Monday Music "Born In The USA" By Bruce Springstein

 

I decided to go with Bruce Springstein and his "Born in the U.S.A." song.  I remembered hearing this song all over the airways while I was a senior in high school.  Also despite his politics, I do like his music from the 80's. Since then, not so much, in my mind, he kinda peaked.    On this video toward the end, I would see the black guy using a welding jig in an automobile assembly line.  I would get that same mental image while I had to do spot welds at Atlanta Assembly Plant when the regular robots would go down..which wasn't very often, the robots were made by Yamaha and were actually quite reliable.   Go figure, a Yamaha robot being used to build an American car especially like a Taurus.  I always thought it funny that Springstein would try to push his blue collar background and support the democrats that don't support the middle class and the "average American".  Funny how the roles have flipped, back in the old days, the GOP was the party for the Rich old people and the democrats were the party for the working man and now it has flipped, the Democrats are the party for the Rich urban elites and the GOP support the average Americans.  Funny how times have changed.

      This song touched a lot about the effect of the Vietnam War and the effects of that war, that is why I included it with the other songs I have played on the prior Mondays.

 

 

"Born in the U.S.A." is a 1984 song written and performed by Bruce Springsteen. Taken from the album of the same name, it is one of his best-known singles. Rolling Stone ranked the song 275th on their list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". In 2001, the RIAA's Songs of the Century placed the song 59th (out of 365). Lyrically, the song deals with the negative effects of the Vietnam War on Americans, but is often misunderstood to be a patriotic or nationalistic anthem.

The song was initially written in 1981 as the title song for a film that Paul Schrader was considering making and Springsteen was considering starring in (which ultimately became Light of Day starring Michael J. Fox). "Born in the U.S.A." turned out so well that Springsteen used it for his multi-platinum album, and because of this, Springsteen thanks Schrader in the liner notes. Casual home demos were made later that year, following the completion of The River Tour.
A more formal solo acoustic guitar demo was then made on January 3, 1982 at Springsteen's home in Colts Neck, New Jersey as part of the long session that would constitute most of the Nebraska album released later that year. Acoustic versions of several other songs that eventually appeared on the Born in the U.S.A. album were also included on this demo, including "Working on the Highway" and "Downbound Train". However, Springsteen manager/producer Jon Landau and others felt that the song did not have the right melody or music to match the lyrics, and also did not fit in well with the rest of the nascent Nebraska material. Thus, it was shelved. (This version would surface in the late 1990s on the Tracks and 18 Tracks outtake collections.)
In March 1982, Springsteen revived the song with a different melody line and musical structure. A full E Street Band version was recorded, with much of the arrangement made up on the spot, including Roy Bittan's clarion opening synthesizer riff and what producer Chuck Plotkin nicknamed Max Weinberg's "exploding drums" .The famous snare drum sound on this record was obtained by engineer Toby Scott running the top snare microphone through a broken reverb plate which could only sustain four seconds of gated reverb This is the version that would appear on the Born in the U.S.A. album, a full two years later.
In a 1986 speaking engagement at the University of Georgia, Max Weinberg (drummer for the E Street Band) stated that Born In The USA was his all time favorite song that they band had recorded. Later that evening in a question and answer session, Weinberg explained that it was his favorite because the song was actually never written in terms of the various instrumental parts. After a grueling studio session while members of the band were in the booth at the sound board, one member of the band at a time returned to the recording area joining in to make up their own new parts to the song that had been intended as an acoustic guitar only song. Even Bruce came out and started singing vocals. It sounded so good that they did it again and recorded it. Without reviewing the recording, Bruce said, let's do that one more time. So they recorded the second take (or the third time the unwritten version had ever been played). That second studio take was the CD release on the Born in the USA CD (personal communication when asking question to Max Weinberg after lecture in Georgia Hall, Tate Student Center, University of Georgia 1986).

