Preeeeesent ....... Arms!

Or what's hanging off the ends of them.

This pic has been showing up all over the 'net. 

Can't understand why.....

Flood Insurance - The Old Fashioned Way

Dutch carpenter builds full-scale replica of Noah's Ark… and he plans to sail it up the Thames for the Olympics

From the UK Daily Mail:

A Dutch creationist is putting the finishing touches on a full-size replica of Noah's Ark, which he has built according to a blueprint set out in the Bible.

Johan Huibers spent three years and more than £1.03 million constructing the gigantic wooden boat - and now has his sights set on sailing it up the Thames for the Olympics.

This feat of true biblical proportions was inspired by a dream Mr Huibers had 20 years ago, in which he saw part of his native Netherlands submerged in a flood like the one featured in the Book of Genesis.

It is made of Swedish pine, it's 450 feet long and weighs three thousand tons.

Obama's Phony SSN

From iOTW

This information keeps surfacing. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe's Posse has also a lot of work on this. Sooner or later the bricks will come tumbling down. Unlike the false faxes and Back To The Future fonts of Bush's Texas ANG faux scandal, this one to all intents and purposes has legs based in reality. Unfortunately the media has determined that this is too bad to be true.

The Declaration Of Independence Was Written By Englishmen?

From the UK Telegraph comes an interesting read:

What is the best thing England ever gave the world? Cricket? Boring. Parliamentary democracy? I think the Icelandics got there first. Capitalism? We just copied the Dutch.

How about the Declaration of Independence, ratified this day in 1776 by the Continental Congress, two days after the rebel colonies had declared independence from Great Britain. It has become so successful and universal that no one is even aware how English it was.

Today we live in a world where people assume that the ideals they hold dear are natural, universal human values; we think of human rights or religious tolerance or equality between the sexes as given.

But many of the ideas that were declared universal after the devastation of the Second World War stem from particular American ideals that were themselves a product of English political culture, and no other culture, except perhaps the Netherlands, could have produced it.

Read the rest of it here:

Throgs Neck And Summer Projects

It's been a busy summer so far and it's going to get busier. We just got back from a wedding in Smithtown, Long Island, and then Soldier Girl drove up from Ft. Bragg for some home cooking. Did you know that the Army takes $300/month from her pay for the slop they serve at the chow hall (or DFAC as they call it now)? She refuses to eat there very often as the meals are awful IHHO.

I have started several projects;  first - remodeling the kitchen. I've decided to hang the cabinets myself instead of paying crazy money to have a contractor  do it. I've already done the framing and some of the electrical work. Might as well continue.

Next is transcribing my grandfather's journals from WWII. My Dad joined the navy in November of 1943. He was 17 had had to get Grandma's permission. Pop-Pop started the journal just before Dad enlisted and kept it until the end of the war. My mom never told us about the journals until last year. Dad has been gone for over twenty years now and I guess when he died she just forgot about it until she sold the house on Long Island and found them. The journals are odd sizes and we tried scanning them but it did not turn out well. I am not a typist and this will take some time. Thank the Lord Pop-Pop had good handwriting. I will eventually post them, which leads to the next item on my summer agenda.

My third project is to switch to Wordpress. I am sick of blogger and want to try something different.

The picture above is of the Throgs Neck Bridge, first opened in January of 1961. I have been using this bridge since 1967 when I moved Upstate. After forty plus years of crossing this span of steel and concrete, I finally decided to look something up - just what the heck is a Throgs Neck?

From Wikipedia:

Throggs Neck (also known as Throgs Neck) is a narrow spit of land in the southeastern portion of the borough of the Bronx in New York City. It demarcates the passage between the East River (an estuary), and Long Island Sound. "Throggs Neck" is also the name of the neighborhood of the peninsula, bounded on the north by East Tremont Avenue and Baisley Avenue, on the west by Westchester Creek, and on the other sides by the River and the Sound. Throggs Neck was largely exempt from the severe urban decay that affected much of the Bronx in the 1970s.

Throggs Neck is at the northern approach to the Throgs Neck Bridge, which connects the Bronx with the neighborhood of Bay Terrace in the borough of Queens on Long Island. The Throgs Neck Lighthouse formerly stood at its southern tip. Historically, the correct spelling is with two "g's," and while NYC Parks Commissioner and Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority Chairman Robert Moses officially shortened it to one "g" after deciding that two would not fit on many of the street signs, residents continue to recognize the traditional spelling.

In the 17th century it was known as Frockes Neck. George Washington referred to it as Frogs Neck during the Revolutionary War when Gen. Howe tried to land British troops there.

The current name, Throgs Neck, comes from an English immigrant, John Throckmorton, who settled there in 1642 with about 35 other people. The Indians killed off most of them the next year and Throckmorton took off to safer parts of the Colonies. I guess we should be thankful that it is not called Throckmorton's Neck, although that's what was saved when he skedaddled to Rhode Island.

