As those that frequent my little corner of the internet, probably have gathered from the name of my blog...that I love coffee, I don't drink, smoke, dabble in recreational pharmaceutical or drink soda. The only vice I have is coffee and I don't consider it a 'vice". Well the inspiration for the name of my blog came from my brother. He didn't even realized it. I was over visiting him and he gave me a cup of "Kona" coffee.....Man that stuff was awesome and every time I went over there, I would pick up a few bags from the PX and bring it back with me in my suitcase since I couldn't get "Hawaiian Isles" Kona coffee except at some snooty coffee house in midtown. I am a bit of a coffee snob.
Coffee is a breweddrink with a distinct aroma and flavor, prepared from roasted coffee beans, the seeds found inside "berries" of the Coffea plant. Coffee plants are cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia, India and Africa. The two most commonly grown are the highly regarded arabica, and the less sophisticated but stronger and more hardy robusta. The latter is resistant to the coffee leaf rust, Hemileia vastatrix,
but has a more bitter taste. Once ripe, coffee beans are picked,
processed, and dried. Green (unroasted) coffee beans are one of the most
traded agricultural commodities in the world. Once traded, the beans
are roasted to varying degrees, depending on the desired flavor, before being ground and brewed to create coffee.
My Coffee mug in the morning
I work at a place where the coffeemakers are running 24 hours a day 7 days a week, coffee serves as both a morning drink to wake people up...remember the caffeine? and a social lubricant. People would get their morning coffee(or afternoon or night) depending on the shift and sip their coffee and B.S with their colleagues, it reaffirms the social bonds of the crew. This happens all over the world and that is a good thing.
This would be my workplace if decaffeinated coffee(dirt) was introduced.
Ever notice how their slogans are all the same theme of some magical
path to utopia? The Great Leap Forward, Lean Forward, The Shining Path,
Yes We Can, The Red Banner, Hope And Change, etc, etc. It's all the same crap about social justice and equality and all they do is make
everyone equally miserable. The Hillary pics are compliments of "google" and the 747 pics are in my blogfolder
John Bachtell,
chairman of the National Committee of the Communist Party USA, said in a
lengthy essay for “People’s World” that America needed a third
political party committed to uphold labor — but until that time comes,
communists ought to work with Democrats, especially in the coming
elections.
Labor has already found a home with the Democratic Party, and the Communist Party would be hard-pressed to draw this voting bloc away at this time, Mr. Bachtell wrote on the “People’s World” website.
So the logical course then is to assist Democrats now with an eye on the long-term, he said, The Daily Caller reported.
“It’s true both parties are dominated by Wall Street interests … [but] the Democratic Party
is also home to labor, African Americans, Latinos, other communities of
color, women, most union members, young people and a wide range of
social and democratic movements … [and] labor and other key social
forces are not about to leave the Democratic Party anytime soon,” Mr. Bachtell wrote.
He also made clear the communist goal wasn’t to “build the Democratic Party,” but rather “the broad people’s movement led by labor that utilizes the vehicle of the Democratic Party to advance its agenda.”
And
the way to do that, he said, was to grab the support of those “people
that can help shape election contours and debates … [and] building
movements in the electoral arena.”
One
of the world’s most exclusive customers could be the last buyer of the
aircraft that democratised long-haul air travel after the US defence
department selected Boeing’s 747-8 to be the US president’s new Air Force One.
The fleet of presidential aircraft, due to enter service later this
decade, could be among the very last passenger versions of the long-haul
aircraft to be built because airlines increasingly favor two-engine
long-haul aircraft over four-engine craft
The
new aircraft will replace a pair of 747-200s that came into service as
the presidential aircraft in 1990, during the presidency of George HW
Bush. The type became an all but inevitable choice after the Pentagon
decided that the presidential aircraft needed to have four engines. The
only other currently manufactured four-engine long-haul jet is Airbus’s
A380, manufactured in France.
The Pentagon announced on Wednesday that it planned to award the contract on a “sole-source” basis
to Boeing after negotiation but that it would encourage competition
between suppliers to equip the aircraft interior. The Pentagon specified
neither precisely how many aircraft it would order nor when they would
enter service.
Boeing currently has 24 passenger 747-8s and 12 747-8F freighters on order but has been struggling according to analysts to win new orders for the aircraft. It has slowed production to three every two months.
“The presidential aircraft is one of the most visible symbols of the
United States of America and the office of the president of the United
States,” Deborah Lee James, the secretary of the air force, said. “The
Boeing 747-8 is the only aircraft manufactured in the United States that
... meets the necessary capabilities established to execute the
presidential support mission.”
Richard Aboulafia, an analyst with the Virginia-based Teal Group,
said there was a possibility that Boeing would close the 747 production
lines — which have been rolling since the late 1960s — after the
presidential aircraft rolled off.
Boeing points to robust aircraft orders
Boeing
on Wednesday expressed confidence in the prospects for its $440bn
commercial aircraft order book, saying that lower oil prices would not
deter customers that have ordered record numbers of its new, more
fuel-efficient models to reduce their fuel bills, writes Robert Wright.
“There is the risk now that this order provides the opportunity for a graceful exit — unless cargo demand comes roaring back,” Mr Aboulafia said.
Loren Thompson, an analyst at the Virginia-based
Lexington Institute, said airlines increasingly favoured twin-engine
aircraft such as Boeing’s 777 and 787 for long-haul routes, rather than larger, four-engine aircraft.
“Airlines prefer to have more flexibility,” he said.
The presidential order would provide a fitting end to production of
an aircraft type that helped sharply to reduce the cost of long-haul air
travel by accommodating up to 490 passengers on a single aircraft,
bringing down costs per seat. The aircraft first flew in February 1969.
