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

Author: Hondo

  • Semi-Gallic Panache

    The French are famous for their Gallic panache.  And while I understand that the present-day French don’t really consider French-Canadians to be – or to speak – “true French”, there are nonetheless some strong cultural similarities between the two peoples because of common heritage.

    Last year, I observed some of those similarities firsthand.  While visiting Montreal, I stayed at a small hotel.  The hotel had an arrangement with an adjacent café to serve breakfast to the hotel’s guests as part of the room’s cost.

    The breakfast was nothing fancy:  a small buffet consisting of boiled eggs, some ham, yoghurt, bagels (Montreal is big on both yoghurt and bagles), some fruit, bread, jam, etc . . . .  They had a toaster, and also had both coffee and juice.  You served yourself, and left when you were done.

    All in all, not a bad breakfast – especially considering the price.  (smile)

    However, they also had pancake batter and a self-serve griddle for making pancakes.  This in turn meant they had maple syrup on the buffet line as well.   (Yes, it was real maple syrup – this was in Montreal, remember?)

    As I recall, I’d gotten my breakfast and was seated.  While I was having breakfast I observed a young couple who were also in the café.  I wasn’t being nosy; the café was fairly small, so I really didn’t have much choice except to see and hear what they were doing.

    By accent and other indications, the man appeared to be French-Canadian.  His girlfriend appeared to be American – by accent, I’d guess from somewhere in the Midwest/Great Lakes region.

    They went up to the buffet.  The lady went to the griddle and made a pancake or two, apparently for herself.  In contrast, the man picked up some bread and toasted it.  He then put it on his plate and proceeded to put some maple syrup on it.  (Not exactly my “thing”, but hey: whatever.)

    His girlfriend looked at him and said in a mildly exasperated tone, “You Canadians put maple syrup o­n everything, don’t you?”

    The guy’s response was priceless.  Without missing a beat – and with perfect Gallic nonchalance and a distinct French-Canadian accent – he replied:  “It is . . . the Canadian way.”

    Since the guy was apparently French-Canadian, IMO that qualifies as at least semi-Gallic panache.  (smile)

  • Another Returns

    DPAA has identified and accounted for the following formerly-missing US personnel.

    From World War II

    • PFC Lonnie B. C. Eichelberger, I Company, 371st Infantry Regiment, 92nd Infantry Division, US Army, was lost in Italy, on 10 February 1945. He was accounted for on 5 May 2017.

    Welcome back, elder brother-in-arms. Our apologies that your return took so long.

    Rest in peace. You’re home now.

    . . .

    Over 73,000 US personnel remain unaccounted for from World War II; over 7,800 US personnel remain unaccounted for from the Korean War; and over 1,600 remain unaccounted for in Southeast Asia (SEA). Comparison of DNA from recovered remains against DNA from some (but not all) blood relatives can assist in making a positive ID for unidentified remains that have already been recovered, or which may be recovered in the future.

    On their web site’s “Contact Us” page, DPAA now has FAQs. The answer to one of those FAQs describes who can and cannot submit DNA samples useful in identifying recovered remains. The chart giving the answer can be viewed here. The text associated with the chart is short and can be viewed in DPAA’s FAQs.

    If your family lost someone in one of these conflicts and you qualify to submit a DNA sample, please arrange to submit one. By doing that you just might help identify the remains of a US service member who’s been repatriated but not yet been identified – as well as a relative of yours, however distant. Or you may help to identify remains to be recovered in the future.

    Everybody deserves a proper burial. That’s especially true for those who gave their all while serving this nation.

  • Will Hayden Gets Life – Plus 40

    Will Hayden Gets Life – Plus 40

    Jonn’s written previously about Will Hayden, formerly of Discovery Channel’s Sons of Guns reality show.  For those who’ve forgotten or missed it:  he was convicted in April of raping 2 preteen girls in Louisiana.

    He was sentenced today.

    The disgusting perv got two concurrent life sentences – plus 40 years to be served consecutively.  It also appears that he’s ineligible for parole, probation, or suspension of sentence. Looks like he won’t be taking any breaths as a free man anytime soon.

    Fox News has an article giving a few more details.

  • Another Healthcare Insurer Leaves ObamaCare Exchanges

    This time it’s Aetna.  They’ve just announced that 2017 is the last year they’ll participate in the ObamaCare healthcare insurance exchanges.  They will not offer policies for 2018 on those exchanges.

    Why?  Simple.  Last year, in 15 states Aetna lost nearly $700 million on policies issued through said exchanges.  This year, they’re predicted to lose nearly $200 million in only 4 states (VA, DE, IA, NE) – obviously, on substantially reduced enrollment.

    There’s a term for companies whose business practices consistently lose money by the ton.  That term is, “Bankrupt.”

    And no, Gruber:  this isn’t Trump’s fault.  It’s because the whole asinine system is an abomination that is so structurally flawed it cannot possibly succeed.

    “Free stuff” – isn’t.  Someone, somewhere, pays for it.

    And Aetna just said, “Find another patsy.”

  • Rare. And Noteworthy.

    Near the end of this month, the Military Academies will graduate somewhere around 3,000 students.  Nothing particularly unusual there.

