some sort of bone growth abnormality, either from the blast or the beating, or both.


I guess what I'm trying to say is, get your kids into archery. It's good
discipline and will teach them skills they can use later on in life.

Ok, archery, or EOD Trainee or something...

Monday, May 16, 2011

Newspaper article

I saw this in a newspaper, I think it was the New York Times.  I was surprised to see this FULL page ad. and was very impressed.  I believe that the national debt will ruin this country in the long run unless spending is controlled.  We don't have a revenue problem...we have a SPENDING problem.

                                                   

Friday, May 13, 2011

Airplane oops Audio

Here is the audio from the A380 striking the CRJ

Airplane oops

This happened when an Airbus A380 from airfrance  bumped a CRJ that is operated by a Comair a Delta airlines  regional jet.  This happened at JFK.   I wonder how the crew and passengers handled it on the CRJ.

            

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

More Airplane stuff

Here is my favorite airplane taking off on a runway.

More Airplane stuff

I found this on youtube, a C130 landing on a carrier the U.S.S. Forrestal...very interesting video.

I heard that the Herky Bird can land anywhere....this video confirms it.

Here we go again....

Wonder if Barney Franks will get a bonus.......since his penis de jour I mean his companion works for fannie mae....We don't seem to learn....Defination of insanity...doing the same thing every time and expecting different results each time...OR

SSDD  Same shit....Different day

Angry neighbour who lives beside mosque erects 'Bomb Making Next Driveway' sign on front lawn

Some neighbours are just never going to get along.
And there won't be much discussion of the weather over the garden fence down down in the Buffalo suburb of Amherst.
There, Muslim leaders are enraged that the homeowner next door to their mosque has posted a provocative sign on his front lawn.
Michael Heick has advised passers-by: 'Bomb Making Next Driveway'.
Next door is the entrance to the Jaffarya Centre.
Loud and clear: The sign which has upset Muslims in the Jaffarya Centre mosque beside Michael Heick's house in East Amherst in Buffalo
Loud and clear: The sign which has upset Muslims in the Jaffarya Centre mosque beside Michael Heick's house in East Amherst in Buffalo
Heick put up the sign last weekend because he was frustrated with how the mosque and town officials handled his complaints that its light were too bright.
'The place is too close. I don't care what people think. It doesn't matter what people think,' he told the Buffalo News.
'This is a way to get answers now. I get none from the town. The intent was to catch the eye of the people who I have a problem with.'
However, Commissioner of Building Thomas Ketchum rejected Heick's allegation as 'absolutely false.'
He told WGRZ TV that outstanding issues had caused him to issue a conditional certificate of occupancy for the mosque.
Frustrated: Michael Heick put up the sign last weekend because he was unhappy with how the mosque and town officials handled his complaints that its lights were too bright
Frustrated: Michael Heick put up the sign last weekend because he was unhappy with how the mosque and town officials handled his complaints that its lights were too bright
It allows the building to be occupied but under the condition that code violations are corrected.
Heick, for his part, insisted the sign was not directed at a particular group.
'It does not say what driveway. It doesn't say "at the mosque",' he said. 'If they feel it's at them, that's how they feel.'
Mosque officials said the sign's message is offensive and that Heick hasn't responded to their requests for a meeting.
'I would really think it's an incitement of hatred against Muslims,' said Dr. Syed Jaffri, an Amherst psychiatrist and member of the mosque's board of trustees.
Next door: The Jaffarya Center is yards from Mr Heick's home. Officials there have called the sign 'offensive' and say that their neighbour hasn't responded to their requests for a meeting
Next door: The Jaffarya Center is yards from Mr Heick's home. Officials there have called the sign 'offensive' and say that their neighbour hasn't responded to their requests for a meeting
'Law enforcement should take it very seriously. Tomorrow, somebody could say, Oh they have weapons", and people believe it.'
Mubarak Abidi, mosque president, said he called Amherst police over the weekend about the sign and was told its posting wasn't illegal.
'They said there's nothing in the law that we can do anything about this sign,' he said.
Heick wants the mosque to erect a six-foot barrier before any fences can be mended.

