Monday Music "Walking on Sunchine" by Katrina and the Waves

I remember when this song first hit, it was a bit campy and a bit bubblegum, but I liked it, it was a bubbly positive song and fun to listen to.  Quite a few songs were downright depressive when you listening to them, but this song was fun to listen to and you could play it over several times and it wouldn't get old.  The song got a lot of playtime on MTV back in the day.

"Walking on Sunshine" is a song written by Kimberley Rew for Katrina and the Waves 1983 eponymous debut full-length album. The re-recorded version was at first released on the band's 1985 self-titled album as the album's second single and reached No. 4 in Australia, No. 9 in the United States, and No. 8 in the United Kingdom. It was the Waves' first US top 40 hit, and their biggest success in the United Kingdom until "Love Shine a Light" (1997). Originally conceived of as a ballad, Katrina decided to belt the song out as a more upbeat song

Royalties from airplay and advertisements of "Walking on Sunshine" have been extremely high. Katrina and the Waves kept the publishing rights and the royalties that typically go to the songwriter have been divided among the band members.Estimates are the song has earned $1 million per year for the ten years ending in 2010. According to a former employee of EMI, "Walking on Sunshine was the crown jewel in EMI's catalog," and that it was one of EMI's biggest earners from advertisers.
In late August and early September 2005, which marked the 20th anniversary of the song's release, the storm surge of a storm named Hurricane Katrina devastated much of the U.S. Gulf Coast, and the MSNBC program Countdown with Keith Olbermann dubbed its coverage of the storm, "Katrina and the Waves"; the name also appeared in numerous headlines and blog postings. A New York Times reporter contacted Katrina Leskanich, who said: "The first time I opened the paper and saw 'Katrina kills 9,' it was a bit of a shock. ... I hope that the true spirit of 'Walking on Sunshine' will prevail. I would hate for the title to be tinged with sadness, and I will have to do my own part to help turn that around." She also stated that she hoped that "Walking on Sunshine" would become an anthem for the Gulf Coast's recovery.
2010 was the 25th anniversary of the release of "Walking on Sunshine," and a series of back-catalog re-releases and a re-recorded version of the track were released at the time. A free download of one of the tracks from Kimberley Rew's solo album Bible of Bop was given away in March 2010 from the band's website.
In August 2015, which marked the 30th anniversary of the song's release, the song was acquired by BMG Rights Management for £10 million, along with all the other songs written by Kimberley Rew and Katrina and the Waves.

The music video opens with a Docklands alley, the Waves huddling whilst Katrina dances about above them. The video proceeds to depict the band performing live at a United Kingdom concert. Katrina herself is either with or not with them, but either dancing in a disused Docklands warehouse, or walking through Hyde Park on a cloudy day, past a churchyard, Tower Bridge, and the south bank of the Thames. She catches up with the others and feeds ducks (one of them eats the leftovers, referring to the Waves). The four all repair to a backstage dressing room and prepare for a concert

musings...and thoughts....and musings...oh my

I have been very busy and I think of all these great post that I want to do while I am doing other stuff like working, sleeping, driving,and other items of living in real life and the eloquence of what I will write, so I am excited so when I get in front of the laptop, my muse deserts me like the morals of a democratic politician...and I look at a blank screen going "well....crap...".

      I have noticed that the government shutdown has entered the 3rd week, we are eating unsafe food, breathing unsafe air and drinking polluted water since our betters are not checking up on how things are going because they are at home not getting paid....well according to the media anyway...
    A couple of days ago, the President gave a speech on his case for the wall, and the media outlets almost didn't want it broadcasted,

 I noticed a few things, first off..the speech was short and to the point, it wasn't full of "I" and "Me" like the previous inhabitant of the White House who was verbose or as my friend Shelldude would say "Dude uses a bunch of $5.00 words".  But they allowed Chuck"Nothing get in the way of the Camera" Schumer and Petrified Pelosi to do a rebuttal of the Presidents statement..

