Monday Music "The Night the Lights went out in Georgia" From Vicki Lawrence.

I heard this song on the "70's"channel on my Sirius/XM when I headed off the 80's channel to avoid "red Red wine"...Again....*blech*.  And I haven't heard this song in years, literally it was a good 15 years plus since I heard this song.  I remember it being played a lot when I was a kid.  I never knew that the women that played "Little Sister" to Carol Burnett and had her own show called "Momma's Family".     Here is a clip from Tim Conway and Vicki Lawrence is featured here along with Carol Burnett and Dick Van Dyke in the "Elephant Story"

The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia" is a Southern Gothic song, written in 1972 by songwriter Bobby Russell and sung by Vicki Lawrence, an American pop music singer, actress, and comedian. Lawrence's version, from her 1973 Bell Records album of the same name, was a number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 after its release. In addition to several other renditions, the song was again a hit in 1991 when Reba McEntire recorded it for her album For My Broken Heart. McEntire's version was a single, as well, reaching number 12 on Hot Country Songs.

Returning home from a two-week trip to a place called Candletop, a man, identified only as "Brother", stops for a drink at Webb's Bar before going home to his wife. His friend Andy Woodlow stops in to inform Brother that while he's been away his wife has been having an affair with a man named Seth Amos. Brother is infuriated by this news, but his anger is exacerbated when Andy confesses that he too has been messing around with Brother's wife. Now in fear for his own safety, Andy leaves Webb's Bar and walks back to his house nearby.
Thinking his wife has left town, Brother goes home to find a gun and quietly makes his way through the woods to Andy's house to kill him. On the way there he finds a set of footprints leading up to and back from the house, but they look too small to have been made by Andy. Arriving at Andy's back door, Brother looks through the screen and discovers that Andy is already dead; he begins to panic when he sees Andy's blood-soaked body lying on the floor. Without thinking, Brother fires a shot in the air to flag down the police, only to be accused and arrested himself. In a show trial, the judge wastes little time declaring Brother guilty of Andy's murder and then sentencing him to death by hanging, which is carried out in short order.
The story wraps up with the narrator, revealing herself as "Little Sister", admitting that it was she who made the tracks that Brother saw leading to and from Andy's house. She then confesses that she not only shot and killed Andy, but also murdered Brother's unfaithful wife, making extra certain to dispose of her body where nobody would ever find it; the narrator finishes by saying "See, Little Sister don't miss when she aims her gun".
In the song's chorus, Little Sister blames the Georgia criminal justice system for Brother's death, warning the listener "Don't trust your soul to no backwoods Southern lawyer, 'cause the judge in the town's got blood stains on his hands.

Although Bobby Russell wrote both the lyrics and music for the song, he was reluctant to record even a demonstration because he "didn't like it." According to Lawrence, who was married to Russell at the time, she believed it was destined to be successful and recorded the demo herself. The publishers and the record label did not quite know how to pitch the song, as it was not really a country or a pop song. The first thought was to offer the song to actress/singer Liza Minnelli, but eventually it was offered to singer Cher, but her then-husband and manager Sonny Bono reportedly refused it, as he was said to be concerned that the song might offend Cher's southern fans. Without a singer to record the song, Lawrence went into a studio and recorded it professionally herself, with the instrumental backing of L.A. session musicians from the Wrecking Crew, then pressed the label to release it as a single.

Released as a single in June 1972, the song would ultimately become a number-one success for Lawrence, topping the Hot 100 chart in early 1973. Lawrence was, at the time, a regular performer on the ensemble variety comedy television show The Carol Burnett Show; on the final episode of the sixth season (March 24, 1973), Burnett surprised Lawrence by presenting her with an RIAA gold record for over a million copies sold. The song also scored number six on the Easy Listening chart,^[4] and it peaked at number 36 on Billboard's Hot Country Singles chart. It was number one for two weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, and was finally topped by Tony Orlando and Dawn's "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree". Billboard ranked it as the No. 11 song for 1973

Real busy in the regular world

I have had a lot going on the past few days, I have a couple of half completed post that I gotta finish so I can post but I havent the time to post it.  Please read the people on my sidebar, they are really good...and they put up with me..I will try to post something tomorrow...yes it is history related....

Helicopterism...What it is

I ran across this surfing the web, I have commented in the past about the SJW's and their tactics of demonizing everyone that doesn't believe like they do.  The constant call of the Antifa's to attack the people they call "Nazi's" for not having the ideological purity that they command.  I also have commented about how they treat us like Kulaks and this will not end well if they keep pushing.  I remember a quote I read somewhere on the internetz

   I am seriously concerned what will happen if they continue pushing and if they are successful in removing Trump from office in a coup, many millions will feel totally disillusioned and when they lose faith in the political process then the squabbling will go from words to civil war.  Granted we have most of the guns, but they hold the apparatus of the state and the media and many people will blindly follow the diktats from the statist after being indoctrinated by the education system and the media.

