I'm workin out in the Texas hill country this week.

I was thinking of putting up a weekly "Identify That Roadkill" post, but my Logitech instant digicam doesn't take that good of pictures at 70 MPH. Besides, in the hill country west of Bandera about all thats killed are deer, and anyone can tell what they are.

Instead of dead meat, how about a little contrast?

Here are the planes about 5 miles north of Hondo



Now we head about 25 miles northwest, past Bandera and Medina



If I had a better camera, you could see just how tall those hills are. They remind me of driving over the Cumberland Gap. I'm sure they aren't THAT big, but they are impressive in real life.

I bashed out a post earlier comparing Iraq and the Balkans

It occurred to me while I was looking for a Diamond Shamrock (with diesel) around Bandera yesterday- that there is another contrast which shows the Liberal racial bias.

There is one major parallel between Iraq and Viet nam- one that you'll NEVER hear from any major news delivery service.

Did any of you notice that they're not , , , ummm, , , well, to but it bluntly- the "right" color?
The Libs wanted us out of Viet Nam- no matter what the consequences were to the "Orientals", The killing fields of Cambodia would have ment alot more if it were white people being slaughtered.
Laos wasn't pretty either, but wasn't "newsworthy" because of excess menolin.

Somalia? Darkies- anarchy
Hati (more than once): completely FUBAR'd from the git-go.
You name a country with a majority of non-Caucasians that the Libs want to stay in and finish the job. I bet you'd have to search- hard.

We're doing a kick-ass job in Iraq. We're almost done. The Libs (and fellow socialistic fellow travelers) want us out - NOW!

We've been in the Balkans for over ten years- they're majority white. We're still standing between the sides keeping them from massacring each other.
Have you noticed how quiet the racially motivated Left is about pulling troops out there? Or if it's brought up at all- "what about the consciences?"

Want to remind me again, just what the Democrats stand for (aside from socialism, communism, pedophilia, atheism, beastiality, racial quotas, etc, , ,)?

Explaining "my" needs to the wife


I never have quite figured out why the sexual urges of
men and women differ so much. And I never have figured
out the whole Mars & Venus thing. And, I never have
figured out why men think with their head and women
with their heart. And, I never yet have figured out
how the sexual desire gene gets thrown into a state
of turmoil when it hears the words, "I do."
One evening last week, my wife and I were getting into
bed. Well, the passion started to heat up, and she
eventually said, "I don't feel like it, I just want you
to hold me."

I said, "WHAT??!!"

So she said the words that I, and every husband on the
planet, dread. She explained that I must not be in
tune with her emotional needs as a woman. I was thinking,
"What was her first clue?" I finally realized that nothing
was going to happen that night, so I went to bed.
The very next day we went shopping at a big, unnamed department
store. I walked around while she tried on three very expensive
outfits. She couldn't decide which one to take, so
I told her to take all three of them.
She then told me that she wanted matching shoes worth $200
each to which I said, "Okay."
Then we went to the Jewelry Department where she got a set
of diamond earrings. Let me tell you ... she was so excited.
She must have thought that I was one wave short of a
shipwreck, but I don't think she cared. I think she was
testing me when she asked for a tennis bracelet because she
doesn't even play tennis. I think I threw her for a loop
when I told her that it was okay. She was almost sexually
excited from all of this and you should have seen her face
when she said, "I'm ready to go, let's go to the cash
register."
I could hardly contain myself when I blurted out, "No, honey.
I don't feel like buying all this stuff now."

You should have seen her face ... it went completely blank.
I then said, "Really, honey, I just want you to HOLD this
stuff for a while."
And just when she had this look like she was going to kill
me, I added, "You must not be in tune with my financial
needs as a man."
I figure that I should be having sex again sometime during
the Spring thaw of 2006.

(UPDATE NOV. 30 4:54PM)
I guess I need to let you know that I copied a joke, since I didn't feel like writing anything last night. My homelife is quite pleasant. Thank you for your concern, though.

Ohhh, THAT must be it!

I had a REALLY long day yesterday and didn't get on the computer much.
I heard about Bush's border speach, and wondered why NOW?

He's had over 4 years to do something since 9-11, and only now is he starting to talk about doing something with the borders. I mean besides giving Illegals almost complete amnesty.

Now he's talking about getting tough on the borders which kinda makes sense because he's campaigning for Republicans- gotta pull the wool over the voters eyes once again.

AND
I heard a snatch of something on FoxNews that brought it all into place.

He can do what the American people want - doing something about illegals-AND- get his way, too.
He deports the (few) illegals we catch; which makes his Vast Right Wing Conservatives happy.
He turns around and gives those same illegals assylum- because we persecuted them-AND- he can show how "compassionate" he is.


Brilliant!

We were coming back from looking at a Ranger in Austin

And saw this truck.

Guess what he supports?


I'd guess he supports, , ,

, , "I support" ribbon manufacturers!

(UPDATE 4:01PM)
A I said, wa looked at a Ford ranger XLT up in Austin. When did Ford decide to make the Ranger XLT a base model? My old '87 XLT Supercab had ALL the bells and whistles. The ones I'm seeing now don't even have power windows. Oh well, at least I can get the same thing about $1000 less if I buy a Mazda B-4000.

We passed the San Marcos outlet malls on the way south on I-35. The built an addition to the VF-outlet mall (I think). I'm not sure if it's the one that Dsah worked on. I hope not. To be charitable, it looks, , , ummm, , , well- extremely 'Disneyish' with it's castlements, towers, and gingerbread toppings.

How do y'all like my new dress?

Did you know that Bravenet sitemeter counts your visits when you're checking out your templates? See, I don't know what the nuber codes are, so I haveta look at the changes.

I hope my next sitemeter will have more goodies- but it's free.
And I don't want to f*ck with downloading a better one untill we get broadband---> this Weds!!!

Yeah.

Over at Wired News

Regina Lynn has a new toy she wants to tell you about.

She's not exactly writhing in extacy, but not really unhappy about it, either.
The big problem is, as with ALL the newest high tech goodies; it needs the latest high tech "friends" to make it work.
Oh, and:

It requires a cell phone with Bluetooth, dexterous fingers, a strong grip and patience. Nevertheless, I think The Toy is a harbinger of the future of sex toys. It's another example of our attempts to integrate sexual aids into our mobile communications and our computer games.

It's not cheap, either. Europeans can buy it locally for about 295 euros. In the United States, expect to pony up about $350 plus $30 shipping.

But the article is SFW, and probably around anyone who's not reading over your shoulder.

Oh, HI hunny.

It would make a good "Kof" stocking-stuffer.

Anybody watching "Manticore"?

The wife likes bad sci-fi, and even she's talking about how bad it is. I don't know when it was made, but I've heard the credit card "don't leave h(ear) without it" the vegas "what happens here stays here" and a couple others I didn't quite catch.

Gawd I hope that woman reporter gets eaten- or preferably a slow painful death.

Oh, BTW-
I'm done with the Christmas outside crap!

In the holidays Gluttony department

We could be facing an IMMINENT Cranberry shortage!
Quick, run to the store and hoard Cranberries!

This is no joke!
There is a news article about it on the net.

Wisconsin, the nation's leading cranberry-producing state, harvested an average crop this fall, but yields were down in Massachusetts and Washington, leading to concerns of tighter fresh fruit supplies next month, particularly in areas outside the Midwest, Lochner said.

"There could possibly be a shortage for the Christmas holidays," said Ray Habelman Sr., co-owner of Habelman Brothers Co., which grows 650 acres of cranberries near Tomah(WI).

I hope there will be a congressional investigation into this- when will Gov't force "Big Cranberry" to give us affordable and plentiful side dishes?


Ohh, and in the general area of Turkeys and other mindless birds- you DID hear that our favorite stalker was back in Crawford, didn't you?