To my knowledge this has never been done before, excluding "State of the Union" Speeches.  This shows the amount of animus that the media has for President Trump. They view themselves as the gatekeeper of knowledge and any information that goes against the "GroupHiveThink" or the latest  stuff whatever the ministry of Truth decrees as "Truth" to be disseminated to the "Dirt People"

      Schumer and Pelosi challenged the president in a sleight-of-hand deal to re-open the part of government that is closed and then continue the debate about a wall. That reminds me of the "deal" offered to President George H.W. Bush by then-Speaker Jim Wright (D-Texas). Wright said Congress would cut spending if Bush would OK a tax increase. Bush was blamed for the tax hike, never got the spending cuts and lost his re-election bid as Bill Clinton and the Democrats reminded everyone in 1992 and the term "Read my lips, No new taxes" by President Bush and the resulting political suicide because the President tried to compromise with the democrats.  The Flipside is that 2 years later, the GOP running on the genius of Newt Gingrich took the house for the first time in 40 years because of the miscues and overreach of the Democrats with "Hillarycare" and the "Assault Weapons ban 94".  The Democrats got creamed in the 1994 elections.   This is interesting, If President Trump caves, he is through for 2020, he will be a 1 term president like the first President Bush. President Trump will have challengers in his own party, even Romney would make a go at him.

    The Democrats are feeling exuberant, they think they have the hated "Cheeto man" on the ropes.  The entire agenda for the democrats can be summed up in Impeachment, illegal to legal immigrant, and they will lock up another monolithic voting block like the blacks and guaranteeing a voting majority and power to rule, no borders, medicare control for all, green energy, Tax"in the name of fairness" increases and of course gun control.

   And speaking of "Gun Control"   Dianne "Ban all guns except the ones used by her personal security detail and the government" Feinstein of course...the dirt people...well their purpose is to pay the taxes, get sheared and occasionally killed for mutton to support the cloud people as an example to the others that might step out of line.

  The purpose is to replace us with a malleable voting population that will do what they are told.  People from the central and south American countries are used to totalitarian governments and their criminals prey on the dirt people and the resulting cries for "help" against the criminal elements that are terrorizing them is used as an excuse to strip more of the "rights" in return for "security" and people that depend on the government for security will do what is "suggested" to keep the security and this will guarantee permanent power to the state and the democrats.
     This is the part of the dekulakization that I mentioned in a few earlier POST.  If they can replace us and they can decimate the middle class at the same time.  The middle class is the checks and balance on the totalitarianism of those that would wish themselves "King".  Like the Magna Carta, this curtails tyranny because the middle class has the knowledge, money and guns to defend themselves if it came from push to shove.  The poor people will do what they are told because they need the EBT and other subsidies to live and they will mortgage their souls to do so because they depend on .gov and those that depend on .gov WILL do what they are told.

      And reading more of the Gun control bill, this basically is going after all firearms that have use a magazine, have a fore grip, that is where you hold the front of the rifle and other features.  This is most of the camel to coin a phrase. Even my lever action rifle falls under this ban, the fore-grip part.  All rifles use a fore-grip and this will basically ban all rifles.  Pistols will be next.  Once we are disarmed, we are at the total mercy of the big government democrats, and have no say in the process of governance.  
  

   I am bouncing all over the place on this posting, and this posting kinda reflects that...

   On a slightly different note, the Schumer, Pelosi rebuttal has been Meme gold....I will add a couple of ones that I picked up...

There are many more on the internet...

     On a different note, The new highspeed range near my house reopened, but I saw a sign on the door that said "Law Enforcement/Retired Military only".This concerns me because we regular people would like a nice place to shoot.  Having a range that caters to "LawEnforcement/Retired Military only" screams of elitism and a good way to guarantee another range closure.....again.
      I will go talk to them and see if this policy is ironclad and if it ain't, I will take the Garand and the Henry to the range and really try to shoot them.

Were British tanks better than German Tanks? WWII Edition

A great deal has been made about the reliability of German tanks, but there is more to the equation. Some tanks might look better than others on paper, but that wasn’t the only factor that dictated their use.
Tanks are used by soldiers in combat, in combination with other weapons systems, according to a strategy dictated by leaders. Their numbers on the battlefield are often determined by the production capacity of the factories, production decisions made years earlier, and the availability of other strategic supplies during the war. That is where the comparison between British and German tanks becomes interesting.


Before the war, the British excelled at building light tanks. These were designed for constabulary duty across the empire such as in Egypt and India. The Imperial Staff considered the Mark VI the best light tank in the world, and it saw service in training and some North African battles before World War II.

Wooden mockup of the proposed Mark VI, 1917

Early in the war, the British focused on infantry support tanks. Since these would move with the infantry, speed was not a factor and they could have heavier armor. The main drawback for British tanks was the strategy under which they operated.
Because German tanks were used for penetrating offensive operations, by contrast the British tanks lacked their speed. They also did not have a gun bigger than the two pounder for trying to penetrate the armor of other medium or heavy tanks.

