Batman vs Darth Vader

I like stuff like this, I am  nerd at heart.   Batman and Capt America are my favorites, Batman because he is a regular human not a super being, but he uses his intelligence and abilities to do what he does.  To me Capt America represents the ideals of the United States.  Both are willing to do whats is necessary but remaining true to their moral code.  

Monday Music "Don't fear the reaper" by Blue Oyster Cult

Just came back from camping.....again. We have finished the 1st weekend of NYLT (National Youth Leadership Training), It is referred as the scout "Woodbadge" course.    I am looking to labor day holiday as no other reason than I am home for the weekend.  I will be leaving shortly for an overnight company business trip and will return Tuesday evening.

I remembered hearing this song in the 70's then forgot about it and heard it again on a rock station here in Atlanta in 1991 right after I returned from the Gulf and was working at Kawneer ( a defunct door manufacturing facility in Jonesboro, shuttered in the late 90's.  I got laid off in 1992 when they went from 2 shifts to one)  I was driving to work and this song came on and you know when you hear something it kinda sticks in your brain.   Well this song did that,  I went out and bought the CD.  I consider it a very good driving song that is played loud. 

"(Don't Fear) The Reaper" is a song by the American rock band Blue Öyster Cult from their 1976 album, Agents of Fortune. It was written and sung by the band's lead guitarist, Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser and was produced by David Lucas, Murray Krugman, and Sandy Pearlman. The song is built around Dharma's opening, repetitive guitar riff, while the lyrics deal with eternal love and the inevitability of death. Dharma wrote the song while picturing an early death for himself.
Released as an edited single, the song was Blue Öyster Cult's biggest chart success, reaching #7 in Cash Box and #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 in late 1976. Additionally, critical reception was mainly positive and, in 2004, "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" was listed at number 405 on the Rolling Stone list of the top 500 songs of all time.

"I felt that I had just achieved some kind of resonance with the psychology of people when I came up with that, I was actually kind of appalled when I first realized that some people were seeing it as an advertisement for suicide or something that was not my intention at all. It is, like, not to be afraid of it (as opposed to actively bring it about). It's basically a love song where the love transcends the actual physical existence of the partners."

 — Buck Dharma, lead singer

The song is about the inevitability of death and the foolishness of fearing it, and was written when Dharma was thinking about what would happen if he died at a young age. Lyrics such as "Romeo and Juliet are together in eternity" have led many listeners to interpret the song to be about a murder-suicide pact, but Dharma says the song is about eternal love, rather than suicide. He used Romeo and Juliet as motifs to describe a couple believing they would meet again in the afterlife. He guessed that "40,000 men and women" died each day, and the figure was used several times in the lyrics.

Mojo described its creation: "'Guys, this is it!’ engineer Shelly Yakus announced at the end of the first take. ‘The legendary once-in-a-lifetime groove!’ … What evolved in the studio was the extended solo section; it took them nearly as long to edit the five-minute track down to manageable length as it did to record it."
The song features prominent use of the cowbell percussion instrument, overdubbed on the original recording. Bassist Joe Bouchard remembered the producer requesting his brother, drummer Albert Bouchard, play the cowbell: "Albert thought he was crazy. But he put all this tape around a cowbell and played it. It really pulled the track together." However, producer David Lucas says that he played it, a claim supported by guitarist Eric Bloom

                                                                        Live Version 1977
 The song was on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for 20 weeks, reaching number 12 for the weeks beginning November 6 and November 13 in 1976. It was BÖC's highest-charting U.S. song and helped Agents of Fortune reach number 29 on the Billboard 200. "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" charted even higher in Canada, peaking at number 7. It was not released as a single in the UK until 1978, where it reached number 16 on the UK Singles Chart.

                                                                  2002 Video
In 1976 Rolling Stone named "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" the song of the year and, in 2004, the magazine placed the song at number 397 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time";however, the 2010 version of the list moved the song down to number 405. In 1997 Mojo listed the song as the 80th best single of all time, while Q ranked "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" number 404 in its 2003 countdown of the "1001 Best Songs Ever.

                                                                          "More Cowbells"
The song was memorialized in the April 2000 Saturday Night Live (SNL) comedy sketch "More cowbell." The six-minute sketch presents a fictionalized version of the recording of "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" on an episode of VH1's Behind the Music. Will Ferrell wrote the sketch and played Gene Frenkle, an overweight cowbell player. "Legendary" producer Bruce Dickinson, played by Christopher Walken, asked Frenkle to "really explore the studio space" and up the ante on his cowbell playing. The rest of the band are visibly annoyed by Frenkle, but Dickinson tells everyone, "I got a fever, and the only prescription--is more cowbell!" Buck Dharma thought the sketch was fantastic and said he never gets tired of it

Graf Zeppelin, the only carrier that the Nazi's had.