Looks like M Jac is in the news again
(that's Michael Jackson's gang name over in Juvie)

This time he's going to convert to islam and move to Bahrain.
Because:
According to the report, Jackson'’s announcement noted he is moving to Bahrain and has purchased some real-estate on an artificial island there. The singer said he decided to convert to Islam because he is convinced it is the closest religion to his personal beliefs. Yeh, mohammed was a pedophile, too-except HE liked the girls*.


Jackson also noted he intends to soon move all his assets and his studio from the U.S. to Bahrain, and expressed his hope to be rid of various legal troubles and enjoy the kind of freedom he says he does not have in America. Sure, we all know just how tolerant the "Religion of Peace" is. We saw demonstrations on 9-11-01, 5-11-04, 7-7-05 and 11-9-05 of just how tolerant they are of others belief systems and ways of life.


*Yes, I know it was the12thh century and it was normal for men to marry much younger females. I'm just jumping on the Liberal way of moral relativism that they slap all they oppose with.

I'd like to do another blogalaunch

The problem is that I'd like to find out who has me on their blogroll.

Really!

I just found one, can't remember how, but I was on his blogroll.
If I'm on yours, or you'd like to be on mine- hell, if you KNOW of anyone who I can look at, let me know.

You may now go back to surfing.

(UPDATE Nov 26)
Surly Dave doen't need to bother with the post.

Well, there goes the neighborhood

The Palestinians have control over the Gaza border with Egypt now.
I know the Egyptians and all the other terrorist apologists want Israel to give up everything they can to reward terrorism. Now they'll see first hand what Israel has been putting up with as soon as they try keeping up their second world standards as those quasi-civilized Palestinians start bombing them.

What? You think Egypt and the Palestinians will get along like long lost kin? Kane and Able maybe, or Joseph and his brothers. The first (maybe second) time Egypt tries to keep them from pulling their cr@p over there, the terrorists will revert back to what got them where they are today.

Blowing up women and children.

They know they can do whatever they want and the Euro-wienies will make excuses. The UN will Tsk-Tsk and the U.S. will hand over a barrel full of money to get them to sign a meaningless promise to stop whatever they're doing this time.

The only people who are going to get anything out of this uncontrolled border crossing is the arms dealers and the terrorist organization running the PA.

Israel, just be extra careful.

Everyone enjoyed the turkey

Hope Y'all have a good X-Mas +31

I'm off to work- and staying as far from shopping centers as possible.
To paraphrase a term, , , "buy early and buy often."


And in completely unrelated news, , ,

Peter Bradey is getting married!
Congrats Peter, enjoy a girl half your age!

Good morning Blogdom

I tried to take a picture of sunrise, but all I have is a (semi)cheapo Logitech 510, wich is the digital version of a throw-away film camera. So it came out black.

As it's Thanksgiving, I'm sure you'll get enough history and lists of , , , ummm, , , thankfulness's.

I would type one up, too- but I'm not feeling all that thankfull this year.
Sure, I know I(we) have it good. We live in the best country on earth, I've got a pretty good paying job, material goodies and friendly dogs.

I guess you could describe the way I'm feeling now as "edgy". We moved over here from Maxwell(the Blogname) because I got a job in Castroville. I hated the petty "gotcha" politics and favoritsm that went on there (plus the nightly call-outs because of a bad transfer switch from our supplier, so I got another job- with more money (and no call-outs). The thing is, it's a 101 mi. round trip daily. If we get rained out or no work, we go home. That's OK, I make as much in a week with 12 hrs O.T. as I did in two weeks of straight time in Castroville.
I'm just getting tired.

The Maxwell trailer was laying on my mind (potential repair wise) so I sold it. Lost $1000 in what I payed for it plus the 16 x 32 workshop I built. I also forgot about all the legal costs involved, so I walked away almost $2,000 on the short side.

The '98 Dodge ram 1500 -wich is the best truck I've owned- is showing it's age at 145K miles.
I don't like this house we had to buy in a rush (because of the Castroville thing), and it's a bit overpriced because we bought it right before the market opened up a bit.

The wife is wonderful- exept that she has a bit of a perception problem (maybe it's me).
she thinks my Dodge Ram is about a foot narrower than it actually is.
She also thinks I'm too hard on the 17 yr-old bedslug.
The 14 yr-old is no problem (considering she IS 14), and actually tries to act like she cares about the place here.
The 17 yr-old won't do anything (I) expected arround here. She never finishes anything -if her mom can nag her into STARTING to begin with. We've lived here for going on 8 months now. we have a dishwasher, and she can't be bothered to learn where the dishes belong. It's too much effort to move things from the dishwasher ALL the way across the kitchen to the cupbords by the stove, so I get "I couldn't remember where it goes". Mom is p*ssed because I expect the young ADULT to actually do something - f*cking FINISH something that she's started.

Am I wrong to expect a 17 year old to actually show some responsibility? I damn sure garontee that untill she starts showing somekind of responsibility, she's not going to drive anything I have to pay for- or fix. She also hasn't bothered to start working on her drivers lisence yet. We live 8 miles from the nearest town, and her mother will be loosing time from work to chauffer her around to any job she FINALLY decides to apply for. Because thats what mothers do, isn't it?
Protect their darling daughters from mean males who expect young adults to actually show some f*cking responsibility.

I'm just getting tired of putting up with her , , , "teenageness".
She turns her nose up at anything I cook- and is starting to get fat. she claimes she doesn't eat anything but what's in the house. If she's getting fat on a hanfull of cookies and a PBJ sandwitch- she can make a LOT of money by letting the UN in on her secret.

Sorry for the rant, I'm just fed-up right now.
I know alot of people have it alot worse than I do, I know that all being said and done- it could be alot different.
I'll be deleting this later, just wanted it to vent.

(UPDATE 9:24AM)
I forgot to mention-She's making noises about joining the military- I feel sorry for her boot camp company. I wonder what the female version of a blanket party is? I guess she'll find out when her entire company is continually paying for her "forgetfulness". She's a Brit, so maybe their service is more P/C and she won't be expected to act so responsibly if she signs.

Can I Fisk my commenters?

Sure, it's my blog- I can do anything I want with it.
I mean- I don't have any warnings about using them for blogfodder: so should I?

OK.

I got this comment from the previous "ninny" post.
I'm obviously not as smart as H. Lauther, so I'll just have to take the comment a little at a time.

Setting aside your mom-and-apple pie clichés, e.g., "land of the free" (despite the fact that American Indians and African-Americans can prove that it's not true by simply pointing at their own history), are you seriously suggesting that wearing red on Friday will send a warm, puppy dog message to our troops in Iraq that we support them? For a 20-year-old kid who's dodging bullets, do you honestly think his heart is going to be uplifted by what we here at home wear on a certain day?
It's a hell ovalot better than hearing the constant beat of negatism from the liberal media, DEMOCRATIC leaders, communists, socialists, and everyone who's life as they know it will have no meaning after Nov of '08.
From what romantic TV movie did you steal that stupid idea?
Anyone who's been the recipient of chain E-MAILS oughtta recognize the last two paragraphs.
Patriotism is not wearing a little flag in your lapel like some ninny, or flying one from your car antenna, or dressing up like a redbird, or praying for soldiers; rather, it's taking every measure possible to protect your country and our military personnel from unintelligent, short-sighted politicians who carelessly put all of us in harm's way.
Right, that's why Bush was elected with the greatest vote count in the history of the United States.
And if that means criticizing them in order to prevent them from wasting American lives, then by all means pour it on!
DON'T QUESTION OUR PATRIOTISM! We are only trashing America because our superior intelligence allows us to see all of her flaws.
H. Lauther | 11.23.05 - 1:11 pm |


I obviously struck a nerve there with H. Lauther, who took the opportunity to remind us of the mistakes of our past. (s)he also didn't feel the need to finish the "cliche". . . and the home of the brave.
I don't know if (s)he is a regular or someone who just happened by, I don't care.
I know I'm not the sharpest fork in the drawer, but I believe that we should support our country and our troops when they are in harms way. Supporting our troops means SUPPORTING our troops. You don't support our troops by trying to turn what they are doing into this years version of Viet Nam. It looks like (s)he came from Rusty's place though.

