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

Author: Hondo

  • Yet Another Dose of PC Stupidity from Academia

    In yet another example of PC asininity, a group of 469 students and professors at a major university have asked the university’s president to refrain from using quotations from a particular historical figure.  In common vernacular, they’ve done so because, in essence, “That’s racist!”

    Yeah, I know – you’re thinking this is just another example of garden-variety academic stupidity.  Well, read on.

    The university in question is the University of Virginia.  The historical figure?  Thomas Jefferson – who founded the University of Virginia in 1819.  The PC tools who signed the letter drafted by an equally clueless group of faculty object to the University of Virginia’s President using Jefferson quotations because he was a slaveowner during the late 1700s and early 1800s.

    I’m serious.

    Unfortunately, the University of Virginia’s president – Dr. Teresa Sullivan – didn’t have the guts to tell the fools, politely, to GFT (plural of GFY).  Her reply was IMO a weasel-worded cop-out, saying that “quoting someone recognizes ‘the potency of that person’s words’ ” without implying “an endorsement of all the social structures and beliefs of his time”.

    No sh!t, Dr. Sullivan.  That’s incredibly obvious to anyone with three or more working brain cells.  Although perhaps you did need to spell it out “see Dick and Jane” style for this particular group of fools.

    Dr. Sullivan should have provided a bit of adult leadership here, but didn’t really do that.   IMO, she should have instead said something along these lines:   “Jefferson was a great man, but was a man of his times.  He was not perfect.  However, his ideas remain sound, and form the basis of our democracy; he also founded this university. 

    As this university’s President, I will continue to quote Jefferson whenever I feel doing so is appropriate.  It’s a free country; in your own writings, feel free to quote him or not as you desire.

    If that last is unacceptable to you, perhaps you should seek your education or employment elsewhere.  Here at the University of Virginia, we allow freedom of speech – even when that involves facts or ideas we find distasteful.”

  • 1950 “Broken Arrow” Found?

    On 13 February 1950, a USAF B-36B  – carrying a Mark IV nuclear bomb with­­ what was reportedly a “dummy” (lead) nuclear capsule – took off from Eielson AFB, Alaska.  It was headed to Carswell AFB, TX (now NAS Fort Worth JRB).  Its mission included a simulated nuclear attack on San Francisco en route.

    Shortly before midnight, while over the Pacific, the plane experienced major engine problems – as in “three of the plane’s 6 engines caught fire and were shut down.”  Because of what was later determined likely to have been mixture control icing, the three functional engines did not appear capable of producing enough power to maintain flight.

    The pilot flew over Princess Royal Island, Canada – 300+ miles north of Vancouver – and the crew abandoned the aircraft.  Twelve of the 17 crew were rescued alive.  Four of those lost were believed to have abandoned the aircraft before it arrived over land; the remains of the fifth were reportedly found at the aircraft’s crash site.

    The aircraft reportedly dropped its weapon prior to reaching the coast, and it was reported to have exploded in midair.  Since it had an inert (lead) capsule vice the active nuclear capsule that would have been present in a fully-armed  weapon, the resulting explosion wasn’t nuclear.  However, it was nonetheless sizeable; the weapon’s design contained a relatively large amount of high explosive, which was required to implode the weapon’s core.

    The aircraft’s pilot reported having set the autopilot to take the aircraft west, out to sea, before he jumped.  However, the autopilot apparently malfunctioned – or perhaps was set improperly due to stress or haste (quite understandable under the circumstances).

    Rather than flying out to sea, the aircraft eventually ended up heading generally NNE.  The aircraft ultimately crashed about 50 miles east of the border towns of Hyder, Alaska, and Stewart, British Columbia; the crash site wasn’t located until over 3 1/2 years later.  The crash site is roughly 150 miles from Princess Royal Island.

    Yeah, that’s an interesting piece of history.  But I know many of you are likely thinking, “Why mention this now?”

    Well, it appears that a Canadian diver may have found the remains of the jettisoned bomb – or at least some parts of it that survived the explosion.