Tank, Cruiser, Mk I (A9)

The Cruiser MK1 was a faster and more effective medium tank. But even this was outclassed by German tanks like the Panzer III. It wasn’t until later in the war, when production ramped up on the more effective Valentine and Churchill models, that British tanks started to be effective.
The Valentine, in particular, became known as a reliable and well-protected vehicle. It was still an infantry support tank so it was slower than its German counterparts.

A Valentine in North Africa, carrying infantry from a Scottish regiment.

Like the Cruiser and the light tanks, its two pounder gun was decent against inferior Italian tanks, but lacked the needed punch against German tanks until it was upgraded to a six pounder.
The Churchill was one of the heaviest Allied tanks in the war. It had good armor and an excellent chassis that gave it good off road capability. It was roughly equivalent to the Panzer IV in the German army, though it was still only mediocre compared to super tanks like the Tiger.

Churchill Mark IV with a 75mm gun

The Germans started the war with good, reliable tanks, and guns that were often slightly under powered. But due to the demands of the battlefield, later in the war they often rushed production of heavier tanks with a load of mechanical problems.
They essentially threw prototypes into battle that had significant teething problems. Tanks like the Panther were often reported to require ten hours of repair for every one hour of operation. Later in the war those problems lessened, even as the lack of supply became a grave issue.

Panther Ausf. G

The King Tiger later in the war was one of the most feared tanks fielded by the German army. It combined the thick armor of the Tiger I with the sloping armor of the Panther medium tank, which along with a powerful gun made it extremely potent against other tanks on the battlefield.
But it wasn’t without flaws. The engine to move this beast required vast amounts of fuel for a nation suffering from shortages, and it was slower than the Churchill fielded by the British.

Tiger IIs (with the “Porsche” turret) on the move in France, June 1944 Photo by Bundesarchiv, Bild

Early in the war the Germans had the advantage of using superior tanks with a blitzkrieg strategy that hadn’t been seen before. But even those superior tanks had a weakness.
While the Germans’ armored and some infantry divisions were motorized, their supply and logistics divisions were not. As a result, spare parts for the tanks that inevitably broke down had to be delivered by horse and carriage.

SHAEF commander Gen. Eisenhower walks by an overturned Tiger II. The overlapping, non-interleaved steel-rim roadwheel arrangement is visible.

Later in the war the Germans were short on vital items like fuel, which magnified their general lack of logistics. That meant that late in the war, such as at the Battle of the Bulge against British tanks, the German tanks that appeared super on paper often had little fuel and spare parts in reality.
The engine of the Tiger tank in particular often required extensive replacement of its gaskets, which limited its utility on the battlefield.

Tiger II. On display at Saumur Général Estienne museum.

In summary, the tanks of both nations were a combination of positives and negatives that resulted in mixed performances. The decisive factor often had little to do with design, but more to do with the amount of supplies and logistical support they received.
The Germans had some tanks that were incredibly complex. They received a reputation for breaking down, but that was often a result of supply issues and fielding tanks before they had been tested and refined.

The end result is that on paper, the tanks were often fairly similar in design and durability. The British had their fair share of clunkers and “what were they thinking” designs, particularly early in the war with their light infantry support tanks. And the Germans had some reliable workhorses.
But once thrown into battle the German weaknesses in supply became apparent, and this created the impression that their tanks were not as durable.

Monday Music "Brilliant Disguise" by Bruce Springsteen

I was on the way to work this morning and I was listening to my Sirius/XM on the 80's channel and they were playing some songs from 1987 on it and this song was popular back in 1987 and it turned into an "earworm"  I remembered this song. I bought the album on LP when I had returned to the states on leave before I started my 2nd tour in Germany.  I considered the "Tunnel of Love" album almost as good as his "Born in the U.S.A." album.  I would play the songs from this album on a cassette mix that I made with some other songs for my car and barracks room.  I would later buy the CD when I got my first CD player , it was a "Marantz" single tray and it was a big step up in quality for the music vs LP and cassette.  I wouldn't get a CD player for my car until I bought my 2001 Sport Trac back in 2001.  But back to the Music, even now I would hear this song and it would take me back to my time in Germany in 1988 and driving near Echterdingen and Esslingen.  It still was during the cold war and speaking of that I am reading a book I downloaded on my tablet called "Red Storm Rising"again... by Tom Clancy.  I have read this book many times and it still is a good read and it still gives me a bit of a chill because I remember the times back in the 80's when I patrolled the 1 K zone between East and West Germany.  Scary but I never felt more alive.....funny how that works out.