You don't support our troops by adding some legalistic small(Patriotism is not wearing a little flag in your lapel like some ninny, or flying one from your car antenna, or dressing up like a redbird, or praying for soldiers; rather, it's taking every measure possible to protect your country and our military personnel from unintelligent, short-sighted politicians who carelessly put all of us in harm's way. And if that means criticizing them in order to prevent them from wasting American lives, then by all means pour it on!)print to that comment so all your intellectual equals will give you the "knowing" nod of understanding.

I just wonder if (s)he is still running around with Kerry/Edwards bumperstickers?

This sounds like a good idea

I wonder if it'll catch on?


RED FRIDAYS ----- Very soon, you will see a great many people wearing
Red every Friday. The reason? Americans who support our troops used to
be called the "silent majority". We are no longer silent, and are
voicing our love for God, country and home in record breaking numbers.
We are not organized, boisterous or over-bearing. We get no liberal
media coverage on TV, to reflect our message or our opinions.

Many Americans, like you, me and all our friends, simply want to
recognize that the vast majority of America supports our troops. Our
idea of showing solidarity and support for our troops with dignity and
respect starts this Friday -and continues each and every Friday until
the troops all come home, sending a deafening message that.. Every
red-blooded American who supports our men and women afar, will wear
something red.

By word of mouth, press, TV -- let's make the United States on every
Friday a sea of red much like a homecoming football game in the
bleachers. If every one of us who loves this country will share this
with acquaintances, co-workers, friends, and family. It will not be
long before the USA is covered in RED and it will let our troops know
the once "silent" majority is on their side more than ever, certainly more than the media lets on.

The first thing a soldier says when asked "What can we do to make things better for you?" is...We need your support and your prayers. Let's get the word out and lead with class and dignity, by example; and wear something red every Friday.

IF YOU AGREE -- THEN SEND THIS ON -- IF YOU COULD CARE LESS -- THEN HIT THE DELETE BUTTON --- IT IS YOUR CHOICE. WE LIVE IN THE LAND OF THE FREE, ONLY BECAUSE OF THE BRAVE!
THEIR BLOOD RUNS RED---- SO WEAR RED! --- MAY GOD HELP AMERICA TO BECOME ONE NATION, UNDER GOD.

Anybody up for more Katie capers?

FEMA, the agency that couldn't move fast enough to undo the damage caused by two high ranking state and local governments- remember them? Their boss who did a good job the year before got fired because of Democrat ineptitude.

See FEMA figured that two months of Gov't paid-for hotel rooms was long enough and was going to stop the goodies on Dec 01. That was too cold and unfeeling for some action groups, who I'm sure have some affiliation to the Leftist movement.

The Government was paying room and board for HOTEL rooms. I'm sure they weren't staying in the local Motel-6 or the local mom and pop dive. So they get these "public spirited" feel-good groups working the angles and FEMA decides 'well it's Christmas X Mas the "winter solsice holidays" and says "OK, we'll pay until Jan 06, then you're out.

Riiight.
Well Jan. is the same month as Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday- we CAN'T do that to them now! Ok, FEBRURARY then!

Ummmm,,,, MR. "Compassionate Conservative" president; you wouldn't want to make them homeless in the same month as VALENTINES DAY? Would you? The month that holds the day that epitomizes "Love".

March?
Good Friday- The one-who-can't-be-named-on-Federal-property died and was raised to save mankind happened in that month.

OK, April.

Passover- Jewish P/C stuff.

MAY, then!
Uh-uh! Cinco De Mayo. MOTHERS DAY you unfeeling CONSERVATIVE!

June? Fathers day, they need to be in a static location in case their daddies feel like finding them.


Do I need to go on? We'll be supporting them in their motels like AlGores family for the rest of their lives. AND upgrading them to meet their growing sophistication.

PETAs new "feel bad" campaign

Your daddy kills animals (PDF)

Which I guess, is this years answer to the huge hit two years ago of:

So does yo' mama!

Picture stolen from Arizona Hunting

I wonder how much this study cost

At least the Germans paid for it.

It still kinda falls into the "F*cking OBVIOUS" catagory, though.

Dr Jurgen Kuschyk, from the University Hospital in Mannheim, which is affiliated to the University of Heidelberg, said: "Individuals who have suffered a heart attack, have heart disease or irregular heart rhythms should not ride a roller-coaster.

"The rising heart rate in riders with pre-existing heart disease could result in heart attack, irregular heart rhythms and possibly sudden cardiac death."

Yeah, if you have a heart condition, stay off the scary rides.
Duh!

They didn't say anything about scary wimmin, though. I guess they'll study them next.

Maybe I need an intercom


A young guy drops off his girlfriend at her home after being out together on a date. When they reach the front door he leans up against the house with one hand and says to her, "How about a b***job?"

"What! Are you crazy!"

"Don't worry, it will be quick, " he ensures his girlfriend.

"No! Someone might see us..."

"It's just a small b***job, " he insists, "and I know you like it."

"No! I said no!"

"Baby... don't be like that."

"Come on baby pleeeeaassseee"

"I'm not going to give you a b*** job"

"Why Not...baby it will be quick I promise?"

Suddenly, the girl's younger sister shows up at the door in her nightgown, with her hair a mess, and rubbing her eyes. She looks at them and smirks, "Dad says either you b*** him, I b*** him, or he'll come downstairs and b*** the guy himself... but for God's sake tell your boyfriend to take his hand off the intercom."

Thanks Rhianna

She nominated me for inclusion at milblogging.

Does that mean I hafta start acting right?
Shave?


Polish my boots?

Git a haircut?

Good job guys- WE support you!
Keep up the good fight.

Great, now Iran has plans for a nuclear snub!

Yep, a nuclear snub- ripped right off the headlines at the BEEB.

I can almost assure you of the (lack of) terrified reaction when they learn that the UN is going to impose , , , ummm, , , well -maybe economic sanctions.

I'm sure France, Germany, Russia and probably Italy and Spain will throw their support behind this loss of easy money. They have a track record on being hard on anti-wesern values ya know.


Stop laughing.

The UN is serious this time.

In case you're interested in the "Bug-out" bill

You can find out how your Rep. voted here.

Mine, Henry Bonilla (R) 23rd District voted to stay.
At least the HOUSE Republicans are showing cajones.

I was looking at my Counter Stats

And went to This blog.
I don't know where the pics were taken, but (s)he is from Lisbon.
They're pretty pictures and load fast.

The first picture kinda looks like the Texas hill country -exept that there are no huge cities like that in the forground.

I'm sure you're just dying to know

India's kicking butt on South africa 169 to 9.

I was going to try making a comparison to other "quagmires" we have still going on

I made a comment over at the Rosemead Times about Bosnia.

I asked how many American casualties have we had in Bosnia or Kosovo? Funny thing is we either don't have any -OR- it's not searched enough to show up in a search for casualties. You notice that the first thing that pops up in both is IRAQ. There are some interesting parallels and differences in what was written then(and there) and what's being written now (about public perceptions in the Balkans).