    The diver, Sean Smyrichinsky, was diving near Banks Island, Canada, earlier this year. He noticed something odd – something he’d never seen before.  On returning to his boat he described it to the crew as resembling “a bagel cut in half, and then around the bagel these bowls molded into it.”

    Afterwards, Smyrichinsky asked around.  He learned of the 1950 incident.  On seeing photos of a Mark IV nuclear bomb, he indicated that looked like what he’d seen.

    The Canadian Navy is preparing to investigate Smyrichinsky’s  find.

  • Another Is Home

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

    From Korea

    • PFC Daniel Hunt, A Company, 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, US Army, was lost on 28 September 1951 in South Korea. He was accounted for on 2 November 2016.

    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.

  • RIP, Napoleon Solo

    The Man from UNCLE has passed.  Robert Vaughn died yesterday, aged 83.  Acute leukemia reportedly claimed his life.

    Vaughn had a long and successful career as an actor.  His first acting job was in the mid-1950s; his last, in 2012.  During his career, he made literally hundreds of appearances in TV shows or  film.

    Vaughn was nominated for at least one Academy Award (Best Supporting Actor, 1960, The Young Philadelphians).  He also played the lead role in several successful TV series – including the one for which he’s best known, “The Man from UNCLE”.

    So, why am I mentioning an actor here?  As was the case with many actors of his era, Vaughn was a veteran.  He was drafted shortly after graduating from college, and served in the US Army.

    RIP, Mr. Vaughn.

  • A Musical “Shout-Out” to Campaign 2016

    Had machine issues last night and continuing into this AM.  I have to say that it was very nice to wake up to a truly pleasant surprise.

    Many media “talking heads” and other libidiot fools must be damn near apoplectic – or possibly even suicidial – this morning.  Good to see them get a well-deserved comeuppance from the American voters.

    Anyway: as a result of those issues, my musical “coda” for the campaign season was delayed until now.  So here ya go: three from the late muse Warren Zevon.  They IMO sum things up fairly well, from three different perspectives.

    In honor of the Trump campaign – which thankfully IMO turned out well in spite of itself.

     

     

    For the American public, who indeed IMO found the “next best thing”.  IMO Trump certainly isn’t a perfect choice, but considering the alternatives, well . . . .

     

     

    And, finally:  a suggestion for Clintoon, her close confidantes, and perhaps a number of those in the current DC Klown Krewe.  If there’s any justice, many of them will certainly need at least the first and third items starting on 21 January.

     

     

    Well done, American public.  Damn well done.

  • Meet Clintoon’s Other, “Private” Admin Assistant

    While FBI Director Comey was readying his bucket of whitewash yesterday, some additional information was being reported about Ms. Clintoon’s handling of sensitive materials while SECSTATE.  Thanks to that additional reporting we now know who often helped her out with the administrative and practical details of doing sensitive State Department business – e.g., sensitive faxes, printing out emails and attachments, and the like.

    Who might that be, you ask?  Wouldn’t that be her protégé, one each Huma Abedin – the Weiner wifey?

    Well, I’d guess Abedin did help her out at times with those kinds of things; Clintoon is reportedly manifestly incompetent when it comes to electronic devices.  But apparently someone else did as well.

    Reportedly, that someone else would be her housekeeper in DC – Marina Santos.  She’s an immigrant from the Philippines.

    Ms. Santos has no security clearance.

    And yet, Ms. Santos apparently was forwarded and often printed out emails and document attachments sent to Ms. Clintoon while she was SECSTATE.  Some of the documents were sensitive – and, on at least one occasion, documents sent to her to be printed appear to have been classified

    Ms. Santos also appears to have had access to the SCIF installed by the State Department in Clintoon’s DC residence.  She reportedly sometimes collected documents sent to Ms. Clintoon via the secure fax in that SCIF.

    Per the FBI, one of the items sent via secure fax to Clintoon on occasion was the Presidential Daily Brief.  Needless to say, that document is typically rather highly classified.