 

  This Post took a couple of days to do, between work, sleep and work..you know how it goes.  I remembered reading about this on wiki a year or so ago.  I decided to do a post on something that didn't relate to politics but to history, something that I am a fan of.  When I was looking at the pics of the Graf, I could see the similarities with the Japanese designs but with a German twist.  I found out that the Germans had gone to Japan to examine the Japanese carrier Akagi, and the designs bear this out.  I dug out references from several location from google and "Wiki" to show pics and information on the German carrier.  The fate of the Graf showed me that the Germans suffered from "Tactical" mindset and not strategic planning.  Their equipment designs and combat tactics reflected this mindset.  If the Germans had gotten their capital ships going, the battle of the Atlantic might have had a different outcome.

The Graf Zeppelin-class aircraft carriers were four German Kriegsmarine aircraft carriers planned in the mid-1930s by Grand Admiral Erich Raeder as part of the Plan Z rearmament program after Germany and Great Britain signed the Anglo-German Naval Agreement. They were planned after a thorough study of Japanese carrier designs; nevertheless, German naval architects ran into difficulties due to lack of experience in building such vessels, the situational realities of carrier operations in the North Sea and the lack of overall clarity in the ships' mission objectives. This lack of clarity led to features either eliminated from or not included in American and Japanese carrier designs. These included a complement of cruiser-type guns for commerce raiding and defense against British cruisers. American and Japanese carriers, designed along the lines of task-force defense, used supporting cruisers for surface firepower, which allowed flight operations to continue without disruption and kept carriers out of undue risk of damage or sinking from surface action.
A combination of political infighting between the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe, disputes within the ranks of the Kriegsmarine itself and Adolf Hitler's waning interest all conspired against the carriers. A shortage of workers and materials slowed construction still further and, in 1939, Raeder reduced the number of ships from four to two. Even so, the Luftwaffe trained its first unit of pilots for carrier service and readied it for flight operations. With the advent of World War II, priorities shifted to U-boat construction; one carrier, Flugzeugträger B, was broken up on the slipway while work on the other, Flugzeugträger A (christened Graf Zeppelin) was continued tentatively but suspended in 1940. The air unit scheduled for her was disbanded at that time.
The role of aircraft in the Battle of Taranto, the pursuit of the German battleship Bismarck, the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Battle of Midway demonstrated conclusively the usefulness of aircraft carriers in modern naval warfare. With Hitler's authorization, work resumed on the remaining carrier. Progress was again delayed, this time by the demand for newer planes specifically designed for carrier use and the need for modernizing the ship in light of wartime developments. Hitler's disenchantment with the performance of the Kriegsmarine's surface units led to a final stoppage of work. The ship was captured by the Soviet Union at the end of the war and sunk as a target ship in 1947.

Graf Zeppelin is launched, 8 December 1938.

After 1933, the Kriegsmarine began to examine the possibility of building an aircraft carrier.^[1] Wilhelm Hadeler had been Assistant to the Professor of Naval Construction at the Technical University of Berlin for nine years when he was appointed to draft preliminary designs for an aircraft carrier in April 1934. Hadeler's first design was a 22,000-long-ton (22,000 t) ship that could carry 50 aircraft and steam at 35 knots (65 km/h; 40 mph). The Anglo-German Naval Agreement, signed on 18 June 1935, allowed Germany to construct aircraft carriers with total displacement up to 38,500 tons, though Germany was limited to 35% of total British tonnage in any category of warship. The Kriegsmarine then decided to scale back Hadeler's design to 19,250 long tons (19,560 t), which would permit the construction of two ships within the 35% limit.
The design staff decided that the new carrier would need to be able to defend itself against surface combatants, which necessitated armor protection to the standard of a heavy cruiser. A battery of sixteen 15 cm (5.9 in) guns were deemed sufficient to defend the ship from destroyers. In 1935, Adolf Hitler announced that Germany would construct aircraft carriers to strengthen the Kriegsmarine. A Luftwaffe officer, a naval officer, and a constructor visited Japan in the autumn of 1935 to obtain flight deck equipment blueprints and inspect the Japanese aircraft carrier Akagi. The Germans also unsuccessfully attempted to examine the British carrier HMS Furious.
The keel of Graf Zeppelin was laid down on 28 December 1936, on the slipway that had recently held the battleship Gneisenau. The ship was built by the Deutsche Werke shipyard in Kiel. Two years later, Großadmiral (Grand Admiral) Erich Raeder presented an ambitious shipbuilding program called Plan Z which would build up the Kriegsmarine to a point where it could challenge the British Royal Navy in the North Sea. Under Plan Z, by 1945 as part of the balanced force the navy would have four carriers; the pair of Graf Zeppelin-class ships were the first two in the plan. Hitler approved the construction program on 1 March 1939. In 1938, a second carrier, ordered under the provisional name "B", was laid down at the Germaniawerft dockyard in Kiel. Graf Zeppelin was launched on 8 December 1938.
The Graf Zeppelin class's hull was divided into 19 watertight compartments, the standard division for all capital ships in the Kriegsmarine. Their belt armor was to vary from 100 mm (3.9 in) over the machinery spaces and aft magazines, to 60 mm (2.4 in) over the forward magazines and tapered down to 30 mm (1.2 in) at the bows. Stern armor was kept at 80 mm (3.1 in) to protect the steering gear. Inboard of the main armor belt was a 20 mm (0.79 in) anti-torpedo bulkhead.