Let me see if I have this right:
The Balkans

• No near threat to the U.S.
• U.N./NATO approved and planned
• A country split by religious factions- who won't get along.
• A bloodthirsty dictator that needed to be disposed of
• Very little Liberal/Communist outcry
• No "exit strategy" asked for or debated
• 10+ years invested
• NO real democratic advances
• If we left tomorrow, it would be like we'd never been there.
• Bill Clinton
  

Iraq

• Saddam HAD and used chemical weapons on his own people
• Saddam HAD and was trying to acquire more WMDs (they're probably in Syria now)
• 865 UN resolutions slapping his hand
• Proven monetary aid to terrorists
• A bloodthirsty dictator who needed to be disposed of
• Every Liberal, Socialist, Communist and flack are howling about this war
• Two and a half years
  
• The promise to only stay as long as necessary (I don't think we'll have another Korea -or Kosovo anyway)
  
• Iraq approved a Constitution (in less time than it took to ratify ours)
• A functioning Democratic government (ok, they still need some help)
• All factions are trying to make the thing work (to varying dergrees)
• George Bush

Who sees the ONE common thing between the two countries?

One is actually working and being trashed because a REPUBLICAN is in charge.
One was FUBAR'D from the git-go by a Viet Nam war protester telling the military how to fight.

And the Liberals are having a connipshun coniption conniption hissy fit about the one actually accomplishing something lasting in the mid-east.

By the way, I never did find out the American casualty count in the Balkans- got tired of looking.

Isn't the new Harry Potter supposed to be like- "family friendly"?

I don't mean just the content, but the whole Harry Potter experience?
I KNOW it's supposed to be.

If Harry is all FOR the good stuff, can someone tell me WHY they decided to make the hyped opening night at midnight on a THURSDAY?
I don't know about the rest of America, but here we had school today. And all the kids that went to the opening at 12:00AM and got out around -what 3:00AM? went to school today.

How much do you think they learned?
How much do you think got accomplished with their clique at school, with all the plot tellings.
What they remembered, anyway-since they got probably 3 hours of sleep that entire night.

And Parents, why did you let your kids go to the opening night -on a school night? I heard the new morning(radio) guy bragging about what a "good" dad he was for letting his kids go to it.
Didn't it cross your mind that it was a school night? Is going to some pompous, overblown, Madison Ave. (NYC) driven commercial gala more important than your kids doing well in school?

I guess I'm to stuck in the past, and don't understand the "importance" of being seen at a snobby made-up event by other snobby people.
I guess looking good is more important than being good.

I was having HTML issues with the Engineer post

In case you couldn't tell.
That and my f*cking snail-slow SBC connection.

Anyway, I stole that quiz from El Capitain.

Oh, and in a somewhat related note (the speed thing), we're scheduled to meet out installer for Blue Wind on Nov. 30 around 3PM.
Gawd, I hope my modem doesn't wear-out from all this reconnecting it's doing before it gets here.

- On a line that doesn't have any problems that the UNION flack could find.
Because he didn't come when we're having problems.
AND
The monopoly that charged us $30 for our connection WORKING during the day when we DON'T have the problem.

I guess desecrtating a Koran is different if you do it for global terror

Part ummm 8,904,873.

The Iraqi terrorists decided that bombing a Mosque and getting blood on, and probably burning several-didn't quite make the cut as riot fodder. Since ya know, it was moslems doing it instead if the wrong belief system.

You scored as Engineer. Military Engineer. Your job is usually overlooked, but without you nothing gets done. While you sometimes annoyed at this, and you know the only time people come to you is when there's something wrong. You understand that you are the heart and soul of any organization with honesty and nice work ethic to boot. "I need more Duct Tape!!!" Artillery 63% Support Gunner 63% Combat Infantry 63% Special Ops 63% Engineer 63% Medic 44% Officer 38% Civilian 13% Which soldier type are you? created with QuizFarm.com

Kinda like a bad penny

Donnie decided he couldn't stand not having his adoring fans.

I guess this does go to prove that all politics are local

Right here in the Newspaper of Record for South Texas is a bunch of obstructionist eco-Nazis.

We have a quarry starting up a little to the west of us and two eco-Nazis sprung a resolution on the Medina County commissioners Court in part to:

The resolution proposed that, as a condition of any license the STB might issue, Vulcan should be required to use appropriate bridges at all major creek crossings and perform appropriate upgrading as deemed necessary by commissioners to bear both local and quarry traffic on the truck route determined and accepted by the county. The resolution requests the STB to ensure compatibility of the quarry with future growth in population and transportation needs in Medina County. It also asks for adoption of a
mitigation plan which fully analyzes safety and flood plain impacts in its evaluation of truck routes.
-snip-
The MCEAA (Medina County Environmental Action ASSotiaion-->me) President requested commissioners to ask the STB to compel Vulcan to construct overpasses across CR 4516 and CR 353 and to utilize span
type bridges over the Quihi Creek flood plain where their proposed railroad crosses over CR 365. "Commissioners Court will have done what their
constituents have asked and made this project as safe as possible," he said.

Yep, they want the EVIL big , , , ummm rock (shrug) to pay for PUBLIC road improvements.
AND to be sure that their trucks obey traffic laws.

You know it's for the CHILDREN!

They didn't even get a second on the motion.
After discussion on the issue, Commissioner Mitchell offered the motion to adopt the resolution. Her colleagues were silent, however, and the item died for lack of another voice to support it.
After the meeting, Fitzgerald was curious to know why none of the commissioners would second the resolution so it could be voted up or down. Instead, the resolution died for lack of a second. Only Mitchell and Pct. 4 Commissioner Kelly Carroll were available for comment by press time. Judge Jim Barden was out of town and the other commissioners failed to return
calls.

Well at least we have some with common sense.

But we all know, whenever a Liberal is stopped- it's a PLOT:
Fitzgerald argued the resolution was not anti-Vulcan, only pro-safety. He suggested commissioners were influenced by the money Vulcan is paying a few landowners and selling out the majority.
"There is nothing objectionable in (the resolution) to anyone, even the quarry owners," said Fitzgerald, by phone on Wednesday. "I guess they are afraid if they do anything Vulcan will get mad and go away. It was a sad ending. I'm very, very disappointed. It shows to me the county is under the control of a few families whose only tie to the quarry is financial, and they really don¹t care about the rest of the people in Medina County at

You are Rerun!


Which Peanuts Character are You?
brought to you by Quizilla


H/T Mostly Cajun

I wonder when this guy will get fillibustered

You know for his conservative views

AND because Bu$h picked him -without begging the Dems ok.

Since he will be in charge of the Federal MONEY management.

The Libs want to throw rocks into the gears of ANYTHING that could be good for America, so naturally they'll oppose Bernanke for Greenspans replacement.

Oh, and speaking of Democratic obstructionalism- have you heard that Alito is now classified as an "EXTREMIST"?

Now, here's something about global warming that not BS

Yep, this time it really IS humans responsible for global warming!

Ok, it's not really global warming, but humans "playing God with the environment" and it's not really our environment. They're looking at greening Mars for future settlements.

I bet that sends the greenies into orbit right there.

BWAHAAHAAhaa

How appropriate

Can someone tell me just what the f*ck lawyers know about running a war?

I've been hearing about that BS vote up in DC whenever I got near a radio today.
They want President Bush to come to them hat-in-hand explaining what and why he's letting the military do what it's doing.

-And how the war is going. Let ME tell you, you hypocritical asshats- we're WINNING! We have been winning- no matter what the 5th column say.

They don't have a d@mn thing to do with running the war, just give the military the money and believe me- they'll spend it better than ANY Congress-critter could even THINK of doing. And probably get more for it than any of those overpaid Ambulance Chasers imagined possible. I'm not talking about NASA's $100,000 toilet seats, or specialized aircraft body hammers-I'm talking about weapons, logistics, transportation-and all it takes to win a war- not sending boatloads of PORK to their home state.

Gawd- I'm getting tired of the DEMOCRATS running things, either by nagging and caterwalling- or by fiat with their willing accomplices the BIG MEDIA.

When are the Republicans going to stand up and tell them all to STFU!
When are the Republicans going to ACT like they won the elections? Can they anymore?