However, Boeing insisted on Wednesday it was still seeking other orders for the aircraft.
“We continue to pursue campaigns for both the 747-8 Intercontinental and freighter,” it said.
The announcement came on the same day that Boeing announced better than expected full-year results that had sent its shares up 5.4 per cent to $139.64 by close of trading.
I saw this on Yahoo Finance, I am slightly annoyed, I am a big believer in this app, it is the only app that I use all the time. Everytime I drive, I use this app, it is nice to know what is going down the road. This app has saved me numerous times from bad traffic and the occasional revenue generation speed traps and I swear by it. I have equated this app to driving with twitter.
I am annoyed that several police groups are wanting to remove this feature and they are citing "officer safety" for the reason. I understand the possible concern but they are rolling out that term for everything, and I and many others are getting"officer safety" burnout. it is used to excuse any and all police interaction with the public that usually results in a citizen getting shot, beaten or harassed. Usually the perp deserves it by doing something stupid, but there are many examples of police overreacting and it is all over you-tube. And the supervisors excuse it by "Officer Safety" and the police that break the rules get a "get out of jail free" card. The average person is starting to resent the double standard that this will entail.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sheriffs are
campaigning to pressure Google Inc. to turn off a feature on its Waze
traffic software that warns drivers when police are nearby. They say one
of the technology industry's most popular mobile apps could put
officers' lives in danger from would-be police killers who can find
where their targets are parked.
Waze,
which Google purchased for $966 million in 2013, is a combination of
GPS navigation and social networking. Fifty million users in 200
countries turn to the free service for real-time traffic guidance and
warnings about nearby congestion, car accidents, speed traps or traffic
cameras, construction zones, potholes, stalled vehicles or unsafe
weather conditions.
To Sergio Kopelev, a reserve deputy sheriff in Southern California, Waze is also a stalking app for law enforcement.
There
are no known connections between any attack on police and Waze, but law
enforcers such as Kopelev are concerned it's only a matter of time.
They are seeking support among other law enforcement trade groups to
pressure Google to disable the police-reporting function. The emerging
policy debate places Google again at the center of an ongoing global
debate about public safety, consumer rights and privacy.
Waze
users mark police presence on maps without much distinction other than
"visible" or "hidden." Users see a police icon, but it's not immediately
clear whether police are there for a speed trap, a sobriety check or a
lunch break. The police generally are operating in public spaces.
A Waze spokeswoman, Julie
Mossler, said the company thinks deeply about safety and security. She
said Waze works with the New York Police Department and others around
the world by sharing information. Google declined to comment.
"These relationships keep citizens safe, promote faster emergency response and help alleviate traffic congestion," Mossler said.
Google has a
complicated relationship with government and law enforcement. The
company worked closely with the Obama administration to defend itself
against hacking by China's government, and it is regularly compelled to
turn over to police worldwide copies of emails or other information
about its customers. Last year, after disclosures that the National
Security Agency had illicitly broken into Google's overseas Internet
communication lines, Google and other technology companies rolled out
encryption for users, which the U.S. government said could hamper law
enforcement investigations. Also last year, Google and other companies
sued the U.S. to allow them to more fully disclose to customers details
about how much information they were required to hand over each year.
Sheriff
Mike Brown of Bedford County, Virginia, said the police-reporting
feature, which he called the "police stalker," presents a danger to law
enforcement.
"The police
community needs to coordinate an effort to have the owner, Google, act
like the responsible corporate citizen they have always been and remove
this feature from the application even before any litigation or
statutory action," said Brown, who also serves as the chairman of the
National Sheriffs Association technology committee.
Nuala
O'Connor, head of the Center for Democracy and Technology, a Washington
civil liberties group, said it would not be appropriate for Google to
disable the police-reporting feature.
"I
do not think it is legitimate to ask a person-to-person communication
to cease simply because it reports on publicly visible law enforcement,"
she said. She said a bigger concern among privacy advocates is how much
information about customers Waze shares with law enforcement, since the
service necessarily monitors their location continually as long as it's
turned on.
Brown and
Kopelev raised concerns during the meeting of the National Sheriffs
Association winter conference in Washington. They pointed to the
Instagram account of the man accused of shooting two NYPD officers last
month. Ismaaiyl Brinsley posted a screenshot from Waze on his Instagram
account along with messages threatening police. Investigators do not
believe he used Waze to ambush the officers, in part because police say
Brinsley tossed his cellphone more than two miles from where he shot the
officers.
Kopelev said he
hadn't heard about the Waze app until mid-December when he saw his wife
using it. Afterward, Kopelev said he couldn't stop thinking about the
app and was motivated to act by the NYPD shooting. While attending the
funeral of one of the officers in New York, he spoke with Brown, his
former boss. Brown asked Kopelev to discuss Waze at the upcoming
sheriffs' association conference. Kopelev refers to his efforts as his
"personal jihad."
The executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, Jim Pasco, said his organization has concerns, too.
"I
can think of 100 ways that it could present an officer-safety issue,"
Pasco said. "There's no control over who uses it. So, if you're a
criminal and you want to rob a bank, hypothetically, you use your Waze."
This
is not the first time law enforcement has raised concerns with these
types of apps. In 2011, four U.S. senators asked Apple to remove all
applications that alert users to drunken driving checkpoints. Nokia
removed the sobriety check tracking function of one of the most popular
apps, Trapster, according to Trapster founder Pete Tenereillo. Trapster
was eventually discontinued at the end of last year due to Waze's
popularity.