I like Bruce Springsteen, but I don't care for his politics, I kinda wish that musicians would stay out of politics, but perhaps this is an unrealistic expectation, but alienating half of your customer base to prove how "woke" you are is getting tiresome.
      "Brilliant Disguise" is a song by Bruce Springsteen from his 1987 album Tunnel of Love. It was released as the first single from the album, reaching the #5 position on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and #1 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in the United States. The follow-up single, "Tunnel of Love", also reached #1 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, giving Springsteen two consecutive #1's. The single had less commercial success in other countries.

Like much of the Tunnel of Love album, "Brilliant Disguise" was recorded in Springsteen's home studio, called Thrill Hill East, between January and May 1987 with several members of the E Street Band. On this song, Springsteen played several instruments and is backed by Roy Bittan on keyboards, Danny Federici on organ and Max Weinberg on drums.
The lyrics of "Brilliant Disguise" represent a confession of self-doubt on the part of the singer. The emotions expressed in the song include confusion, jealousy and anxiety about whether the singer's wife has become a stranger to him. The song deals with the masks people wear and the bitterness that can ensue when we realize the darkness that may lie behind those masks. The analogies to Springsteen's personal life at the time are evident: he had recently married then-model and actress Julianne Phillips, and the two would divorce in 1988. The references to marital problems are quite direct, as in the lyrics, "We stood at the alter [sic]/the gypsy swore our future was bright/but come the wee wee hours/Well maybe baby the gypsy lied."
The song's quiet power builds slowly. The sound is scaled back from the typical E Street Band sound. The singer struggles to do things right, but it doesn't help. He can't trust either himself or his wife. Both he and his wife continue to play their roles - he of a "faithful man", she of a "loving woman", but the singer is nonetheless wracked with self-doubt. A key line towards the end of the song:
"I wanna know if it's you I don't trust/Because I damn sure don't trust myself."
sums up the emotions that resonate throughout the song, and indeed the entire second side of the Tunnel of Love album.
Springsteen himself wrote about the song "after '85 I'd had enough and turned inward to write about men, women and love, things that have previously been on the periphery of my work."
The song was later released on the compilation album The Essential Bruce Springsteen.
"Brilliant Disguise" has been ranked as the #1192 best song of all time, as well as the #27 song of 1987 and the #214 song of the 1980s, in an aggregation of critics' lists at acclaimedmusic.net The song has also been listed as one of the all time great songs in Toby Creswell's "1001 songs" and as one of the 7500 most important songs from 1944 through 2000 by Bruce Pollock.It was also ranked as the #6 single of 1987 by the Village Voice and the #51 single of 1987 by the New Musical Express.
The photograph on the original release picture sleeve was taken by Springsteen's sister Pamela Springsteen.

Like several other music videos from the Tunnel of Love album, including "Tunnel of Love", "One Step Up" and "Tougher Than the Rest", the video for "Brilliant Disguise" was directed by Meiert Avis.
The video of the song, shot in black and white, effectively reflects its emotions. The singer sits uncomfortably on the edge of a chair. He plays his guitar as he sings the lyrics about what it means to try to trust someone looking straight into the camera, never flinching. This very personal performance can make it difficult to watch, but it effectively reflects the themes of the song.
The video was later released on the VHS and DVD Video Anthology / 1978-88

The coming dekulakization of America.

I have blogged a few times about the liberals and elitist going after us "dirt people" because we represent the middle class and we have the means to keep them in check because we are not "beholden" to them for our existence.  The elitist or the wanna be ruling class believe that it is their destiny to rule over us dirt people because we don't have the education like they did or believe like they do because we are not "enlightened" like they are.  and socialism will work this time because they are the right people in history to finally get it right...

  I saw this on "GunFreeZone"

By the 18th century, Feudalism had effectively ended in Europe.  The very beginning of the industrial and agricultural revolution in England in the 1700's as well as the social and political changes that came from the Age of Enlightenment made Feudalism obsolete.

No so much in Russia.  Russia was always seemed to lag behind Europe in social and technological advancements and the majority of Russian agriculture workers were still serfs in the 1800's.