Well, it looks like we're actually on the way to communism

When an election doesn't mean anything in who calls the shots in government, it sure starts looking like a totalitarian state.

The Dems have stolen the initiative (aided by the 5th column MSM) and are now officially and brazenly rewriting history. The put their judges up to circumvent the laws of the land- to force law abiding citizens to bow to their unelected power.

I'd like to remind you that the Soviet Union had a Constitution, too with all the protections of ours. They also had judges that used it as toilet paper and changed the meaning to fit their agenda.

Does that sound familiar?

(UPDATE 7:03PM) I cleaned it up because I wrote it early this morning when I heard what the Dems were attempting to do.

Oh, HI!


Sorry, kinda forgot about you. See we're getting satellite broadband and a cell connection that works here. That would be fine- we could drop SBC like a hot rock if we didn't need cheap international calling.

Yep, if we try to have a nice long conversation on a mobile call to Chelthenham, England it would cost about 30 cents per minute. That would eat up anything we saved from dropping SBC's over charging usurious monopolistic rates.
I think I have it down to either Vonage@ $14.99/mo or Packet8@ $19.95/mo.

Ok, back to surfing poking around the internet VoIPs.

Having fun with homonyms

Why not go over to Boyds blog to give him some of your favorite homonymes in his comments.
I'm sure he'll welome you with open arms.

I forgot to mention just how costly staying home sick was

I stayed home sick last Thurs. I'm not getting sick time yet, so I lost a good side of $100+.
I got tired of having enough time to load the laundry while waiting for websites I was surfing to load.

So, knowing the trailer was going to be sold soon- I went ahead and ordered $512 worth of Wild Blue satellite internet. I got the Value pack. After 26K a 512KPS connection is lightning fast. The only problem is that the rep told me that it's problematic to get reliable VoIP (broadband telephone) over satellite, so it looks like we'll be stuck with SBC for a while, yet.

Bummer.

On the other hand, our old cellphones from Verizon Wireless(with extending antennas)can recieve both Verizon signals and cingular.

Now we need to decide the best way to network our computers.

This could really be something good

But then again I am a gas guy.

Still 100MPS broadband at a non-premium price sounds REAL good.
It just doesn't sound quite right mixing natural gas with advanced technology.
I mean some of those lines have been buried for over 100 years, and the old meters hanging on your house don't look cutting edge.

The ony concerns I'd have is if the plastic gasline could contain the high energy radio waves, and what would happen in a line break? Poly line already has a static electricity problem, would radio waves increase the problem? We use sound to trace Poly line that doesn't have tracer wire buried with it- if the plastic doesn't contain the radio waves, would the ground swallow it?

As y'all may know, I'm looking at a third vehicle

I stayed away from the "Jeep*" name because I had some VERY bad experiences with their pickups while sentenced assigned to the Newport,R.I. Naval base right before I got out. We had three of them, one was always in for charging system problems, one for the transmission, and I can't remember what the other repair queen was in for.

As I was looking at vehicles, I found a site that has some reliability ratings and the problems associated with a general class of vehicles.
I was suprised at how much green was showing on the Jeeps*.
I took a look at the Govt' fuel ratings and saw that they didn't get all that bad of milage.
Especially when you hear the vast leftwing magpies calling them gas guzzlers. I bet alot of those anti-SUV greenies drive luxury cars that get worse milage than a light Jeep*. My Dodge Ram 1500 gets worse milage than a Grand Cherokee. It's also wider as my wife found out when coming through the gate (not as bad as Rhianna's boo boo).

I now have another choice in vehicles, although not one the Left would approve of (the ability to choose what I drive), and they seem to be a bit less expensive that the Chevies, Fords and Dodges I've been looking at. I guess the fact that alot were made by slave labor in "Re-education camps" has something to do about that.

And yes, we need another vehicle. I work 50 miles away, wife works about 30(and different hours) and we need a way to get there if one of the vehicles is down. We also have two teens making noise about drivers licenses.

* This is a registered name for the Crysler Corp. who have tried to take over bars, resuraunts, and anything else that mentioned the Jeep* name without mentioning them- the CHRYSLER CORP. prominently in their verbage. Even if the said bar or resturaunt had been in business before the CHRYSLER CORP. had bought out the Jeep* brand. and before it sold itself to it's new German masters.

Multi-tasking

sort of



You can't really tell, but one sparkplug has twice the gap as the other one.
Does anyone want to hazard a guess about which is which?

I'm also just figguring out how to change scanner files to be accepted by blogger.
Ya know going from Word10 to jpeg.

Anybody up for some cheap Texas land?

This 11 acre ranch in west Texas has alot going for it.
Privacy Solitude A sense of security Ok, it'll have plenty of moving targets.

Not that it's bad to invade a sovergn country your not wanted in, or anything like that. . .

This is why we remember


PRESIDENTIAL UNIT CITATION

USN Presidential Citation Ribbon

Awarded to Task Unit 77.4.3 (Taffy III)

THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY

WASHINGTON
The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the PRESIDENTIAL UNIT CITATION to TASK UNIT SEVENTY-SEVEN POINT FOUR POINT THREE, consisting of the U.S.S. FANSHAW BAY and VC-88; U.S.S. GAMBIER BAY and VC-10; U.S.S. KALININ BAY and VC-3; U.S.S. KITKUN BAY and VC-5; U.S.S. SAINT LO and VC-65; U.S.S. WHITE PLAINS and VC-4; U.S.S. HOEL, U.S.S. JOHNSTON, U.S.S. HEERMANN, U.S.S. SAMUEL B. ROBERTS, U.S.S. RAYMOND, U.S.S. DENNIS and U.S.S. JOHN C. BUTLER

for service as set forth in the following CITATION

"For extraordinary heroism in action against powerful units of the Japanese Fleet during the Battle off Samar, Philippines, October 25, 1944. Silhouetted against the dawn as the Central Japanese Force steamed through San Bernardino Strait towards Leyte Gulf, Task Unit 77.4.3 was suddenly taken under attack by hostile cruisers on its port hand, destroyers on the starboard and battleships from the rear. Quickly laying down a heavy smoke screen, the gallant ships of the Task Unit waged battle fiercely against the superior speed and fire power of the advancing enemy, swiftly launching and rearming aircraft and violently zigzagging in protection of vessels stricken by hostile armor-piercing shells, anti-personnel projectiles and suicide bombers. With one carrier of the group sunk, others badly damaged and squadron aircraft courageously coordinating in the attacks by making dry runs over the enemy Fleet as the Japanese relentlessly closed in for the kill, two of the Unit's valiant destroyers and one destroyer escort charged the battleships point-blank and, expending their last torpedoes in desperate defense of the entire group, went down under the enemy's heavy shells as a climax to two and one half hours of sustained and furious combat. The courageous determination and the superb teamwork of the officers and men who fought the embarked planes and who manned the ships of Task Unit 77.4.3 were instrumental in effecting the retirement of a hostile force threatening our Leyte invasion operations and were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service."

For the President,
/signed/ JAMES FORRESTAL Secretary of the Navy


Some gave their all.
This is one story.


On 25 October 1944, TASK UNIT 77.4.3, nicknamed "TAFFY III" was cruising some forty or fifty miles east of the Island of Samar, Philippine Islands;

TAFFY III consisted of six baby flattops, USS FANSHAW BAY CVE 70 (Flagship) , USS GAMBIER BAY, CVE 73, USS KALININ BAY CVE 68, USS KITKUN BAY CVE 71, USS SAINT LO CVE 63 and USS WHITE PLAINS CVE 66.

These small carriers were being screened by 3 destroyers and 4 destroyer escorts. The three destroyers were; USS HEERMANN DD 532, USS HOEL DD 533 and USS JOHNSTON DD 557. The four destroyer escorts were; USS JOHN C. BUTLER DE 339, USS DENNIS DE 405, USS RAYMOND DE 341 and USS SAMUEL B. ROBERTS DE 413.