The song was in part a tribute to Springsteen's friends who had experienced the Vietnam War, some of whom did not come back; it also protests the hardships Vietnam veterans faced upon their return from the war.
The song's narrative traces the protagonist's working-class origins, induction into the armed forces, and disaffected return to the States. An anguished lyrical interlude is even more jolting, describing the fate of the protagonist's (literal or figurative) brother (in some recordings or live shows, the word brother is replaced with buddy):

I had a brother at Khe Sanh
Fighting off the Viet Cong
They're still there, he's all gone
He had a woman he loved in Saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms now

The Battle of Khe Sanh involved the North Vietnamese Army, not the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (the Viet Cong) heard in the song lyrics. Eventually the Americans prevailed and broke the siege, only to withdraw from the outpost a couple of months later. Khe Sanh thus became one of the media symbols of the futility of the whole war effort in the States.
Two scholars writing in the journal American Quarterly explored the song as a lament for the embattled working-class identity. Structurally, they noted that "the anthemic chorus contrasted with the verses' desperate narrative," a tension which informs an understanding of the song's overall meaning: the nationalist chorus continuously overwhelms the desperation and sacrifice relayed in the verses. They point out that the imagery of the Vietnam War could be read as metaphor for "the social and economic siege of American blue-collar communities" at large, and that lyrics discussing economic devastation are likely symbolic for the effect of blind nationalism upon the working class. The song as a whole, they felt, laments the destabilization of the economics and politics protecting the "industrial working class" in the 1970s and early 1980s, leaving only "a deafening but hollow national pride."
In late August 1984, the Born in the U.S.A. album was selling very well, its songs were frequently aired on radio stations, and the associated tour was drawing considerable press. Springsteen shows at the Capital Centre outside of Washington, D.C. thus attracted even more media attention, in particular from CBS Evening News correspondent Bernard Goldberg, who saw Springsteen as a modern-day Horatio Alger story. Even more notably, the widely read conservative columnist George Will, after attending a show, published on September 13, 1984 a piece titled "A Yankee Doodle Springsteen" in which he praised Springsteen as an exemplar of classic American values. He wrote: "I have not got a clue about Springsteen's politics, if any, but flags get waved at his concerts while he sings songs about hard times. He is no whiner, and the recitation of closed factories and other problems always seems punctuated by a grand, cheerful affirmation: 'Born in the U.S.A.!'" The 1984 presidential campaign was in full stride at the time, and Will had connections to President Ronald Reagan's re-election organization. Will thought that Springsteen might endorse Reagan (not knowing that Springsteen was very much a liberal and thus did not support Reagan at all), and got the notion pushed up to high-level Reagan advisor Michael Deaver's office. Those staffers made inquiries to Springsteen's management which were politely rebuffed.
Nevertheless, on September 19, 1984, at a campaign stop in Hammonton, New Jersey, Reagan added the following to his speech:

America's future rests in a thousand dreams inside your hearts; it rests in the message of hope in songs so many young Americans admire: New Jersey's own Bruce Springsteen. And helping you make those dreams come true is what this job of mine is all about.

The campaign press immediately expressed skepticism that Reagan knew anything about Springsteen, and asked what his favorite Springsteen song was; "Born to Run" was the response from staffers. Johnny Carson then joked on The Tonight Show, "If you believe that, I've got a couple of tickets to the Mondale-Ferraro inaugural ball I'd like to sell you."
During a September 21 concert in Pittsburgh, Springsteen responded negatively by introducing his song "Johnny 99", a song about an unemployed auto worker who turns to murder, "The President was mentioning my name the other day, and I kinda got to wondering what his favorite album musta been. I don't think it was the Nebraska album. I don't think he's been listening to this one."
A few days after that, presidential challenger Walter Mondale said, "Bruce Springsteen may have been born to run but he wasn't born yesterday," and then claimed to have been endorsed by Springsteen. Springsteen manager Jon Landau denied any such endorsement, and the Mondale campaign issued a correction.
With "Born in the U.S.A." Springsteen was wildly misunderstood, at least for a short period. With these sound bites from Reagan and other conservatives praising the song and Springsteen, himself, it seemed as though they'd missed the point entirely. Springsteen was lamenting the loss of a true sense of national pride. The working class no longer had a say in the foreign policy or decisions made by the government as a whole. The reverberating chorus of "Born in the U.S.A." was a cry of longing, of sorrow. It was a hollow cry of patriotism that once was, but now ceased to exist.
In Springsteen’s own words, the song "Born in the U.S.A." is about "a working-class man" [in the midst of a] "spiritual crisis, in which man is left lost...It's like he has nothing left to tie him into society anymore. He's isolated from the government. Isolated from his family...to the point where nothing makes sense." Springsteen promotes the fact that the endless search for truth is the true American way.
Journalist Brian Doherty has written: "The song’s lyrics are about a shell-shocked vet with 'no place to run, nowhere to go.' But who’s to say Reagan wasn’t right to insist the song was an upper? When I hear those notes and that drumbeat, and the Boss’ best arena-stentorian, shout-groan vocals come over the speakers, I feel like I’m hearing the national anthem."