I was busy as heck this weekend doing Klondike, I ran the first ever archery range, The order of the Arrow lodge here in council ever did. They host this event every January and it is a round robin of demonstration and competition of scout skills and spirit. I ran the event as the patrols showed up, I would tell them" Pick the best shooter amongst y'all to represent your patrol and troop." So I only had 20 minutes per cycle. There would be 6 boys shooting 3 arrows each, one at a time since there is only 1 bow. No warmup and using the equipment furnished by council, the equipment is worn from the thousands of boys using it so the results are as much luck as skill. Nothing like adding some variety in it. Then the last event was the scout leaders shooting. Man this event wrecked a few ego's. The skilled ones missed the target and the one that won the event with 6 points was achieved by luck. The leaders bantered about themselves in good spirit, but the competitive was there.
We did our "call out" for the new members to join the lodge, the boys are supposed to vote for the ones amongst themselves that best typifies the belief in selfless service. My son was "called out" for induction into the order of the Arrow.
Ordeal After being elected or nominated, candidates may participate in a
call-out ceremony to recognize those Scouts and Scouters that were
selected before they attend their Ordeal. The call-out ceremony may be
performed at summer camp, a camporee, a call-out weekend or at a unit
meeting. Candidates subsequently participate in an Ordeal, intended to
emphasize service and selflessness during the induction, "candidates
maintain complete silence, receive small amounts of food, work on camp
improvement projects, and are required to sleep alone, apart from other
campers, which teaches significant values." If they succeed in their ordeal the candidates are then welcomed as Ordeal members in a formal Ordeal Ceremony.
I am very proud of my son because he was selected by his troop and he is a good kid whom I hopes will be a good man one day. The order of the Arrow is a different part of the Boy Scout experience and it compliments it greatly. The pride I felt was difficult to express.
Now on to my Monday Music, I was driving home and I was debating what music to do on my blog, I had my radio on XMSIRIUS and I normally have it on the "80's" channel which is "8", but I also listen to stuff from the 70's and 90's. Well I had it on the 70's channel and this song came on and it was Fleetwood Mac, one of my favorite all time bands. Normally Stevie Nicks does the vocals, but Christine McVie did the vocals, and she is no slouch either. She has an excellent voice and really does a number on this song. I have this album on vinyl, and CD. It is a good what I call "Roadtrip" album. All of the songs are good.
"You Make Loving Fun" is a song written and sung by Christine McVie of the British-American band Fleetwood Mac. It was released as the fourth and final 45 rpm single from the band's album Rumours in 1977; its fourth top-ten hit from Rumours, it peaked at number nine on the BillboardPop Singles Chart.
The song was inspired by an affair McVie had with Curry Grant. "To avoid flare-ups", she told her then-husband John McVie that the song was about her dog; he found out later what it was really about.
Early tracking of the song was done, according to McVie, in the absence of Lindsey Buckingham,
which allowed her the freedom to "build the song on my own". The
recording sessions were saturated with cocaine use. Buckingham played
rhythm guitar (through a Leslie) and tracking was done with a Fender Rhodes, Nicks playing tambourine. John McVie's bass was rerecorded again later, and Mick Fleetwood and Christine McVie dubbed Hohner Clavinet parts. In an interview with the New York Post she remarked that she wanted it to be the third US single from the album, but instead "Don't Stop" was chosen, which boosted the album's commercial success in the US and the UK.
"You Make Loving Fun" was a concert staple for Fleetwood Mac and was
played during every tour involving Christine McVie from 1976 until 1997,
a year before McVie's departure from the band and retirement from
touring. It has since been revived for Fleetwood Mac's 2014-2015 tour
when McVie rejoined the band.
This is a live performance of the band and song back in 1977. This was before they started realizing that music video's can be used to better market the song and get it better exposure. I kinda prefer the live performances of the 70's music for you really see how the bands were like back then.
I will also include the 1997 performance during the reunion tour and live album "the Dance"
This will be on the scheduler since I will be camping this weekend doing Klondike. I will do a quick post on "some favors come at too high a price". This came to me while I was at work and the video came to mind so I would tie it to a post and a quick explaination.
Since I am a hardcore fan of of Babylon5 and this is one of the most popular phrases from the show and it talks about the cost of accepting favors from other people without understanding their motives for granting you a favor, Youy might think that you and your partners are working on the same problem but they may have a different reason for assisting you and in the long run this will cause you more problems in the future than the initial favor might have helped you with.
I believe that this is the problem that is prevalent in Washington D.C. You get there wanting to help but you get subverted by the promise of glory, perks, and bennies and before you know it, you have sold your soul to the establishment and they own you. Where is the freedom then? Sure you have the perks and bennies...but you have lost your soul and your integrity....You have lost your good name. When we all cross over and do the accounting with Saint Peter at the pearly gates for our actions they will have to explain themselves. All you take with you is your name...all the other stuff stays behind...all the perks, money and bennies stay down on earth.
Well I will have a few pithy comments, I am going camping again with the boy Scouts this weekend. It almost feels like the U.S. Army where I spend a lot of time in the field.
there is a lot going on in the middle east, and I do squarely blame the President for the chaos in the middle East. It all started with the "Arab Spring" back in 2009 and the President earlier had gone to the University in Cairo and talked about the great reset in U.S and Muslim relations and basically apologized to the world for all the baaaaaaaad things that the United States has done and that the Muslims shouldn't hate us anymore. Right after that the Arab spring erupted, and the President basically had an hands off policy and voiced support for the "people" while long time American allies were besieged by radicals. he supported the radicals/Muslim Brotherhood against Mobarak in Egypt and everywhere else. And when there was an uprising against the mad mullah's in Iran, President Obama was strangely quiet, I think his handler Valerie Jarrett his senior adviser who is Iranian probably told his to not do anything so the pro freedom group in Iran collapsed.