                                                                                     Graf Zeppelin at Kiel, June 1940, displaying her newly rebuilt bow. Also visible are her 15 cm casemate guns, before their removal to defend occupied Norway. The photo is marked Geheim ("secret").

Horizontal armor protection against aerial bombs and plunging shellfire started with the flight deck, which acted as the main strength deck. The armor was generally 20 mm (0.79 in) thick except for those areas around the elevator shafts and funnel uptakes where thickness increased to 40 mm (1.6 in) in order to give the elevators necessary structural strength and the critical uptakes greater splinter protection. Beneath the lower hangar was the main armored deck (or tween deck) where armor thickness varied from 60 mm (2.4 in) over the magazines to 40 mm (1.6 in) over the machinery spaces. Along the peripheries, it formed a 45 degree slope where it joined the lower portion of the waterline belt armor.
The Graf Zeppelins' original length-to-beam ratio was 9.26:1, resulting in a slender silhouette. However, in May 1942, the accumulating top-weight of recent design changes required the addition of deep bulges to either side of Graf Zeppelin's hull, decreasing that ratio to 8.33:1 and giving her the widest beam of any carrier designed prior to 1942. The bulges served mainly to improve Graf Zeppelin's stability but they also gave her an added degree of anti-torpedo protection and increased her operating range because selected compartments were designed to store approximately 1500 tons more fuel oil.
Graf Zeppelin's straight-stemmed prow was rebuilt in early 1940 with the addition of a more sharply angled "Atlantic prow", intended to improve overall seakeeping. This added 5.2 m (17 ft) to her overall length.The Graf Zeppelins' steel flight deck, overlaid with wooden planking, was 242 m (794 ft) long by 30 m (98 ft) wide at its maximum. It had a slight round down right aft and overhung the main superstructure but not the stern; being supported by steel girders. At the bow, the carriers were to have an open forecastle and the leading edge of her flight deck was uneven (mainly due to the blunt ends of her catapult tracks), but it did not appear likely that would have caused any undue air turbulence. Careful wind-tunnel studies using models confirmed this, but they also revealed that their long low island structure would generate a vortex over the flight deck in these tests when the ship yawed to port. This was considered to be an acceptable hazard when conducting air operations.^[16]

Hangars

The Graf Zeppelin class's upper and lower hangars were long and narrow with unarmored sides and ends. Workshops, stores and crew quarters were located outboard of the hangars, a design feature similar to that of British carriers. The upper hangar measured 185 m (607 ft) x 16 m (52 ft); the lower hangar 172 m (564 ft) x 16 m (52 ft). The upper hangar had 6 m (20 ft) vertical clearance while the lower hangar had 0.3 m (1 ft 0 in) less headroom due to the ceiling braces. Total usable hangar space was 5,450 m² (58,700 sq ft) with stowage for 41 aircraft: 18 Fieseler Fi 167 torpedo bombers in the lower hangar; 13 Junkers Ju 87C dive bombers and 10 Messerschmitt Bf 109T fighters in the upper hangar.

 

Aircraft

Bf 109T-1.

The expected role of the Graf Zeppelin class was that of a seagoing scouting platform and her initial planned air group reflected that emphasis: 20 Fieseler Fi 167 biplanes for scouting and torpedo attack, 10 Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters, and 13 Junkers Ju 87 dive bombers. This was later changed to 30 Bf 109 fighters and 12 Ju 87 dive-bombers as carrier doctrine in Japan, Great Britain and the United States shifted away from purely reconnaissance duties toward offensive combat missions.
In late 1938, the Technische Amt RLM (Technical Office of the Reichsluftfahrtministerium or State Ministry of Aviation) requested that Messerschmitt's Augsburg design bureau draw up plans for a carrier-borne version of the Bf 109E fighter, to be designated Bf 109T (the "T" standing for Träger or Carrier). By December 1940, the RLM decided to complete only seven carrier-equipped Bf 109T-1s and to finish the remainder as land-based T-2s since work on Graf Zeppelin had ceased back in April and there appeared to be little likelihood she would then be commissioned any time soon. When work on Graf Zeppelin ceased, the T-2s were deployed to Norway. At the end of 1941, when interest in completing Graf Zeppelin revived, the surviving Bf 109 T-2s were withdrawn from front-line service in order to again prepare them for possible carrier duty. Seven T-2s were rebuilt to T-1 standards and handed over to the Kriegsmarine on 19 May 1942. By December, a total of 48 Bf 109T-2s had been converted back into T-1s. 46 of these were stationed at Pillau in East Prussia and reserved for use aboard the carrier. By February 1943, however, all work on Graf Zeppelin had ceased and the aircraft were returned to Luftwaffe service in April.

A Fieseler Fi 167, the fifth of 12 pre-production machines, banks through the clouds on a test flight.