Barbarians inside the gate.....

I got this from UK online, What happens in England will eventually happen here.  They have a big immigrant problem, they have a large muslim population, some imported, others that are local.  Most are radical and live off the large and generous welfare provisions, and contribute little or nothing to their host country.  They have a 7th century mindset in an internet generation, so they are always angry and they use anger and intimidation to cow the larger Christian populations that have been indoctrinated with political correctness.  Why do we let these barbarians inside the gate?  I keep wondering if this is what Rome went through with the huns and goths?  I remember reading my history, that Rome would buy off the barbarians, but in the end Rome was sacked and Western Civilization entered the dark ages for almost 800 years.  My experience before 9/11 with muslims was during my time in the U.S. Army, When I was in Germany, we would have turks screw with us because they didn't like us.  Like I really cared what they thought.  But they had this habit of trying to stab G.I in the ass with the switchblade, must be a cultural thing like counting coup or something.  I have cracked several in the head with a German beer stein.    But then I went to the Gulf and the Saudi's were excellent host.  Then 9/11 happened and the time since, I wonder of the American muslims believe in the American way of life, or is their loyalty is to a religion that is still based on the 7th century. 

On this day of all days! Hundreds of militant Muslims stage mock funeral for Bin Laden outside U.S. embassy in London... as relatives of 7/7 terror attack victims weep at inquest just three miles away


  • Radicals warn 'it is only a matter of time' before another atrocity
  • EDL member burns Bin Laden effigy among extremist Muslims
A protest by hundreds of Osama Bin Laden supporters sparked fury outside the US Embassy in London today as they staged a mock 'funeral service' for the terror leader.
Police stepped in to separate the protesters and members of the English Defence League amid threats of violence from both sides.
Radicals carrying placards proclaiming 'Islam will dominate the world' branded US leaders 'murderers' and warned vengeance attacks were 'guaranteed'.
Protesters argue with police officers as they attempt to regain control of the situation in central London
Protesters argue with police officers as they attempt to regain control of the situation in central London
Muslim protesters clash with police outside the American Embassy in London
Muslim protesters clash with police outside the American Embassy in London
For many, it was a shock that the protest was allowed to go ahead in the first place as it came shortly after the verdict into the 7/7 inquest was released by Lady Justice Heather Hallett.
She recorded that the 52 victims had been 'unlawfully' killed when four terrorists attacked three London Underground trains and a bus in 2005.
Read more Here 

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Are Conservatives anti-intellectuals?