Helicopterism: the idea that someone who actively attempts to install a tyrannical, murderous ideology in your country is due a free, one-way helicopter ride with a destination somewhere over the Pacific.
On my honor, sir, I thought commies could fly. It’s certainly more likely than the notion that Socialism could ever work.
One of the great tragedies of history, in this columnist’s opinion, is that Marxism was not as thoroughly discredited as Nazism. Both are tyrannical, murderous, genocidal ideologies bent on achieving some imagined form of human perfection.
Nazis, of course, were obsessed with racial purity, and descended into a genocidal (and ultimately suicidal) madness. Marxists are obsessed with a different kind of purity. The modern Social Justice Warrior, merely a new variation of Marxist who has replaced economic classes with social, racial, and cultural classes, is also an ideological purist.
Instead of bourgeois capitalists, we have straight white males as the ultimate boogeyman. Like the Kulaks in the USSR, there are other possible permutations. Being a fabulous (and dangerous) faggot did not protect MILO from the wrath of the Social Justice Warriors. Neither, of course, did Clarence Thomas’s skin color protect him from Democrat rage and accusations of racial treachery.
The purity spiral is the inevitable result of this kind of thinking. It is how Communist purges come to pass, and it can be seen in the SJW world today, wherein even the most rabid SJW who, for a moment, questions the narrative, is soon pounced upon by his erstwhile comrades. For now, they don’t have any gulags or death camps, but if they ever gained power, it is not difficult to imagine what they would do with it. For the time being, they must rely on character assassination instead of the more literal variety.

Concurrently, even the most vile of sins can be forgiven if you have the right politics. Sarah “butts” Nyberg remains a classic example of that line of thinking. Phil Sandifer, the self-described post-modernist Marxist occultist, explained that it was terrible to attack Nyberg for this, because she was a prominent SJW. The assumption, of course, is that political purity and prominence were both far more important than keeping your paws off of 8 year old relatives.
The spirit of General Pinochet grins with anticipation. Both of these Marxists are owed long-overdue free helicopter rides.
In John Martino’s I Was Castro’s Prisoner, a non-fictional, first-hand account of an American in a Cuban prison after the revolution, an interesting fact about Marxist thinking is revealed. John Martino noticed that almost all of his fellow prisoners were incarcerated for political reasons. Many of the guards, on the other hand, were former violent convicts. The latter provided Castro’s regime with a convenient supply of murderous psychopaths to enforce his edicts.
In the Marxist world, physical crimes are often excused because of power imbalance, or oppression, or economic conditions. Whereas political crimes are seen as the worst of the worst. This is one reason antifas have a habit of referring to everyone who isn’t a raging Communist as a Nazi. To them, there are only pure, good Communists, and evil, capitalist Nazis. The world is divided into the pure and the impure, and the impure must be destroyed.
Helicopterism, both as a funny meme, and as a grave warning to Marxists, is the recognition that the Communists want you dead. And if they ever come to power, if they ever touch off that revolution they keep blathering on about, it’s going to be us or them. The joke will stop being funny, and will become deadly serious. We will lob them out of helicopters and laugh about it. Watching SJWs, who thought they were tough and were on the “right side of history” flail in the wind, flapping their arms like birds, will be grim…but hilarious?
We’ve started to see shades of this in protests across the country. Many of you may remember Based Stickman, and the joyous occasion when the stick he was named for impacted a thoroughly dense Commie skull. Antifa brought violence, yes. But Based Stickman and his compatriots brought pain in return. It will be the same when the SJWs start resorting to murder, as Communists inevitably do. Then the glorious sound of incoming helicopters will echo in the distance.

For now, however, they merely tacitly support through suicidal immigration policies designed to encourage Muslims to migrate to the West in mass numbers, and through a complete disregard for border control.

The recent brutal murder of a border patrol agent is exactly the sort of thing that will ultimately lead to helicopters. Illegal aliens beat a border patrol agent’s skull in with rocks. A second agent was also beat with rocks, but appears to have survived. Donald Trump was derided for saying that Mexico often sends America criminals and thugs, but there is a little objective proof of his assessment. If enough agents are attacked and murdered, we may see violent illegal alien repatriation via helicopter. Or trebuchet, over the Great Wall of Trump.
Either way, like Fidel Castro, Phil Sandifer, and other assorted Communists throughout history, the physical violence is excused or even encouraged, and wrongthinking politics is condemned as the ultimate sin. I’ve no doubt that in the minds of most SJWs, Islamic immigration critics are considered worse than the illegal alien who beat a border patrol agent to death. They ought to be more careful. If they bring about a world where political violence is excused, they might not like the results very much.
The point of helicopterism is to know your enemy, and be unafraid to call him the enemy. It is also a warning to SJWs: if your goal is to eliminate us, then morally there is no wrong in us doing the same to you. If SJWs want to take this game to the next level, they should be prepared for others to do the same.
For now, it’s an amusing bit of dark humor. If SJWs want it to stay this way, they need to back off and put away their violent Socialist revolution rhetoric. Because if they do any of that bullshit they are saying, it will go very badly for them.
Thales is a DJ, Byzantinist, sad puppy, and another defender of the West woken up by social justice idiocy.

Few things going on at Casa De Garabaldi

A few things going on here, My Dad is still in the hospital but the prognosis is good and I am glad for that.
     I picked up a new addition to my gun safe yesterday...

The Shield followed me home from Newnan where my friend and commenter "Mac" works.  I got a square deal on the pistol and I am happy with it.  I am planning on going to the range next week on my off day.  I have the pistol loaded with some Sig ammo per Mac's recommendation

   I also went to the scout meeting and rode my motorcycle.