When work on Graf Zeppelin was suspended in May 1940, the 12 completed Fi 167s were organized into Erprobungsstaffel 167 for the purpose of conducting further operational trials. By the time work on the carrier resumed two years later in May 1942, the Fi 167 was no longer considered adequate for its intended role and the Technische Amt decided to replace it with a modified torpedo-carrying version of the Junkers Ju 87D. Ten Ju 87C-0 pre-production aircraft were built and sent to the testing facilities at Rechlin and Travemünde where they underwent extensive service trials, including catapult launches and simulated deck landings. But of the 170 Ju 87C-1 ordered, only a few saw completion, suspension of work on Graf Zeppelin in May 1940 resulting in cancellation of the entire order. Existing aircraft and those airframes in process were eventually converted back into Ju 87B-2s.

Work on developing a torpedo-carrying version of the Ju 87D for anti-shipping sorties in the Mediterranean had already commenced in early 1942 when the possibility again arose that Graf Zeppelin might be completed. As the Fieseler Fi 167 was now considered obsolete, the Technische Amt requested that Junkers modify the Ju 87D-4 into a carrier-borne torpedo-bomber/recon plane to be designated Ju 87E-1. But when all further work on Graf Zeppelin was halted for good in February 1943, the entire order was canceled. None of the Ju 87Ds converted to carry a torpedo were used operationally. By May 1942, when work was ordered resumed on Graf Zeppelin, the older Bf 109T carrier-borne fighter was considered obsolete. By September 1942 detailed plans for the new fighter, the Me 155, were completed. When it became apparent Graf Zeppelin would not be commissioned for at least another two years, Messerschmitt was unofficially told to shelve the projected fighter design. No prototype of the carrier-borne version of the plane was ever constructed.
On 1 August 1938, four months prior to Graf Zeppelin's launch date, the Luftwaffe formed its first carrier-based air unit, designated Trägergruppe I/186, on Rugia Island near Burg. It was composed of three squadrons (Staffeln) and was intended to serve aboard both carriers when completed. By October, however, shipyard construction delays resulted in disbandment of the air group as it was considered too large and costly to maintain given the uncertainty over when the two vessels would be ready for sea trials. Instead, on 1 November that same year a single fighter squadron (Trägerjagdstaffel) was created, 6./186, and placed under the command of Cpt. Heinrich Seeliger. Later, a dive bomber squadron was added, 4./186, equipped with Ju 87Bs under Cpt. Blattner. Six months after, in July 1939, a second fighter squadron was formed, 5./186, under Oberleutnant Gerhard Kadow and partly staffed with pilots culled from 6./186. By August the three squadrons were reorganised into Trägergruppe II/186 under the command of Major Walter Hagen in anticipation that Graf Zeppelin would be ready for service trials by the summer of 1940.

Fate after the war

In April 1943 Graf Zeppelin was towed eastward, first to Gotenhafen, then to the roadstead at Swinemünde and finally berthed at a wharf in the Parnitz River, two miles from Stettin.

There she languished for the next two years with only a 40-man custodial crew in attendance. When Red Army forces neared the city in April 1945, the ship’s Kingston valves were opened, flooding her lower spaces and settling her firmly into the mud in shallow water.
At 6pm on April 25th 1945, just as the Russians entered Stettin, commander Wolfgang Kähler radioed the squad to detonate the explosives. Smoke billowing from the carrier’s funnel confirmed the charges had gone off, rendering the ship useless to her new owners for many months to come.
The Soviets decided to repair the damaged ship and it was refloated in March 1946 and enlisted in the Baltic Fleet as aircraft carrier Zeppelin. The last known photo of the carrier is dated April 7th, 1947.

For many years, no other information about the ship’s fate was available. After the opening of the Soviet archives, new light was shed on the mystery. What is known is that the carrier was as “PB-101” (Floating Base Number 101) in February 3, 1947, until, on August 16, 1947, it was used as a practice target for Soviet ships and aircraft.
Allegedly the Soviets installed aerial bombs on the flight deck, in hangars and even inside the funnels (to simulate a load of combat munitions), and then dropped bombs from aircraft and fired shells and torpedoes at it.
By this point, the Cold War was underway, and the Soviets were well aware of the large numbers and central importance of aircraft carriers in the U.S. Navy, which in the event of an actual war between the Soviet Union and the United States would be targets of high strategic importance.
After being hit by 24 bombs and projectiles, the ship did not sink and had to be finished off by two torpedoes. The exact position of the wreck was unknown for decades.

The Wreck was discovered in 2006 by Polish researchers in the Baltic off Władysławowo, at the head of the Hel Peninsula.

Monday Music "Drivers Seat " by Sniff 'N' the Tears

Before I get into my "Monday Music", I went camping this weekend with the O.A. and went through another "Ordeal", this one was the fall one.  The kids did well all weekend and the work they did at the entrance to the scouting base looks real good.  
  I got a couple of pictures of the ordeal ceremony.