I got this from The Resistance

One of the most recent statements made of Conservative or the Tea Party members is that they are “anti-intellectual,” or against the “educated class.”   It has been said enough for me to think that it is a leftist talking point, so it therefore bears examining.  While such a statement might be made about populist movements, I cannot say that this is at all true here.
I say that because the founders were intellectuals.  They were leaders in society.  Franklin was a publisher.  Jefferson was an inventor.
Here are the rest of them.
  • At the time of the convention, 13 men were merchants: Blount, Broom, Clymer, Dayton, Fitzsimons, Shields, Gilman, Gorham, Langdon, Robert Morris, Pierce, Sherman, and Wilson.
  • Six were major land speculators: Blount, Dayton, Fitzsimons, Gorham, Robert Morris, and Wilson.
  • Eleven speculated in securities on a large scale: Bedford, Blair, Clymer, Dayton, Fitzsimons, Franklin, King, Langdon, Robert Morris, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, and Sherman.
  • Twelve owned or managed slave-operated plantations or large farms: Bassett, Blair, Blount, Butler, Carroll, Jenifer, Jefferson, Mason, Charles Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Rutledge, Spaight, and Washington. Madison also owned slaves, as did Franklin, who later freed his slaves and was a key founder of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society. Alexander Hamilton was opposed to slavery and, with John Jay and other anti-slavery advocates, helped to found the first African free school in New York City. Jay helped to found the New York Manumission Society and, when he was governor of New York in 1798, signed into law the state statute ending slavery as of 1821.
  • Broom and Few were small farmers.
  • Eight of the men received a substantial part of their income from public office: Baldwin, Blair, Brearly, Gilman, Livingston, Madison, and Rutledge.
  • Three had retired from active economic endeavors: Franklin, McHenry, and Mifflin.
  • Franklin and Williamson were scientists, in addition to their other activities.
  • McClurg, McHenry, and Williamson were physicians, and Johnson was a college president.
Many of these men were from the top of American society.  I can see no angry mobs full of ignorant rednecks there.
Most of them participated in the Constitutional Convention, and what these men did was far reaching.    They recognized individual freedoms that government does not grant, but has an obligation to protect.  They intentionally made the government small, with limits on its powers, in order to avoid tyranny.  And, they made the smallest and the largest of us equal in the eyes of the law.  The small illiterate farmer had the same rights as the wealthy merchant or landowner.  (Note that at no time was the illiterate farmer eligible to confiscate part of the merchant’s wealth, but that is another story).  In so doing, the founders created a means by which the illiterate farmer, or perhaps his children, might rise through work or knowledge, to assume another role or place in society.  This equality of opportunity lead to The Unites States becoming the nation with the greatest innovation, wealth, and prosperity in human history.  History is driven by individuals; those who have the right idea at the right time-those that choose to act instead of follow. Our system allows those people to be heard, and removes obstacles to their legal actions.
I will say that we are against is elitism.  The founders created the nation, and while many went into (at times) government service at various levels, many others went back to work, or back to the farm.  They left us to manage our own lives, without the tyrannical interference of government.  On the other hand, our current elites crave power, and seek to wield that power in order to dictate most aspects of our lives.  The elites sneer at the common man, or others that offer a dissenting opinion.  They believe that they have a right to govern based on their education and so-called enlightenment.  They believe that they alone are endowed with the knowledge with which to manage our education, careers, salaries and wages, diets, housing, transportation, energy consumption, childrearing, media consumption, medical care, retirements, and so on.  They believe that our Constitution, based on a small government and individual freedoms, is outmoded and in need of re-interpretation.  They believe that we are far too foolish and short sited to deal with our problem.  In fact, how many times have we read that we are acting against our own self-interests?  When we choose freedom, and the responsibility that comes with it, the elites view us as foolish and petulant children that are in need of ridicule and the “loving” guidance of the all powerful nanny state.
To clarify the overall issue, Conservatives and allied groups respect education, and recognize its importance.  We want the education that prepares the individual for a role in our Constitutional Republic.  We want education that is locally controlled and not subject to political forces in Washington DC and state capitols.  We want education that teaches children how to read, write, and do mathematics. We want education that teaches children how to think independently by taking information and using logic to solve problems.  We want education that teaches our system of government, as well as our history, flaws and mistakes included.  We want education that teaches children how to recognize their own power as individuals.   The elites wants children to know how to put condoms on fruit, to be immersed in social justice and other fallacies of the left.  The elites want an educational product that belongs to the socialist/fascist herd, and looks to the elites for guidance.  They seek a mindless drone, not an individual. The results of elitist intervention in education are seen in high illiteracy, low graduation rates, and an exceedingly poor return for the monies invested.
In the end, Conservatives are not against education or intellectualism.  Intellectuals founded our Republic, and we need educated individuals to help maintain it.  We are against elitism-those who would use intellect, deception, and acquired power to deprive us of our individual liberties.

In addition to the recent announcement by DC comics that Superman will soon renounce his U.S. citizenship, this mass culture hero's reconnection with his Progressive roots will usher in other remarkable changes.

Out: Truth, Justice, and The American Way.
In: Diversity, Social Justice, and The Progressive Way.

Out: Superman.
In: Super Non-Gender-Specific Person.

Out: Fortress of Solitude.
In: Fortress of The Collective (offering sanctuary to other illegals).

Out: Justice League.
In: International Justice Union of Public Service Superheroes.

Out: Good vs Evil.
In: More nuanced, less judgmental view.

Out: Crime fighting.
In: Superpowers to be used only to save the earth from capitalism and bad choices.

