Neither Fish nor Fowl

Got this error-in-judgment a while, back from someone off a Forum.  It cost very little so I kept it, but it was so fugly I recoiled in horror and forgot what it was and stuck it in my dirt-bike tool box to use as a pry-bar for angry times.


In my memory I thought it was a M1 Carbine bayonet - about half right I guess.
It appears to be a M1 Carbine blade on a M1 Garand handle, but not just any handle and not just any blade.
It's a shrunken-head handle that's not quite the size of my Utica, and the blade is a bastard skinny Garand-style.  It won't fit on a carbine and I won't deface a M1 Garand by attaching it either.  Ugh.  I think I'll use it for yard-work, digging up weeds.

Off-Roading with Uncle Oscar

Uncle Oscar was my Grandpa's youngest brother. I visited him and Aunt Dorothy in Cozad, Nebraska, on the way home from DC in '82.  Among other jobs (like moving whole houses), he'd been Sheriff there for a number of years and knew about places.  He wanted to show me an old robber's roost, you could only see it from way-above, off the lip of a small canyon. A hiding spot. So off we went.

First you had to go about fifteen miles out of town, then take to the back-roads, and then some roads that weren't there. I had gotten pretty adept at hanging my shooting hand out the window of the Ghia and grabbing shots with the old Nikon F, so that's what I did to document our excursion.

We left the dirt road and traveled cross-country across what had once been a corn field. It was pretty bumpy and we hung on while I gassed it to find a comfortable medium-bounce through the rows of stubble.

After we got up the fence-line a-ways along the trees, we had a wire gate to cross.  I have no idea who's (if anybody) property it was. Oscar seemed like it didn't make no matter. And then we drove to the top of the heights, across a lot of overgrown grass.  I worried that the Ghia's low exhausts might start a fire. I picked grass out of engine sheet-metal for months afterwards...

Below us was a hidden canyon where in the late 1800's and even into the 20's and 30's robbers hid-out from the law. Gentlemen with no identifiable means of support would show up in town and then disappear. There were crickets buzzing all around and you could see for miles.

I miss him a bunch, it's been a couple years now since he passed away. He had been a rodeo-rider and bronc-buster, winning big silver belt-buckles and once even a whole saddle that was encrusted in silver Conchos. During the depression for a while he was a hobo, hopping the freights to go down to visit a friend in Kentucky. He was scrappy and tough and got into some fights that he won because he wouldn't back down to bullies. He wrote a book about his train-hopping days. Neat stuff. Bye' Uncle Oscar, we loved you.

Oh My God... Release the Kraken!

From Igor113 - A mammoth aircraft built at a ship-yard, a giant 8-engine cruise-missile launching flying boat...simply, freaking, incredible.
Click 'em to see the big-pic.

Is it a Photoshop? The mind reels.
UPDATE: Thanks to The Clue Meter we have a name, "The Caspian Sea Monster!"

From comments using Google Translate:

(Anonymous) wrote:
Dec. Dec. 28th, 2009 02:14 am (UTC) 28th, 2009 02:14 am (UTC)
Badass aircraft !!! Badass aircraft!!!
Very interesting design. Very interesting design. I believe the answer to your question about the bird catcher on only two engines is that in flight only two engines are needed. I believe the answer to your question about the bird catcher on only two engines is that in flight only two engines are needed. All eight engines would only be needed to take off. All eight engines would only be needed to take off.
Link | Reply | Thread

Cruise-missile launchers: Go. Check. It. Out. Nato type SS-N-22 Sunburn.