This is my son in Regalia he is "Nutiket"

"Kitchkinet and Allowat Sakima performing the roles during the ceremony"

All the scouts did well this past weekend, despite my hand being wrapped up, I did participate.

   I heard this song on the "70's" channel when I was driving to work and I vaguely remember this song when it first came out in 1978.  It was a bit different than the disco that was still prevalent at this time.   I thought the band had a lot of talent but this song was their only hit to make the billboard.

"Driver's Seat" is a 1978 song by the Welsh band Sniff 'n' the Tears that appears on their debut album, Fickle Heart. The band is considered a one-hit wonder as "Driver's Seat" was their only hit.
The genesis of the song dates back to 1973 and a demo tape recorded for a French record label by singer/guitarist Paul Roberts for the band Ashes of Moon. However, that band broke up and, at the suggestion of drummer Luigi Salvoni, Roberts re-formed it as Sniff 'n' the Tears with guitarists Laurence "Loz" Netto and Mick Dyche and bassist Nick South. They shopped the demo tape and signed with the small Chiswick label in 1977.

According to Paul Roberts, "Driver's Seat" isn't about driving, but rather "fragmented, conflicting thoughts and emotions that might follow the break-up of a relationship". One of the key decisions in arranging the song was to start with drums and additively bring in other instruments.
"Driver's Seat" reached number 15 on the American Billboard Pop Singles chart in the fall of 1979, and reached the top 10 in The Netherlands in November 1980.

    I actually found the video of this song........:)

Weekend musings and other pithy stuff

Well my hand is doing better, I am able to grab things and type on the keyboard now.

So far the procedure has been a lot easier than the left hand was.  I used percocett the first day and switched to Advil gel-caps after that.  Call me a wus, I don't like narcotic drugs....
     We are going camping.....again....this time for fall Ordeal.  My hand will be in a brace so I can't do much....except boss kids around...:)  and that ain't a bad thing.
     Now I have some pithy comments to make, the pics are compliments of "Facebook, Google and my stash folder on my laptop.  What can I say...I like Pictures :)
Apparently Obama can't be disturbed from his golf game to visit the people in Louisiana from the flooding.   Remember back in 2005, Bush got lambasted by the press for visiting 2 days and doing a flyby and the delayed reaction of FEMA.  Well in 2016, there is no FEMA involvement at all on the local level.

  The media has been silent about this, Apparently since the governor and mayor are democrats, there is no story there.  The simpleminded bias focus of the media is astounding. 
   Speaking of media...

 

CNN got busted  again editing tapes.  When the sister of the guy that got capped was on the media, she had quoted "

“Don’t bring the violence here and the ignorance here,” Smith is heard saying during CNN’s version.
An unedited video of speech began to circulate online, however, revealing the entire content of Smith’s speech and the vast difference in what she actually said as compared to CNN’s version.
In the unedition version, Smith was recorded saying the following to the rioters:"
“Burnin down s–t ain’t going to help nothin! Y’all burnin’ down s–t we need in our community. Take that s–t to the suburbs. Burn that s–t down! We need our s–t! We need our weaves. I don’t wear it. But we need it.”
What CNN reported as a call for “peace” was instead a call for riots to take place in more affluent neighborhoods so the inner-city community wouldn’t get destroyed.
Twitter users spread clips of a side-to-side comparison to show how CNN chose to ignore the hateful comments and only paint Smith in a positive light. The news network was slammed for its apparent bias by multiple people online.

With knowledge of the incident spreading quickly — thanks to social media — CNN anchor Carol Costello made an on-air apology Wednesday.
“I regret the second part of that statement was not included,” she said before cutting to commercial break.
CNN also posted a tweet Wednesday that didn’t use words such as “apology” or “regret,” but stated the editing was “unintentional.”
Needless to say, not everyone was buying the network’s version of what happened with the edit.
    Many people are catching CNN and the other mainstream media shamelessly tilting the news in favor of Clinton, when an announcer made the comment that "We are working on her behalf to see that she gets elected."

 Besides making sure that he stays on Vacation, The Obama Administration has made the news again,

     Obama's white house admitted that the 400 million that they paid Iran was for the ransom of the people held there.  Nothing like funding the next 5 years of terrorism out of that place.  That we will get back in spades...

 And finally have you noticed the people that have been dying lately around Hillary Clinton...?

   People that are relating to the Wikileaks the DNC staffer that got capped and also the Iranian Scientist whose name was mentioned in the email got hung by Iran for "Treason", for helping the United States with the Iranian Nuke program and others have mysteriously "died".

    And speaking of Hillary,  her election team made the statement that "when she is elected President, the Clinton foundation will no longer accept foreign money or Donor money......Really?

    The most distrusted politician in America...like we expect her to follow through on anything she says...

   Y'all have a good one and I will post some stuff on Sunday when I return from camping....again.

Monday Music "Sky High" by Jigsaw

  I decided to roll with this song for Monday Music.  I got this one out early, I am off this week, except for Wednesday.  I am getting my other hand done for Carpel Tunnel release.  It is my right hand, so it will be interesting to get the posting done since I do use my right hand more.  Oh well, I will muddle through.
      I added another blog to my blogroll, "Common Cents".  Head over there and give it a look.