President Obama isn't the only person I blame for the chaos in the middle east, I also blame the Royal House of Saud, they espouse publicly a radical form of Islam called Wahhabism. To keep peace inside the kingdom, they throw a lot of money at the radicals inside their borders to export that sect of Islam to the other places. All these places that where there is grinding poverty and no real education possibilities, they set up these religious schools to educate and indoctrinate the illiterate and the poor. Now those chickens are coming back to roost. also you have the Iranians in the mix, they are wanting to be the power player in the region, and that means getting rid of the United States. It also isn't good that the Soviets Russians recently signed a trade agreement.
Now Saudi Arabia had her king die, they had an assassination on a General in her Army who was visiting the border area, this shows that ISIS had good intel on the movements of the general so that makes me wonder how many have infiltrated her armed services. Also the radicals believe that the House of Saud are corrupt and apostates and not deserving the "honor" of protecting and representing the 2 holiest cities of Islam. The government in Yemen collapsed, and they share the peninsula and the border. the Suez canal and the straits of Hormuz are in danger of being closed up. I can see a major uprising in the kingdom this spring and the price of oil to shoot up. And President Obama will be busy doing his favorite pastime.
I finally got a bit of time to post what transpired this past weekend. I ran a .22 LR Rifle range for a troop that came up from Florida for what they call "Winter Camp". While waiting for the boys to show up, I went ahead and fired my *ahem* .22 LR rifle. I immediately noticed that my Vortex strike fire was dead(Dead battery). So I removed the optical sight and utilized my backup flip sight( that is what it is for) and sighted it in.
Then the boys started showing up, so I had to put up my rifle and start running the range. The boys were a bunch of good kids, very well behaved and they were here just to shoot. I immediately gave them the safety briefing and I specified the 3 "always":
"Always keep the barrel in a safe direction"
"Always keep your finger off the trigger until ready to use"
"Always keep your firearm unloaded until ready to use"
Personally I think the 2nd and 3rd should be switched around on purely technical reasons, but that is the way that the NRA wants the range run.
Well the boys had a lot of fun just wanting to shoot, since there was no "qualifications", I ran a more casual range with more emphasis on letting them shoot rather than lessons.
The boys were using a bunch of bolt action rifles from BRNO CZ. With the way that the B.S.A works, that they usually buy the cheapest rifles on the planet, These rifles were actually very good. For a supposedly cheap rifle, they shot very well. I will get some information on the next time I run a range the model number if somebody is looking for a "cheap" .22 bolt action rifle that handles the abuse well and shoots well.
Well anyway, some of the adult leaders invited my for supper, man I though my troop rolled out in style....this troop came in a big Penske box truck and a trailer....they traveled fully equipped. The adults ate well:
I was soo full, and it was a looooong drive back home Sunday night, for I had to work Monday morning.....I didn't have MLK off.......with the airlines...if you actually touch an airplane...it is a regular work day. I can take the holiday off later for it is a "floating" holiday for us.
The food was totally prepared by ""Dutch Ovens" and it was very good. A good dutch oven cook can make just about anything.
All I can say was that they honored me with their hospitality on Sunday night. The fellowship was why I am a scout leader(Besides helping my son and the other kids).
On a different note, I refused to watch the SOTU address by Obungler, I saw an exerpt of the speech, Free community college....sure create another entitlement...and he couldn't even give any cost. Anything the government touches immediately explodes in cost as the industries involved view the government as the "free money machine", cost and quality be dammed.
He also talked about civility in Washington, then immediately reminded the GOP of the 2 elections that "He" won. civility...right....he only will be civil if the GOP caves to his demand.....and unfortunately with the GOP leadership in place...that is a distinct possibility. he also ran out a bunch of new tax increase proposals to soak the rich some more. I am sure the rich Hollywood liberals and others won mind giving more of their money to the "cause" but the rest of us already believe that we pay too much to support a government that doesn't listen to us and views us as "wage slaves" or sheep to be sheared for our wool, and then eventually slaughtered(Death tax) for the last bits of benefits to the state. The state of the United States is grave, we are in 2 polarizing camps, and the rhetoric and vitriol is getting worse....usually from our friends on the left side of the political landscape.
President Obama was elected in 2008 to be the great uniter of the people, but instead he has polarized relations between all Americans to a point not seen since the 60's. Some of the people that was around back then believe that things are worse now than they were back then.
I fear for my country and I truly don't know how it will go, if we go in fire or just fade away into the dustbin of history.
I am going to do this week Sammy Hagar "I can't drive 55", I spend this weekend at camp working the range and the troop was from central Florida, Troop 787 and they were an absolute joy to run a .22 range for. I will talk about it in a subsequent post.
I have been away from Germany since 1991 and I still can't drive the "dreaded double nickel". I am pleased that they raised the speed limit to 70 on the interstate, I honestly believe that artificially low speed limits are a revenue generation device for the municipality that is running the police in that area.
I do have a funny story to go along with this logo, I had this one on the back window of my 1991 F150 that I had. it was the late 90's and I had a bad day at the Ford Plant and I was on my way home and I was in the left lane doing down I-75 and it was 2:00 in the morning and I saw this car right on my bumper, so I stomped the gas petal and took off. A moment later the car was back and the blue lights came on. I looked at the speedometer and the needle was bouncing off the peg, you know the one that was way past the 85 MPH on the speedometer and I thought "Oh Crap". Well I turned my turn signal on and moved to the far right and onto the shoulder. I looked at my side view mirror and saw 3 police cars.