The first major reform in Russia was the Emancipation Reform of 1861, which officially ended serfdom under Tsar Alexander II.  Russian form workers were still not nearly as free as European farm workers, which led to unrest and an eventual peasants revolt, which was part of of the Russian Revolution in 1905.  That led to the Stolypin reforms which finally gave Russian peasants the ability to buy land, have private property rights, hire workers, and engage in some level of capitalism.

Some of the farmers who had been emancipated in 1861 were moderately successful at farming.  For the first time in Russian history, they were able to pass down their farms to their sons, who took advantage of the later reforms and  were able to amass a modest amount of wealth.  They may have owned a home that was more than a shack, had a small herd of cattle, owned a tractor, had a couple of hundred Rubles tucked away.

In 1929, this all fell apart.

The newly founded Soviet government decided that such successful farmers were an enemy of the people.  There were called Kulaks which means "tight fisted" as in stingy.  They were accused of hording the agricultural wealth of the Soviet people, and between 1929 and 1932, the process of dekulakiztion resulted in the the forcible relocation 1.8 million people and the deaths about 4 million.

I want this to really sink in.

A Russian farmer was essentially a slave in 1860, not much better off than a slave on an American plantation in the same year.  He owned nothing, and worked the land for his lord, being allowed to keep barely enough of the food he grew to feed himself.

That farmer was emancipated in 1861, and was allowed to own his land by a process of a 49 year debt bondage.  In 1906, the farmer's son could borrow money to buy more land on a mortgage, maybe buy a tractor, and if he worked really hard pay that off loan and actually own something of value.  If that farmer was really hard working and very lucky, he could have been successful enough to have a plot of land large enough to hire a few people to work for him and maybe have some equipment or a mill or creamery to lease to other farmers.

All of this took place in the 68 years from 1861 to 1929.  The kulaks Lenin called "bloodsuckers, vampires, plunderers of the people and profiteers, who fatten on famine" were barely a generation or two away from slavery.  The kulak shot in the head by a Soviet solider was most likely the grandson of an emancipated Serf.

So enter the 116th of the United States of America.

Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez wants to implement a lot of reforms.

A few social media ideas for public servants looking to build an audience:
- Endorse Single-Payer Medicare for All
- Hold Wall Street Accountable
- Make Min Wage = Living Wage
- Cancel Puerto Rican Debt
- End For-Profit Prisons & ICE Detention
- Fight for a #GreenNewDeal

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 2, 2019

The center of her proposed policy, one that is gaining traction with the Democrats is the Green New Deal.  She managed to get a select committee put together for it and they have released a draft proposal.

You can go through it, but it is both economically and technologically infeasible to the point of being impossible in any reasonable timeline.

One of the points her draft makes sounds exactly like what the Soviets promised, with a little environmentalism mixed in.

The Plan for a Green New Deal (and the draft legislation) shall recognize that a national, industrial, economic mobilization of this scope and scale is a historic opportunity to virtually eliminate poverty in the United States and to make prosperity, wealth and economic security available to everyone participating in the transformation. In furtherance of the foregoing, the Plan (and the draft legislation) shall:

[P]rovide all members of our society, across all regions and all communities, the opportunity, training and education to be a full and equal participant in the transition, including through a job guarantee program to assure a living wage job to every person who wants one;

She is also starting to talk about reparations, a subject that Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee is bringing back up again.  The Democrats have already announced their intentions to increase the taxes on some Americans to raise the wages for other Americans.

The Democrats are drawing lines through people's incomes to decided were morality lies.  They will tax the rich and those they decide who are undeserving of their money.

And it all sounds like the dekualization of America to me.

My great grandparents were mud farmers driven out of Poland by the Tsar and Prussia by the Kaiser.

Neither of my grandfathers has so much as a high school education.  Both were born during WWI and started working as soon as they could to help put bread on the table during the depression.  My maternal grandfather served on a Coast Guard ship as a cook, patrolling the eastern seaboard for U-Boats.  My paternal grandfather was drafted as an artillery forward observer.

After the war my maternal grandfather took his wartime earnings and bought a butcher shop in Philadelphia.  My paternal grandfather joined the New York Bagel Baker's Union started a bakery.

My mother was a nurse, my father was a lawyer.  I'm an engineer.

For all intents and purposes, I'm little more than two generations away from serfdom.

I'm not unique in that, that is normal for Americans.  I know people in Alabama, who are white and are only a couple of generations removed from being share croppers and subsistence farmers.