  I remember this song making the airtime while I was in Germany, the local AFN in Frankfurt would play this song a lot.  to me it is an easy listening song, it is bubblegum or it was part of the disco craze that was starting to hit.

"Sky High" is the name of a 1975 single by British pop music group Jigsaw. The song, the main title theme to the film entitled The Man from Hong Kong, was a world-wide hit in the latter part of 1975, reaching number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and number two on the Adult Contemporary chart in the United States. A group composition, it was arranged by Richard Hewson. It was also a Top 10 single in the UK Singles Chart. The 1975 Australian single was released under the name "British Jigsaw" because there was an established and popular local band called "Jigsaw".

Two years later the song gained more striking commercial success in Japan, peaking at number two on the Oricon singles chart and selling approximately 570,000 copies. ZYX Records released an extended 12" version in 1987. A remixed version of the original Jigsaw cut by PWL remixer Pete Hammond was a minor dance hit in the US in the spring of 1989. In a nod to the original 7" single release, "Brand New Love Affair" was also remixed and put on the B-side.

A few thought.....

I will be going camping again this weekend for NYLT.  Work is settling down after the problems that happened on Monday.  I am glad, I was tired. 

     I am sure the Vikings in Vahalla are raising their mead glasses in honor that another warrior has joined them.  I knew Mike only through his writings and that Mike and David humiliated the Obungler administration  when they tried to gin up a crisis with their back door attack on the second amendment.  I remembered when the news broke after Hillary was parroting the party line about 95% of the guns involved in the crime in Mexico and it comes out that the ATF allowed guns to walk into Mexico to run up a body count and generate a crisis that the Obungler administration would then offer a solution....more Gun control.   Lenin said it best...the means justify the end.  Mike and David did the work of real journalist, not the hacks in the D.C press corp that parrot the latest talking points from the DNC.  Mike's work on behalf of free people will not be forgotten.

   Also the blatant bias of the mainstream media is amazing.  They piled in The Donald about his comment about the 2nd amendment people stopping Cankles.  They totally ignore the father of the Orlando Shooter standing behind Hillary and he endorses her...You know the same guy that believes in Sharia law, and gays get stoned....and he stands behind Hillary on a stage...?    the media circle he wagons to protect her and deflect the questions but Donald gets piled on...?  Jeez media...can you make your bias less obvious ?

    Also I saw the payoff for the hostages in Iran....People are thinking that Obungler broke some laws...but nothing will happen to him...Remember he is a democrat and the rules are different for "our betters ".

Monday Music..."Mr Jones" by Counting Crows

I know it is Thursday, but it has been hectic at work, we have all been working all kinds of strange hours.  My company made the news...and not in  a good way.  Nothing like having 8 years of building up a stellar reputation to have it all crashing down.  It brings me to mind the old phrase "1000 attaboys are wiped out by one "aw crap". Now we will have to rebuild the brand, we will bounce back but the events from early this week will hurt.
    I decided to roll with "Counting Crows", I remembered when they hit the scene in 1993, I really liked the sound they had, it was different than the grunge that had taken over the musical airways.  Counting Crows has a reputation for caring for their fans and I remember one time they refused to perform at a venue becuase it would be too expensive for their fans.   A unique outlook for them and this policies and others have built a dedicated fan base that has stood by the band from the highs and lows.

Counting Crows is an American rock band from Berkeley, California, formed in 1991. The band consists of Adam Duritz (lead vocals, piano), David Bryson (guitar), Charlie Gillingham (keyboards, accordion), Dan Vickrey (lead guitar), David Immerglück (guitar, banjo, mandolin), Jim Bogios (drums, percussion) and Millard Powers (bass guitar).
Counting Crows gained popularity following the release of its debut album, August and Everything After (1993), which featured the hit single "Mr. Jones." They have sold more than 20 million albums worldwide and received a 2004 Academy Award nomination for their song "Accidentally in Love," which was included in the film Shrek 2.
The band's influences include Van Morrison, Jellyfish, R.E.M., Mike + The Mechanics, Bob Dylan, and The Band.

Singer Adam Duritz and guitarist David Bryson began playing San Francisco coffeehouses together, performing under the name Counting Crows. The name was taken from One for Sorrow, a British divination nursery rhyme about the superstitious counting of magpies, a member of the crow family. Duritz heard the rhyme in the film Signs of Life, which starred his close friend, actress Mary-Louise Parker. Developing a following in the Bay Area and deciding to expand the band, Duritz and Bryson kept the name as they added members.

Mr. Jones" is a song by American alternative rock band Counting Crows. It was released in December 1993 as the lead single and third track from their debut album, August and Everything After (1993). It was the band's first radio hit and one of their most popular singles.