The Throgs Neck peninsula is the site of the State University of New York Maritime College, formerly Fort Schuyler.

And this, Gentle Reader, is the little spit of land known as Throgs Neck. It costs $5 to cross over to Queens on this bridge.
Each.
Way.

This Isn't Sparta!

At first I thought this was a joke. But then I remembered:

This ain't Sparta.

This is Homeland Security.

From Fox News:

Border Patrol agents in Arizona are blasting their bosses for telling them, along with all other Department of Homeland Security employees, to run and hide if they encounter an "active shooter."

It's one thing to tell civilian employees to cower under a desk if a gunman starts spraying fire in a confined area, say members of Tucson Local 2544/National Border Patrol Council, but to give armed law enforcement professionals the same advice is downright insulting. The instructions from DHS come in the form of pamphlets and a mandatory computer tutorial.

And don't forget the moist towelettes and chocolates.

“We are now taught in an ‘Active Shooter’ course that if we encounter a shooter in a public place we are to ‘run away’ and ‘hide’" union leader Brandon Judd wrote on the website of 3,300-member union local. “If we are cornered by such a shooter we are to (only as a last resort) become ‘aggressive’ and ‘throw things’ at him or her. We are then advised to ‘call law enforcement’ and wait for their arrival (presumably, while more innocent victims are slaughtered)."

No matter where or how you serve, the ROE will all be the same under Obama and his minions. I was also taught to throw things, like 230 gm hollow points. I still do a pretty good job of it.

The FEMA-administered computer course, entitled “IS-907- Active Shooter: What You Can Do,” is a 45-minute tutorial that provides guidance to all employees on how to recognize indicators of possible workplace violence and what to do should their office be invaded by gunmen and focuses around three main options; either evacuate, hide out, or in dire circumstances, take action.

The motto of the US Border patrol is "Honor First." You really have to pity these poor devils. Next thing DHS will order them to don blue nitrile gloves and grope someone's crotch while they're being shot at.

Just Wait A Min...

It's Been Quite A Day

Earlier this morning the US Supreme Court today declared that the legislative mandate that requires everyone to have health insurance is unconstitutional but that that a healthcare tax that provides the same thing is hunky dory.

This afternoon the US House of Pain Representatives voted for the first time ever to impeach a standing US Attorney General.

Between running guns south of the border so millions of Mexican citizens are terrorized and hundreds murdered, promising free health care to every Tom, Dick and Harry, and then granting amnesty to 800,000 illegals, it appears Obama is trying to pressure the whole damn country to move north to America.

 I'm exhausted, I don't know exactly how pissed off I should be.
BigFurHat has something to say that makes sense:

Reading some of the reactions from commenters around the blogosphere it is dawning on me that many people were waiting on a ruling from SCOTUS to decide on whether the apparatus of Obamacare – death panels, rationing, doctor choice, patient’s choices – were constitutional or not.

This was never the issue. These aspects of Obamacare are a DONE DEAL. It always was. That was never in question. The decision was whether they could force people into buying health insurance that would be subjected to the Obamacare apparatus or not.

SCOTUS was never going to say, “see these death panels? Unconstitutional.” It’s not what was before them.

The only thing they were asked was whether you can force someone into buying health insurance. They said, “no.”

They did, however, remind the government that it is perfectly legal to tax people. So that is exactly what they are going to do.

To all the people creating scenarios like, “what’s next, is the government going to force us to buy a smart car or be taxed for not doing so?”, I’d like to remind you that you are already being forced into buying Smart cars. you might not be behind the wheel of one, but you paid for it.

You BUY all sorts of government products that you would never willingly purchase, the purchase is hidden amongst the entirety of your yearly tax bill.

If it makes you feel any better, think of Obamacare as a $500 Pentagon hammer.

First, I'm gonna take a nap. Second, I'm gonna buy more ammo. And betyurass I'm voting this November.

A Special Place In Hell

There are a number of offenses for which God, in His Infinite Wisdom, has established a special place in Hell. These are the places where it is hotter, darker and more isolated. The rocks are sharper, the sand drier and Eternity is longer.

Child prostitution is one of those crimes.

From the Daily Mail:

FBI rescues 79 child sex slaves in massive three-day prostitution sweep across the US

The FBI has rescued 79 teens held against their will and forced into prostitution from hotels, truck stops and stores during a three-day swoop on sex-trafficking rings across the country

The sex slaves were aged between 13 and 17, although one said she had been involved in prostitution since she was just 11, authorities said.

During the sting operations across 57 U.S. cities - including Atlanta, Sacramento and Toledo, Ohio - 104 alleged pimps were arrested.

The Man Who Rode The Thunder

An amazing story. You have to consider God's grace when you hear about things like this.



H/T to ChiTown Charlie

Civil Liberties - Chinese Style

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." (Second Amendment to the Constitution.)