..not a bad thing since I haven't ridden in a while, wanted to make sure that I am over the pneumonia/bronchitis thing.  I missed out on some good riding weather.   I was glad for some heated gear..

The pic shows my heated gloves and my controller.  I also have a heated jacket liner that I wear inside my jacket and it works well. The controller is wired to my motorcycle's electrical system and I control the heat level by the knobs, one for gloves and the other for jacket.

  and finally I ran across this clip on facebook and I loved it.  It is how I feel about Social Justice warriors.

"We live in a Post Joke world..."   Priceless, LOL

Monday Music "Sultans of Swing" by Dire Straits

This song got brought up last week from another Dire Strait song last week on my earlier "Monday Music".   This song came on while I was surfing the 70's channel while I was avoiding "Red, Red Wine*Bleh*" on the 80's channel.   To me "Sultans of Swing is an iconic rock song from the 70's and it still is very popular on the radio stations and on Sirius/XM, I hear it a lot....but not too much that it gets old, LOL


Sultans of Swing" is a song by British rock band Dire Straits from their eponymous debut album, which band frontman Mark Knopfler wrote and composed. Although it was first released in 1978, it was its 1979 re-release that caused it to become a hit in both the UK and U.S.
The song was recorded at Pathway Studios, North London, in July 1977 and quickly acquired a following after it was put on rotation at Radio London. Its popularity soon reached record executives, and Dire Straits were offered a contract with Phonogram Records. The song was then re-recorded in February 1978 at Basing Street Studios for the band's debut album. The record company wanted a less-polished rock sound for the radio, so an alternative version was recorded at Pathway Studios in April 1978 and released as the single in some countries including the United Kingdom and Germany.

The music for "Sultans of Swing" was composed by Mark Knopfler on a National Steel guitar in an open tuning, though Knopfler did not think very highly of it at first. As he remembered, "I thought it was dull, but as soon as I bought my first Strat in 1977, the whole thing changed, though the lyrics remained the same. It just came alive as soon as I played it on that ’61 Strat which remained my main guitar for many years and was basically the only thing I played on the first album and the new chord changes just presented themselves and fell into place."
Inspiration for the song came from witnessing a jazz band playing in the corner of a practically deserted pub in Deptford, South London. At the end of their performance, the lead singer announced that they were the "Sultans of Swing", and Knopfler found the contrast between the group's dowdy appearance and surroundings and their grandiose name amusing.

Shortly after the band formed in 1977, a musician flatmate of drummer Pick Withers having given the team the name "Dire Straits", they recorded a five-song demo tape at Pathway Studios, which included "Sultans of Swing" in addition to "Water of Love", "Down to the Waterline", "Wild West End", and David Knopfler's "Sacred Loving". They took the tape to influential DJ Charlie Gillett, who had a radio show called Honky Tonk on BBC Radio London. The band simply wanted advice, but Gillett liked the music and put "Sultans of Swing" on his rotation. Two months later, Dire Straits signed a recording contract with Phonogram Records.
"Sultans of Swing" was then re-recorded in February 1978 at Basing Street Studios for the band's debut album Dire Straits. It was produced by Steve Winwood's brother Muff Winwood. Knopfler used the guitar technique of finger picking on the recording.

Ken Tucker of Rolling Stone singled out "Sultans of Swing" as a highlight of the album for its "inescapable hook" and compared Knopfler's vocal stylings to that of Bob Dylan. The New Rolling Stone Album Guide called the song "an insinuating bit of bar-band mythmaking" whose lyrics "paint a vivid picture of an overlooked and underappreciated pub combo".The Spokane Chronicle's Jim Kershner wrote that "Sultans of Swing" is "remarkable, both for its lyrics that made fun of hip young Londoners and the phenomenal guitar sound of Knopfler", which "sounded like no other guitar on radio". Jon Marlowe of The Palm Beach Post called it "an infectious, sounds-damn-good-on-the-car-radio ode to every bar band who has ever done four sets a night, seven nights a week".
Writing in 2013 on the impact of the song, Rick Moore of American Songwriter reflected:

With "Sultans of Swing" a breath of fresh air was exhaled into the airwaves in the late ’70s. Sure, Donald Fagen and Tom Waits were writing great lyrics about characters you’d love to meet and Jeff Beck and Eddie Van Halen were great guitar players. But Knopfler, he could do both things as well or better than anybody out there in his own way, and didn’t seem to have any obvious rock influences unless you try to include Dylan. Like his contemporary and future duet partner Sting, Knopfler’s ideas were intellectually and musically stimulating, but were also accessible to the average listener. It was almost like jazz for the layman. "Sultans of Swing" was a lesson in prosody and tasty guitar playing that has seldom been equaled since. If you aren’t familiar with "Sultans of Swing" or haven’t listened to it in a while, you should definitely check it out.

Record Mirror ranked the song tenth in its end-of-year countdown of the best songs of the year. In 1992, Life named "Sultans of Swing" one of the top five songs of 1979. In 1993, Paul Williams included "Sultans of Swing" in his book "Rock and Roll: The 100 Best Singles". The song is on The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll list, Dire Straits' only appearance. In 2006, Mojo included "Sultans of Swing" in its list of the 50 best British songs. The song's guitar solo reached No. 22 on Guitar World's list of the greatest guitar solos and No. 32 on Rolling Stone's list of greatest guitar songs.