When you look at what the Democrats decide is an immoral level of wealth, it's the combined mid-career income of an engineer and a RN, or a CPA and a dental hygienist, or an MD and a stay-at-home mom.

A family takes a couple of generations to crawl out of the mud and amass enough wealth to buy a house, a couple of cars, go on vacation once a year, and to listen to the Democrats they are bloodsuckers, vampires, and plunderers of the people.

The socio-economic class in America that is made up of people who have gone to college to study something useful and are professionals who work for a living, are the new American Kulaks.  The make too much to be virtuous by Leftist standards but lack the wealth and power of the investment or inheritance class Leftist elite.

The Democrats sworn in yesterday and doing their first business today are promising pie in the sky and are going to pay for it on the backs Americas Kulaks.  The more things change, the more 2019 is looking like 1929.

More Casa De Garabaldi and range time..

I took my son to the range to shoot the new rifle I bought a few days ago.  We didn't have a lot of time because he had a date with the church group going to Florida.  We had basically 25 minutes to shoot before we had to leave.  I knew that wasn't a lot of time, but a little range time is better than no range time.  Well we got there and set up the ammo and I had brought one of my revolvers to shoot also.

 I had brought my revolver but I would up not shooting it due to time time crunch.  I pulled out the rifle and laid it on the bench and it took a bit of work to release the retaining rod.  Remember that part of the story....

 I loaded it with a mixture of .38 SPL and .357 magnum.  The rifle is loaded through a tubular magazine

I had a hell of a time getting the retaining rod to rotate the notch to lock it in place.  But I was able to do that.  It took some work but I got the rod locked in place.  The rifle was really easy to shoot, but I had initial problems with the action and some of the .38 rounds didn't eject properly...That is something that is known about the rifle.  The rifle shot the .357 no problem.
   I was able to get the rod out to reload the rifle but I couldn't get the rod to rotate to lock the rod in place.  I attribute this to the rifle being "new".  I wound up going to the guy behind the counter and asking for a set of pliers to help out.

The pliers did the trick, I then loaded the rifle for my son to shoot..

He enjoyed shooting the rifle, he did better with the action that I did, LOL   He made some comment about my age.

I sucked....I know this is breathing but I should have slowed down and focused more on the fundamentals.  I felt rushed because of the outside time factors we were under.   I will take the rifle again to the range and this time I will bring my own set of pliers and hopefully it will get easier as the rifle breaks in.

 A sign I saw as we were leaving the range.  This is a subtle dig at the range

that closed down near me that was high speed and low drag, but was broken into several times and guns stolen. The belief in the area that it was an inside job and the employees were in on it.  I had commented that if I had scored the lottery, I would have bought the location and the foreclosed range and had totally new people run it,none of the dipshits that were there before.  I wouldn't know which one was in on heists,  maybe even poach my buddy Mack and pay him enough money to make the drive worthwhile for him and have him run the place and offer courses, training and a fun place to shoot.   Doesn't hurt to dream, LOL

"5 worst kinds of gun shop employees"

Hire people not like this....

    After dropping my son off with the Church group, I then went home to get started on a project that was percolating in my mind....yeah...scary...

..This is a closet in my kitchen that has become a junk collector....

Just the trash out of the closet, not including the stuff that went to goodwill.
  I cleaned up the closet, and repainted it then hung in a new shelf system.  The goal is to neatify stuff and clear off some counter space.

  The project is finished and have started clearing off counter-space.

     And finally on a political note....The democrats have assumed control of the house of representatives....and guess what started already....

 They have already filed.......sheesh

Monday Music "New Years Day" by U2

This will post on Tuesday instead of Monday...This is by Design...Since Tuesday is "New Years Day"...See!! There is a method to my madness.
    I remember when I saw this song on MTV, you know..back when they played Music video's instead of the crap they play now.  I remember back in the day, the older generations said that MTV is leading to the rot of society, well back then, they played music video's.  Now they really do show the decline of pop culture and our society.
    Well anyway I remembered seeing the video's and it showed combat footage from the Eastern front and I thought that was pretty neat from a historical perspective.