"Mr. Jones" entered the American Top 40 on February 19, 1994, and entered the Top 10 five weeks later. On April 23, "Mr. Jones" passed R. Kelly's "Bump n' Grind", taking the number-one position (which it surrendered, the following week, to Prince's "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World").
The band's surprise success happened to coincide with Kurt Cobain's death. These events took a significant toll on Adam Duritz, the lead vocalist and principal songwriter. Duritz said in an interview, "We heard that, that [Kurt] had shot himself. And it really scared the hell out of me because I thought, these things in my life are getting so out of control...". These events and feelings were the basis for "Catapult", the first track of Recovering the Satellites.
According to Duritz (who was born in 1964), the song title had a hand in the naming by Jonathan Pontell of "Generation Jones", the group of people born between 1954 and 1965. "I feel honored that my song Mr. Jones was part of the inspiration for the name 'Generation Jones'."

Some believe the song is a veiled reference to the protagonist of Bob Dylan's "Ballad of a Thin Man", based on the lyric "I wanna be Bob Dylan, Mr. Jones wishes he was someone just a little more funky." According to Adam Duritz on VH1 Story Tellers "It's really a song about my friend Marty and I. We went out one night to watch his dad play, his dad was a Flamenco guitar player who lived in Spain (David Serva), and he was in San Francisco in the mission playing with his old Flamenco troupe. And after the gig we all went to this bar called the New Amsterdam in San Francisco on Columbus."
In a 2013 interview, Duritz explained that the song is named for his friend Marty Jones, but that it is about Duritz himself. "I wrote a song about me, I just happened to be out with him that night," Duritz said. The inspiration for the song came as Duritz and Jones were drunk at a bar after watching Jones' father perform, when they saw Kenney Dale Johnson, longtime drummer for the musician Chris Isaak, sitting with three women. "It just seemed like, you know, we couldn't even manage to talk to girls, ... we were just thinking if we were rock stars, it'd be easier. I went home and wrote the song," Duritz said.

Hillary's planned tax increases......

Before I start on this, I just came back from camping and having my troop go shooting.  I was able to harass Mac and Mike at camp, always a good thing.  I will post pics soon.  The kids had a good time and I got a couple of them qualified in Rifle merit badge.


  I shamelessly cribbed this from WaPo.  This confirms my opinion that the politicians view us as sheep to be sheared for our wool, a few of us are eaten metaphorically speaking.  The tax increases that Cankles is proposing are long and varied.  This confirms to me that they view us as "Kulaks"

  The democrats and the establishment branch of the GOP want to break the power of the middle class, we can buck their plans am armed  can and spoil the idyllic paradise where there are the rich and the poor and the rich people are our betters and know what is best for us "dirt people" and we will make this great socialistic city over the hill if we would just roll with the program and accept their moral and legal authority over us and become the serfs that the new feudal lords demands of us.  I did a long post in the subject a while BACK

The pics are compliments of my stash of pics.

Hillary Clinton has made clear she intends to dramatically raise taxes on the American people if elected. She has proposed an income tax increase, a business tax increase, a death tax increase, a capital gains tax increase, a tax on stock trading, an "Exit Tax" and more (see below). Her planned net tax increase on the American people is at least $1 trillion over ten years, based on her campaign’s own figures.

Hillary has endorsed several tax increases on middle income Americans, despite her pledge not to raise taxes on any American making less than $250,000. She has said she would be fine with a payroll tax hike on all Americans, she has endorsed a steep soda tax, endorsed a 25% national gun tax, and most recently, her campaign manager John Podesta said she would be open to a carbon tax. It’s no wonder that when asked by ABC's George Stephanopoulos if her pledge was a "rock-solid" promise, she slipped and said the pledge was merely a “goal.” In other words, she's going to raise taxes on middle income Americans.
Hillary’s formally proposed $1 trillion net tax increase consists of the following:
Income Tax Increase – $350 Billion: Clinton has proposed a $350 billion income tax hike in the form of a 28 percent cap on itemized deductions.
Business Tax Increase -- $275 Billion: Clinton has called for a tax hike of at least $275 billion through undefined business tax reform, as described in a Clinton campaign document.
“Fairness” Tax Increase -- $400 Billion: According to her published plan, Clinton has called for a tax increase of “between $400 and $500 billion” by “restoring basic fairness to our tax code.” These proposals include a “fair share surcharge,” the taxing of carried interest capital gains as ordinary income, and a hike in the Death Tax.
But there are even more Clinton tax hike proposals not included in the tally above. Her campaign has failed to release specific details for many of her proposals. The true Clinton net tax hike figure is likely much higher than $1 trillion.
For instance:
Capital Gains Tax Increase -- Clinton has proposed an increase in the capital gains tax to counter the “tyranny of today’s earnings report.” Her plan calls for a byzantine capital gains tax regime with six rates. Her campaign has not put a dollar amount on this tax increase.
Tax on Stock Trading -- Clinton has proposed a new tax on stock trading. Costs associated with this new tax will be borne by millions of American families that hold 401(k)s, IRAs and other savings accounts. The tax increase would only further burden markets by discouraging trading and investment. Again, no dollar figure for this tax hike has been released by the Clinton campaign.
“Exit Tax” – Rather than reduce the extremely high, uncompetitive corporate tax rate, Clinton has proposed a series of measures aimed at inversions including an “exit tax” on income earned overseas. The term “exit tax” is used by the campaign itself. Her campaign document describing this proposal says it will raise $80 billion in tax revenue, but claims some of the $80 billion will be plowed into tax relief. How much? The campaign doesn't say.