"Born in the U.S.A." peaked at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles charts in late 1984. It was the third of a record-tying seven Top 10 hit singles to be released from the Born in the U.S.A. album. In addition it made the top 10 of Billboard's Rock Tracks chart, indicating solid play on album-oriented rock stations. The song was also a hit in the UK, reaching #5 on the UK Singles Chart.
Beyond the 1984 presidential campaign, "Born in the U.S.A." was widely mis-interpreted as purely nationalistic by those who heard the anthemic chorus but not the bitter verses.One example was when Springsteen played the song live in East Berlin in 1988 and the German audience widely followed the chorus line to express their bonds with the western world and their weariness with their own way of life in the communist system of the GDR.
Springsteen refused Chrysler Corporation CEO Lee Iacocca's request to use "Born in the U.S.A." in commercials for Chrysler cars, turning down an offer that would have been worth several million dollars.

The music video for "Born in the U.S.A." was directed by noted filmmaker John Sayles. It consisted of video concert footage of Springsteen and the E Street Band performing the song, poorly synchronized with audio from the studio recording. Released in mid-December 1984, there supposedly had not been enough time to mix the audio from the concert.
This footage was intermixed with compelling mid-1980s scenes of working-class America, emphasizing images that had some connection with the song, including Vietnam veterans, Amerasian children, assembly lines, oil refineries, cemeteries, and the like, finishing with a recreation of the album's cover, with grizzled Springsteen posing in front of an American flag.

 

Scout Camp

 

At Boy Scout Camp, using the kinda smart phone up post this.

      Will post more tomorrow.  Got here yesterday. 

U-2 Pilot takes Selfie with Chinese Spy Balloon.

 I got this off "Popular Mechanics" and thought it was pretty neat.

Department of Defense

• A rumored photo of the Chinese spy balloon taken by a U-2 pilot has emerged.
• One open source intelligence devotee has identified the terrain below as rural Missouri.
• The photo will likely be a defining image of a period when U.S.-Chinese relations began to truly deteriorate.

---

For more than two weeks, rumors swirled that there was a selfie, taken by a U-2 spy plane pilot, that included the now-infamous Chinese spy balloon in the background.

The secretive nature of the intelligence community suggested the photo, if it existed, might never see the light of day. Now, a photo has emerged that confirms it’s the real thing. The stunning image sheds light on how dedicated the U.S. government was to keeping tabs on the lighter-than-air intruder—and shooting it down when the time was right.

This content is imported from twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

Finally, the selfie of the U-2S Dragon Lady pilot with the Chinese surveillance balloon above the continental United States. pic.twitter.com/XbjtImSUUn

— Aerospace Intelligence (@space_osint) February 21, 2023

The photo was shared yesterday on a number of social media accounts and appears above. The Twitter account explains that exactly where the photo came from is unknown, but seems to originate with the Dragon Lady Today website, which is devoted to all things U-2.

The photo really does appear to be a selfie taken by a U-2 pilot. The helmet’s sun visor is lowered in place, giving the pilot’s face the appearance of a round black marble. The knife-like right wing of the U-2 is clearly visible, as is the right side view mirror bolted inside the cockpit. The pilot was even able to catch the shadow of his own aircraft on the side of the 200 foot-wide balloon.