Yeah kinda like that....Well I turn the truck off and am thinking "I am soo going to jail..." I was going double the speed limit. My record was clean though. Well I saw the police officer with his maglight briefly illuminate the back window of my truck. He then came to the window and I handed him my drivers license and my insurance card. He then asked me "Mr XXXXXX, do you know why I pulled you over..?" I replied "Yes sir, probably speeding." he chuckled and then asked me " Do you know how fast you were going?" I replied in the negative "Sir, I don't think my speedometer went that high." The police officer again chuckled "I tend to agree with you and by the way I do like your can't drive 55 sticker on your back window.....very appropriate..Now you want to tell me why you were going soo fast?". I figured I would be totally honest, and if I am going to jail, it will be for the proper reason. "Well Officer, I had a real bad day at work at the Ford Plant, and I just wanted to get home and pretend that today never happened." The officer nodded, "truthful answer.Now wait in the truck and I will be back." I cringed and slid lower in my seat and mentally playing the phone conversation with the spousal unit "Hey Honey...I am in jail for speeding, can you bail me out?". A few minutes later I saw him coming back and I was thinking.."dang...here I am, fixing to go to jail...Will I have a record? My insurance will skyrocket, and the spousal unit will be pissed." The officer handed me back my license and commented" Do me a favor...don't speed until you get out of my county. Have a nice morning..." I was in a total state of shock....that was the last thing I was expecting. Well I saw 3 cruisers turn off their lights and move back into traffic. I waited a few more minutes then headed home.....and I didn't speed until I got out of the county.
"I Can't Drive 55" was the lead single and first track from Sammy Hagar's eighth studio album VOA
in 1984. Perpetuated by a very successful music video, it became a
concert staple that continued throughout Sammy's tours as a member of Van Halen. The song is a reference to the National Maximum Speed Law in the United States, that originally set speed limits at 55 miles per hour (89 km/h).
It is the 100th song on VH1's 100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs.
"I was in a rent-a-car that wouldn't go much faster than 55 miles an
hour. I was on my way back from Africa. I did a safari for three months
throughout Africa. A really great vacation after Three Lock Box. I was traveling for 24 hours, I got to New York City, changed planes, Albany, New York. Got in a rent-a-car. Had a place in Lake Placid at the time, a little log cabin,
I used to go there and write with my little boy. Aaron, at that time,
went to North Country school when I was on tour. I would go there and
see him. It was a really cool getaway. But it took two and a half hours
to drive there from Albany. And I was driving from Albany, New York
at 2:00 in the morning, burnt from all the travel. Cop stopped me for
doing 62 on a four lane road when there was no one else in sight. Then
the guy gave me a ticket. I was doing 62. And he said, 'We give tickets
around here for over-60.' and I said, 'I can't drive 55.' I grabbed a
paper and a pen, and I swear the guy was writing the ticket and I was
writing the lyrics. I got to Lake Placid, I had a guitar set-up there.
And I wrote that song there on the spot. Burnt."
—Sammy Hagar, 1994
The song's music video was directed by Gil Bettman. The video was shot on location at the Saugus Speedway in Santa Clarita, California.
The song's video includes Sammy and his band being chased and jailed by the California Highway Patrol for traffic violations. The video shows Sammy driving a black Ferrari BB512i which is later tuned up by Sammy's mechanic, Claudio Zampolli.
Claudio was driving the Ferrari during the video's opening shot, where
the Ferrari fish-tails across the speedway. Sammy claims in the
commentary for the video on the DVD, "The Long Road to Cabo" that he
burned out his clutch during the video. Sammy drove a 512, but a 308 was
also used. Sammy claims it cost him $5800 to fix.
A trial scene is presided over by a judge played in a cameo appearance by John Kalodner. The judge's props were borrowed from director Robert Zemeckis, who had filmed the movie, Used Cars.
Sets were built and the video was shot during the summer. There was no
air conditioning in the jailhouse set, so the cast and crew were hot.
The yellow jumpsuit worn by Sammy in the video, can be seen at the New Orleans Hard Rock Cafe. A stuntman was used for Sammy's stunts. An exploding ramp was used to throw Sammy across the courtroom.
The song has been a signature track for Hagar during and after his tenure with Van Halen, and is commonly used on TV programs and commercials related to automotive racing. Most recently, the song was featured in a NAPA Auto Parts commercial, where NASCAR drivers Michael Waltrip and teammate Dale Jarrett
are asking Hagar to keep the noise down during a recording session; in
response, Hagar asked Waltrip if he could drive faster. Waltrip's car
number at the time of the 2007 commercial was #55 and he had failed to
qualify for some races.
In 2001, NBC Sports
had Hagar record a "corrected" version, now known as "I Can't Drive
65," reflecting the common 65 MPH speed limit on freeways, for use
during Budweiser Pole Award presentations on Winston Cup Series broadcasts on NBC and TNT. It was used from 2001 to 2003 during the broadcasts.
The accelerated version of the song was also available as a download for NHL Rivals 2004.
In 2008, Hagar recorded a newer version of the song that was used in NASCAR Dirt to Daytona 2008 called I can't drive 195, reflecting to the speeds used on NASCAR's biggest tracks Daytona and Talladega.
In 2011, the song became the opening theme for ESPN's NASCAR coverage for the 2011 season.
"I can't drive 55" was an achievement and Easter egg found in Forza Motorsport 4 for owning a Ferrari GTO, the car used in the music video.
The song also played in the 1989 science fiction movie Back to the Future Part II.
As many of y'all that checks out my little corner of the internet know that besides 2nd amendment issues, and the various forays about the Obama regime, I talk a lot about history..what can I say...I have been told that I would have been a great history teacher. And yes I considered it at one time. I was would have considered this person:
Richard Mulligan is a mental patient, who through an absurd set of
circumstances, becomes a substitute history teacher. He literally
brings history to life, by dressing up as various figures of history,
and acting out their achievements. He uses different methods to engage
his students and they respond.
