This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Author: Hondo

  • Yeah, Those “Good Times” Are Really Rolling . . . .

    Remember, the economy is recovering.  Good times are here!  Economic problems are a thing of the past.

    Well, maybe not.  Seems like in real terms (e.g., inflation-adjusted dollars), men working full-time today make less than they did 40 years ago.

    What about women working full-time, you ask?  Well, that peak was years ago, too – in 2007, to be precise.

    So tell me:  how’s that “wonderful economic recovery” coming for you, folks?  From my perspective, it doesn’t really look all that good.  But maybe that’s just me.

    But not to worry, my friends.  The current Administration says they’re not to blame, and that if we just do what they say things will straighten out “real soon now”.

    Problem is, we’ve been hearing pretty much that same “song and dance” from them for 5+ years now.  And I don’t know about you, but from my perspective things are no better off now than they were 5 years ago. Instead, they kinda look worse.

    Fewer people are working (percentage wise) than they were in early 2009.  More are on foodstamps.  More are drawing “disability” instead of working.  Hell, we’re short well over 5 million full-time jobs just to get back to the same proportion of the population working regularly as we had in early 2009 – let alone make any real progress.

    Don’t even get me started on the deficit.  We’ve added over 64% to the US Federal debt in just over 5 1/4 years.  And the current budget proposals from the current Administration add nearly $1.1 trillion to the Federal debt in the next two years alone.

    And don’t forget that “success story of the Century” – the introduction of that wonder-of-wonders, ObamaCare.  It’s rear-loaded, cost-wise – but it’s already screwing up things by the numbers.  When the real cost of ObamaCare actually starts coming due in about 5 years, well – Katie bar the door.

    Whatever this Administration is doing – it ain’t working.  Except maybe to improve a few folks’ golf games.

    Oh, that ain’t working
    That’s the way we do it 
    Get our money for nothing
    Get golf trips for free . . . .

  • Another Returns

    DPMO has announced the identification of one US MIA from Korea.

    CPL Richard Isbell, H Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, US Army was lost on April 25, 1951 in South Korea.  He was accounted for on April 17, 2014.  He will be buried with full military honors.   Specific funeral arrangements were not announced.

    A belated welcome home, my elder brother-in-arms.  Rest in peace.

    . . .

    Over 73,600 US personnel remain unaccounted for from World War II; over 7,800 US personnel remain unaccounted for from the Korean War; and over 1,640 remain unaccounted for in Southeast Asia.  If you are a relative of one of the individuals listed here (World War II – critical need), listed here (Korea), or listed here (Southeast Asia) – please consider reading this link to see if you qualify to submit a mtDNA sample.

    If you qualify to submit a mtDNA sample, please submit one.   By submitting a mtDNA sample, you may be able to help identify US remains that have been recovered and repatriated but not yet positively identified.

    Everybody deserves a proper burial.  That’s especially true for those who gave their all in the service of this nation.

  • Oh, This Is Rich

    Remember those “fine folks” over at Media Matters?  Those stalwart “progressive” people who think the mainstream media does a great job,  who profess to speak for the “little guy”, and who often support organized labor?

    Well, it seems as if the folks who actually work for Media Matters want to form a union.  So, since they’re a good progressive organization with a track record of supporting labor, that means Media Matters’ management should be happy about that . . . right?

    Apparently not.  The management at Media Matters has gone on record opposing the formation of a union by their workforce.  Seriously.

    Their employees are, predictably, “not amused”.

    I never knew “hypocrite” was spelled using two capital “Ms.”  I guess it is now, though.

    It also looks to me like this shows there is a God – and His sense of humor tends towards irony.   Although based on this collection of Biblical quotes, He also doesn’t have much use for hypocrites.

     

  • If You Still Wondered Whether the NYT Actually Reports News . . .

    . . . I think you can stop wondering.

    Remember Cliven Bundy – that dipstick in Nevada who got local militias to side with him after he refused to pay his legally-obligated grazing fees for 20 years and was being kicked off his Federal leased land?   The media – specifically, the NYT – dragged up some quotes from an interview with Bundy that made him look damn near like a KKK Kleagle.

    Well, I’m shocked, shocked.  Seems like what Bundy said was actually very selectively quoted.  Large portions of the interview were omitted.

    The complete pertinent portion of the interview transcript is quoted here.  It tells a very different story.  Bundy’s actual remarks clearly indicate he’s not a blatant racist – and that he neither advocates nor wants to return to the “bad old days” of institutional racism.

    In short, the NYT spun the hell out of the story to make Bundy appear to be a blatant racist. In reality, he doesn’t appear to be a racist at all.

    Look, I think Bundy is a fool; IMO, he’s just trying to take something to which he no longer has any legal right.  He’s also IMO conned a huge number of other fools into buying his BS and supporting him.  He doesn’t deserve support; he needs to pay what he owes and comply with the law – whether he agrees with it or not.

    And he certainly could have phrased his comments in that interview better.  Some of the language is today offensive.

    But the full text hardly shows what the NYT claims.  The man is 67 years old, is naïve, and didn’t realize the mainstream media’s inherent bias and agenda.  He assumed that the person to whom he was talking could be trusted, so he spoke honestly using plain language.  The NYT took full advantage of that to make him look like a racist bastard virtually advocating a return to the “bad old days” via selective quotation, omission, and innuendo. The full transcript clearly shows that’s not the case.

    In short:  the NYT used a grain of truth and a ton of spin to send a message very different from reality.  In effect, they lied in the most effective way possible:  by selectively using tiny bits of the truth taken out of context to send an overall message that is false.

    I think we all know precisely why the NYT did this.  I won’t bother to restate the obvious.