TAFFY THREE'S aircraft were supporting the landings of General Douglas MacArthur as he was attempting to keep his word of " I SHALL RETURN" when he was forced to retreat from the Philippine Islands in the early part of WW II.

It was believed by most Task Unit Commanders in the area that Admiral William F. (Bull) Halsey was guarding the exit of San Bernardino Strait with his mighty Task Force 38 however, Admiral Halsey had been lured north by a Japanese Carrier Task Force set up as a decoy for the purpose of pulling Admiral Halsey's Giant Task Force away from the Leyte Operation. The Japanese had intention of destroying General MacArthur's landing operations on LEYTE.

At about 0645 on the morning of 25 OCTOBER 1944, a pilot on patrol sighted and reported an extremely large Japanese Task Force consisting of 4 battleships, 8 cruisers and 11 destroyers heading straight for TAFFY III. This report was challanged by TU commander, Adm. Sprague thinking the pilot had spotted parts of Admiral Halsey's large task force and asked that the pilot recheck his sighting for better identification. The pilot re-checked and reported that the large surface ships were supporting giant Pagoda masts. This pretty well confirmed that the sightings were not American ships.

At about the same time that positive identification was made of the enemy task force, the Japanese Task Force commenced firing on TAFFY III, concentrating their fire on the carriers.

The carriers were not only small but were slow, each one could only make 17 or 18 knots. The Japanese Task Force was closing at about 25 knots.

JAPANESE FORCE

Japanese Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita's fleet consisted of four battleships, the world's largest, YAMATO which contained 9, 18.1" guns in three turrets, plus NAGATO which contained 9, 16" guns in three turrets and KONGO and HARUNA which contained 14" guns.

In addition to the four battleships, there were eight cruisers and 11 destroyers. All of the ships in Adm. Kurita's force were equipped with torpedo tubes except the super heavy YAMATO.

One of YAMATO'S turrets containing 3, 18.1-inch guns weighed more than a Fletcher class destroyer.

USS JOHNSTON

Destroyer Johnston. Commanded by Commander Ernest E. Evans, which was nearest the Japanese Task Force at the time turned and began making smoke from her stacks and also her smoke screen generators. JOHNSTON was zig-zaging as she began to close her range with the enemy task force. As the range began to close rapidly, Commander Evans picked out a heavy cruiser in the lead and advised the gunnery officer to begin firing on that ship as soon as our range closed enough/ Johnston began firing on heavy cruiser KUMANO and picked that ship as a target for a torpedo attack. Later, johnston was followed by USS HOEL, USS HEERMAN and USS SAMUEL B. ROBERTS. .

JOHNSTON was zigzagging as she laid smoke in an attempt to hide the carriers from view of the Japanese. As JOHNSTON closed within range of the enemy ships, she opened fire with her five, 5-inch guns and selected a target for a torpedo attack. Johnston picked out one of the heavy cruisers that was in the lead and began a torpedo run When JOHNSTON got within approximately 9000 yards of Japanese Heavy Cruiser KUMANO, the target cruiser, began firing her torpedoes to starboard. By the time JOHNSTON completed the firing of her ten torpedoes, she was within approximately 6000 yards of KUMANO Torpedo hits were made on cruiser Kumano severely cripling her and taking her out of the action.

Johnston turned and was attempting to retire into her own smoke screen when she was hit for the first time with a three gun salvo of 14: inch projectiles from a battleship. These hits were followed in 30 seconds by a 3-gun salvo of 6" projectiles from a light cruiser. These six hits caused considerable damage to JOHNSTON knocking out one fire room and one engine room, slowing JOHNSTON from about 34 knots to about 16 knots. Hits were received on the bridge that caused a large amount of damage and either killed or seriously wounded many of the men assigned to the bridge which included the Captain. The Captain received wounds to his hand, back and it is believed to his ear drums from concussion.

JOHNSTON then took refuge inside a rain squall in an attempt to make emergency repairs. This lasted for about ten minutes. The enemy ships were either not equipped with fire control radar or it was not very effective because they didn't seem to fire unless they had a good visual contact with our ships.

After orders were given for "small boys" to make a torpedo attack, JOHNSTON fell in behind HOEL HEERMANN and DE, SAMUEL B. ROBERTS in an attempt to provide fire support as these ships made a torpedo attack. At about 17 knots, JOHNSTON'S full speed at the time, could not keep up with the other ships making a torpedo attack but was able to provide some fire support for them.

JOHNSTON continued to engage the enemy in an attempt to draw the enemy fire toward the JOHNSTON and away from the carriers. JOHNSTON continued to receive extremely damaging fire until approximately 0940 when JOHNSTON was knocked "dead in the water" by crippling gun fire from the enemy. At approximately 0950, Commander Ernest E. Evans gave that dreadful order., "Abandon Ship" at that time, men began to go over the side of JOHNSTON and attempt to swim away from the sinking ship.

At approximately 1010, JOHNSTON sank as an enemy destroyer continued to pump projectiles into her critically damaged hull. Her survivors were in the water nearby as the enemy destroyer slowly steamed through the survivors who were scattered about in the water. We all believed that we would be straffed by the guns aboard the enemy destroyer and also believed that the destroyer might drop depth charges set at a very shallow depth which would probably have killed all or most of the survivors in the water that were near by. However the enemy sailors were off thier guns and lining the port side of the destroyer and were yelling at us but did not offer to fire or to drop depth charges. This was graciously accepted by the survivors.

After JOHNSTON rolled over and sank, the Japanese destroyer that was very close at hand, steaming very slowly through the survivors, once it cleared the survivors, increased it's speed and departed the area of JOHNSTON's survivors.

Once it was clear or believed to be clear that the enemy was not going to direct any further attention to the survivors of JOHNSTON, we survivors began to organize and collect into groups around life rafts that had been dropped over the side of JOHNSTON.

There were many severely burned and wounded men in the water. Many needed medical attention, far more than could be given in the water. Immediate rescue was desperately needed to save many men's lives.............but it didn't come. At this time, there were more than 1100 hundred survivors in the water from GAMBIER BAY, HOEL, JOHNSTON aand SAMUEL B. ROBERTS.

Rescue didn't come. Many times, our planes would dive down and take a look at us and when we would wave to them they would dip their wings to let us know that they recognized us as American. Still, no rescue came. The enemy turned and with their ships that could still make way, exited the area. Our remaining ships of TAFFY III. Those that we sacraficed ourselves for also left the area and didn't send rescue vessels for us nor would they permit any of our destroyers to come back for us when they requested permission to do so. Commanding officers of other destroyers in TAFFY II were denied permission to come to us and help us out of the ocean.

All of us in the water expected to be rescued in a very short time but still.........rescue didn't come.

As the day wore on, we began to wonder why we received no help. The commander of our Task Unit knew exactly where we were and knew the enemy had left the area but still did nothing to help us.

In the group the writer was in, we placed two of the most severely injured inside a life raft with one other badly injured man to help take care of them. The two men were burned extremely bad and couldn't see.

About 1500 (3:pm) , we saw our first shark. He was a pretty big shark and was approximately 100 yards from our group but was coming closer as he swam back and forth. Finally it was obvious that he was going to make an attempt to hit someone and he swam along the side that I was on and rolled as if he was going to hit someone. About six of us pushed down on him in an attempt to keep from being bitten. It seemed to work because the shark didn't hit anyone at that time and we apparently scared him away. We had no further shark attacks until after dark and then we had several. Several men were hit, one was hit in both thighs, one in the back, one on his left arm and shoulder and one in the left kidney area, Two of the men later died.