Progressives, Fascists, and the University-class

Watching Antiques Roadshow last night, a re-run, but a very interesting and compelling visual tid-bit popped out, linking the Progressive movement directly to Jonah Goldberg's thesis. It's at 00:01:18 into the appraisal video clip - can't embed it.
Seems Grant Wood made a small sketch on the night the Progressive Party was founded by Phil LaFollette at the University in Madison Wisconsin, and it was among a trio of paintings evaluated.
The Progresive Party. Founded. At the U-of-Wisconsin. Madison. So Proud.
In the right foreground two broad-shouldered men are manning a newsreel camera on an chest-high elevated platform, while a third man leans against it.  To the left is a stage with some seated seated figures and a flag, with a gathering of people in bleachers behind the stage. The stage and platform are dressed with bunting, and there's a large image above the on-stage people, behind the podium. It appears to be a picture of giant crossed Fasces, dwarfing the figures on stage.  All it needs is a few kinks in the emblem to be a little more Germanic...  So what? Many would argue the symbol is everywhere and was simply popular at the time and remains so today, and generally speaking that's true. It's on various monuments such as the Lincoln memorial, the Senate Seal, and Government office-buildings symbolizing authority.  True in part, but in most such cases the symbol is tied to another element or restrained by a greater figure that modifies the importance of the fasces.  In it's heyday during the 30's however, when the Progressive Party was founded, it was much more directly and unambiguously tied to Mussolini's Partito Nazionale Fascista, - the Italians were the most advanced and progressive of all the "progressive" groups around, and Il Duce had more Time Magazine covers and gushing love-smitten stories than his German buddy with the toothbrush moustach.

from Wikipedia:
The 1924 party was composed of La Follette supporters, who were distinguished from the earlier Roosevelt supporters by being generally more agrarian, populist, and midwestern in perspective, as opposed to urban, elitist, and eastern... La Follette wanted to influence the cause of controlling trusts, and getting the vote into the hands of the people. In 1924 the party called for public ownership of railroads, and other Progressive causes. La Follette ran with Senator Burton K. Wheeler, Democratic Senator from Montana. The party represented a farmer/labor coalition and was endorsed by the Socialist Party of America, the American Federation of Labor and many railroad labor groups.

I guess they really just wanted the trains to run on time, like in Italy.

As an aside, the cupid-struck Time magazine articles showered more purple prose than today's The View with Katie Couric and Jim Lehrer combined - and seems to have endorsed violence by the right people as it were:

The Premier's lips were observed to curl silently last week when news gatherers asked him for a statement concerning the new decree virtually suppressing all individuality in the Italian press. Well might Signor Mussolini sneer. When attempts were made by the pre-Fascist regime to curb his reckless individualism as editor of II Popolo d'ltalia, he responded to restraint by purchasing a supply of bombs and hurling them when assaults were made upon his editorial sanctum. If Italian editors of today are less resourceful, they are like to smart for their lack of vigor. . . .

Oh sheesh, that's embarrassing, no wonder the New Left wanted to cut ties with the Old.

Remember November

Thanks to Gun Monkey in comments at Say Uncle - I came across the only thing I've ever seen on Twitter (edited for English usage) that deserved notice, and a great picture. Whether you have British ancestry or not, you might recognize the cadence of this ditty that has been picked up and passed around.

Remember, remember, Healthcare in November
Vote buying, Treason, and plot
I know of no reason
the Slaughter House Treason
Should ever be forgot.

Apparently it originates from In Jennifer's Head. Nice work Jennifer.

Government is a Pre-Existing Condition

UPDATE: It burns indeed.

Healthcare is now supposedly a Right - but not even in my most space-case leftist History class was it ever imagined or said that fines could be levied upon Rights - and the IRS will be the enforcer of that Right. (h/t Phil)

With the ability to levy fines upon a "Right" and the IRS as the enforcement arm, the Government has given itself a new right to TAX. Oh great. So this is what "reform" is supposed to look like - they didn't reform anything. Medicaid is still a disaster, consuming $60 Billion a year in unaccountable fraud.

The cost of the health care bill will be $1Trillion (at least) over ten years and one of Obama's key components to pay for it is by reducing fraud and waste. Let's see, we will save $2B over the next 3 years. Annualize that for 10 years and it's about $7B - or .7% of the added expense...  Dig the hole deeper 'cuz we'll soon be in China - in more ways than one.

