Watching the Clint Eastwood marathon

And 'Heartbreak ridge' -the Hollywood version of the Granada invasion.

A couple things I noticed in this scripted version of events from my (jeez, that long?) 20 years of post Sea Bee civilian life.

I always admired how the Marines could fold their sleeves up on their old cammi BDUs so it looked like they were factory made. Today's Marines don't look any different than Air Force slobs.

I also didn't hear all this modern B.S. OORAH crap every time someone moves. Americas First Sgt. has more to say on the subject.

Something familiar to the early 80's battalion life was the lax way military readiness was shown in that movie- from my Sea Bee point of view, where our construction jobs held first priority over our military readiness jobs.

Sorry Gunny Mulligan.

Today, my Sea Bees are just as involved in combat as my foreBEErs were in WWII, Korea and 'Nam.

I see that Darwin is visiting Seattle

So tell me something,

How does a handgun just 'go off'?

And speaking of fail: NIKE, if your ad is covering the page I want to read and I can't get rid of it, you just lost a customer or two.

In the words of Markos Moulitsas Zuniga

Otherwise known by his anti-American blog- the Daily Koz---"f*ck them!"

Except he wasn't talking about some pro-palistinian terror enablers that Israel's commandos had to kill when they were attacked. There are conflicting stories, but I'm sure that when it clears out the two things wlii happen:

1- It'll show the anti-Semites instigated the attack....
Turkey's NTV showed activists beating one Israeli soldier with sticks as he rappelled from a helicopter onto one of the boats.

2- It won't matter who started it- Israel will take the hit just like always and the moslem terrorists will get a pass.

The only good thing to come out of this is that Netanyahu canceled his meeting with President Urkle. That way he won't have to sit through another arrogant lecture and a "time out" until he sees things the Won's way.

That wasn't so hard

Except for those @ssholes at Brake Check rounding the head of one bolt holding the caliper assy. to the axle hub- which I broke my only 15mm hex socket on.
Thanks to the original multi-tool, I was able to work it out.

On a happy note, I found that the inner and outer bearings are the same- or close enough that I used the good inner bearing to replace the bad outer bearing and the inner with a new one.
It should last until the truck's paid off and I can afford to replace everything.

Steam punk and you

After clicking a link over at Robertas place, I got a little sucked into some side links.

Which got me thinking... our boy leader is trying to make fuel cost $8/gal by the time he's done in 2012, how can I get around that?

STEAM!


Steam would work, because once I get to speed, it's 95% highway driving at 65-80 MPH- If I could get a quick, efficient plant it could work when the engine goes in one of the trucks. BUT- I don't want to wait while the steam builds, how can I do it fast and with enough go to make it work?
Guess I need to start googling...........Daym, that's alot of information overload at one time.

What else?
Deisel-electric hybreds! Subs use them, trains use them- ships use them!
I wonder how efficient they are?
A 3-5 fold increase in mileage over my V-6 as a start.
I just wonder how small of an A/C motor I could get away with if I used a CVT drive
connected to the input drive of my original auto tranny?


Well, that's something to think about while I do a brake and bearing job on the truck-that-cost-$2500-for-a-tuneup-and-timing-belt because it's a Mitzu.

I'm going to make an assumtion here- that it was a "gun free zone"

Because the off duty cop that played the terrorist in a Nevada hospital wasn't shot.

...An off-duty cop pretending to be a terrorist stormed into a hospital intensive care unit brandishing a handgun, which he pointed at nurses while herding them down a corridor and into a room.

There, after harrowing moments, he explained that the whole caper was a training exercise.

AND -I think this would take it for the best understatement of the day:

Hospital employees would have been justified in fearing for their lives.

So,,,,When did the Won leave DeeCee?

He what, gave his press conference and then dashed off to Mordor for a night?

Then Mr. Conservation took off for a three hour photo op to the Gulf- and then BACK to Chi-town?

