Ode To Twinkies

They're baa-ack!

Twinkies are once again showing up on snack shelves. Walmart is already selling them.

Story here.

And with my sincere apologies to Joyce Kilmer, I offer the following:

Ode To Twinkies

I thought that I would never see

A Twinkie that is union-free.

A cream-filled, spongy vanilla cake

That BCTGMIU members no longer make.

A Twinkie freed from union bosses

Whose pockets are filled despite job losses.

A Twinkie that was sorely missed

Brought back to life by Capitalists.

 Twinkies will enhance our fiscal rate
Because jobs are created in Right-To-Work States.

Blogs are made by fools like me
But only Hostess can make a Twinkie.

Sooner Than We Think

So let's see this hombre!

There's a new Terminator in town; his name is Atlas. And he is ug-lee.

T-1000, meet Atlas

Boston Dynamics has been busy working on an entrant for DARPA's Virtual Robotics Challenge, a contest aimed to create robots that can help in disaster situations. Of course, they could also be used by the military...

Now, Boston Dynamics has revealed its entrant: A 6-foot-tall humanoid robot called Atlas.

Compared to the bumbling, tottering, and slow humanoid robots that have hit the media before, you may be shocked at how resilient Atlas is. The machine has sophistication that approaches the stuff of science fiction. It can cope with unexpected trip hazards, survive being knocked off balance by a 20-pound weight, and if the tricks of its developmental predecessor, Petman, are anything to go by, it can climb over obstacles and autonomously navigate to a certain degree.

And there are robot pack mules in the works here and other robot/cyborg thingies here. The pack mule is exciting as it is being designed to carry up to 400 pounds and operate continuously for 24 hours. It could be a real life saver for soldiers wounded on an active battlefield.

Stone This Jerk

Rocks! More Rocks!

Twenty years is not enough. They should have this man pounding rocks for the rest of his life and then beat him to death with the rocks.

Ex- Army Corps official sentenced in contracting scheme of ‘historic proportions’

He was a career federal bureaucrat with a dark side, inflating government contracts by millions of dollars and then shaking down contractors for the proceeds. The money funded a lavish and sordid lifestyle — a real estate empire in Northern Virginia, leased BMWs, Neiman Marcus shopping sprees, and mistresses in three states and the Philippines.

On Thursday, a federal judge sentenced Kerry F. Khan, the mastermind of a contracting scam of “historic proportions,” to nearly two decades behind bars. It was even more than prosecutors had requested because of the “staggering” scope of the scheme. U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan said he also wanted to deter other would-be criminals in the billion-dollar world of federal contracting.

“You made history for the wrong reasons,” Sullivan told Khan, 55, a former Army Corps of Engineers program manager and the ringleader of a network of corrupt public officials and government contractors who stole more than $30 million through inflated billings and fake invoices.

U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. has called it the largest bribery and bid-rigging scheme in federal contracting history.

The case revealed deep flaws in the oversight of federal contracts and prompted a review at the Army Corps of Engineers. Officials added new layers of review in the Army Corps’ contracting office, with senior managers and peer panels now responsible for scrutinizing all bids and solicitations before contractors are selected.

More here and here. This stuff will make you sick.

Pea Coats

That last post got me to reminiscing about my first years on the job, about the "old timers" who were still in uniform - all of whom are gone now. We had a bunch of cops who were known as the "Pea Coat Squad"or the "Pea Coaters." They were new cop hires after WWII, many former Navy Seamen.

The US garment industry had not time to completely ramp up back to civilian mode after the end of the war; these new cops couldn't buy the departmental authorized winter coats so they wore Navy pea coats. They were an amazing bunch of guys. I miss their attitude, their kindness and sense of humor.