The song was originally released in May 1978, but it did not chart at the time. Following its re-issue in January 1979, the song entered the American music pop chart. Unusually, the success of this single release came more than six months after the relatively unheralded release of the band's debut album in October 1978. BBC Radio was initially unwilling to play the song due to its high lyrical content but after it became a U.S. hit, their line softened.The song reached the top 10 in both the UK and the U.S., reaching No. 8 on the UK Singles Chart and No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and helped drive sales of the album, which also became a hit.

The story behind an iconic photo from the end of the Vietnam War.

Before I get started on the background, on a personal note, my Dad is doing better, here is a pic of him in the Hospital,

When I walked in yesterday and saw the bear, I commented "How Cute.."  He shot me a bird, so I figure he is feeling better.  My Dad is a Vietnam Veteran and retired from the Army as a Warrant officer with CID.  He is part of the reason my brother and I also served.
     Now on to my story,
    I remembered when I saw this picture in my history books and I always thought well of that pic because it showed a POW returning from the hardships of the Hanoi Hilton and returning with pride to his family.  Well there is a backstory to the pic I found out a day ago and finally had a bit of time to post the story.  All I can say was "Damm", I felt really bad for Colonel Stirm.  There are pics that are iconic for the Vietnam war and I used the following pic for an Art project in high school involving the 1960's

This pic to me represented the Vietnam war back in high school.

On March 13, 1973, photographer Slava 'Sal' Veder captured the moment that Vietnam war veteran and prisoner of war Lt. Col. Robert Stirm was reunited with his family. Stirm had been imprisoned in Vietnam for nearly six years, and this photograph came to represent not only his personal victory in returning home, but also the path to healing the United States needed to embark on after the Vietnam War. Yet the real story behind this photograph, titled "Burst of Joy," is far from the happy, joyful depiction Veder captured.
In reality, Robert Stirm's wife had written him a letter only days before his return home, telling him she was planning on divorcing him. For Stirm, this reunion was bittersweet – he was reunited with his family but returning to a wife who no longer wanted to be with him. Stirm endured all the hardships of being a prisoner of war in Vietnam only to be greeted by a wife who had admittedly cheated on him during his imprisonment and written him a letter stating her intent to divorce him – but showed up to his homecoming despite it all.

Photo: Rare Historical Photos/No restrictions

"Burst of Joy" is a poignant photograph that depicts, on the surface, the joy of a hero’s welcome. Stirm’s back is to the camera, allowing him to serve as the epitome of the resilient soldier who made his way home. This particular reunion, however, was not as joyous or welcoming as the photograph would lead you to believe. Stirm’s wife, Loretta Stirm, is seen running toward her husband, a big smile on her face. Yet only days before Stirm was rescued and brought home, Loretta wrote him a letter ending their marriage. Although the photograph may symbolize the heartwarming concept that military families could start over and heal after the Vietnam war, this was far from true for the Stirm family.

Photo: manhhai/flickr/CC-BY 2.0

After Robert Stirm’s return, his wife of nearly 20 years managed to capitalize on their subsequent divorce. Loretta was given custody of two of their four children, the family home, and nearly half of Stirm’s pension. At the time, Stirm remarked: “It’s not fair. It’s just not. I’m the one that lives with all the aches and pains from my imprisonment, but she continues to get paid.” That certainly makes the fact that Loretta is there in the photograph, smiling wide at her then-husband, all the more painful. Even his children had trouble with his return. His daughter, Lorrie, was quoted as saying: “So much had happened—there was so much that my dad missed out on—and it took a while to let him back into our lives and accept his authority.

Photo: Department of Defense/National Archives Catalog/No restrictions

15-year-old Lorrie Stirm, Robert and Loretta’s eldest child, hadn’t seen her father in six years when she was captured on film running towards him with her arms flung open, ready to embrace him. Hers is the face that can truly be described as a burst of joy – she looks like she is literally bursting to hug her father. 

The story behind the photograph may not be a happy one, but the photographer’s story certainly is. In 1974, Slava ‘Sal’ Veder won a Pulitzer Prize in journalism for his photograph of the Stirm family. Veder was one of many journalists present at Stirm’s return – Stirm was flown home with 20 other prisoners of war under what was called Operation Homecoming. Veder had to make a makeshift darkroom in a women’s bathroom in order to send the photograph out as quickly as possible. His quick thinking and eye for that one burst of joy won him one of the most coveted prizes for journalism in America.  

To this day, Robert Stirm doesn’t like to look at "Burst of Joy." For him, it isn’t a joyous moment surreptitiously captured; it’s a bitter reminder of everything he endured and everything he lost when he came home. He refuses to hang the photograph in his home, and when asked about it, he described his feelings as “ambivalent.” As a prisoner of war, Stirm thought relentlessly about coming home to his family, and it was those thoughts that kept him alive in the face of torture. Yet his homecoming was not the happy occasion he thought about all those years, and "Burst of Joy" is a constant reminder of that pain.