Well I ran across this story following a link from Irish. and while surfing this site, I ran across this story and I though it was very good, so I am shamelessly ripping this off. One of the things I liked about the story was the code of the warrior. it is like the code of us veterans, only those that have seen what we have seen and done what we have done understand the code. and the significence
of it.
It’s called the warrior’s code, say soldiers and military scholars.
It’s shaped cultures as diverse as the Vikings, the Samurai, the Romans
and Native Americans, says Shannon E. French, author of “Code of the
Warrior.”
The code is designed to protect the victor, as well as the vanquished, French says.
“People
think of the rules of war primarily as a way to protect innocent
civilians from being victims of atrocities,” she says. “In a much more
profound sense, the rules are there to protect the people doing the
actual fighting.”
The code is designed to prevent soldiers from
becoming monsters. Butchering civilians, torturing prisoners,
desecrating the enemies’ bodies — are all battlefield behaviors that
erode a soldier’s humanity, French says
I will cut and paste the entire article No matter what I tried...I couldn't get the gap out of the article.
The German pilot who took mercy
Revenge, not honor, is what drove 2nd Lt. Franz Stigler to jump into his fighter that chilly December day in 1943.
Stigler
wasn’t just any fighter pilot. He was an ace. One more kill and he
would win The Knight’s Cross, German’s highest award for valor.
Yet
Stigler was driven by something deeper than glory. His older brother,
August, was a fellow Luftwaffe pilot who had been killed earlier in the
war. American pilots had killed Stigler’s comrades and were bombing his
country’s cities.
Stigler was standing near his fighter on a
German airbase when he heard a bomber’s engine. Looking up, he saw a
B-17 flying so low it looked like it was going to land. As the bomber
disappeared behind some trees, Stigler tossed his cigarette aside,
saluted a ground crewman and took off in pursuit.
As Stigler’s
fighter rose to meet the bomber, he decided to attack it from behind. He
climbed behind the sputtering bomber, squinted into his gun sight and
placed his hand on the trigger. He was about to fire when he hesitated.
Stigler was baffled. No one in the bomber fired at him.
He looked
closer at the tail gunner. He was still, his white fleece collar soaked
with blood. Stigler craned his neck to examine the rest of the bomber.
Its skin had been peeled away by shells, its guns knocked out. He could
see men huddled inside the plane tending the wounds of other crewmen.
Then he nudged his plane alongside the bomber’s wings and locked eyes with the pilot whose eyes were wide with shock and horror.
Franz Stigler wondered for years what happened to the American pilot he encountered in combat.
Stigler
pressed his hand over the rosary he kept in his flight jacket. He eased
his index finger off the trigger. He couldn’t shoot. It would be
murder.
Stigler wasn’t just motivated by vengeance that day. He
also lived by a code. He could trace his family’s ancestry to knights in
16th century Europe. He had once studied to be a priest.
A German pilot who spared the enemy, though, risked death in Nazi Germany. If someone reported him, he would be executed.
Yet Stigler could also hear the voice of his commanding officer, who once told him:
“You follow the rules of war for you — not your enemy. You fight by rules to keep your humanity.”
Alone
with the crippled bomber, Stigler changed his mission. He nodded at the
American pilot and began flying in formation so German anti-aircraft
gunners on the ground wouldn’t shoot down the slow-moving bomber. (The
Luftwaffe had B-17s of its own, shot down and rebuilt for secret
missions and training.) Stigler escorted the bomber over the North Sea
and took one last look at the American pilot. Then he saluted him,
peeled his fighter away and returned to Germany.
“Good luck,” Stigler said to himself. “You’re in God’s hands.”
What creates the bond between enemies?
Stigler was able to recognize the common humanity of the enemy when he locked eyes with Brown. It caused him to take mercy.
That
sudden recognition can spring from many sources in battle — hearing the
moans of a wounded enemy; sharing a common language; or opening the
wallet of an enemy and seeing pictures of his wife and children.
That
respect for the enemy’s humanity typically starts at the top, some
scholars say. A leader sets the tone, and the troops get the message. A
military leader who embodied this approach was one of Germany’s greatest
World War II commanders, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, also known as the
“Desert Fox.”
One time, a group of British commandos tried to
sneak behind enemy lines and assassinate Rommel in the North African
desert. They failed. But Rommel insisted the commandos be buried in the
same graveyard as the German soldiers who died defending him, says
Steven Pressfield, author of “Killing Rommel.”
There were battle
zones during World War II where that type of magnanimity was almost
impossible. On the Eastern Front, German and Russian soldiers literally
hated one another. And in the South Pacific, U.S. Marines and Japanese
soldiers took no prisoners.
At times, the terrain can force
soldiers to follow the code. The North African desert during World War
II was one such place, Pressfield says.
Fortunes turned quickly
because so many battles were fought by fast-moving tanks and mobile
units. A German unit that captured British soldiers could end up
surrendering to them minutes later because the battle lines were so
fluid. Also, the desert sun was so harsh that both sides knew if they
left enemy prisoners stranded or mistreated, they would quickly die,
Pressfield says.
Some British and German soldiers never
forgot how their enemy treated them and staged reunions after the war.It
was not unusual for German and British doctors to work together while
taking care of wounded soldiers from both sides, Pressfield says.
“The
Germans and the British used to get together for soccer matches,”
Pressfield says. “It was the Desert Foxes versus the Desert Rats.”
These
soldiers weren’t just engaging in nostalgia. They shared a sense of
hardship. They had survived an ordeal that most people could not
understand.