I may be mistaken, but that's what it looks like form his His official itinerary.


Note^^^^^ it's kind of odd, don't you think that if you try looking for "Bill Clinton" D-Day beach cross- that somewhere in the 25 pages I saw, I might find that bogus pic of him looking like obam,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,NO! Google CAN'T be manipulating what they're putting out on searches...they're LIBERALS! Only conservatives censor what the public gets.


I just need to pinpoint my image search of Bill Clinton making a cross of rocks on Normandy beach a little more narrow.

I'm sure Google wants us to compare Barry and Bill on the beach.

Your Man Card

When is the last time you updated it, and how many of these rules have you broken?


1. Thou shall not rent the movie “Chocolat”

2. Under no circumstances may 2 men share an umbrella.
Why would any guy NEED an umbrella?

3. Any man who brings a camera to a bachelor party may be legally killed and eaten by his fellow party-goers.

4. When you are queried by a buddy’s wife, girlfriend, mother, father, priest, shrink, dentist, accountant, or dog walker, you need not and should not provide any useful information whatsoever as to his whereabouts. You are permitted to deny his very existence.

5. Unless he murdered someone in your immediate family, you must bail a friend out of jail within 12 hours.

6. You may exaggerate any anecdote told in a bar by 50 percent without recrimination; beyond that, anyone within earshot is allowed to call BULLSHIT. (Exception: When trying to pick up a girl, the allowable exaggeration rate rises to 400 percent)

7. If you’ve known a guy for more than 24 hours, his sister is off-limits forever.
I want to throw a flag on this one- just for clarification- discus in comments.

8. The minimum amount of time you have to wait for another guy who’s running late is 5 minutes. For a girl, you are required to wait 10 minutes for every point of hotness she scores on the classic 1-10 babe scale.

9. Complaining about the brand of free beer in a buddies refrigerator is
forbidden. You may gripe if the temperature is unsuitable.

10. No man is ever required to buy a birthday present for another man. In fact, even remembering a friends birthday is strictly optional and slightly gay.

11. Agreeing to distract the ugly friend of a hot babe that your buddy is trying to hook up with is your legal duty. Should you get carried away with your good deed and end up having sex with the beast, your pal is forbidden to speak of it, even at your bachelor party.

12. Before dating a buddy’s “ex”, you are required to ask his permission and he in return is required to grant it.

13. Women who claim they “love to watch sports” must be treated as spies until they demonstrate knowledge of the game and the ability to pick a buffalo wing clean.

14. If a man’s zipper is down, that’s his problem, you didn’t see nothin’.

15. The universal compensation for buddies who help you move is beer.

16. A man must never own a cat or like his girlfriend’s cat.

17. When stumbling upon other guys watching a sports event, you may always ask the score of the game in progress, but you may never ask who’s playing.

18. When your girlfriend/wife expresses a desire to fix her whiny friend up with your pal, you may give her the go-ahead only if you’ll be able to warn your buddy and give him time to prepare excuses about joining the priesthood.

19. It is permissible to consume a fruity chick drink only when you’re sunning on a tropical beach… and it’s delivered by a topless supermodel… and it’s free.

20. Unless you’re in prison, never fight naked.

21. A man in the company of a hot, suggestively dressed woman must remain sober enough to fight.

22. If a buddy is outnumbered, out manned, or too drunk to fight, you must jump into the fight. Exception: If within the last 24 hours his actions have caused you to think, “What this guy needs is a good ass-whoopin”, then you may sit back and enjoy.

23. Phrases that may NOT be uttered to another man while weight lifting: “Yeah, baby, push it!” “C’mon, give me one more! “Harder!” “Another set and we can hit the showers.” “Nice ass, are you a Sagittarius?”

24. Never hesitate to reach for the last beer or the last slice of pizza, but not both. That’s just plain mean.

25. If you compliment a guy on his six-pack, you better be referring to his beer.

26. Never join your girlfriend/wife in dissing a buddy, except when she’s withholding sex pending your response.

27. Never talk to a man in the bathroom unless you’re on equal footing: either both urinating or both waiting in line. In all other situations, a nod is all the conversation you need.