"New Year's Day" is a song by Irish rock band U2. It is the third track on their 1983 album War and was released as the album's lead single in January 1983. With lyrics written about the Polish Solidarity movement, "New Year's Day" is driven by Adam Clayton's distinctive bassline and the Edge's piano and guitar playing. It was the band's first UK hit single, peaking at number 10, and was also their first international hit, reaching for number 9 in Norway, number 11 on the Dutch Top 40, number 17 in Sweden, and number 53 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States.
In 2010, Rolling Stone magazine placed the single at number 435 on their list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". This song was also included in the Pitchfork 500.
"New Year's Day" is U2's seventh most frequently performed live song, with the Edge switching back and forth between piano and guitar during the song. It has been a standard on every U2 tour since its debut on 1 December 1982 at the first show of the War Tour's Pre-Tour, however the recent Innocence + Experience tour only featured three performances of the song for the entire tour. During the 1980s, the Edge used a Fender Stratocaster to perform this song, along with a keyboard. During the 1990s and 2000s (decade), he has alternated between a Gibson Les Paul Custom and Les Paul Standard. The Les Paul the Edge used to write this song was sold for charity. Up until the Elevation Tour, Clayton normally used a chorus effect on his bass guitar for this song live. In the Top of the Pops performance, Bono is seen playing guitar.
"New Year's Day" has appeared on many of U2's concert video releases including 1983's U2 Live at Red Rocks: Under a Blood Red Sky, Zoo TV: Live from Sydney, PopMart: Live from Mexico City, U2 Go Home: Live from Slane Castle, Vertigo 2005: Live from Chicago, Live from Paris, and U2 3D.
The B-side of "New Year's Day", "Treasure (Whatever Happened to Pete the Chop?)", was never performed live. However, an early version known simply as "Pete the Chop" was played at some concerts in 1980.
During the Vertigo Tour at Silesian Stadium in Poland a quite remarkable example of fan action occurred. During "New Year's Day", the lower sections of the crowd waved red coloured items while other sections waved white, creating the Polish flag and stunning the band.^[13] This was repeated during the U2 360° Tour at the same venue.

The Spanish translation of that song, apparently the English version has copyright issues

The video was one of their first to see heavy rotation on MTV. It was filmed in Sälen, Sweden in December 1982 and directed by Meiert Avis. The band only appeared in the performance scenes of the video as it was filmed in the dead of the Swedish winter. U2 guitarist Edge revealed in the official U2 biography that the four people riding on horseback in the video that appeared to be the four U2 members were in fact four Swedish teenage girls disguised as the members of U2 riding on horseback with masks over their faces. This was done as the band were frozen from shooting the video in sub-freezing temperatures the day before. Their biography states that Bono refused to wear any headgear despite the cold weather and had a lot of trouble mouthing the lyrics. The video also features footage of Soviet troops advancing in winter during World War II.
The video made its debut UK television broadcast on Friday 31 December 1982, on the Channel 4 music programme The Tube.
U2 allowed free-of-charge use of this song in a spot prepared by the European Commission. This clip published on YouTube shows a transformation of Poland in the last 20 years mixed with short scenes from today's Warsaw seen from a perspective of a 20-year-old woman

More After Christmas stuff

On December 26th, My son and I headed to Tennessee to visit my mom and pops near Sevierville,  I have been away from work for a week as a chemtrail technician and we have spent the week traveling.  Last week down in Florida, I was hoping to make a run to Pensacola to visit the museum where I can see the storied history of Navy Aviation and Old NFO. who have been in service together for a mighty looong time....and they let you touch the airplanes...Did I say that they let you touch the airplanes......?

We had picked up a little souvenir for my Brother, he and my sister in law are consummate pranksters and it always is good to see them.   The Flamingo just screamed Florida Christmas to me so we got it.
     We were down there and just before we left, I placed the gaudy flamingo in their immaculate rock garden.

My SIL embraced the tackiness, like I said, they are good people and have a warped sense of humor

Well anyway, we returned home Christmas Eve, had family come over from the Spousal units side of the family and on Christmas day we did the stuff I blogged about.  Then the day after Christmas, My son and I headed to Tennessee..While we were there, I visited my favorite place up there, the Smokey Mountain Knife works.  I wanted to pick up a couple of blades for work and I like browsing.  I did pick up a patch for Mack, since he is starting at a new place, and I figured he needed to be up to speed with the all the new tacticool gear so I got him a patch so he would blend in with the rest of the staff.

Mack's new patch

Man we are tired, a lot of traveling.  I am looking forward to work just to catch my breath.