Despite all the talk about waiving pre-existing conditions and "doing it for the children," they didn't exactly get it right either:

Under the new law, insurance companies still would be able to refuse new coverage to children because of a pre-existing medical problem, said Karen Lightfoot, spokeswoman for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, one of the main congressional panels that wrote the bill Obama signed into law Tuesday.

(h/t ErnestThing)
It's all about control. Just listen to what Re. Dingell said, it's more clarifying:
Let me remind you this [Americans allegedly dying because of lack of universal health care] has been going on for years. We are bringing it to a halt. The harsh fact of the matter is when you're going to pass legislation that will cover 300 [million] American people in different ways it takes a long time to do the necessary administrative steps that have to be taken to put the legislation together to control the people.
(h/t SnarkyBytes)

Evil Party Stupid Party

The Evil Party promised the Stupid Party free pie, and like Charlie Brown with Lucy holding the football, the hungry-for-love stupid party took the bite - it's cow-pie of course.
As usual, the Evil Party fooled the Stupid Party again.  It's just too easy to sucker punch blind worms and feeble-minded mollusks, and thus a Republic has fallen. 
243 years was a pretty good run as far as Nations go, better than most. Fallen to greed, avarice, lust, and sloth - the stock-in-trade of the Evil Party against which the spineless fecal-eating maggots of the Stupid Party could not stand - they caved. 
Israel had better look out for it's own welfare now, the US has had its balls cut off.  In a few years from now, just as relentlessly as in Canada and all across Europe, we'll be hearing announcements of necessary defense cuts in order to prop up the grossly unsustainable costs of Big Government, while the political class of John Edwards' real Two Americas builds a monument to itself. I wonder when the law against a Continuing Presidency will be overturned, next year?  We have already joined the ranks of Banana Republics with this craven act.

Judas Iscariot at least I got his 30 pieces of silver and a nice bag. This Stupak idiot didn't even get the bag. He gets an empty executive promise printed on worthless paper in disappearing ink, an order of no value and with no binding strength - but he gets to talk on the floor of the House. One wonders what bilious shit will vomit up into his mouth and dribble onto the floor between his rotten teeth and forked tongue.

UPDATE: H/T Cbullet at Soylent Green

Nice Day to Shoot

It was a bit brisk early on, with some high clouds flattening out the color of the sky - but the light was damn near perfect. No mirage or wind.


I shot on Target #8 and did a lousy offhand (52), with some improvements in rapid seated (83) and rapid prone (89), and then settled down to finally clean the black in slow-prone for the first time ever (171).
A nice little group of 4 X's made me very happy, especially as a triplet was nested nearby in the 10-ring, but the overall score was dragged down by my poor offhand and lackadaisical rapids.


It's a perishable skill and I've missed practice for over a month, but one of these days I'll make Expert. I hope. There's a State Match down in Coalinga in April that I might go and shoot. It's a real 600-yard range and windy, "Expert" won't happen there.

East Berlin - Past Checkpoint Charlie

This (above) reminded me of that (below) - and I finally got the slide-scanner running under Windows-7 so I can transfer some images.  It's a Nikon LS40 Coolscan IV and about seven years old - and no longer supported by Nikon so the drivers didn't work.  I found a program that does, VueScan, and I'm very happy with it but still dealing with the learning curve.

Anyhow...you go in on the right side of the road and exit from the left: Checkpoint Charlie.
There wasn't a lot of traffic, these cars were parked. I brought my camera because I went everywhere with it - and if I left it at the Youth Hostel I had no assurance it would still be there when I returned. It was small and quiet, an Olympus OM-1 - a beautiful machine that was stolen years later in Spain.