    Significantly, most of the rest of the media bought the NYT’s lie – hook, line, and sinker.  Fact check, anyone?

    Sheesh.  Maybe the NYT should change their masthead motto from “All the news that’s fit to print” to “All the spin that helps our cause.”  Afterwards, at least that much of what they print would be true.

    They won’t, of course.   But IMO they damn well should.

  • A Weekend “Blast From the Past”

    Jagger/Richards.   Anyone who knows modern popular music immediately thinks of the Rolling Stones on reading those names.

    Both are now 70+.  So today, most people likely think of them – and the Stones – as tired, aging old rock-n-rollers who still perform hits of yesteryear.  And I guess today that’s accurate.

    It’s also a shame.  Because thinking of them as they are today, sometimes we forget just how damn good these guys were at their peak.

    Their peak began in 1968, while the three primary members of the Stones (Jagger, Richards, and the late Brian Jones) were all facing potentially lengthy prison sentences.  Though the band had had success previously – and had released “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” in 1965, nearly universally held to be perhaps the best rock & roll tune ever written – they still weren’t fully “locked in”.

    The experience of facing jail apparently caused them to focus their efforts.  And focus they did.

    They returned to their blues/rock&roll roots.  Musically, the result was good.  And it stayed good for four full years – from May 1968 to May 1972.

    Here’s a Baker’s dozen tunes from the Stones’ peak – the original versions. If it’s been a while since you’ve listened to them it might be worth the time to listen again, if for no other reason than to remind yourself just how good they were.  (And if you’ve never really listened to the Stones of that era, it might also be worth your while.)  The songs are presented roughly in chronological order.

    Here’s a bit of perspective.  “Midnight Rambler” is considered a quintessential Stones tune.  “Honky Tonk Woman” and “Brown Sugar” were #1 hits.  “Street Fighting Man” was hugely musically innovative and considered so subversive in it’s day (1968) that many US radio stations wouldn’t play it – but still made the top 50. 

    And IMO they are the four weakest tunes in the set.  The other nine tunes are better.

    Find a good set of headphones, crank up the volume a bit – and enjoy.  They’re from before the days of music videos, but the audio should be near CD-quality.

    During their 1969 US tour, the Stones  began billing themselves as  “the world’s greatest rock & roll band”.  The billing stuck as the group’s unofficial slogan.  They still use it today.

    Marketing hype is typically exactly that – hype. And calling the Stones “the world’s greatest rock&roll band” today is probably nothing but hype.

    But from 1968-1972, that slogan might well have been the truth.

  • Happy Birthday, Wrigley Field

    One hundred years ago today, the first ever baseball game was played at what later became Wrigley Field.   At the time, it was called Weeghman Park  – so named after Charles Weeghman, the owner of the Chicago “Federals” professional baseball team of the short-lived Federal League.  (The name “Federals” is somewhat of a misnomer.  Though they were called the “Federals” or the “Chifeds” to distinguish them from the Cubs and White Sox, the team actually had no formal nickname in 1914.  They were named the Chicago Whales the following year).

    The Federal League folded after two years of operations.  Weeghman at that point became controlling owner of the Chicago Cubs and moved the Cubs to the stadium in 1916.

    Weeghman was forced out of baseball in 1920 due to financial troubles; the Wrigley family had become controlling owners of the Cubs in 1918.  The park was renamed Cubs Field in 1920, and acquired its current name of Wrigley Field in 1926.

    Wrigley Field is the second-oldest Major League Baseball stadium.  Only Fenway Park in Boston is older – and only by two years.

    Ground was broken for Wrigley Field on March 4, 1914.  Amazingly, it was ready for the Chicago “Federals” home opener that year on April 23, 1914 – barely 7 weeks later.

    Yes, Wrigley Field is a bit dated today.  But it has something most other MLB stadiums doesn’t have:  a century’s worth of history.

  • About That “Green” Alcohol Made from Corn Waste . . . .

    Well, it turns out it isn’t so “Green” after all.

    A peer-reviewed study published in Nature Climate Change recently looked at alcohol produced from corn waste (e.g., cobs, stalks, leaves).  These items are normally plowed under and allowed to decompose, thus enriching the soil for upcoming growing seasons, but can also be processed to produce alcohol.

    The Federal government paid $500k for the study.  And they probably won’t like the results.

    Researchers conducting the study found that the corn-waste alcohol produced approximately 7 percent more greenhouse gases over the short-term than simply using gasoline instead.  In other words: the so-called “Green” fuel is actually worse for the environment than using gasoline from crude oil.

    Given this result, such fuel would not appear to qualify for the current Federal $1 per gallon subsidy necessary to make it price competitive, either.

    Predictably, proponents – both industrial and environmentalists – of corn-waste biofuels have attacked the study.  Now, what vested interest would make them do that?

    Oh, yeah, I remember now why they’d attack the results:  money.  Your and my tax money, going to them or their pet causes.

    Lots of tax money.

  • Here’s One Guy You Won’t Hear Complaining About Body Armor

    Lots of soldiers complain about their body armor.  And it is indeed uncomfortable, and rather heavy.

    Still:  I don’t think you’ll ever hear SGT Timothy Gilboe, ME ARNG, complain about it.  Why not?  Read this article from the Army Times to find out.

    Three additional comments:

    • Cojones muy grande, SGT Gilboe.  Kudos.
    • Kudos to you, PEO Solider.  Your equipment certainly worked as designed that day.
    • Finally, kudos also to whoever came up with the policy of offering the soldiers affected the item that saved their life as a souvenir.  I wish we saw more such common-sense in DoD.