What I see in cops today is that confidence has been somewhat displaced by arrogance. You can tell the difference when a man speaks from experience; he talks to you - not at you. Sure, there are times when dealing with a knucklehead that you lapse into full bore cop mode ... been there, done it a zillion times. But for the most part you want to employ what we called the Golden Tongue Strategy. Why fight your way out of a problem you created when you could talk your way into a solution where you didn't have to bash someone's face in? I swear, there were a few cops who could walk into a massive family disturbance (the type where first thing you do is grab all the kitchen knives and toss them behind the refrigerator) and leave with both sides promising to name their next-born after you.

No School Like The Old School

I was broken in by old schoolers. When we were assigned a territory we were expected to take care of it. No excuses. Our sergeants, lieutenants and captains were mostly WWII and Korean War vets. They didn't put up with much and neither did the people they broke in. I freely admit that I would not last as a modern day police officer, I'd be arrested within a week for beating the tar our of some idiot.

I cannot ascertain the veracity or source of the following rant, but I share it's sentiments.

TO: Anyone who will listen
FROM: A retired old school cop
SUBJECT: 86 & 12

That was the score 4th of July (2013) weekend in Chicago. 86 shot (actually puncture wounds) twelve dead, Chicago stopped counting graze wounds and only counts actual bullet holes now, you don't count if you get your nose or ear shot off. Chicago is also a city three quarters of which is unsafe to walk in. The thug and gang infested South, West and East sides are expanding like a cancer while the few remaining safe neighborhoods are shrinking annually due largely in part to scattered site housing.

This is the crowning achievement of our politicians and the social engineers, who long ago decided that big, bad, brutish policemen were no longer needed. So it came to pass that in the 70's they started forcing females onto the department. That did away with height and strength requirements. They then decided that the correct rainbow of colors was needed. To accomplish this they lowered the aptitude tests and created quotas. That did away with intelligence and integrity requirements. Of course gays could not be excluded either. The ideal candidate for promotion became a black transvestite with a Spanish surname.
Our weapons were next on their agenda. Blackjacks, zap gloves and the like were banned. Our shotguns were moved from the front seat to the trunk, from the trunk to the radio room and from there just disappeared. New ammunition was issued which was so inadequate it would ricochet off of car windshields. And God help you if you hit someone with your flashlight.
Finally the politicians got rid of the real Policemen. The old dinosaurs were lured into early retirements and replaced with internal affairs weenies and gays with a decent sprinkling of color. The brutish "Old Clancey" stereotype was laid to rest and replaced by "Officers Ken & Barbie." The end result is a department that is befuddled, cow towed, hamstrung, weak and totally not feared by the thugs and gang bangers, but oh so politically correct.

The City has succeeded in ridding itself of the brutish dinosaur cops of old and has replaced them with little girls and college yuppies who wouldn't know a bad guy if he shit in their face. They have invented new politically correct terms like Wilding and Flash Mobs to describe Black Mob Violence which is rapidly spreading into the once "Safe Zones" of Michigan Avenue, River North and Wrigleyville.

After you have been shot, raped or robbed Officers Ken & Barbie will arrive and write a most excellent report with perfect grammar and punctuation which will be fed into a State of the Art computer which will crunch and manipulate the numbers precisely. Me, I long for the old days when Clancey crunched and manipulated the thugs before I became the next victim.

All of this in the most corrupt city, most corrupt county, most corrupt state in the country, whose political leaders zealously and vehemently fight to impose the most restrictive gun control legislation in the nation. If you believe Officers Ken & Barbie are going to protect you and yours, you had better get your head out of your butt and smell the coffee. Old Clancey is retired, it's now up to you to protect yourself.

Rejoice oh liberals, you have gotten exactly what you wanted. Hope you enjoy it!
Sincerely, a retired old school cop (from O'Brien Street)

Thanks Charlie, from one old schooler to another.

Arrigato Most Honorable Poopoo-san

I've said it before and I'll say it again.
Those nukes we dropped in '45 really screwed these people up. More adults are now diaper-clad than infants. It almost sounds like a Borscht Belt kaka joke.