    Ms. Santos has apparently never been interviewed by the FBI during the Clintoon email investigation.  Additionally, her iMac – which Santos apparently used to receive and print documents and emails for Clintoon – apparently has never been turned over to or examined by the FBI.

    It’s also believed that Santos may know the whereabouts of a thumb drive containing a large archive of Clintoon emails – as well as the whereabouts of a MacBook formerly used by another close Clintoon crony, Monica Hanley.  Sometime in 2013 Ms. Hanley reportedly used the MacBook in question to download Clintoon’s emails from her private server, then to copy them to a thumbdrive.  Neither of those devices so far have been turned over to or examined by the FBI, either.

    The NY Post and Empty Lighthouse Magazine today each have articles worth reading.  The Post article discusses the matter described above in some detail, while the Empty Lighthouse article gives additional background on Ms. Santos.

    Too bad we didn’t know all of this some time before Comey      tried to sweep everything under the rug      erroneously and prematurely closed the FBI’s very obviously incomplete investigation some months ago – and then did the same again yesterday.  As I noted above:  Ms. Santos still apparently hasn’t been interviewed by the FBI, and her computer hardware hasn’t been examined.  So there’s no way in hell this so-called “investigation” was legitimately completed.

    Yes, you or I would be in freaking jail by now – deservedly so.  But Clintoon isn’t.

    I guess that’s what happens when you have a political hack as FBI director instead of a LEO that takes his responsibilities seriously.

  • “Only the ‘little people’ follow ethics rules.”

    Well, it appears as if the Clintoon Foundation – and its namesakes – are in the news again.  And not in a good way, either.

    When Clintoon became SECSTATE in 2009, she and her husband – the famous cigar lover – did not divest themselves of their interests in their Clintoon Foundation.  However, Ms. Clintoon did enter into a written ethics agreement with the State Department regarding the financial operations of that foundation.

    Specifically, she agreed that she would “notify the State Department’s ethics official if a new foreign government wished to donate or if a current foreign donor wished to ‘increase materially’ its contributions.”

    In 2011, the government of Qatar gave a $1 million donation to the Clintoon foundation.  Ostensibly, the purpose was to honor Cigarman’s 65th birthday.

    I don’t know about you, but I’d consider a $1 million “donation” to be a “material increase” in anyone’s contributions.  That’s especially true since the Clintoon Foundation itself says that they’ve received donations of “between $1 million and $5 million” from the Qatari government.  That means that the $1 million in question is at least 20% of the Qatari total – and maybe most or all of it.  That damn well seems significant to me.

    But maybe that’s just me.

    In any case:  neither Ms. Clintoon nor the Clintoon Foundation ever notified the proper State Department ethics official of the donation.  And the following April, Qatari government officials sought to meet with Mr. Clintoon personally.

    Hmm.  For some reason the term “pay for play” comes to mind.  Yet again.

    Fox today has a decent article on the matter; Reuters had a similar one a couple of days ago .  IMO they’re both worthwhile reading.

    Apparently Ms. Clintoon has decided to follow the lead of another “paragon of virtue”, Leona Helmsley.  Ms. Helmsley famously once remarked that, “Only the little people pay taxes.”   It certainly seems to me that Ms. Clintoon – and likely Mr. Clintoon as well – feels the same regarding following Federal laws and regulations.

    Hopefully they’ll eventually get the same comeuppance as did Ms. Helmsley.

  • Oopsie.

    Well, it seems that Clintoon made a speech the other day.  She repeatedly thanked the folks in Greenville for coming to see her at a campaign rally.

    There’s only one problem.  It seems she was speaking to a rally being held in Winterville, NC – not in Greenville.  Greenville, NC, is about 20 miles north of Winterville.

    As you might guess, this didn’t exactly go over all that well with the folks attending the rally.  And apparently Clintoon got a bit snippy towards the end of the rally as well.

    Maybe she really is “losing it”.