Lt. Col. Robert Stirm was a US Air Force pilot, and he was shot down over Hanoi, Vietnam, in October of 1967. Notably, it turns out he was imprisoned only one day after Senator John McCain – both were held in the infamous Hoa Lo Prison. The American prisoners of war sarcastically called this prison the Hanoi Hilton. Although it is unconfirmed whether or not McCain and Stirm were acquainted, they both endured torture at this dreaded POW camp – at one point, Stirm was reported to have weighed only 100 pounds, and he spent nearly an entire year in solitary confinement. Despite his terrible experiences, Stirm continued to serve the military for four more years after his return to the United States.    

Photo: Department of Defense/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain

All of Stirm’s children have "Burst of Joy" framed and hanging in their homes, although their father does not. Lorrie Stirm, the eldest Stirm child and the girl at the center of the photograph, calls it a "very nice picture of a very happy moment."

 

My Apologies..and an MRE Post

My apologies for not posting the past couple of days, My dad went into the hospital with a collapsed lung and between seeing him and work, I have had no time to post anything.   I posted this back in 2013,

MRE's.......Meals rejected by everyone...."

I am an Army veteran and I still have an interest in the service,  One thing I like are cartoons....There is a cartoon, that you can find in Army Times and other places.  The cartoon is "DBS" and this weeks cartoon asked about MRE's, and the worst one we ever had....

Well the first time I had MRE's was in Basic Training in Fort Leonard Wood Missouri, we called it "Fort Lost in the wood"  or "Little Korea".  It was not a fun experience, I didn't really enjoy my time in the service until I got to Permanent Party which was where I went after all my training.  I spent a lot of time in the field while I was in Germany,  When we weren't on maneuvers, I spent time inside the 1K zone( The zone between East Germany West Germany and Czechoslovakia) There was a test I had to take to enter the zone under the auspices of 2nd ACR, to be border qualified.
    The following 2 photo's I took while doing a border tour.

 I was Border basic...My squad leader had a different exam as did the senior NCO's and Officers.  Well it was an eyeopening experience to see the "151" loaded with ammo and LAWS rockets.  We always made jokes that if the Soviets came through the Fulda Gap, we would be Speedbumps for"8th Guards Army".

Well one of the things we got were 2 cases of MRE's.  When they first came out...they weren't that great, I used Tobasco Sauce to spice the dull selection along with Mrs. Dash.  The MRE I dreaded the most was the infamous "Ham and Chickenloaf", that pink glop was just vile.

  When we were in the field, we would try to make runs into town to pick up fresh food from the market to supplant our rations.  When they could, they would provide T rations that were opened up and brought to us in mermite containers.  The food was bland but filling.  Again my tobasco sauce and mrs dash would come to the rescue and Make bland food tasty...well better than before.  We also would trade with the German civilians for "real" food and they would take the MRE's.
     When we got deployed to Saudi Arabia in Desert Shield in 1990 we ate MRE's for a long period of time, the rations had improved, one of my favorites believe it or not was the tuna and noodles and we had started getting M&M candies in the MRE's along with a little bottle of Tobasco sauce.  Between the cheese sauce and peanut butter we were pretty regular.
     Here is some information on MRE's
    
 

MREs (Meals, Ready-to-Eat)

MREs are the main operational food ration for the United States Armed Forces. You can check out the MRE History page for more a more in-depth history of how MREs came to be but the short version is that the c-rations and k-rations from World War II developed into the MCI (Meal, Combat, Individual) rations used in Korea and Vietnam. Then in 1980, the MRE was developed and became the primary ration for the US.

What is an MRE?

The MRE is a totally self-contained complete meal. One MRE = one meal. The packaging of an MRE is designed to withstand rough conditions and exposure to the elements. Inside each MRE bag is an entree and a variety of other food and drink items. MREs come packaged in cases with 12 MREs per case. There are currently 24 different "menus" or varieties of MREs. Menus 1-12 are packaged in a case designated Case A and menus 13-24 are packaged in Case B.

What's in an MRE?

You can find a listing of the exact components of each MRE on the MRE Menus page . The military makes a few changes to the menus every year so you will find a different menu listing for each year. In general, though, each MRE contains the following:

• Entree - the main course, such as Spaghetti or Beef Stew
• Side dish - rice, corn, fruit, or mashed potatoes, etc.
• Cracker or Bread
• Spread - peanut butter, jelly, or cheese spread
• Dessert - cookies or pound cakes
• Candy - M&Ms, Skittles, or Tootsie Rolls
• Beverages - Gatorade-like drink mixes, cocoa, dairy shakes, coffee, tea
• Hot sauce or seasoning - in some MREs
• Flameless Ration Heater - to heat up the entree
• Accessories - spoon, matches, creamer, sugar, salt, chewing gum, toilet paper, etc.
•  

Each MRE provides an average of 1,250 calories (13% protein, 36% fat, and 51% carbohydrates) and 1/3 of the Military Recommended Daily Allowance of vitamins and minerals. A full day's worth of meals would consist of three MREs.

How do you eat an MRE?

True to its name, the MRE is "ready to eat" and everything can be consumed without cooking or heating (but the beverages are much better when water is added to the drink mixes). While the entrees and sides are fine to eat cold, they usually taste much better when heated up with the included Flameless Ration Heater or by boiling in water.