Shortly after dark, both of the two men that were burned and that were in the raft died. They died about 10 minutes apart. Someone said a prayer and a few words about each shipmate and then their life jacket was removed and then they were allowed to slip below the surface. Although all of us had seen many of our shipmates die during the battle, it was still rough on us at our early ages to burry our shipmates in this fashion. We had to go on and those of us who were still alive had to try to survive.

There were other groups of survivors from JOHNSTON but we had drifted apart and could no longer see the other groups. A long night was ahead of us. From time to time, someone would scream out and someone would yell, "SHARK!!" and the rest of us would start kicking and splashing frantically in an attempt to scare the shark away. As far as I know, it worked. I don't remember a shark hanging on with all of us kicking and splashing. It was very tiring, kicking and splashing all night but we did it, at least in the group that I was in.

Morning came and no rescue was in sight so at about 0600 (6:00 am) two men from my group started swimming for the Island of Samar. We were closer to Samar now due to the current. It was agreed that at around noon six more of us would begin swimming for Samar in hopes of some of us making it to get help for the other survivors. None of this should have been necessary........if only our TASK UNIT Commander had only initiated a rescue attempt of his own.

At about noon, as agreed, six of us began our swim toward Samar.

The two men who left earlier, John Schindele and Jim Correll had long been out of our sight. The six of us; Charles (Chuck) Campbell, Jim Herring, Frank Nelson, Juliam Owen, J.B. Strickland and myself *Bill Mercer) took a 4 X 4 timber with us in order for us to all stay together and headed toward Samar. We could easily see the island but it was several miles away. As we swam, the current was also helpful in taking us closer and closer to the island. Late in the after noon, we sighted what we thought was a small boat with one or more people in it but we couldn't tell if they were friendly or enemy. As we drew closer, one of the men in the boat yelled, "we have some water".

We were encouraged that the person spoke English and felt that it must be Filipinos in the boat and were coming out to help us. We drew closer and closer and then realized that it was not Filipinos nor was it a boat. It was Jim Correll and John Schindele who had left earlier. They had come across a life raft from the JOHNSTON that had apparently been blown off during the battle because it still contained a 40 mm ammunition cannister that contained rations, cigarettes and other survival items, It did contain a breaker with some water but it was very "stringy" but it wasn't salty so it did quench ones thirst but we didn't have much of it. We had cigarettes and matches but shortly after opening the cannister, Chuck campbell dropped the lid and no one wanted to dive for it........the water was a few miles deep at that point. Not long after dropping the lid, a wave splashed into the cannister and got all of the matches wet. That took care of the cigarette smoking. We did still have what rations it contained and a very pistol. A very pistol is a pistol that shoots flares which were later fired in an attempt to attract sttention to our position in case there were rescue vessels in the area, Later we learned that it was a flare that had been fired into the air that the actual rescue group saw that later lead them to the survivors. We weren't the only ones who were firing flares so I don't know if it was ours the men on the rescue ship saw or some other groups flares.

The rescue Task Unit that was organized was not organized by our own Task Unit Commander but by a group in Leyte Harbor who had heard of survivors having been seen in an area east of Samar. Our Task Unit Commander had nothing to do with the organization or the rescue of the more than 1100 survivors. The rescue vessels consisted of two PC Craft, PC-623 , PC 1119 and LCI's 34, 71, 337, 340 and 341. PC 623 was flagship of Task Unit 78.12. The rescue Task Group was recommended by Captain Charles Adair and was approved by Admiral Kincaid.

Not long after the rescue Task Group 78.12 was organized, It stood out of Leyte Harbor to an area some 125 miles east of Leyte to search for and rescue survivors.

In the meantime, those of us still out in the ocean were struggling to hang on, still hoping to be rescued.

In my small group, we continued to drift closer to the Island and it appeared that we would surely make landfall some time during the night which was the second night for us in the ocean. We were getting so close to land, that we made plans as to what we we would do once we made it to the shore. We decided that we would divide into two groups of four to the group. We split up what money we had so that each group had about the same amount. We decided that when we got on the beach, one group would go to the right and one to the left and then try to go into the hills in search of a village that we believed to be near the center of the Island. We had our plans in place but the current didn't cooperate, The currents changed and began to pull us back out to sea. The night seemed twice as long as the first night. We were tired, depressed and very weary. After dark, I learned that my life jacket would no longer float so I let it go and it sank. Later into the night we began to hallucinate, not all at the same time but at some time during the night all of us did. It is very difficult to separate fact from fiction when one hallucinates. Fortunately for us some one was rational at all times during the night and that helped to keep the group from doing something that we should not.

In the group the writer was in, there were eight men and I don't recall anyone having a watch that worked but as it began to get light enough to see, it was clear that we had drifted closer to the island of Samar and it seemed to the writer that we were near the south end of the island and much closer than the evening before. All of the men in our little group were very tired and half dozing, one with his head dangling in the water as he lay across the edge of the life raft. As I recall, the writer was the first one to notice that we were close to the island and began trying to get everyone alert. I began by getting Owens to get his head out of the water which wasn't an easy task but finally by "poping" him pretty good, he did raise his head. As everyone seemed to be awake, we discussed making it to shore again and the current seemed to change again and began pulling us out to sea again. We all seriously discussed leaving the raft and swiming for it and most of us agreed that we would do that but one man, Strickland, said that he knew he couldn't make it but urged the others of us to go for it. We discussed it further and decided that if we couldn't all go then none of us would go. This was probnably a life saving decision. Since our life jackets were gone, we probably wouldn't have made it. We were close but probably not as close as it looked.


Since none of us had watches that worked, I don't know what time it was but I always thought it was about noon when we spotted ships in the distance. There seemed to be a small group of small ships. The eight of us then began to discuss whether the ships were enemy or friendly. As I recall, all of us but Strickland thought they were enemy but Strickland insisted from the beginning that they were American. We then discussed whether we should try to get the attention of someone on the ships and agreed that we needed to get out of the water, be it by friendly help or by the enemy. So one of the men, Herring began waving a white scivie shirt in an attempt to get their attention. Still we didn't know if they were enemy or American. As the ships drew closer, one of the Patrol Craft drifted almost broadside to our group and we could easily see the American flag waving ..........what a beautiful site. A man on LCI 71 yelled through a megaphone that they saw us and for us to take it easy they were going to get us. A line was thrown to us and we tied it to the raft and was pulled along side and helped aboard. This was a very pleasant feeling........finally.......we were out of the water, something we had just about given up on ever happening. It should have happened many hours before but didn't.

Soon we would be in Leyte Harbor and there we would be transferred to either a hospital ship or to an LST and would head for New Guinea, Australia and then home to San Francisco,

Thanks to the rescue group, more than 1100 men were eventually rescued. There would have been many more survivors had rescue come quickly as it should have.

Stolen from The Johnston-Hoel memorial page.

Well, maybe one of my more finiky eaters might change her mind

When we try this spread out.
Those English folk aren't really known as adventurous eaters.

I was going to wait untill my next Blogalanche

But Donnie decided to take a break, and make room for Boyd.

Donnie, I enjoyed reading you and even tossing in my two cents once in a while.
I'll be glad to have you back whenever you decide to grace our electrons again.

Take care bro.

Happy Birthday Jarheads!

Not bad for a bunch of guys who got their start in a bar.

There's one good thing you could say about Fascists

At least they can make the trains run on time.
I wonder what kind of NGO is in charge of S. Africa?

It looks like the RINOS in the House are living down to their name

They decided to kill the ANWAR drilling in the budget bill being sent to a vote. I guess our $3.00+/gal was some once-in-a-lifetime anomality, so we don't need divergant oil supplies here at home.

WASHINGTON - A solid phalanx of Republican moderates drove House GOP leaders to drop a hotly contested plan to open an Alaskan wilderness area to oil drilling as a sweeping budget bill headed toward a vote Thursday.

A plan to allow states to lift a moratorium on oil drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts was also axed.