This content is imported from twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

Ben geo-referenced the possible U-2 pilot balloon selfie with Sentinel imagery near Washington, Missouri. If it's not real, it's an amazing fake. https://t.co/ifJDCPxoCr

— John Wiseman (@lemonodor) February 22, 2023

 

One open source intelligence enthusiast was able to geolocate terrain features in the photo with the view over Washington, Missouri. The analyst states that the image is theoretically fakeable, “but it would be a lot of work to make everything match up.”

Update: The Pentagon admitted the photograph is real and has provided a newer, higher resolution photo, seen below. The location of Washington, Missouri is likely correct.

The photo officially released by the Department of Defense. The caption states: "A U.S. Air Force pilot looked down at the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon as it hovered over the central continental United States February 3, 2023."

Department of Defense

According to St. Louis Public Radio, the Chinese spy balloon was spotted over St. Louis, Missouri, on February 3. The balloon was shot down the next day in U.S. territorial waters, just off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. U.S. Navy divers working from the amphibious dock ship USS Carter Hall salvaged the remains, an operation that concluded on February 16th.

The Chinese surveillance balloon was flying at an altitude of 60,000 feet, above the service ceiling of most combat aircraft. The U-2, on the other hand, typically flies above 70,000 feet and the Dragon Lady’s introduction into service, in the late 1950s, put an end to America’s clumsy experimentation with spy balloons.

While there was real practical value in having a spy plane snap close-up pictures of the balloon, the photo also distills America’s vast technological aerospace advantage over China into a single image.

 

 

Debris is Recovered from the Chinese Balloon shot down over South Carolina.

 I can't fathom why it took the Xiden Administration soo long to "deep Six" this balloon after it was spotted, and to let it float its merry way across the United States until the outcry was soo bad he was forced to act.  then there was the unnamed pin head from the DOD that said that there were 3 of those balloons during the Trump administration and he did nothing and John Bolton whom despises President Trump called out this source as "incorrect, misdirection, and full of bovine scatology" and the DOD quickly backpetaled when they were called out on it.  I guess having "Trump Derangement Syndrome" and trying to curry favors with Xiden blew in your face, I would step back from that falsehood also.

     I snagged this from a 3rd party source from my work email.

 

A U.S. Navy sailor loads debris from the Chinese surveillance balloon onto a ship on Feb. 10 in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

U.S. forces have completely recovered the Chinese surveillance balloon shot down off the South Carolina coast on Feb. 4, though officials warn they may never recover the other three unidentified objects downed by fighter jet missiles the following week. 

U.S. Northern Command in a Feb. 17 statement said recovery operations concluded the day before, with the final pieces of debris transferred to an FBI laboratory in Virginia. U.S. Navy and Coast Guard vessels have left the area near Myrtle Beach with all air and maritime safety perimeters lifted. 

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby during a Feb. 17 briefing said crews retrieved all that was recoverable, including the payload structure, electronics and optics. 

“They’re analyzing it, they’re looking at it, and we need to let them do their work in a thoughtful, deliberate way,” Kirby says. “I want to caveat all this by saying there may be some things we will not be able to disclose.”

During the briefing, Kirby was asked about Aviation Week reporting that the object downed Feb. 11 in the Yukon Territory of Canada could have been a hobbyist pico balloon launched by the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade (NIBBB) that went missing off the west coast of Alaska the day before. Kirby says the White House cannot confirm the report or what the remains of that balloon, or the other two objects downed over Alaska and Lake Huron, will end up being. 

“We haven’t recovered it. It’s very difficult until you can get your hands on something to be able to tell,” Kirby says. “We all have to accept the possibility that we may not be able to recover it.”

The object in Yukon is in rough, remote territory in cold weather. The object downed Feb. 10 over Alaska is on a shelf of sea ice. The one shot down in Lake Huron on Feb. 12 is in a deep water, and Canadian officials announced Feb. 16 that they were ending the search on their side of the border. 

Even with the possibility that the objects shot down by F-22s and F-16s were small, cheap hobbyist balloons, Kirby defended the decision to take them down based on the circumstances at the time. 