Japan's rapidly aging population is producing some interesting new business opportunities, including a booming market for adult diapers.

The Nikkei newspaper reported on Thursday that three Japanese paper companies--Daio, and Nippon Paper--are expanding their manufacturing facilities for what are politely called "incontinence products" due to an expected surge in demand. The Nikkei said adult diapers are expected to outsell baby diapers in Japan by 2020, but according to Unicharm, Japan's biggest diaper maker, the tipping point was in 2011.

The adult diaper market is growing at 6-10% a year, and already pulls in 140 billion yen ($1.4 billion) by catering to Japan's elderly population--it has the highest percentage of over-65s in the world, making up more than 20% of the population.

By contract, in America it's 13.7%.

More here.

How To Git'er Done!

Cool down the house. Check

Water the lawn. Check.

Wash the dog. Check.,

Clean the windows. Check.

Flush the gutters. Check.

Rinse off the driveway. Check.

Drown the gopher. Check.

And we're done....

..H/T to Feral Irishman

John Kerry - America's Hero

SecState John Kerry rushes to address Egyptian crisis. 

Here he is disembarking at the harbor in Alexandria.
Be Brave For All Of Us John!

John Kerry's heroic actions in the face of adversary and danger never cease to amaze me.

From Front Page:
John Kerry likes boats. He likes windsurfing. He doesn’t seem to be much good at foreign policy. Obama probably should have made a job for him like Secretary of Windsurfing. Or Czar of Yachting. Considering all the useless czars already out there, it wouldn’t have even stood out that much.

But Kerry seems determined to finish his career by doing the same useless things he did as senator while calling himself Secretary of State. One of those things is spending a lot of time on his boat. The other is lying about it.

Under withering fire, John Kerry rescues inebriated wounded shipmates, winning his first Bronze Star and Purple Heart.

While Egypt melted down, Kerry took some time off to be with his beloved Isabel. A yacht that has gotten him in trouble before. Kerry’s spokeswoman, an Obama vet, however denied that Kerry was in any shape or form swiftboating it in.

John Kerry furiously repels Communist infiltrators in Viet Nam, 

winning another Bronze Star and Purple Heart. 

Way to go John!

Rogue Cops?

 No crime in progress, ma'am. 

We just want to look out your windows and fuck up your dog.

What follows appears to be a particularly egregious example of police misconduct that is finally winding its way through our legal system. It took two years for this incident to reach the courts and the local Las Vegas media seems to have completely ignored it.

I have no problem with the application of deadly physical force when needed. But I do have a problem with the "them vs us" attitude of so many cops and the way that the new generation of officers is trained to steamroll over the citizenry. When I joined in 1974, the number of police officers killed in the line of duty was 280; last year in 2012 it was 120. Our tactics at that time were much less intrusive and we were very concerned with maintaining good relations with the people we served. How things have changed.

I thank God that fewer officers are making the ultimate sacrifice, but I deplore the tactics being used against citizens whose only crime appears to be wanting to be left alone.

From the Daily Caller:

A family is suing the city of Henderson, Nevada for violating their Third Amendment rights — the constitutional prohibition against quartering soldiers in a private home during peacetime without the owner’s consent.

The Mitchell family says that’s essentially what happened when Henderson police allegedly arrested them for refusing to let officers use their homes for a “tactical advantage” in a domestic violence investigation into a neighbor, according to an official complaint.

Police officers contacted Anthony Mitchell on July 10, 2011, with a request to use his house as a lookout while investigating his neighbor. When Mitchell told police that he did not wish to be involved, the complaint alleges, police decided they would use the residence anyway.

If the police were executing a search/arrest warrant for the neighbor I could understand. Dangerous people pose significant threats to both police and innocent civilians and and I for one would want to move innocent people out of harm's way - we do this all the time. But to toss out a family to conduct surveillance on a site for possible domestic incident? This just doesn't pass the smell test... it stinks. And the stink gets worse.