How long do MREs last?

Officially, MREs are designed to have a shelf life of three years when stored at 80 degree F. These times can be lengthened or shortened depending on their storage temperatures. Higher temperatures = shorter MRE lifespans. I've tried many MREs that were 10 or 15 years old and with the exception of a few parts that had darkened in color over time, they still tasted fine.
Please see this page for more information on MRE Shelf Life.

Where can I buy MREs?

The U.S. Government does not allow the manufacturers of military MREs to sell them to the general public. Please see the page on Buying MREs and also the page on Civilian MREs for a commercial alternative to military MREs.

Official Military MRE Page

This is the link to the official military page on MREs:
http://www.dscp.dla.mil/subs/rations/programs/mre/mreabt.asp

December 7th 1941

At 0755 a bomb exploded on the seaplane ramp at Ford island, this signified the start of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.  When it was done, the American Pacific fleet was crippled, amd 0ver 3000 Americans were dead.  The sinking of the fleet at Pearl Harbor galvanized the Americans, and since it was a sneak attack it was considered "dishonorable and underhanded".  This infuriated the Americans sense of fair play.  The Japanese had planned on attacking right after the ultimatum was delivered, but the secrecy that the Japanese demanded forced the Ambassador himself to decode it slowing the response down so they delivered the message to Secretary Hull after the attack has started.  The attack gave the Japanese several things...It was a tactical victory, it allowed them to move against the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies with the rubber and oil that the Japanese war machine needed to build the stuff that a modern nation needs to wage war. The Japanese Admiral Yamamoto who lead the attack on Pearl Harbor had studied the Americans at length while he was a naval attache and he told the General Staff who was pushing for the war "I will be able to give you 6 months, after that I cannot guarantee victory.   And true to events, the Japanese raised hell for 6 months until the Americans smashed 4 of the Japanese fleet carriers at Midway, a blow that the Japanese Naval aviation never recovered from.  The attack also forced the Americans to utilize the carriers to do any offensive work against the Japanese.   Also the Japanese didn't launch the 3rd strike against Pearl Harbor, the drydocks and the fuel farms were still intact.  The victory was a Pyrrhic victory because it ended on August 6 and August 9 of 1945 4 years later when the Japanese cities were the site of the Atom bomb and a small part of the logic of the bomb drop was to pay Japan back for the sneak attack.

   The attack on Pearl harbor was a huge shock to the Americans, for the fleet and the Army air corp to be so woefully unprepared for battle left a mark on the American psyche.  Never again would we be so defenseless.  Also the end results was that out of all the ships sunk and damaged at Pearl Harbor, all but 3 were repaired and returned to service. 

Messing around at work..

I was at work getting some..

I was looking at my toolbox drawer and I saw this...

I didn't like what I saw....so I got some scrap metal,measured, cut and folded and made this..

I then saw if my measurements were good...

I then organized my tool drawer a bit.

It looks better.....The screwdriver drawers are next, LOL

Monday Music "So Far away" by Dire Straits

I heard this song in 1985, I was between College and Army when the album "Brothers in Arms" came out and I seriously jammed on the song "Money For Nothing" (You can see one of my older Monday Music Following that link.)  Well this song I heard while I was at Fort Devens in Mass for AIT and I had a mix of songs that I had made with my stereo cassette player and played on a Sony Walkman knockoff and I ran through post in the evening and at night to give me something to do because I felt really alone there and I didn't relate to anyone.  It got better the longer I was there but the first few months were brutal.   The song to me was a good running song and did play well while I was jumping curbs and dodging potholes.

"So Far Away" is a 1985 rock song by Dire Straits. It appears on the album Brothers in Arms. It became the band's fourth and final top 20 hit (as well as top 40) on the Billboard charts, peaking at #19. The original studio version of the track appeared on the 2005 compilation The Best of Dire Straits & Mark Knopfler: Private Investigations.

 Brothers in Arms Album Cover

"So Far Away" was the lead single from Brothers in Arms in the UK and Europe on 8 April 1985. The song charted at #20 in the UK, but also reached the Top 5 in Norway (#4), Top 10 in Switzerland (#6) and Sweden (#7) and Top 40 in Italy (#33). The single was also released in Australia and peaked at #22.
After the song climbed to #29 on the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in 1985, "So Far Away" was released a year later as the album's third single in North America, where it peaked at #3 on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart and #19 on the Billboard Hot 100, giving Dire Straits a third consecutive Top 20 hit from Brothers in Arms on the Hot 100.

Some pithy musings and comments

First off, my son came back from California, His band marched in the Hollywood Christmas parade.  I didn't say anything because I didn't want to announce on the internet that my son whom I am very proud dad is across the country from me.  Call me paranoid and not logical, but logic fails me when it comes to my son.