. . . snip. . .

... Florida Republicans were especially active, helping kill the offshore drilling plan and loosening proposed restrictions on food stamp benefits for legal immigrants.

The decision on the Arctic refuge was a big setback for those who have tried for years to open a coastal strip of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR, to oil development. It was a victory for environmentalists, who have lobbied hard against drilling.

And lets not forget the fiscal side of being in bed with the Libs:

"I have to represent my district," said Rep. Tim Johnson, R-Ill., who represents farmers opposed to cuts in commodity payments as well as the University of Illinois campus, which is upset about cuts to student loans. "At this point, I am very, very skeptical."

The overall bill is a top Republican priority. The Senate last week passed a milder version of the bill to curb the automatic growth of federal spending by $35 billion through the end of the decade.

The House plan cuts more deeply across a broader range of social services, though Republican leaders say the effects will be modest to programs like the Medicaid health system for the poor and disabled. It will still grow much faster than inflation even after beneficiaries face increased copayments and the likely loss of some benefits.

"We are not cutting Medicaid for those truly in need," said Rep. David Dreier (news, bio, voting record), R-Calif.


Someone want to tell me just WHY I should bother to vote for anyone with a big old (R) behind their name?



Daym, those crickets sure are loud.

I note a whiff of hypocrisy from the RINOs in D.C.

You have heard about the OUTING of the secret prisons holding terrorist enemies in foreign lands. Trent Lott (R-ex Speaker Senate Majority Leader*) guessed that it was probably someone in the employ of a Republican Congress-critter.

Ok, if it was- or it wasn't. Why are you shutting down the investigation? If you thought it might be Dems, you'd, , , ummmm, , , well , , , probably do nothing, like you didn't go after Kerry during the Bolton hearings, and you roll over to the Libs anytime they start whining about not being in charge.

If you're shutting down the investigation because you think it was one of you, you are as bad as the Dems and their obstructionalism. If you're scuttling the investigation because you might rock the boat by p*ssing off the Dems- WHY should I bother to vote for a Republican?

All this cr@p you're playing along with in the Wilson/Plame B.S. and not looking at a REAL blown security problem tells me that YOU are not serious about the G.W.T. you are nothing but talk.

I know how well talk accomplishes anything- I was awake during the Clinton reign.


*As I was corrected by Aelfheld. Since I'm not a graduate from a Jounalism school, or a producer of a network news show- I'll change my error AND acknowledge it.

I forsee even more of a lack of posting ahead

Now I know why I haven't been feeling like doing anything lately. Seems I've caught the latest version of the crud. It came on strong at work, about 2 hours before quitting time.

I'll see if there's anything I feel strongly enought to write about.

There's alot of good reading in my blogroll, if your looking. . .

I just got good news, now I can retire



From: "southaustralialottery" Save Address
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South Australia Lotteries,

23 Rundle Mall, Adelaide, South Australia.
(South Australia Lottories is an affiliate of Overseas Subscriber Agents).
Arena Complex 14 Donegall Square West, United Kingdom.

From: Ariel Bertis
(Lottery Coordinator)

Sir/adam,
CONGRATULATIONS

We are pleased to inform you of the result of the South Australia
Lotteries Winners International programs held on the 8th,November, 2005.
Your e-mail address attached to ticket #: 00903228100 with prize #
778009/2 drew €1,000,000.00 which was first in the 2nd class of the
draws.
you are to receive €1,000,000.00 (One Million Euros). Because of mix up
in cash pay-outs, we ask that you keep your winning information
confidential until your money (€1,000,000.00) has been fully remitted
to you by our accredited pay-point bank. This measure must be adhere
to avoid loss of your cash prize - winners of our cash prizes are
advised to adhere to these instructions to forestall the abuse of this
program by other participants.
It's important to note that this draws were conducted formally, and
winners are selected through an internet ballot system from 60,000
individual and companies e-mail addresses - the draws are conducted
around the world through our internet based ballot system. The
promotion is sponsored and promoted by South Australia lotteries.

We congratulate you once again. We hope you will use part of it in our
next draws; the jackpot winning is €85million.

Remember, all winning must be claimed not later than 20 days.
After this date all unclaimed cash prize will be forfeited and included
in the next sweepstake.
Please, in order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications remember
to quote personal and winning numbers in all correspondence with us.

Congratulations once again from all members of South Australia
Lotteries. Thank you for being part of our promotional program.
For immediate release of your cash prize to you, please kindly contact
our Paying Bank ( Deutsche Bank, Amsterdam.)

Send them the following:
(i). Your names, (ii) Contact telephone and fax numbers (iii) Contact
Address (iv) your winning numbers (v) Quote amount won.

Contact the paying bank with the following:
Contact person: Mr. Water Williams,
Deutsche Bank, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
E-mail:custservices22@netscape.net
Tel: 31 647-210-426
Fax:31-847-235-420

Congratulations once again.
Yours in service,
Ariel Bertis
(Lottery director)

This is what I wrote back:

I won (almost) the Austrailian lottery!!!!!!!!

WOOHOO, and to think- I din't do a damn thing to get into it.

Just how can I win something I didn't enter?
You Aussies and Europeans sure do things different, see over here in America- we're not so trusting. We make people PAY for their tickets upfront.

Hey, to help you to avoid the trouble, and transfer fees; just write me a check I'll take care of the rest. You know enough about me that I don't even have to add my name.

Cheers!!

If you hadn't heard, the governor of Alabama wants a nationwide Aruba boycott

Since Aruba hasn't found Natalee yet, or her killers; Alabama Gov. Bob Riley called for a travel boycott of Aruba today. Natalees mother saw some cameras and hopped up on stage, too.

Now, I wonder if they will understand when nobody comes to Alabama since I'm sure there are several unaccounted for missing girls there, too. We just don't know who they are because they obviously weren't photogenic enough to garner widespread media attention. And they didn't have a media savvy blond babe for a mom, either.

Ok Gov. I won't go to Aruba, as long as you prove you don't have any outstanding missing people in your state -Deal?

Here's an animal question for y'all

I don't feel like writing about what's going wrong on in the rest of the world today.

I'm watching the dogs play.
As you may know, we have the white Hefalump and the black wiggler.
I'm sure they know which paw is theirs, so they don't bite it.

They may be aware that the other isn't the same as themselves.

The question is: Do they KNOW that they are black and white?
Would they notice if they changed colors?

Now, Here's a study I'd like to get my hands around

Exept that I'm like- married.

To give you a bit of scientific enticement, I give you the title of the article:

The Physics of Bras
Force = Mass x Acceleration
Overcoming Newton's second law with better bra technology

. . .

To best support breasts, a designer has to understand how they move. To that end, McGhee's team in Australia, headed by biomechanist Julie Steele, tags women with light-emitting diodes and asks them to run on treadmills. (The women run with and without bras, so the laboratory doors are bolted to prevent uninvited people from bursting in.) Darnit
Computer systems then track the breasts' motions in three dimensions by following the moving lights. "We can actually work out exactly where they're going, how they're moving, and how this movement is affected by bras," Steele says. Breasts move in a sinusoidal pattern, Steele has found, and they move a lot. Small breasts can move more than three inches vertically during a jog, and large breasts sometimes leave their bras entirely. "We have videos of women who, particularly if the cup is too low, spill all over the top," Steele says.


I wonder how long THAT particular study will stay off the internet.

BUT they do make the effort to remind you that this IS a scientific study

"Force equals mass times acceleration," Steele says. "That's Newton's second law. You have a large mass, and it's going quickly, and the force is going to be large. If you have breasts that are slapping down and hitting the chest and having to come back up, they accelerate very quickly." No one really knows the long-term medical consequences of "excessive breast bounce," as Steele calls it. But it can cause pain and is the most likely reason for sagging breasts.