“Given the situation we were in, the information available, the recommendation of our military commands, it was exactly the right thing to do at exactly the right time,” he says.

The possibility that the objects end up being $12 balloons launched by hobbyists would be a good thing, he argues. 

“Frankly, given the circumstances, in light of what happened with this spy balloon, wouldn’t that be a better outcome?” he says. “If it turns out that they were, in fact, civilian or recreational use or weather balloons and therefore benign, which is what the intelligence community thinks. Isn’t that a better outcome than to have to think about the possibility of greater threats to our national security?”

If the downed object in Yukon does belong to the NIBBB, Kirby says he is not aware of any plan to reimburse it for the cost of the balloon.

President Joe Biden on Feb. 16 outlined his plan to better detect, track and regulate uncrewed flying objects, and to overhaul procedures for the military to respond. This includes a new inventory of uncrewed airborne objects, improved ability to detect objects in airspace and revised regulations for the launch and operations of the objects. 

The military parameters will likely be classified. They will be sent to Congress within days and go into effect quickly, Kirby says. 

The saga of the Chinese balloon and subsequent unidentified objects comes as the Pentagon is finalizing its upcoming budget requests, and there could be funding shifted to address the issue. 

“If there needs to be more resources, to have more resources applied to this particular challenge, then that’s certainly a conversation worth having,” Kirby says.

 

Unethical Business Practices Exposed....

 I got this email from the CEO of "Nine Line" and it was interesting enough that I decided to post it on my blog.  I have bought products from them before from "T shirts", mugs, stickers, and "Coffee".  The information he presented in his email was something I figured my readers might want to know and make their own decisions.

 

        Here is the decal on my "Precious" the F150, There is another one like it on my Ford Focus.  I had made a "Special Stop after a cruise" and went out of my way there.   I cut and pasted the article from the email.

 

Feb 20, 2023

When social justice warriors profit from the Chinese Communist Party’s slave trade

Trust but verify: one of the core tenets of the special operations community. But to the most senior executives within the apparel industry, it’s apparently a foreign concept. 

Like the President mentioned in his State of the Union, the American people want to know their jobs are secure and that their government will crack down on unfair competition and unethical business practices. In 2021, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) was the first of its kind legislation championed by both Democrats and Republicans and came into force in June of 2022. At that time, all manufacturers importing textiles had to certify they were not utilizing cotton or any other materials sourced from Xinjiang China where over 1 Million Uyghurs are conscripted from birth to some of the most inhumane and inhospitable conditions imaginable.  The idea behind the law was to cripple the dependence on goods from China’s  slave camps. Free slave labor meant of course much cheaper products for American businesses that imported cotton materials and clothes. 

 

Months later, the problem hasn’t been solved. Some of the largest manufacturers are still utilizing forced labor to ensure hefty profit margins. The federal government’s enforcement has been paltry at best.

 

Since the current administration isn't enforcing the UFLPA, we at Nine Line took matters into our own hands. We set out to test our manufacturers both out of an abundance of caution and a bit out of curiosity. If our business were to knowingly cheat the system by importing illegal goods by failing to mention they originated from Xinjiang, I would imagine my days in the industry would be numbered.  Customs and Border Patrol along with the Federal Trade Commission would be knocking on my door. At the very least, I’m sure my customers would be livid.  They’d feel lied to.  And they would choose to go elsewhere, especially as I spearheaded a social media campaign about how important it is to ethically source goods and a plan to do so in the near future.  

 

1. Stringer Shanghai/Reuters.com

At first I did not believe the test results and began to conduct a subsequent test in hopes this was an isolated incident. When I contacted the manufacturer’s CEO to request a meeting to determine next steps,their lawyers threatened litigation if I did  not keep their name confidential. When I had my lawyers respond with Isotopic test results that are admissible in  court, the tone changed and excuses came pouring in. 

 

 

2. Wikicommons/Baptistpress.com

I buy my blanks – the plain clothes on which we print – from distributors like Sanmar and S&S activewear who house dozens of brands that I still use like Bella Canvas, Hanes, and District Thread. When I tested these brands and others, the results were offered to both manufacturers and distributors to know who is potentially breaking the law and at the very least, who is unethically misleading customers to believe products did not originate from Xinjiang. 