    However, at one of them something will happen that hasn’t happened in over 30 years – since 1985, to be precise.  Specifically, three siblings will graduate from the same class at one Academy.

    The Academy in question is USMA (West Point).  The three brothers are Noah, Sumner and Cole Ogrydziak.  They’re from Nederland, Texas.

    Cole and Summer are twins; they attended West Point immediately after high school.  Their brother Noah is 2 years older; he attended the USMA Prep School, then entered West Point with his two younger brothers.

    Fox News has an article about the brothers giving more details.  It’s not too long, and IMO it’s worth the time to read.

    Well done, lads.  Damn well done.

  • And We Thought LA Was “La La Land”

    Headline says it all.

    Chicago inmates can now order pizza directly to their cells

    I’d say, “YGBSM” – but I long ago ceased to be amazed by idiotic policies adopted by “Progressive” cities and states.

  • And In the “WTF?!!” Department . . . .

    Yeah, the linked article’s headline – repeated in the link below – is accurate.

    Seventh grader suspended for ‘liking’
    a photo of a gun on Instagram

    Sheesh. Just when you think you’ve seen it all, the idiots come up with something even more idiotic and prove you wrong.

    Yes, I understand the school’s concern about school violence, but c’mon. Here, the district suspended a kid for “liking” a non-explicit picture – a picture of an airsoft pistol with the one-word caption “Ready” – he saw posted on Instagram while web surfing from home at 7PM. And they did it without giving the kid a chance to explain himself.

    Yeah, like the kid’s parents I kinda got a problem with that.

    Really? Do they also monitor their students to see if they visit pr0n sites late at night on the Internet while at home? Or what books they check out from the city library on weekends – or download from Amazon?

    I think Hank Hill described the behavior by the school administration here quite well. Except here, laughter isn’t IMO in any way appropriate.

    Big Brother approves. Those who value common sense and freedom . . . perhaps not so much.

    If school administrators in that school district have nothing better to do than monitor their students’ off-hours off-campus Internet usage, well, to me that suggests a very different problem. Specifically: it suggests that perhaps that district has far too many school administrators. And the fact that they’d suspend a student for liking a picture of any gun on Instagram – without even asking the kid for an explanation, and with no other indication of a problem – shows an utter lack of common sense (though that’s regrettably often the case in education these days).

    Maybe instead of playing “after hours Internet monitor”, the district should instead let a few administrators go. They could then hire a few more teachers with the money saved.

     

    (Author’s Note:  edited to reflect the fact that the “gun” in question was an airsoft pistol vice paintball.)

  • Predictable. And Asinine.

    Remember John Gruber? You know, that Harvard-educated “intellectual” who help the previous      gang of naïve and foolish children that somehow conned the American voters into letting them run things in DC      last Administration draft that abomination called the     Patently Pathetic and Awful Collection of Asininity      Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (AKA “ObamaCare”)?  That incredibly bad law that our new adult leadership in DC is trying to change before it bankrupts the nation?

    Sure you remember him. That’s the same elitist jerk who believes – and stated – that American voters have a “lack of economic understanding”. He’s also the same tool who was caught on video discussing ObamaCare and saying, “The stupidity of the American voter . . . was really critical for the thing to pass.”

    Well, he’s running his yap yet again. Now, he’s saying that ObamaCare price increases (presumably the ones that just occurred) are Trump’s fault. And he’s also claiming those increases were a “one time” event that “fixed” ObamaCare.

    I’d say YGBSM, but we see these kind of      bald-faced lies      “creative stories” all the time from the political left.

    Um, dipstick . . . the 2017 premium increases were announced about two weeks prior to the 2016 Presidential election. Trump wasn’t POTUS then; the SCoaMF that lent “ObamaCare” it’s nickname was the POTUS when those price increased were determined and announced. And until the early morning of 9 November 2016, few expected Trump to be the next POTUS.

    In short, Trump had nothing to do with this mess.  This one’s the SCoaMF’s “baby” – warts and all.

    Further, the 2017 increases announced in late 2016 were hardly a one-time deal. ObamaCare premiums have been rising in most markets for years. And the system is hardly “fixed” now – it’s so bad off financially that virtually no insurers are making any money from their ObamaCare policies. Instead, they’re losing money in bundles.  And they’re still pulling out of state health insurance exchanges.

    You know, for a highly educated “eliteist”, the man just doesn’t seem particularly bright. He can’t manage to figure out that the temporal sequence here (price increases announced prior to the election, which Trump was widely expected to lose) kinda rules out Trump having anything whatsoever to do with this year’s ObamaCare price increases. He also can’t seem to grasp that a multi-year pattern of moderate to large annual premium increases virtually nationwide demonstrates rather conclusively that the last such premium increase was hardly a “one time event”. And, finally, he doesn’t seem to realize that insurers opting out of the market in droves because they’re losing money by the ton annually is evidence that the system is broken – badly.

    In fact, it certainly seems like he’s an “elitist” educated at a “highly-prestegious liberal university” with delusions of superiority who in reality appears have significant difficulties with both logic and getting his facts straight, and who also can’t accept the fact that they’re far from infallible.  In other words:  rather than being “superior”, he doesn’t have much of a clue.  But he thinks he does.

    Sounds familiar.  All too familiar.