28. If a buddy is already singing along to a song in the car, you may not, unless you are gay.

You kind of have to give Obama creds

I mean, really if you look at it he is staying true to his core beliefs.

I guess it's easy if you have so few,,,

But in his not showing up at Arlington this week end, he's really just doing what his core beliefs tell him to do. He's not going to go there and fake respect for the troops (or the flag for that matter) like other Dems have done in spite of their loathing of the military.

Yes, Obama is not even letting a public display compromise his dislike of any pro-American group of bitter clingers dilute HIS core values.

Yeah, Barry....rigght

“The fact that oil companies now have to go a mile under water and then drill another three miles below that in order to hit oil tells us something about the direction of the oil industry. Extraction is more expensive and it is going to be inherently more risky. And so that’s part of the reason you never heard me say, ‘Drill, baby, drill!’”

That's true, you never said that- because you don't want us to use our own oil.

What you ---and the rest of your Lefty Greenbats don't realize is that it's your policies that caused this spill anyway.

See Barry, I'll type this s-l-o-w-l-y- so maybe you might understand this.

If you or any Dems in DeeCee actually decide you want to read anything you're commenting on...or voting on -even.

It's your anti-oil policies that stopped the oil companies from drilling on land.

THEN you and your greenies forced those oil companies farther offshore into ever deeper water.

Yeah it sucks that they had a blowout and all the preventative measures failed- that's life. Shite happens in life that can't be controlled by your SEIU union thugs.

It was worse than the EXXON VALDEZ, but not as bad as the blowout from the PEMEX Itoc(that's a Mexican .gov oil company) that was blowing crude into the Gulf for nine months about 30 years ago.

BUT- ya know- if that had happened on dry land---- where you and the other envirowackos have decided it's 'too dangerous' to drill, it would have been closed less than a week later, rather than have to try closing it a mile straight down.

...because that's where you forced the oil companies to go.


HEY! Nice idea to protect the Gulf, though- stopping ALL American drilling.
Too bad it doesn't apply to all the rest of the countries drilling in the gulf. What are you going to do when one of those countries blows out a well and it infringes on American waters?

Well, well, well....

Looks like I was right again in foretelling the actions of the Unicorn rider.

Remember, way back at the beginning of the month when I said they'd point to this and ban future drilling?

Except that, I was wrong. They didn't just ban future drilling, they BANNED ALL drilling- and exploration in ANY U.S. body of water.
I guess this administration is gleefully looking at $6-8/gal gas by Independence Day.

To all of you Call Center people

(The ones that sit in a boiler room, not the ones receiving calls.)

Just to let you know that you'll NEVER talk to anyone in this house if you can't leave a message on the voicemail.
This includes you NRA and also Caller: UNKNOWN/Number:UNKNOWN.

Just saying,,,

Poor Sarah

She made an offer for access to her Ex-husband, Prince Andrew for about $750,000.
It's not illegal, or maybe even unheard of for access to be gained that way in those hoity-toidy societies.
But she got caught, and there are many unhappy royals involved.

Part of the fallout may be that she and her princesses may loose their home.

As an American who has British blood in my house now, I feel a bit of kindness to the troubled Fergie.
So as a small attempt to make up for the snubs The Won keeps throwing out- I gallantly offer Sarah, Duchess of York a place to stay in America.



Of course, since the house would be on the full side, she'd ummm....need to stay in my bedroom.

"Watch for cyclists"

"Bicyclists are everywhere".

"I brake for cyclists".

I was reminded of those bumper stickers plastered all over an SUV who was riding my tailgate, cutting people off and then turned left from the right lane in Castroville yesterday.