The kids had a good time, they visited the Santa Monica Pier, The Grammy Museum,, DisneyLand(the place where Goofy is a character, well the State also I suppose), The Chinese Theater, El Capitan and other places.  For the kids,  it was an eye opener,  I will explain.  The kids saw a lot of things there that they didn't see here in Georgia, Over in Los Angeles there is a huge homeless population, the panhandlers were super aggressive and would try to intimidate the kids and their chaperones into giving them money.  According to my son, "California smelled like Urine, homeless people and Pot."  The smell was pervasive and permeated everything, it was everywhere.  I asked a couple of the adult chaperones that were as worldly as I am and I commented "3rd world craphole?"  and they said "yep".    The dichotomy between rich and poor was very evident.  My son had texted me and commented "There is a 30 million dollar house down the road from our hotel and I feel Poor" and the hotel was in a sketchy part of town.  He did enjoy the trip but it was a huge change for the kids to see this, especially the homeless for the kids here don't want for anything.

    And speaking of California, I saw there the courts in San Francisco let that illegal immigrant Garcia Zerate who killed Kate Steinle on the boardwalk in San Francisco and the jury wanting to make a political statement against Trump and ICE acquitted him of all charges except a felon with a firearm which carries a 3 year penalty.  Really?   I know that due process has to work but when the due process was subverted for a political statement it screams "Wrong".  All  I know that this will reignite the immigration debate, especially after that latest crime committed by an illegal immigrant.

A Mexican man who was deported from the US 20 times has been convicted of 10 counts including sexual assault in Oregon.

On Friday, Sergio Jose Martinez, 31, was sentenced to 35 years in prison in a Portland courtroom after pleading guilty to kidnapping, sexual assault, sodomy and several other counts, KOIN reported. 

Martinez smiled throughout the trial, and as he left, he gave one grim parting shot to his two victims' relatives: 'See all you guys in Hell.' 

I will probably be working overtime tonight so I may get my Monday Music up monday morning, but we will see.  I am thinking of "Dire Straits".   We will see.

Star Wars "The Force Awakens

This is another story from the Angry Staff Officer, Again you can thank Mack for turning me into the site.  The ASO uses Star Wars mostly along with Harry Potter to relate Military issues with cultural references and Star Wars is very popular for that reason.  It is prudent especially of intelligence, all had their uses and never to "put all your intel eggs in one basket, try to get confirmation from other sources, be it another HUMINT source or SIGINT or other means".

The Star Wars storyline divides neatly into two sides: good and evil. The latter possess a qualitative and quantitative edge in terms of military hardware and personnel. The former clings to intangible advantages in pluck, optimism, and desperation. It is desperation that encourages the scrappy underdogs to take chances they otherwise might not, like attacking a Death Star with a small force of fighter spacecraft. However, risky desperation is a double-edged sword and the rebel insurgents suffer from of their high stakes gambles when they ritually cling to human intelligence as the basis for crisis decision-making.

In summary, our CONOPS is… hey diddle diddle, right up the middle. (Lucasfilm, Ltd)

Human intelligence, or HUMINT, is an intelligence discipline doctrinally described as information provided by human sources. In comparison to more expensive forms of intelligence collection, like a space-based sensor or whatever other shiny toys the Empire or First Order can choose to allocate resources to, it’s relatively cheap. And cheap is just the right price point for a patchy, distressed rebellion.
In the penultimate episode of the Star War franchise, “The Force Awakens,” the Resistance was more desperate than usual and looked for any information that could assist them against their intergalactic adversary, the First Order. The only thing they knew for sure, based on a reconnaissance flight and a preliminary human intelligence report was that Starkiller base was decidedly operational. It previously destroyed the capital of the Republic employing a “hyper lightspeed weapon” that drew energy from a nearby sun. In addition, Starkiller base seemed invulnerable. Always the downer, Admiral Ackbar noted that like previous planet killers it employed a defensive shield. Their survival at stake, the shield needed to be shut down and this weapon of mass destruction needed to be eliminated if the Resistance was to continue resisting. But first things first, they needed information about that shield. Enter the enigmatic Finn, who might know crucial details based on his previous occupation in the employ of the First Order…

Finn, a First Order defector and prior storm trooper with additional duties as a sanitation troop (or perhaps a sanitation troop with additional duties as an infantryman? His primary and secondary job descriptions were murky…), was a mixed bag. What was very evident, however, was that Finn did not adequately explain his previous employment roles & responsibilities until the Resistance attack was well underway.
Han Solo, choosing to ask questions that probably should have been raised early in pre-mission planning, inquires thusly:

HAN: “What was your job when you were based here?”
FINN: “Sanitation.”
HAN: “Sanitation? Then how do you know how to disable the shields?”
FINN: “I don’t. I’m just here to get Rey.”
Finn’s motivation/obsession with his captured compatriot Rey, should have been obvious. He proclaimed as much in his first interaction with Princess Leia which was facilitated by Poe Dameron:
POE: “General Organa. Sorry to interrupt, this is Finn, he needs to talk to you.”
LEIA: “And I need to talk to him. That was incredibly brave, what you did. Renouncing the First Order, saving this man’s life…
FINN: “Thank you, ma’am — but a friend of mine was taken prisoner—“
LEIA: “Han told me about the girl, I’m sorry.”
Here Poe unnecessarily interjects, suggesting Finn has knowledge that he, as previously demonstrated, simply did not have. He draws the unreasonable conclusion that since Finn worked at Starkiller base then he undoubtedly possessed knowledge of the technical details that defend the planet-sized garrison.
POE: “Finn’s familiar with the weapon that destroyed the Hosnian system. He worked on the base.”
LEIA: “We’re desperate for anything you can tell us.”
FINN: “That’s where my friend was taken — I’ve got to get there, fast.”
LEIA: “And I will do everything I can to help, but first you must tell us all you know.”