We have already seen the ascendancy of the progressive Superhero in the White House, and now we will have one in the skies above. It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Super Non-Gender-Specific Person! He/her/it is here to protect us from ourselves and America's villains - Rush, Palin, Beck, and Breitbart.
~


Frustrated with the limits on Obama's powers, progressives long for a leader with dictatorial authority. Superman is just the ticket - an unstoppable enforcer of environmental regulations and healthcare legislation. There won't be a damn thing those teabaggers can do about it.

In COMPLETELY UNRELATED news, Clark Kent, formerly of the Daily Planet, has been named editor-in-chief at The New York Times.

     I got this from http://thepeoplescube.com/

it is only legal if the gov't does it.....

A Great Retirement at Thirty Years Old - Happy Anniversary!


I'm not talking about anyone retiring at thirty even though I tried to hook you in with that headline. Instead I'm talking about the thirtieth anniversary of a social security system that actually works and (unlike the one we suffer with in the USA) will never go bankrupt.

I'm talking about a successful government system which is not a Ponzi scheme but a retirement savings plan that the people actually own and which has a rate of return which makes the US Social Insecurity system's (merely theoretical) return look pitiful by comparison.

This year, on May 1st, Chile celebrated the birth of it's privatized Social Security System. They were the first of some thirty other rational countries to "just say no" to government Ponzi schemes which were headed for default and say yes to a privately held, government regulated retirement system that has not only out-performed all expectations but befuddled the leftist naysayers who cannot stand the idea that any system that isn't administered by elite government central planners can succeed in aiding ordinary people in providing a great retirement for themselves.

According to an article in the http://www.investors.com/
"In 2005, New York Times reporter John Tierney worked out his own Social Security contributions on the Chilean model and found that his privatized pension would have been $53,000 a year plus a one-time payout of $223,000. The same contributions paid into Social Security would have paid him $18,000."

The return on investment since inception for the Chilean system; "Over the last three decades these accounts have averaged annual returns of 9.23% above inflation. By contrast, U.S. Social Security pays a 1% to 2% (theoretical) return, and even less for new workers."

Of course as any even semi-informed citizen of this country knows, there is no Social Security Fund with any real assets in it for American people. The money has already been spent buying votes from the people who put the money in in the first place. The "Fund" is just an accounting device "account" full of government IOUs promising to print enough paper dollars to satisfy the claims of those who have paid in all their lives. (Until 2037 anyway, when even those Tooth Fairy promises also run dry.)

As part of the law the people in Chile actually own their own accounts as private property, just like your 401k or IRA accounts in this country.

In a world where American "progressives" are constantly comparing the US to other countries to see if they can find a way to denigrate our way of life, they forgot to compare us to the thirty-ish other countries who have come to their senses and left America in the dust on this one.

 It's enough to make you wonder what the climate is like in Chile.

Labor Studies...

As it stated in my profile I was a former Ford Motor Company employee and I was in a union and was a committeeman with that same union.  I believe back in the day unions served a purpose to safeguard the workers  from injuries and make reasonable request for compensation.  When I was a union rep, I occasionally  would help somebody, but normally I dealth with the same people over and over again, those that wanted to get paid good union wages and not work.  I had a problem with that, as a shop steward I had to defend these people but as a Ford Employee and a stockholder I wished the company would do a better job of firing them.  I also had major issues with the way that the union was in lockstep with the democratic party.  They would come over to us , say platatudes about workers and we as a union would shower them with money and help, but they were more in tune with the environmental wingnuts what would legislate our jobs out of existance.  I used the argument, "read Gore's book"EARTH IN THE BALANCE" that he advocated legislating the automotive industry out of business.  I couldn't understand the blind devotion to a political party that wanted to kill our jobs and our livelihood.
      I saw this on biggovernment.com


My name is Philip Christofanelli. I was a student in the University of Missouri’s “Introduction to Labor Studies” course.  The class was taught simultaneously by Professor Don Giljum of University of Missouri-Saint Louis (UMSL) and Professor Judy Ancel of University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) through the use of a live video feed that linked the two classrooms. The class met every other Saturday for seven hours, including breaks. All of the classes were recorded and put on the class website.
Class slide by Prof. Judy Ancel instructing students on how to "re-frame" messages for "State Battles" against right-to-work legislation in Missouri and elsewhere
   Here is the link.......long story but a good read.