I was surprised that this guy actually stopped at the stop sign until I saw that he HAD to stop because of the cross traffic.
If you're a responsible cyclist who obeys the rules and has consideration for drivers, fine here's a patch for you:



The rest of you, stop for stop signs and get on the shoulder where you belong!

Who invited the @ssclown?

I'd be willing to bet my next paycheck against Rham Emmanuels that the cadets didn't get much of a say in who would be giving their commencement address.

Because you know they wouldn't want to hear someone arrogantly droning meaningless platitudes to them, especially since he hates the very idea of their existance.

To condense what the fanbois at FoxNews chose to cover in its entirety yesterday.
The Won said 'I pissed off our allies, and it's your job to make them work with us. Now go win the Afghan war without killing anyone.'

Because baning guns works so well

We see from Rob, that a teenager can make an (almost)exact working replica of an M-1911 pistol.




Ok, you say it's cool- but it's only paper mache.
Yeah, and he wasn't trying to make an actual FIRING weapon.
Give him some time and a milling machine and he could probably put something out that would put a major manufacturer (or two) on notice that they need to tighten up on their QC.

The question from the BBC:

Will Wall Street reforms work?

Because Congress didn't touch on the whole base problem, because they don't understand that the whole base problem is....CONGRESS and their 'fixes'.

To the Bit----woman in the fast lane

Look lady, if I'm in the fast lane doing 10 over and you come up on me like you have a jet pack in your trunk- fine, I'll get over.
I'll be glad to get out of your way because I know I'd like someone slower to move for me, you've obviously got somewhere you want to be -and, most importantly- you'll meet Officer Obie before I do.

BUT when I move to the granny lane and then you decide to drop back to 5 over and I have to pass a slower driver- I'm NOT moving for you again. I don't care how you ride my tailgate. You had the room to get far ahead, so f*ck off.

ALSO, those yellow speed signs you see on off ramps and curves....
Those are meant for big trucks like FULLY LOADED semis, not your little grey Dakota.

I guess we know Obamas new black shirts

The Washington D.C. police Department.

Nothing like an official nod to his purple shirted union thugs to make it ok to invade private property and terrorize a 14 year old, is there?

In case you missed it, the SEIU (Obamas go-to enforcers) decided to AstroTurf an anti banking rally on the Bank of Americas CEO front porch, with the D.C. police as escorts...to protect them from any of those clinging Teabaggers.

It's that freedom of expression, you know.


In case you're wondering what a bank CEO's front porch looks like, the SEIU (embedding surprisingly disabled) made a propaganda video for you.

AND, you know that if the teen had a defensive weapon, the D.C. Black shirts would have no problem entering a private residence with no warrant to arrest the scared child.

Your moment of WTF?

Those are the new mascots of the London Olympics. The vaguely squid like thing on the right is the Paralympic mascot. I don't even know how to describe the other.

BUT the chemically derived duo was a hit for their primary group- a grade school class. I wonder how much THAT demographic is going to contribute to financing the ever more expensive quadrennial spectacle of ...showmanship?

OKC has some cheap cars for sale

The have slight hail damage, though:

A message fom Arizona

to Los Angeles:





Hey! Since now MALDEF, the ACLU , SEIU and the other socialist groups are having a fit with Arizona's new immigration initiative- maybe they should just translate Mexico's immigration laws with the appropriate changes.

That'll solve everything!

Let me get this right

The Won's administration doesn't want to call out any specific religion on terrorism charges.
BUT they have no problem calling out people who have strong conservative and non-muslim religious views.

One of the reasons given for their ....um....thoughtfulness in regards to the islamoterrorists is the fact that they don't want us bringing the pitchforks, torches and ropes out because (yawn)'most Muslims aren't terrorists."

Since 9-11 how many anti-mooslimb riots have we had and how many have been lynched because of our bigotry?

How many innocent (by our standards) have the 'Religion of Peace' killed outright or in their riots over cartoons and a fake-but-accurate Koran flushing?