“In many ways, a soldier feels more of a bond with the
enemy they’re fighting than with the countrymen back home,” Pressfield
says. “The enemy they’re fighting is equally risking death.”
That bond could even lead to acts of loyalty after the war, says Daniel Rolph, author of “My Brother’s Keepers.”
Once,
when a Union officer mortally wounded a Confederate captain during the
Civil War, the Union man sang hymns and prayed with his enemy as the man
took his last breaths. Before the captain died, he asked the Union
officer to return his sword and revolver to his family — a request the
soldier honored after the war ended, Rolph says.
“I even have an
article from The New York Times in 1886 where Union soldiers who were on
the pension rolls of the federal government were actually trying to
transfer their money toward Confederate soldiers,” Rolph says.
These bonds can even form between enemies who do not share a language or a culture.
Harold
Moore Jr. was a U.S. Army colonel who led a desperate fight depicted in
the 2002 Mel Gibson film, “We Were Soldiers Once … And Young. ” In
1965, Moore lost 79 of his men fighting against a larger North
Vietnamese force. It was one of the first major battles in the Vietnam
War.
In 1993, Moore led some of his soldiers back to Vietnam to
meet their former adversaries on the same battlefield. When they
arrived, Moore met the Vietnamese officer who led troops against him,
Lt. Gen. Nguyen Huu An.
Charles Brown, with his wife, Jackie (left), found peace after his reunion with Franz Stigler, with his wife, Hiya.
An held out his arms and greeted Moore by kissing him on both cheeks. Moore gave him his wristwatch as a token of friendship.
Moore described in an essay what happened next:
“I invited all
to form a circle with arms extended around each other’s shoulders and we
bowed our heads. With prayer and tears, we openly shared our painful
memories.”
An died two years after meeting Moore. Moore traveled
to Vietnam to pay his respects to his former enemy’s family. While
visiting their home, Moore spotted a familiar object displayed in the
viewing case of An’s family shrine: It was his wristwatch.
As he watched the German fighter peel away that December day, 2nd Lt.
Charles Brown wasn’t thinking of the philosophical connection between
enemies. He was thinking of survival.
He flew back to his base in
England and landed with barely any fuel left. After his bomber came to a
stop, he leaned back in his chair and put a hand over a pocket Bible he
kept in his flight jacket. Then he sat in silence.
Brown flew
more missions before the war ended. Life moved on. He got married, had
two daughters, supervised foreign aid for the U.S. State Department
during the Vietnam War and eventually retired to Florida.
Late in
life, though, the encounter with the German pilot began to gnaw at him.
He started having nightmares, but in his dream there would be no act of
mercy. He would awaken just before his bomber crashed.
Brown took on a new mission. He had to find that German pilot. Who was he? Why did he save my life?
On
January 18, 1990, Brown received a letter. He opened it and read:He
scoured military archives in the U.S. and England. He attended a pilots’
reunion and shared his story. He finally placed an ad in a German
newsletter for former Luftwaffe pilots, retelling the story and asking
if anyone knew the pilot.
“Dear Charles, All these years I wondered what happened to the B-17, did she make it or not?”
It
was Stigler. He had had left Germany after the war and moved to
Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1953. He became a prosperous
businessman. Now retired, Stigler told Brown that he would be in Florida
come summer and “it sure would be nice to talk about our encounter.”
Brown
was so excited, though, that he couldn’t wait to see Stigler. He called
directory assistance for Vancouver and asked whether there was a number
for a Franz Stigler. He dialed the number, and Stigler picked up.
“My God, it’s you!” Brown shouted as tears ran down his cheeks.
Brown
had to do more. He wrote a letter to Stigler in which he said: “To say
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU on behalf of my surviving crewmembers
and their families appears totally inadequate.”
The two pilots would meet again, but this time in the lobby of a Florida hotel.
One
of Brown’s friends was there to record the summer reunion. Both men
looked like retired businessmen: they were plump, sporting neat ties and
formal shirts. They talked about their encounter in a light, jovial
tone.
The mood then changed. Someone asked Stigler what he thought
about Brown. Stigler sighed and his square jaw tightened. He began to
fight back tears before he said in heavily accented English:
“I love you, Charlie.”
Years later, author Makos says he understands why Stigler experienced such a surge of emotions.
Stigler
had lost his brother, his friends and his country. He was virtually
exiled by his countrymen after the war. There were 28,000 pilots who
fought for the German air force. Only 1,200 survived, Makos says.
“The
war cost him everything,” Makos says. “Charlie Brown was the only good
thing that came out of World War II for Franz. It was the one thing he
could be proud of.”
The meeting helped Brown as well, says his oldest daughter, Dawn Warner.
They met as enemies but Franz Stigler, on left, and Charles Brown, ended up as fishing buddies.
Brown
and Stigler became pals. They would take fishing trips together. They
would fly cross-country to each other homes and take road trips together
to share their story at schools and veterans’ reunions. Their wives,
Jackie Brown and Hiya Stigler, became friends.
Brown’s daughter says her father would worry about Stigler’s health and constantly check in on him.
“It wasn’t just for show,” she says. “They really did feel for each other. They talked about once a week.”
As his friendship with Stigler deepened, something else happened to her father, Warner says:
“The nightmares went away.”
Brown
had written a letter of thanks to Stigler, but one day, he showed the
extent of his gratitude. He organized a reunion of his surviving crew
members, along with their extended families. He invited Stigler as a
guest of honor.
During the reunion, a video was played showing all
the faces of the people that now lived — children, grandchildren,
relatives — because of Stigler’s act of chivalry. Stigler watched the
film from his seat of honor.
“Everybody was crying, not just him,” Warner says.