 

As a result, I demanded to return all products at the exact cost I paid, and requested all goods be destroyed.  While I have assurances from the manufacturer that the products I re-branded as Nine Line will be destroyed, there were no assurances that the slave-ridden products I did not re-label would be quarantined from entering the market.  I would hope the manufacturer would work with a testing facility to verify my results or show competing results that my testing was flawed.  Due to this lack of transparency, I informed the manufacturer that I will not be using their product offerings until they make assurances that all goods purchased through S&S Activewear's distribution center are tested prior to further purchases, unless the manufacturer will guarantee no future tests will show the presence of slave cotton. I truly appreciate the help of S&S and commend them for taking this situation seriously; they are allowing me to use the credit provided to purchase products from the likes of Hanes and Bella Canvas, who have passed previous tests.  Over the past few months I discovered competitors who manufacture shirts with slave cotton can cut their COGS by upwards of 50% versus those companies who are ethically sourcing materials according to current import laws. This unfair advantage hurts those doing the right thing by forcing us to lower costs in order to remain competitive. One of my competitors in the Veteran space - a company that alludes they are “Veteran Owned” when they are in fact not - uses this unethical manufacturer almost exclusively, while similarly posting on social media the importance of ethics and doing the right thing for your community.

3. Getty Image/BBC.COM

It’s a shame that the American people have been lied to and are not able to trust what a company says. I have made it my life’s work to bring manufacturing back to the US and if we are unable to enforce the current laws, China will succeed in its blatantly obvious intent to undermine our economy and destabilize our manufacturing capabilities. Nine Line will answer the call to stick up for the Uyghurs and for the workers in our factory right here in Georgia. We will allow our actions to speak louder and will happily call out the hypocrites who advocate against social injustice while profiting hundreds of millions of dollars from the slave trade. Nine Line will return any and all products that test positive for containing slave cotton and encourage any retailer who is concerned with where their product is sourced to have them tested and look to alternative suppliers who do not sacrifice their soul for profits.

 

Image 1: (Stringer Shanghai/Reuters.com)

Image 2: (Wikicommons/Baptistpress.com)

Image 3: (Getty Image/BBC.COM)

Monday Music "Walking On A Thin Line" By Huey Lewis And The News

 

 I had decided to do the "Vietnam" songs for a bit because my Dads Birthday was in late January and he would have been 79, yeah I still miss him.

  Vietnam was a taboo subject for a while the wounds that the conflict left on the American Psyche was deep.  We had won the battles but lost the war because we as a nation had lost the will to fight it thanks to the media and the hippies and the antiwar movement that was funded by the communist party and liberal donors.  it took several years before Vietnam could be discussed outside of the veterans.  My Dad is a Vietnam Veteran, he did a tour in 1968 and dealt with the tunnels of Cu-Chi and the Tet Offensive, then he returned in 1972 for a second tour.   For a while especially in the 1970's, the Vietnam vet was portrayed as crazy or dangerous.  The specter of Vietnam dogged every use of the Military or any support during the 1980's, from Grenada, to Beirut, to Honduras and Nicaragua.  The Ghost of Vietnam were finally laid to rest during Desert Storm. 

 

 I heard this song while I was in North Georgia College in the college ROTC program.  I thought it was a good song, although the critics didn't care for it.  I thought it told a good story about a GI and the Vietnam experience and the coming back home. and still "walking a thin line".  This came out the same time other songs were coming out about Vietnam.  

"Walking On A Thin Line" is a song performed by Huey Lewis and the News, released in 1984 as the fifth and final single from their 1983 album, Sports.

Considered one of the band's more "serious" songs, "Walking On A Thin Line" was written by Andre Pessis and Kevin Wells.The Sacramento Bee thought the song was about a veteran's post-war stress. However, the song is really about the thoughts of serving Vietnam War soldiers and veterans in the midst of the war.