According to Courthouse News Service, the police department decided that if Mitchell refused to leave or open the door, officers would force their way in and arrest him.

Mitchell claims this is exactly what happened. First officers “smashed open” Mitchell’s door with a “metal ram” after he did not immediately open it himself. He then “curled on the floor of his living room, with his hands over his face,” as the police shot Mitchell and his dog — which the family claims did not attack the officers — several times with “pepperball” rounds.

Pepperball is a projectile containing chemical irritant pepper spray, which is released upon impact.

Afterward, Mitchell was arrested for “obstructing a police officer.”

The ordeal didn’t end there. Mitchell’s parents, Michael and Linda, were also neighbors to the home where police officers suspected domestic violence, so the police wanted to use their home as well. Michael Mitchell was invited to a local police command center to assist “in negotiating the surrender of the neighboring suspect.”
But upon arriving at the commander center, the elder Mitchell was informed the negotiations wouldn’t be taking place, the complaint says. When he decided to leave, he was also arrested.

The elder Mitchell’s wife was not arrested, but she was roughly escorted from her home while other officers entered the house without permission, the complaint alleges. The family claims that when she was allowed to return, “the cabinets and closet doors throughout the house had been left open and their contents moved about… Even the refrigerator door had been left ajar, and mustard and mayonnaise had been left on their kitchen floor.”

The charges against both the father and the son were dismissed.

The current trend for the militarization of our police forces worries me.  I see many young cops who are more concerned with their images as ninja tough guy enforcers rather than citizen protectors. Believe me, there is a difference.

Police executives must look at their enforcement efforts and decide whether they are acting as a civil servants or an invading army. The City of Henderson, NV, has a lot to answer for.

Art Imitates Nature

Bird poop on a windshield looks like bird pooping.

How weird is that?

If They Can Do It, So Can We

It was rather surprising to see how fast the new "democratic" regime in Egypt folded under pressure. Apparently, it was nothing more than a paper thin Islamic veneer that attempted to impose Sharia Law over a nation of 90 million souls.

Wonder how long Obama would last under a sustained barrage such as that?

Time's a-wasting....

Thank You King George

The Grand Union Flag, first used by George Washington on January 1, 1776.
This modification of the  British Red Ensign became in effect the first national flag of the United States.

It is always a joy to read an article penned by Daniel Hannan; youmay not agree with him but he certainly stirs the pot in a most agreeable manner. Read the whole thing, it's well worth the time.

From the UK Telegraph:

Why Britons should celebrate the American Declaration of Independence

We all know the story of American independence, don't we? A rugged frontier people became increasingly tired of being ruled by a distant elite. A group calling themselves Patriots were especially unhappy about being taxed by a parliament in which they were unrepresented. When, in 1775, British redcoats tried to repress them, a famous Patriot called Paul Revere rode through the night across eastern Massachusetts, crying 'The British are coming'. The shots that were fired the next day began a war for independence which culminated the following year in the statehouse of Philadelphia, when George Washington and others, meeting under Betsy Ross's gorgeous flag, signed the Declaration of Independence.

It's a stirring story; but it's false in every aspect. Neither Paul Revere nor anyone else could have shouted 'The British are coming' in 1775: the entire population of Massachusetts was British (what the plucky Boston silversmith actually yelled was 'The regulars are out!') The overall level of taxation in the colonies in 1775 was barely a fiftieth of what it was in Great Britain, and the levies to which Americans had objected had been repealed before the fighting began. The Boston Tea Party, which sparked the violence, was brought about by a lowering of the duty on tea. George Washington wasn't there when the Declaration of Independence was signed. The flag which the Patriots marched under was not, except on very rare occasions, the stars-and-stripes (which probably wasn't sewn by Betsy Ross); it was the Grand Union Flag, which incorporated the flag of Great Britain.