Have we learned our lesson yet?.....

Just something to remember:

"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have."

Thomas Jefferson


      One of the people who commented on my prior posting about the budget, had stated that the politicians are trying to gather up potential voters.  it was a very good comment left so I figured I would post on something that I have espoused in the past, but never posted.
    In the beginning of the republic we had part time legislatures on session.  Here in GA we have the gold dome posse meet for 40 days to handle the states business.  We in GA know that for 40 days the hookers will be busy with them and since they are in session for 40 days, they cannot cause too much mischief.
    Now we have full time busy bodies in DC trying to justify their salaries and benefits by trying to pass all kinds of laws and regulations to fill in their time while they are getting paid and have lobbyist wine and dine them with booze and women trying to promote their pet agenda.  We need to have our congress back home to really get the pulse of their state rather than the skewed view they get in DC in the strange atmosphere that resides there.
     And since I am ranting I will mention another belief, I believe that we need to restrict the voter requirements.  Now I will take a page out of Robert E Heinlein on Starship Troopers, that only citizens can vote and only way to be a citizen is to serve military, but I would expand it for those that cannot serve in the military for health reasons, that they serve in another capacity on the red cross or something along that line.  If you are willing to lay your life down if it is necessary to do so, than you will have the ability to look at the interest of society as a whole rather than your own interest.
            Alexander Tyler wrote the following quote:
       
A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:
  • From bondage to spiritual faith;
  • From spiritual faith to great courage;
  • From courage to liberty;
  • From liberty to abundance;
  • From abundance to selfishness;
  • From selfishness to complacency;
  • From complacency to apathy;
  • From apathy to dependence;
  • From dependence back into bondage.
 I believe that we are in the apathy/complacency stage.


     This was written by Alexander Tyler, An Englishman, people think that it was written about the United States, actually it was written back in the 18th century to discuss the fall of the Athenian Republic.
  And I have fear for our republic and what kind of nation that we as a society will leave for our children

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Now that OBL is dead, lets focus back on the budget.

I borrowed this rant from "American Mercenary" an awesome website and I check it every couple of days.  It is worth a bookmark.
     
With the modern media having the attention span of a chihuahua on crack distracted by the latest "oooh, shiny" story to come along, the death of OBL, a few things have conveniently been forgotten by the empty talking heads.

The budget crisis.  It truly is a crisis.  Our debt to GDP ratio is passing the point of now return, and that means (historically) that we are going into insolvency.


Project Gunwalker.  I want to know the truth.  Who suggested it, who thought it was a good idea, and who ran with the ball once it got approval.


I want to know our exit plan from Libya.


But I am mainly concerned about the budget.  Yes China will have a blue water carrier group soon.  I don't care.  We have wasted ourselves on welfare spending and cannot afford to oppose China.  We cannot afford to oppose China.  We cannot afford to oppose China.  We could NUKE China, but only because the cost of ICBM's is already "sunk" so to speak.  But to anyone who can sit down and look at the numbers, China has already one simply by holding our debt.


Seriously, the most pressing issue in our nation for the last two decades has been the national debt.  Our debt payments to China already cover the vast majority of their military spending.  By 2015 our debt payments to China will cover 100% of their military spending (if they keep it at current funding levels).


Do you really think that there will be a huge market for American fighter planes when they can buy a Chinese fighter with the same capabilities for half the cost?  How many F-35 wunderplanes will we sell against Chinese J-20s? 


Folks, the game is over the clock just hasn't run out yet.  As a nation we lack the will to do what is necessary to stay in the game.  What would it take?  We would have to cut spending and stop paying on the debt.  But more parasites care about getting something from "the rich" or "those evil corporations" than putting a check on Chinese aggression.  Don't tell me that 3% can make a difference when 52% voted for Obama.