In live performances, Lewis would often dedicate the song to the casualties of the war in Vietnam, as well as the veterans. During some live performances, ESPN personality Chris Berman, who is a fan of the band, has shown up as a surprise guest, singing the song with the band. Berman, who met the band at an ESPN tenth anniversary party,when describing football highlights on NFL Live, will sometimes reference the chorus to the song.

Reception for the song was very mixed. Christopher Connelly of Rolling Stone said that the song was "annoying", and added that, "wherein Lewis even sings "desperation" just like Men at Work's Colin Hay. The tune's a semistomper but is saddled with some repellent lines about a Vietnam serviceman–"I'm the boy next door/The one you find so easy to ignore/Is that what I was fighting for?"–that equate military service with Getting the Girl." Steve Morse of The Boston Globe thought that it was one of the band's more "serious" songs. Morse also thought that it was an "unusual piece" and that it was a "funky ode to Vietnam veterans"^]Robert Draper of the Austin Chronicle said that it showed that Lewis could show "signs of awareness." The Arizona Daily Star said that the song showed the band's "modest abilities for rockin' out." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic calls the song one of the songs on the album that has "memorable hooks, driven home with economical precision by a tight bar band, who are given just enough polish to make them sound like superstars."

 

In the United States, the song was the last single released from the album, Sports. It peaked at #18 on the Billboard Hot 100, the only single from the album not to reach the Top 10 on the Billboard charts. The song was a Top 20 hit on the Top Rock Tracks chart, peaking at #16. The single was released in Australia where it reached #70. 

Some goings on here at Casa De Garabaldi

 I have been busy...Yep..."Meatspace" has sunk its claws into me...So I have found it difficult to find time to blog.   I am working a lot, To those that don't know, I am a commercial Chemtrail Technician, and right now it is busy, unless it is broke, or out of time or scheduled maintenance...it is flying.  Commercial aviation uses a rolling maintenance schedule to maintain its "Airworthiness" on the airframe and powerplant.  Unlike a private plane that gets an annual every year than an occasional overhaul, Commercial planes have a rigid schedule for maintenance checks, they are called "service", Transit" or a variation of a "Letter" check all the way to overhaul.  And a lot of the parts are governed by hours and cycles.  My employer uses "predictive Maintenance" to schedule parts changes especially on parts that have a cycle life.  A cycle is one takeoff and landing.  Aviation parts are built to such a high tolerance and bench marked to work statistically past a certain point.  My employer knows this and schedules parts changes before the part is "scheduled to fail" so we get the plane in and handled before it breaks, swap out the part, and check out anything else then turn the plane loose again.  This is why our reliability is so high in the industry.  This is expensive to do and a lot of carriers don't do this because this entails having a vendor supply chain and a logistics support for the parts.  We charge more than some because of the reliability factor.  Unless the"Extenuating Factors like the FAA NOTAM System or something like that....." If we have any say, the plane lands when it is suppose to and leaves when it is supposed to with no deviation, Maintenance delays are no excuse.   I say all that to say that I have been very busy, and to keep my anonymity I don't announce my employer on my blog, back in 2016 and 2020, I had some of my former Ford Peeps, they were suffering with TDS try to get me fired from my employer because I being a former union rep strayed off the reservation and wouldn't support the donk candidates.  The hate is real so I wish to keep my job, I hope y'all understand.

 

                                    (She took my Picture, so I took her picture...Turnabout is fair play)

       Well anyway I took some time to go to  Eastern Tennessee to visit my Mom, she turns 80
and it is kinda a big deal.     My brother came up from Florida, and we drove up in the Wife's Edge, far more comfortable than my Focus. My son flew up, he used his flight privileges since he now works at the same employer as I do.   We had to of course stopped off at ....

You betcha....Tradition.....For some reason, it makes every road trip start off good, or any time I  

go to Scout camp to run a shooting event or something....or any other excuse I can come up with.

   Well anyway We stopped off at Smokey Mountain Knife Works, where I bought a knife and then Buds

I picked up some shotgun ammo some "OO" buck for a good price  for my 870 that I have had since the 80's, so it is one of the good ones.  one of the few guns I didn't lose in that durn kayak accident.*sniff*sniff*.  and while I was there I saw this.....