You Libs really need to go p!ss up a rope next time some terrorists tries to blow innocent people up and you hope its a Teabagger who does it.

Didn't someone do a song about this?

Oh, yeah- Ray Stevens did.

Who could have seen this coming?

It seems like every Liberal that ever made a grandstanding political point has never heard of the law of unintended consequences.

Like San Diego throwing a tantrum about a law in which they have no business interfering in.

Then having those same people you target opting to use their money somewhere else...a reverse boycott from the good people of Arizona.

Still struggling from the prolonged economic downturn, San Diego’s visitor industry can ill afford to lose any of the 2 million Arizonans it counts on annually, said ConVis President Joe Terzi.

“We’re in a very tough environment already because of everything else going on, and we don’t need another negative impact to our industry,” Terzi said. “This affects all the hardworking men and women who count on tourism for their livelihoods, so we’re saying, don’t do something that hurts their livelihoods.”

So, only your jobs count, and the Arizonans should just accept you pissing on THEIR jobs and livelihood without complaint because you Liberals are 'doing something' to make yourselves feel better.

You mean those warmongering Rethuglicans

Actually went out on a limb to STOP a nuclear war?

And it was that EEeeevil criminal Nixon who had the cajonies to actually tell the Soviets to stand down?

That's how people with backbone act.

Not pushing some Mideast ally aside because we want to be friends with re-enforce our open hand to all players there- including those who Holder cannot name.
So now, a certain country knows NOT to tell us in advance- that they'll be doing our job for us in Iran...because some Islamophile will order their planes shot down.

Proving once again

That if you're a Democrat, you can get away with just about anything.

...But Kurt, you say- he's been charged!

True, but it won't stick because nobody expects Democrats to have morals and standards.
At least morals and standards that aren't solidly secured to a Curling stone.


When he's done with it all, he'll probably be Obomas next Supreme court nominee.

Oh jeezus- don't hit the windshield!

"We need to drop a light pole at ...Mark Twain... HS and move it to storage. How long do you think it'll take?"
"IF it's just dropping the pole and moving it, less than two hours- but you know this company and how things get left out."

"Ok, get the boom truck and meet him at the tennis courts."

So I get out there to find this metal pole is about 30' tall with two banks of sports lighting on it---AND it has foot pegs all the way up.
So I told the foreman- I can spend 45 minutes working the loop over and around those steps, or get the bucket truck- it'll probably be about the same amount of time.

Half an hour later, I'm heading up to put the sling around the pole right below the bottom arm.

As I'm getting ready to put the pole on the truck, I know the center of gravity is alot higher than usual - because of the thin, short pole and the eight ballasts on top.
I swung the pole over and was lowering it to the headache rack higher than I thought the CoG was. It was higher, but not by much, and as soon as I started to slack off the rope- the bottom kicked out because of the rack acting as a fulcrum.

As soon as the base was light enough, it started sliding back about two feet towards that expensive windshield (not exorbitant, but worth my job) until I jerked it into the air and got a better angle on the winch rope.

Then it ended up like this...


It was so ,,,unusual, that I had to drive with the 3rd stage extended about ten feet and the boom raised about a foot.


This was the view from the cab.



Then we had to pull the wire out- which was another clusterf*ck, because nobody knew where it fed from.

So did you do anything interesting at work?

It'll never be used

But why Kurt?

Because it doesn't cost trillions of dollars and it's being pitched by obviously redneck hicks who are in it mostly for the clean-up.

Besides, if it works like they show-the Libs won't be able to point to this as the deep sea environmental catastrophe that ()bama let happen so as to be able to point to this as an example of the catastrophe that is Big Oil.

Paging John Murtha

It's too bad in a way that the Ex-Marine John Murtha isn't around to remind everyone about the poor quality of the NATO fighting man.

We'll never hear those ringing words again -except for the motto of the USS Murtha--

Killed them in cold blood.

Why is it when the forces of ignorance protest something- like NATO, they always end up burning the American flag?