The men who raised that standard believed that they were fighting for their freedoms as Britons – freedoms which had been trampled by a Hanoverian king and his hirelings. When they called themselves Patriots – a word that had been common currency among Whigs on both sides of the Atlantic long before anyone dreamed of a separation – they meant that they were British patriots, cherishing the peculiar liberties that had come down to them since Magna Carta: jury trials, free contract, property rights, habeas corpus, parliamentary representation, liberty of conscience and the common law.

[...]As the Virginia-born Lady Astor later put it, the war was fought “by British Americans against a German King for British ideals.”

More here.

We Should Have Known

Happy 4th of July!

Ok Obama, render the Kenyan Krotch Salute in 3...2...

Another Arab Spring, Er, Summer... Fall?

Egyptian Army General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announces that 

Islamic nutjob President Morsi has been kicked to Egypt's curb. 

Hmmmm, I wonder if he could do the same thing for us in America?

So, President Mohamed "I will fight to the death... NOT!" Morsi is out and the Generals are in. I wonder how much influence the Israeli Defense Force had in this turn of events; as in, "Get rid of the clowns or we trash the circus."

From the Daily Mail:

'Morsi is no longer president': Military coup forces out Egyptian leader as tens of thousands celebrate in the streets

Thousands celebrate after military chief says president has been forced out

Morsi moved to undisclosed location as military chief calls for elections

Troops deployed near protest sites and key military sites

America says it is 'very concerned' about conditions on the ground

Nearly 40 people have died since protests began on Sunday

One of Morsi's top advisers said country is experiencing a coup


Celebrations were taking place across Egypt this evening after the military chief said President Mohammed Morsi had been forced out.

The head of Egypt's armed forces issued a declaration suspending the constitution and appointing the head of the constitutional court as interim head of state.

In a televised broadcast, flanked by military leaders, religious authorities and political figures, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi effectively declared the removal of elected Islamist President Mohamed Morsi.

The president's aide has said the Egyptian leader Morsi has been moved to an undisclosed location.

To Vegan Or Not To Vegan

Behold Evil Incarnate!

It's hilarious. There is a vegan site that outs "ex-vegans" in an attempt to shame them. Ex-vegans are viewed as apostates; people who leave the Meatless Society of Bean Sprout Lovers are traitors and objects of scorn. They must be punished. Kinda sounds like Muslims, no?

From the NY Post:

These carnivores are dead meat!

A group of vegan extremists has launched a Web site meant to shame scores of “ex-vegans” — even posting the names and photos of the meat-munching traitors.

The The Vegan Sellout List, at exvegans.com, features a directory of former vegans, including plenty of New York City residents.

It says its mission is to hold responsible folks who eat animals and know better.

The site accuses the former non-meat-and-dairy eaters of once being vegans only to be trendy or to make friends.

“The spirits of the billions murdered have risen to deliver: The Vegan Sellout List,” the site declares.

“The Vegan Sellout List is our answer to . . . those who are aware of the suffering caused by meat, dairy, egg, fur and leather production, yet choose to look away while the animals suffer,” the site says, calling out “swarms of haughty, nose-turning carnists.”

Reminds me of Johnny Carson's "Carnist The Magnificent."

 Medium rare - broil for  six minutes on one side and five minutes on the other. Andit'sbetter wrapped with bacon. Speaking about bacon, here is an entry from the ex-vegan web site excoriating some lass who couldn't resist the unholy temptation of bacon.

She was a gluten-free vegan for 5 YEARS and used to be an inspiration to her young vegan listeners and radio fans. Then, one day, she suddenly decided that she enjoys MURDERING INNOCENT ANIMALS and devouring their flesh more than being a role-model. Now she parades around town in her yoga pants, eating entire packages of bacon on every street corner as a middle finger to honest vegans everywhere. Psh, Sell-out.

Hmmmmmm, bacon.... and she's cute to boot.