Yep a "Baby Nagant"   They had both the carbine version and the full length for $369.  I always thought 

they were an "Urban Legend", apparently not....

 

The KSA 91/30 Mini Mosin is a youth-sized version of the classic Russki infantry arm but in a single-shot .22LR format (Photos: KSA)

Pennsylvania-based Keystone Arms is headed to market with the first in a line of downsized classics with their Mini Mosin .22 rifle.

The KSA 91/30 looks like a venerable Soviet Mosin-Nagant Model 91/30, the staple of the Red Army throughout World War II. However, instead of the shoulder-bruising 7.62x54R chambering and 29-inch barrel, Keystone’s Mini will be a single-shot .22LR rimfire with a more youth-accommodating 20-inch barrel. Similarly, instead of arctic birch, the U.S-made gun will feature a walnut stock.

“This ‘Mini-Mosin’ is the perfect size for your little ‘Comrade,'” said Keystone on social media last Friday. The company, best-known for their Crickett and Chipmunk series of single-shot rifles and pistols, went on to explain even smaller Mosins — such as the M38 — are still “a full-size rifle in a large caliber that a youth will have an unpleasant experience with.”

No word on MSRP yet but you can expect the company to have the prototype guns on display at the NRA’s Annual Meetings in Indianapolis later this month. If so, Guns.com will be on hand to sniff out more information, so stay tuned. 

       This was off the website...

      Yep, I did think about it....but I didn't have enough cash on me....and it is kinda of a novelty thing

and unfortunately I have more pressing needs for my money.

 

     I had to put another battery in the "Precious" A.K.A my F150, "The Battery" I had bought from

Advance Auto Parts I swore had a dead cell in it and they wouldn't exchange and they kept blowing me off, and it kept dying on me.  I would go out to the truck and would have to jump the truck off all the time, it got old and frustrating.  I finally went to SAMS Club and bought a "Duracell" battery and swapped out the battery.  Now the truck cranks when I want her to.  I was irritated with Advance on this, but I had to drive 100 miles to clear the P1000 codes so I can get the truck emission tested, it will be the last time because the truck is 25 years old and the truck passed with flying colors.

    My son and I had gone to "Udvar-Hazy" Aviation museum over at Dulles in D.C.  it was a day trip, first flight in and next to last flight out.  The preceding pic was the "Dash-80" the Prototype that spawned the 707 series and the future of Boeing Commercial Aircraft Company.

And of course they had other planes there....

                                                                The F6F "Hellcat"

                                                             The "Sparrowhawk" off the "U.S.S.Macon"

 

The "Concorde"

 

Boeing 377"Stratocruiser"

 

Enola Gay 

 

Me 163"Komet"

 

Mig 21"Fishbed"

 

Bell X-1"Glamorous Glennis"

 

F-4 Phantom II"World's Leading Distributor of MiG Parts"

 

"Mig 15" and the "F-86 Sabre" Korean War Adversaries

 

F-22"Raptor"

                                                                         F-35B"Lightning"

 

As I understand it, this was a survivor from the Pearl harbor attacks, she was a mail plane and survived the war and after a circuitous route, made it to the Smithsonian. 

 

 

 

F4U "Corsair"

 

Curtiss P-40 "Warhawk" 

And of course we saw ...

  You Betcha....."Flak-Bait"   I was stoked to see that plane and I saw what looked to be a Ju-87 "Stuka" in the shop plus other aircraft.
 

 

I got my copy from Larry Correia "In Defense of the 2nd Amendment " written in his unique style,

If you want to be able to debate and defend using logic against those that want to strip our 2nd amendment right from us, this book is a great help.  Now to convert the gun control crusaders is a lost cause, what we need to do is to convince "John and Jane Q Public", the undecided, using logic and reasoning, not "Feelingz" and "Emotions" like our opponents would do.  That is how we win the culture war against the rabid left.  We get the regular people on our side and they will look at the anti's as kooks and squirrels.  We will be the "Sane ones" and this book will help.  Go to Amazon and get your copy.