F-N, huh? I’m going to call you… Curveball. (Lucasfilm, Ltd)

Poe wants Finn to be the golden human intelligence (HUMINT) source so badly that he is willing to allow himself to be deceived and thus endanger the Resistance’s entire operation. And the Resistance’s desperation combined with their unquenchable thirst for genuine HUMINT nearly led to a catastrophic mission failure at the hands of an unreliable human intelligence source. Meanwhile, Finn very transparently conveys that his motivation is not ideological. Its Rey, he’s not in it for their revolution. Only a well-timed traditional Star Wars deus ex machina saved our heroes in order to set up the franchise for “The Last Jedi.”
Political leaders and military commanders understandably desire decisive intelligence that leads to mission success. Sometimes the apparent value of information offered by a human source seems to be more reliable than that obtained by technical sources. Sometimes it appears just too good to be discounted. One’s survival complicates the need for disciplined source vetting. But in their rush for indisputable proof, leaders often overlook some key signals that might render a human source less trustworthy. They might observe the words of another wartime cinema hero, Lieutenant Aldo Raine, “we hear a story too good to be true – it ain’t.”

HUMINT in Star Wars: A Short Chronology

And cousin, the HUMINT business is a-boomin (Inglourious Basterds Wiki)

The Star Wars universe is filled with examples of human intelligence assets, some with questionable motives and usefulness. As early as the first in the series (“Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope”) the Rebel Alliance leveraged data provided by Princess Leia, engaging in her own bit of clandestine espionage. This data pointed to a fatal flaw in the Death Star that the Rebel attackers used to destroy it, in a plot parallel nearly identical to “The Force Awakens.” This successful HUMINT/insurgent operation (described in detail in the Star War spin-off “RogueOne”) condemned the Alliance to repeatedly allow themselves to be lured by future HUMINT possibilities. In short, after “A New Hope,” the rebels were hooked on HUMINT.

Shining white gowns were *the* clothing of choice for covert work in 1977 (Lucasfim, Ltd)

In “The Empire Strikes Back,” one sees the evil adversary engaging in HUMINT ops as well. Boba Fett, labeled a “bounty hunter,” was essentially a HUMINT agent contracted by the Empire. “Empire” shows an example of mixed motivations in HUMINT operations somewhat similar to Finn and the Resistance’s dueling inspirations. Boba Fett desires to capture Han Solo for the bounty offered by Jabba the Hutt, but the Empire employs Boba Fett to find Luke Skywalker. This leads to the awkward exchange:
DARTH VADER: “You may take Captain Solo to Jabba the Hutt after I have Skywalker.”
BOBA FETT: “He’s no good to me dead.”
DARTH VADER: “He will not be permanently damaged.”
Luckily for the Empire these mixed motivations are aligned enough that despite their divergent goals the situation results in mission success for the Empire. Not coincidentally, the power dynamic is obviously weighted toward Darth Vader. In the Finn/Resistance example the power dynamic is weighted toward Finn as the holder of what the Resistance believes is valuable information.
“Empire” showcased another peril in executing HUMINT operations, the double-agent. Lando Calrissian, a smooth talking scoundrel who was once Han Solo’s friend and business partner, presented himself as a loyal ally. However, his deception masked ongoing employment by the Empire resulting in Han’s setup and eventual freezer nap. Despite Lando’s unreliability leading to the near capture of Luke Skywalker, the Rebellion’s faith in HUMINT persisted.

Emperor Palpatine: “And I would’ve gotten away with it too, if it wasn’t for you and your furry, contrived plot device.” (Lucasfilm, Ltd)

“Return of the Jedi” features a classic example of HUMINT deception and lays bare the Rebellion’s desire for HUMINT borne of desperation. The cunning Emperor, finally capitalizing on the Rebellion’s weakness for too-good-to-be-true human intelligence, allowed plans for his new and improved Death Star to fall into their hands. Dangling this juicy, yet deceptive, intel nugget he lured the Rebellion into a trap that he hoped would destroy them. Only a cuddly deus ex ewok saves the Rebels from annihilation.

Beware of the Spies

Fast-forwarding thirty years to “The Force Awakens” we observe a Resistance that still has not learned their lesson regarding unreliable HUMINT agents. Will the Resistance cut the cord on their HUMINT-reliance in “The Last Jedi”? Doubtful.
Since the Rebels are perpetual underdogs they continually find themselves strapped for any scraps of enemy information. This situation makes them vulnerable to deception and misinformation. With seemingly no way out, their backs against the wall, and any number of other clichés, it is reasonable to assume that whomever the last Jedi turns out to be, his or her undoing will result from some form of human intelligence failure.

Some Christmas Humor

Now since it is December 1st 2017, It is time for some Christmas Humor..

Y'all wondered how Santa picked his Reindeer...this is how..

This is why Santa has to keep his reindeer fresh...Sometimes the annual flight exam can be brutal.

 This is Santa's happy elves working at the shop making toys....

And finally we need to get some preaching in....Pentecostal style..