This proposal completely fails to address the underlying causes behind inversions: The U.S. 39% corporate tax rate (35% federal rate plus an average state rate of 4%) and our "worldwide" system of taxation, which imposes tax on all American earnings worldwide. The average corporate rate in the developed world is 25%. Thirty-one of thirty-four developed countries have cut their corporate tax rate since 2000. The U.S. has not. Hillary's plan moves in the wrong direction.
ATR is tracking Clinton’s full tax record at its dedicated website, HighTaxHillary.com
See also: "Everyman" Tim Kaine Tried to Raise Taxes on Adult Beverages
Hillary Opens the Door to a Carbon Tax
Hillary's Soda Tax Endorsement Violates Middle Class Tax Pledge
Video Shows Hillary's 25% Gun Tax Endorsement
Democrat Platform Calls for Carbon Tax
Tim Kaine Pushed Income Tax Hikes on Working Families Making As Little as $17,000

   Don't even get me on Obama's cash for hostages crap he pulled with Iran...that one will bite us in the ass.

Busy at work and some pithy thoughts...

I havn't been able to post much due to ...You guessed it....

But the trade off is that I can't post as much as I like....I like blogging but face it....It don't keep the wolf at bay and from scratching at your door.  We are almost complete with our first Airbus mod and it does look really good.

  I hope the passengers like it as much as we do.   We did what we call regular mechanic stuff last night, not the "arts and crafts" we took the airplane to the run up hole for leak checks and see how the engines performed....it was a nice change of pace.    I did see some workplace humor that some nameless Mechanic generated. 

A bit of background, we have to use an external airconditioner to cool the plane enough for people to work on them.  Even with the external airconditioners, the temperature inside an airplane will push about 110 degrees or more.....this is due to the insulation that the airplanes have to operate at 35000 feet.  Factor in the avionics running and the airplanes get hot.  Well our "good" airconditioner" got appropiated for another bay...so we are using one that don't work well.  Also the powers that be have decided that we will wear "bump hats"   Pretty good in the summer, having that plastic bowl on our head in the middle of the summer.

This one is mine....I modified it a little.  I have the "infidel" patch on the front, the "snafu" patch on the back and my blood type on the opposite side as the American flag.  It felt kinda like a helmet, so I dressed it up like one.

On to some pithy comments...Trump has discovered that the media is fully in the tank for Hillary and they have been carrying her water for the last 40 years...

Donald has to realize that anything he said will be twisted all out of proportion of what he said.  Trump needs to focus on Hillary's weakness....which is the corruption that is endemic of Hillary.  He will need to redirect on Hillary and keep pounding away on that issue.  The issue is her lack of trust and keep running on it and watch what he says and stay on point.

Monday Music "Vacation" by the GoGo's

I was driving the truck home and this song came across my mp3 player and I thought "Eureka!"  I will use that song.   I liked the GoGo's,  To me they were pretty (remember I was 16 )and they could sing and play their own instruments.  The music was a bit bubblegum but I liked it.  I never looked the the deeper meaning of life through music, it is good background and it tells a story . 

The Go-Go's are an American rock band formed in 1978. They made history as the first and only all-female band that both wrote their own songs and played their own instruments to top the Billboard album charts.

The Go-Go's rose to fame during the early 1980s. Their 1981 debut album, Beauty and the Beat, is considered one of the "cornerstone albums of (US) new wave" (AllMusic), breaking barriers and paving the way for a host of other new American acts. When the album was released, it steadily climbed the Billboard 200 chart, ultimately reaching No. 1, where it remained for six consecutive weeks. The album sold in excess of 3 million copies and reached triple platinum status, making it one of the most successful debut albums ever. The Go-Go's have sold more than 7 million albums.

The video starts by showing the song on youtube title on a photo in a travel brochure. It depicts the band first waiting on a pile of luggage at an airport after Belinda Carlisle arrives via a taxi. Gradually it changes to show them performing, then ends with a section in which they appear to be water-skiing in formation, as per the album cover. All the band members smile and mug for the camera in individual closeups. The photo then freezes and zooms out to be shown in another travel brochure on the floor, which an unseen janitor sweeps up, along with other trash (most likely from the airport portion of the video).
It was shot in one very long day on a $50,000 budget, large for the time, since the band was coming off a debut album that had reached number one. "We still saw videos as an annoying waste of time," recalls Jane Wiedlin. "After seven or eight hours we sent out someone to sneak in booze." Kathy Valentine says they drank "lots of champagne. Lots." Wiedlin says the effects are evident during the closeups of the women at the end: "... if you look at our eyes, we're all so drunk. We didn't even try to make it look like we were really waterskiing."