Why they call it the "Smokey Mountains"

We drove back and it seemed that we spent a lot of time in the truck, My son learned a lot of patience and well how can I say ahh unique driving patterns driving during rush hours in Atlanta....I kept having flashbacks to driving in the Middle East.  Well we got home and this morning we had to go to visit my buddy Mack to pick up my new rifle.   

The Rifle on my chair.

 .357 caliber or .38 SPL

Henry Repeating Arms

.And the 

following quote from the company website.

"Back when the West was still wild and the rifle was the tool of choice for survival and frontier justice, the venerable .44-caliber put more meat on the table and outlaws in the ground than any other bullet.
The West may have been tamed and fenced long ago, but its unbridled spirit lives on in this line of traditional big-bore Henry rifles.
Choose from .44 Magnum, .45 Colt, .357 Magnum, .41 Magnum, and .327 Federal Magnum. All are SASS approved so Cowboy Action shooters who enjoy stepping back to that bygone era can use them in competition.
Don’t let the retro look fool you, these rifles are much more than shootin’ irons for today’s new breed of cowboy.
They’re also the unbeatable choice of big-game hunters who prefer the traditional look, feel, reliability and accuracy that comes from an authentic Henry rifle.
The traditional 20″ octagonal barrel is outfitted with a classic fully adjustable semi-buckhorn rear sight with a reversible white diamond insert and a brass beaded front sight. The tubular magazine tops off at 10 rounds.
Both the straight-grip stock and forearm are crafted of select American walnut accented with a brass barrel band and Henry’s recognizable brass receiver. All have that crisp, smooth action that sets an authentic American-made Henry apart from other lever action rifles on the range and in the woods today.
The .44 Magnum rifle can shoot .44 special rounds, the .357 Magnum rifle can shoot .38 special rounds, and the .327 Federal Magnum rifle can also shoot .32 H&R."

    I picked up the rifle from Mack's Place and presented him with the new patch to start his new "tacticool" uniform at his soon to be new place of employment at the big city gun store, range and emporium.

He looks totally thrilled, LOL

We got ready to head out and I asked him if he was cool with a pic with my son and Mack said "Sure!", 

Harry and Mack

Just for funsies I decided to pull up a couple more pics of Harry and Mack...

 Harry and Mack on his last day as a "Professional Scouter"

and finally this pic...

Harry at the end and Mack at an "Order of the Arrow Function".a couple of years earlier..I kinda feel bad for Mack, he has had to put up with me for a long time...well actually I don't feel bad.

   We got home and since the day was much nicer than expected, Harry and I took the Outside Christmas decorations down and since the day was still nice, I took a quick motorcycle ride

   I enjoyed the time off, but I am ready to go to work, for no other reason than to get a break.

   I am totally looking forward to going to the range and shooting the rifle :)

Christmas and the Aftermath..

Well I was very busy visiting family this past week so blogging was light.  I for the first time in many years actually had Christmas day and Christmas eve off.  Normally as a chemtrail technician my schedule is set by the needs of my employer so I normally have to work.  Well this week the planets and stars lined up so I had a while week off and we traveled all over the place visiting family and my son and I are going to Tennessee to visit my mom again.

   Well this is my truck...

For Christmas my wife got me an accessory for my truck.

 I wasn't expecting it, so I was really surprised, and my son was really excited since he was the one that suggested the accessory.  Well we had a couple of hours to fill after coming back from "Waffle House" for Brunch, that my son suggested that we try to install it.   The Spousal unit wanted to go to the 4:50 movie, so  I was "Sure" we can try it.  So my son did most of the work with my talking him through it.  He was really excited about it, my brother has given him a tool set from "Husky" and a really cool wooden box that my brother and sister-in-law made for him.  We were using his tools mostly and he really enjoyed the experience.

 My Son was under the truck putting on the brackets and I was prepping the "Bull bar" on the table.  We had the truck on some ramps and my son really enjoyed using the creeper to zip from one end to the other.

The Truck looks different with the bull bar on the truck.  The Truck as seen a lot of love the past month.
     We then went to the movies and watch "Wreck it Ralph-Ralph Wrecks the internet.".  It is a cartoon and we have a tradition that we go to the movies on Christmas. and I happen to like cartoons..

My son and I will be headed to Tennessee in the morning and stopping at "Waffle House" on the way...of course.
    I was sending "Merry Christmas" Texts to many people and I kept getting the word "Garand" in my word selection....I wonder if Baby Jesus is telling me something...