Friday, January 30, 2015

The origins of coffee...

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 brewed drink 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.

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Last 747 off the assy line might be the new Air Force One.....And the Democrats pick up an endorsement...



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.
His point?

“This necessarily means working with the Democratic Party,” 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

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner
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.

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Certain Police organizations trying to ban a traffic app.....

   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.

Related Quotes

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.

Monday, January 26, 2015

"You Make Loving Fun" by Fleetwood Mac. Monday Music

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 Billboard Pop 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"



Saturday, January 24, 2015

"Some favors come at too high a price"



   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.


Vir gets what he wants

And this was the clip that started it all:

Friday, January 23, 2015

If I was the royalty in Saudi Arabia I would be thinking "Aw crap"

  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.
   We live in interesting times........

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

camping and shooting....or shooting and camping......

   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.

Monday, January 19, 2015

Monday Music Sammy Hagar "I can't drive 55", and a busy weekend.

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.





    

Friday, January 16, 2015

A German pilot saves an American B-17 crew (WWII)

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

    

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Ever wonder where that phrase came from...?


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.