We have become (formerly) Great Britain.  We have a generational welfare class that can trace it's beginning to FDR.  We have a highly professional military that is a fraction of what it once was (some traditions die harder than others).  We see free speech dieing to "tolerance" and "diversity".  We see the President getting involved in a "beer summit" over a local matter.


We no longer have rule of law.  Soon it will be more about "who you know" than whether you are right or wrong, and when law is not respected law will become worthless.  Which means that owning a gun will become a crime (because anyone who can resist lawlessness must be eliminated for the lawless to stay in power). 


And I am a .gov employee, I know that I am as much a parasite on the system as any other.  I would love to delude myself and say that I serve the American people, but I don't.  I get a paycheck to enforce the orders of the President through funding appropriated by Congress.  I'm about as far removed from the will of the American people as you can get.


/rant off


I guess the real question is not whether or not you are prepared to survive the collapse, but are prepared to build something from the ashes?  Because right now the words of "Locomotive Breath" are coming back to haunt me..."Ol' Charley stole the handle, and the train it won't stop going no way to slow down." is a pretty accurate summation of our unstoppable Brownian motion towards collapse.  By the end of the song the chorus changes to "Thank God he stole the handle, and the train it won't stop going no way to slow down" as the inevitable crash approaches.


Maybe someday another Gibbon will write "The Decline and Fall of the American Empire."


 

FAA Gives Ruling Class Special Treatment

I got this from one the airplane blogs that i follow, here is the 

Linkie 

 

FAA Gives Ruling Class Special Treatment

By Scott Spangler on April 25th, 2011 FAA-LogoAir traffic control has been under the magnifying glass of late, with most recent incident being the loss of separation between Michelle Obama’s C-40 (Boeing 737) and a C-17 cargo plane. I’m puzzled. Numerous reports, including the story in the Washington Post, said ATC managers “were unaware of the potential problem.” Tell me, did the FAA do away with the computer snitch that goes off with any loss of standard separation?
But I digress from my intended point: how the FAA addressed the situation that, I’m told by friends and acquaintances who are air traffic controllers, is neither rare nor dangerously frequent. ATC supervisors will now back up the computer snitch (assuming it’s still in place) by overseeing the controllers who handle the departure and approach of any airplane that carries the first lady or vice president. I’m sure congressmen are next to receive this special treatment.
One of them already has. Remember when Jim Inhofe, the republican senator from Oklahoma, landed his twin-engine Cessna last year on a closed runway at Texas’ Cameron County Airport? Through a Freedom of Information Act request, .thesmokinggun.com got the FAA documents about the incident. In short, Inhofe saw the big yellow X but decided to land anyway, scattering the construction crew at work on the pavement.
But that’s not the ugly part. If you or I had done this, the FAA would have lifted our tickets without hesitation, justifying this action with a long list of violations. What did Inhofe get? Before you answer, remember that Inhofe supports aviation in Congress and represents the state that’s home to the FAA training center and airman-medical certification branch.Yup, contrary to the orders guiding FAA inspectors, Inhofe got remedial training.
I,http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/04/did-sen-inhofe-get-off-easy-chapter-and-verse-updated/237402/ which were provided by one of his readers. The key section of the thorough explanation is this, from the FAA Order covering remedial training: “Deliberate, willful violations, which involve gross negligence, recklessness, recidivism, or flagrant disregard of [the FARs], shall continue to be handled by the imposition of strong, legal enforcement actions. This is clearly an area where remedial training is inappropriate and would be ineffective.”
Safety is the FAA’s primary job, and enforcement is one of the tools it employs to maintain it. To the masses the FAA preaches one level of safety; like being pregnant or dead, either you are or you’re aren’t. And if you break the rules, you pay the documented price. Just ask the ATC guys who have lost their jobs, or soon will, for losing the battle with the sleep monster. So why don’t we get the same level of safety and enforcement as the people we’ve elected to work for our common good? When it comes to safety, aren’t we worth as much as they are? And shouldn’t they play by the same rules they enforce on us? –Scott Spangler