Despite being the crown-jewel of the East-Bloc system with a healthy income from other, worse-place cage-free tourists like Albania, the Ukraine, and Yugoslavia, they kept a bunch of standing wrecks around to remind people to be grateful for the things they were doled-out and that things could be worse. This was a church so it was super-low priority anyhow, and how better to remind hopeless people that "God is Dead."

Vopos were everywhere but I didn't receive much scrutiny (as far as I could tell), I was just a long-haired hippie in blue jeans with a Mao-cap.


Nobody would talk to me anyhow - too great a risk I suppose. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall we have since come to find out that a huge number of the population, (I wish I had the percentage) was busy spying on each other for the STASI - the State Security apparatus. A bureaucracy three times the size of Hitler's own Gestapo was occupied with monitoring the business of a population one quarter the size of the former Nazi Germany. Socialists don't do things half-way, they like big monuments to themselves (like Obamacare) and check it out, our own Socialists plan to use the IRS as the spy and enforcement arm of their crown-jewel "Democratic" Republic, once they take-over control of the insurance companies and swamped the economy.



From the inside out you could get an unobstructed view of the Brandenburg Gate. This is quite the icon of the Cold War era and a cover backdrop for countless spy novels.
Even so, here in the Workers Paradise you still couldn't approach it.

I watched the changing of the guard a monument to fallen WWII East Germans - and they continued to surprise me.
The helmets were different but boots and the walk was the same.

I couldn't wrap my head around that because I still retained the illusion shared by many today, that there was some kind of difference between Socialist and Fascist.
Still, once you see it repeated you begin to realize that if it duck-walks like a Nazi but calls itself something different - it's just found a new expression for the same old flavor.

Looking at the picture I wonder, who's the old guy in the blue lab-coat? Then I realize that a lot of the people in the picture, kids included, are there because they have to do a STASI-Twitter - and they will go home to write a book report on their parents or neighbors, just to earn a few Pfennig to buy smokes and a magazine.
But then the sun was out from under the typical mid-European overcast and I had other things on my mind. I was making my way (walking) over to the Charlottenburg and the Egyptian Museum inside. As a kid our family travels had lead us to a lot of antiquities and ancient sites, and Archaeology was already a passion especially after doing some digging in South India before leaving on this trip. I had a destination and it was across the middle of a large park, and the hours were drawing close.

I had to hold my breath and be very still and steady - the exposure was about a 16th of a second at f5.6 in dim museum lighting. I never worried about taking pictures in places because I didn't have a flash anyhow and it was that which was always forbidden.
She's petite, but real-sized - not a doll, and her ears stick out a bit. Gorgeous looks are never going to go out of style, and never have. One of the first things I noticed was the asymmetry - she's not perfect from side to side - like a real person would be, an ear slightly higher than the other, one nostril a bit lower. The Egyptians were quite capable of producing idealized ivory-doll like perfection and often did just that, but this is a likeness of a real person, and you notice that and it makes it/her all the more remarkable.
And then the Guards were calling to close the museum.

It was time for me to leave this ghastly city of Socialist zombies with its single saving grace. Going back through Checkpoint Charlie I had to wait in the "cooler" for about an hour. Given what we know today, they must have been going over whatever videotape and book-reports they had received about me. Then in a final show of cheapskate Socialism the guards counted my leftover coins and complained that I hadn't spent enough of the money I had been forced to convert - and took what I had left. Fuck them forever in hell, I had better things to do in a Free World.

I left West Berlin the next day, and went to the edge of the city to hitchhike. At the start of the free-freeway were other youths and couples with their thumbs out, and I caught a lift through "The Corridor" with a hearty family of West Berliners. In a few days I was back visiting my old friend Stephen who lived in the Eifel, and his dad took us for a ride in the country. It was not just any ride however, but he plunked down about ten Marks and we drove the Nürburgring in his V-8 4-door Opel Dioplomat! Yee-haw!! Yeh ok, I was 18 and had an "International Driver's Llicense" - but his dad wanted the fun too and it was his car.

Healthcare Humpty-Dumpty

Who will put Humpty-Democraty back together again?