Stigler
and Brown died within months of each other in 2008. Stigler was 92, and
Brown was 87. They had started off as enemies, became friends, and then
something more.
Makos discovered what that was by accident while
spending a night at Brown’s house. He was poking through Brown’s library
when he came across a book on German fighter jets. Stigler had given
the book to Brown. Both were country boys who loved to read about
planes.
Makos opened the book and saw an inscription Stigler had written to Brown: In
1940, I lost my only brother as a night fighter. On the 20th of
December, 4 days before Christmas, I had the chance to save a B-17 from
her destruction, a plane so badly damaged it was a wonder that she was
still flying. The pilot, Charlie Brown, is for me, as precious as my brother was. Thanks Charlie. Your Brother, Franz
This is a gift idea for that neighbor.....you know the one that is "Odd"
or "Just ain't right"
Ever wonder where some of those old sayings come from? I saw this while surfing the internet. The pics are compliments of "Google".
A SHOT OF WHISKEY:
In the old west a .45 cartridge for a six-gun cost
12 cents. So did a glass of whiskey. If a cowhand was low on cash he
would often give the bartender a cartridge in exchange for a drink.
This became known as a 'shot' of whiskey.
THE WHOLE NINE YARDS:
American fighter planes in WWII had machine guns that
were fed by a belt of cartridges. The average plane held belts that were
27 feet (9 yards) long. If the pilot used up all his ammo he was said
to have given it the whole nine yards.
BUYING THE FARM:
This is synonymous with dying. During WWI soldiers were given life insurance policies worth $5,000.
This was about the price of an average farm so if you died you "bought the farm" for your survivors.
IRON CLAD CONTRACT:
This came about from the ironclad ships of the Civil War. It meant something so strong it could not be broken.
PASSING THE BUCK/THE BUCK STOPS HERE:
Most men in the early west carried a jack knife made by
the Buck knife company. When playing poker it as common to place one of
these Buck knives in front of the dealer so that everyone knew who he
was. When it was time for a new dealer the deck of cards and the knife
were given to the new dealer. If this person didn't want to deal he
would "pass the buck" to the next player. If that player accepted then
"the buck stopped there".
RIFF RAFF:
The Mississippi River was the main way of traveling from
north to south. Riverboats carried passengers and freight but they were
expensive so most people used rafts. Everything had the right of way
over rafts which were considered cheap. The steering oar on the rafts
was called a "riff" and this transposed into riff-raff, meaning low
class.
COBWEB:
The Old English word for "spider" was "cob".
SHIP STATE ROOMS:
Traveling by steamboat was considered the height of
comfort. Passenger cabins on the boats were not numbered. Instead they
were named after states. To this day cabins on ships are called
staterooms.
SHOWBOAT:
These were floating theatres built on a barge that was
pushed by a steamboat. These played small town along the Mississippi
River. Unlike the boat shown in the movie "Showboat" these did not have
an engine. They were gaudy and attention grabbing which is why we say
someone who is being the life of the party is "showboating".
OVER A BARREL:
In the days before CPR a drowning victim would be placed
face down over a barrel and the barrel would be rolled back and forth in
an effort to empty the lungs of water. It was rarely effective. If you
are over a barrel you are in deep trouble.
BARGE IN:
Heavy freight was moved along the Mississippi in large
barges pushed by steamboats. These were hard to control and would
sometimes swing into piers or other boats. People would say they
"barged in".
HOGWASH:
Steamboats carried both people and animals. Since pigs
smelled so bad they would be washed before being put on board. The mud
and other filth that was washed off was considered useless "hog wash".
CURFEW:
The word "curfew" comes from the French phrase
"couvre-feu" which means "cover the fire".
It was used to describe the time of blowing out all lamps
and candles. It was later adopted into Middle English as "curfeu" which
later became the modern "curfew". In the early American colonies
homes had no real fireplaces so a fire was built in the centre of the
room. In order to make sure a fire did not get out of control during
the night it was required that, by an agreed upon time, all fires would
be covered with a clay pot called-a "curfew".
HOT OFF THE PRESS:
As the paper goes through the rotary printing press
friction causes it to heat up. Therefore, if you grab the paper right
off the press it is hot. The expression means to get immediate
information.
A SQUARE MEAL:
Comes from old wooden sailing ships, where a sailor was
served his meal on a square plate that fit in a set of wooden angles on a
table so it wouldn't slide off during rolling seas.
A THREE DOG NIGHT:
In old England on a very cold night it was common to
allow a dog to sleep in bed with you for extra warmth. If it was
extremely cold night, it was called a THREE DOG NIGHT.
POSH:
An acronym from early English passenger vessels. As there
was no air-conditioning in those days, the out-bound (north to south)
leg exposed the summer afternoon sun to the starboard side of the ship
making those staterooms much warmer than the port side rooms. This was
reversed on the leg home. Wealthy passengers were allowed to change
sides of the ship to be more comfortable, so their tickets read: Port
Out; Starboard Home, and was abbreviated as P.O.S.H., which now denotes
very comfortable quarters.
BARRELS OF OIL:
When the first oil wells were drilled they had made no
provision for storing the liquid so they used water barrels. That is
why, to this day, we speak of barrels of oil rather than gallons.
FALLEN OFF THE WAGON:
The expression refers to the water wagons used to
sprinkle water on the streets to keep the dust down. During the times of
Prohibition in the 19th century, men often climbed onto these wagons
and took an oath they would give up alcohol and drink only water. This
gave rise to the expression to be on the water cart/wagon; it was later
shortened to on the wagon. When these individuals broke their pledge
and started hitting the bottle again, they were said to have fallen off
the wagon.