From the Examiner:
A report issued by the State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China has included U.S. gun ownership among a list of human rights violations, Law Enforcement Examiner Jim Kopuri reported yesterday.
"The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2011" was published last Friday on the PRC’s Consulate General in New York website.

“The United States prioritizes the right to keep and bear arms over the protection of citizens' lives and personal security and exercises lax firearm possession control, causing rampant gun ownership,” the report claims. “The U.S. people hold between 35 percent and 50 percent of the world' s civilian-owned guns, with every 100 people having 90 guns [and] 47 percent of American adults reported that they had a gun.”

PRACTICE .....

We have some opinions about that:

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
~ Richard Henry Lee, Virginia delegate to the Continental Congress, initiator of the Declaration of Independence, and member of the first Senate, which passed the Bill of Rights.

"The great object is that every man be armed . . . Everyone who is able may have a gun."
~ Patrick Henry, in the Virginia Convention on the ratification of the Constitution.

MAKES PERFECT

Chinese Style

"The advantage of being armed . . . the Americans possess over the people of all other nations . . . Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several Kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms."
~ James Madison, author of the Bill of Rights, in his Federalist Paper No. 46.

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

American Style

Fast And FUBAR

 

Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry

Murdered by Fast and Furious

 

This NY Post  opinion piece is probably the best summation of the "Fast and Furious" debacle currently unfolding across America .... except, of course, in the liberal media where it does not report but instead COATs  (Covers for Obama All the Time) the subject.

ICE Agent Jaime Zapata

Murdered by Fast and Furious

Obama and Holder desperately need to be imprisoned and the ATF needs to be disbanded.

Combat Pay

The Pathway to Hell is paved with good intentions. I don't know if this is a good idea or not. From Military.com:

WASHINGTON -- A Pentagon review recommends ridding the combat pay system of inequities that have allowed officers thousands of miles from battle to get better benefits proportionally than troops on the front lines in Afghanistan.

The recommendations in a review released Thursday are likely to anger servicemembers. But the director of the review said they're aimed at paying more to troops who are in the gravest danger and giving the best tax benefits to those who are paid the least.

If it's from Obama's generals I tend to distrust it. Half the time I think they are more interested in protecting their own rice bowls rather than the lives of the people entrusted to their command.

Can this evolve into a "I'm Gay, More Pay" scenario because my straight platoon members threatened to kill me if I strut my stuff in the showers one more time?

Under the military's current system, there are two types of combat pay. One, called "hostile fire pay," gives troops $225 a month if they are in an area where they could be exposed to enemy fire.

The second, called "imminent danger pay," gives up to $225 per month to those who are in a combat zone, and it is pro-rated at $7.50 a day, based on how long they are there.

Since the Secretary of DHS views veterans and conservatives as the enemy, will liberal servemembers residing near VA hospitals or in predominantly Republican counties be eligible for eminent danger pay? How about Tea Party demonstrations?

The panel was struck by that disparity, Bush said, adding that a senior officer could get as much as a $15,000 tax benefit, while an Army private might get a $1,000 tax benefit.

And yet, the private serving at a combat outpost in Kandahar or Khost in Afghanistan has a much higher chance of getting killed or injured than a senior officer serving in a headquarters unit or in Bahrain.

Congress members have been loath to do anything that appears to cut combat pay and have often tried to increase pay raises for the military. Bush acknowledged that it's not clear how open they would be to the changes recommended by the report, but he said he hoped lawmakers would be open to making the system more equal.

Ridiculous hypotheses aside, one of the reasons my daughter is looking forward to another deployment early next year is because of the combat pay. Even if this commission does its job properly, that doesn't mean it will automatically translate into policy that actually benefits those soldiers who march into Harm's Way. We'll see.

Beggar Obama

Okay America, give it up!

I want some more!

Obama is bowing and begging. He'll soon be standing at an entrance ramp to I-95 with a sign saying that he will read from a teleprompter for food.

From Breitbart's Big-Government:

Got a birthday, anniversary, or wedding coming up?

Let your friends know how important this election is to you—register with Obama 2012, and ask for a donation in lieu of a gift. It’s a great way to support the President on your big day. Plus, it’s a gift that we can all appreciate—and goes a lot further than a gravy bowl.

Beggar Obama also does Bar Mitzvahs!

Got a special milestone or event coming up?

Instead of another gift card you’ll forget to use, ask your friends and family for something that will go a little further: a donation to Obama for America. Register your next celebration—whether it’s a birthday, bar or bat mitzvah, wedding, or anniversary—with the Obama campaign. It’s a great way to show your support for a cause that’s important to you on your big day.

Beware Of Owner

I haven't qualified with a pistol in over 13 years.

I fixed that this morning.

Boy, have things changed - the course of fire and the targets!

It didn't feel right shooting at a Irishman.

I'm gonna leave it on the door for a while.