H/T my friends Cap'n Bob & The Damsel with an assist from Borepatch who regales us of the English experience in Canada...

God knows, I’ve spent enough time in accident and emergency at Oxford’s John Radcliffe over the years, sitting with my sobbing children in a room full of people with swords in their eyes and their feet on back to front. But nothing can prepare you for the yawning chasm of time that passes in Canada before the healthcare system actually does any healthcare.
It didn’t seem desperately busy. One woman had lost her face somehow — probably a bear attack — and one kid appeared to have taken rather too much ecstasy, but there were no more than a dozen people in the waiting room. And no one was gouting arterial blood all over the walls.
After a couple of hours, I asked the receptionist how long it might be before a doctor came. In a Wal-Mart, it’s quite quaint to be served by a fat, gum-chewing teenager who claims not to understand what you’re saying, but in a hospital it’s annoying.

Fall Down Go Boom

The old tree had been leaning out over the lake for years. The lake-side where it grew thickly had not been very well trimmed because nobody went and put a ladder in the water.
With the weight unbalanced the tree leaned, and to contain its leaning a cable between the nearby Birches supported it - and the tree had grown and begun to swallow the cable.
The new Tree-Guy said that the cable threatened the tree and advised its removal, and on a bright sunny day when the rain had paused it was removed.
The next day the rain rain resumed and continued through the night and the sodden ground had little hold on the shallow roots that never penetrated deeply as they were blocked by previous even older tree-roots - and the willow gave way.
In the morning the sun reflected brightly off the neighboring building in through the windows - we had lost our leafy screen.

It's practically an allegory for the current economic climate and Obamacare.


Some guys from the Tree-Guy Company came and cut up the fallen tree and removed it.
I went and fished out a number of floating branches - they make aspirin out of willow bark and I wondered what that might do to the Ph in the pond. Ponds like this have as many regulations as a swimming pool - more actually - and we have a pond-guy who keeps the filter clean and the microbes balanced. There are no pollywogs or fishes in this lake, but some ducks are attracted to it - and so are raccoons.

Meanwhile back at the ranch I filled some holes and zapped-on some spray texture prior to a light roll of paint.

Geekitude - Scratch Disk for Photoshop 7

That empty space is where my old Western Digital Caviar once lived.  In a fit of semi-geekery I removed the old HD (and cable) from my XP-Pro machine and installed it into my new Win-7 box.
At least now Photoshop runs instead of choking since there's a whole lovely 110-GB partition to act as a scratch disk.  If I had been a real Geek I might have altered the Registry entry so that scratch-disks could be located elsewhere or be virtual - and I wanted to but couldn't find adequate instructions and it might not work with the way Photoshop 7 is coded. 
I saved myself ($$) from not buying CS - and now I don't seem to have an Adobe-approved upgrade path - I waited too long and I'm stuck in the past.

Meanwhile Win-7 is interfering with sizing images directly in Blogger.  With XP I was able to click on the above pic and grab a corner to size it - but it's not happening now.

Truck Step Rails

The weather cleared for a day after the rain swept through and I figured it was time to install the truck steps. Lying on my back the sky was brilliant.

I set-out the bits and pieces: four brackets mount to the frame and these carry the two step-rails. Piece of cake.


The main thing was rolling around on the cold asphalt, so I laid out a tarp. There was caked-on mud up under my truck that I chipped-off.


Two captive nuts slid into a gap and were held by holes already located in the frame - how convenient!


The bracket went up against those and then two more bolts went up through another pair of pre-existing holes. I used a socket on a ratchet and an open-end spanner to cinch it all down tight.


One bracket fore and one aft on each side, and then the step-rail was attached with allen-head cap-screws from below, with a rubber gasket between it and the carrying arm.


I kept the protective wrapper on the rails until after completing the nut-up.


Now it's going to be a bit easier for small-stature folk to get in and out.


It took about an hour.