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

Author: Hondo

  • Yer Sunday Musical Interlude: B.O.B.A. and Nada

    Another odd musical interlude follows.  You have been forewarned.  (smile)

    . . .

    Maybe it’s a “bit of the strange” in my musical tastes, but I love this tune. It’s originally from the Refreshment’s two first releases: their self-released independent CD “Wheelie”, and was repeated on their first major-label release, “Fizzy Fuzzy Big and Buzzy”.

    The song is more well-known by its title from the latter CD – it was retitled “Mexico”. The original title was an acronym. It stood for “Buffet On Bad Acid”. I’ve never tried that form of “better living through chemistry”, but from all accounts I’ve heard of same I think the original title of the song was pretty close to the mark. (smile)

    I’m also pretty sure the song was also written tongue-in-cheek, given the rather satirical nature of much of the band’s work. It didn’t get much airplay, for reasons that should be obvious on first listen.  Might want to use headphones if you listen when prudes or small children are within earshot.

    Without further ado, here are both versions.

     
     

    The other tune is the last tune from their second release; it wasn’t repeated from “Wheelie”. A bit somber, but I think we can all relate to the theme sometimes. I’m sure there are times all of us want to say “The world sucks; screw it all” and just go far, far away. And IMO this one captures that state of mind pretty damn well.

    Fair warning: might not be a good idea to listen to this one if you’re having a truly bad day along those lines.  It’s kinda morose.

    But the images accompanying this track are truly also gorgeous, if perhaps a bit overdone. 

     

    The band broke up after their 3rd CD – “The Bottle and Fresh Horses”. That’s a pity; they showed promise. IMO they really did capture that time (late 1990s) in the US Southwest pretty damn well.  But maybe you just had to be there to appreciate just how well.

    Damn, I really miss that part of the country.

    If you’re curious, here’s a live set from the band from not too long before they called it quits (1998); it’s about 50 min. Enjoy.

    . . .

    That’s all for today. Back to the normal TAH subjects.

  • Update on Lost USMC Helicopter in Nepal

    The USMC UH-1 helicopter that was missing in Nepal has been located approximately 15 miles from the town of Charikot. Regrettably, the aircraft appears to have crashed and burned.

    Three sets of remains have been recovered so far. Though search and recovery operations continue, at this point survivors from the crash are not expected.

    The eight personnel were on board the aircraft at the time of loss – 2 Nepalese soldiers and 6 US Marines. At the time of its loss, the aircraft was participating in the delivery of relief supplies to Charikot in the aftermath of the recent Nepal earthquake.

    Rest in peace, my brothers in arms. May God comfort your surviving family and friends.

  • Another State Healthcare Exchange Says “Bye-Bye”

    Well, it looks like we have yet another casualty among the state healthcare insurance exchanges created to support that       Putrid Pile of Amazingly Counterproductive Asininity       2010 law called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), AKA “ObamaCare”.  And I think this one going belly-up is gonna make someone very unhappy – as well as maybe leave a mark, politically speaking.

    The state exchange that’s shutting down is in the POTUS’ home state of Hawaii.  According to Alexander Hendrie at Americans for Tax Reform,

    “ . . . . the Hawaii Health Connector will stop taking new enrollees on Friday and plans to begin migrating to the federally run Healthcare.gov. Outreach services will end by May 31, all technology will be transferred to the state by September 30, and its workforce will be eliminated by February 28.”

    It’s clear that Hawaii and the Federal government simply must have starved the program for resources.  After all: taxpayers (and since most of the funding was Federal, that means “you and I” regardless of where in the USA you live) only spent about $205M in Federal tax money to set up that exchange. In its first year of operation, it only spent about $23,400 per individual to sign people up. Now, it’s only going to cost Hawaii (and/or the Federal government) about another $30M to transition to the Federal healthcare exchange.  Clearly they’d have been successful if only they’d spent more money!

    For those who perhaps missed it:  yes, the preceding paragraph was pure sarcasm.  From day one this effort was following the same course as the SS Titanic’s maiden voyage.

    It turns out that the Hawaii Health Connector failed simply because not enough people used it.

    Its business model funded continuing operations from fees assessed to each enrollee’s plan.  Unfortunately, only about half as many people used the Hawaii Health Connector to obtain their health insurance as was required for the system to sustain operations.  And when you err that much in forecasting demand, the end result is almost always easily predictable.

    Gee, yet another state healthcare insurance exchange bites the big one – after pouring literally tens of millions in taxpayer dollars down the toilet, of course. What a surprise.

    Add to Hawaii’s total of $205M the Federal funds flushed by Oregon ($305M); Maryland ($190M); New Mexico ($123M); and Nevada ($101M) and you’re up to nearly $925M in cash down the tubes.  With Massachusetts ($225M), Vermont ($200M), and Minnesota ($189M) looking like they might throw in the towel any day now, the total of Federal cash flushed down the toilet on unused ObamaCare “healthcare exchanges” may soon be well over $1.5 billion – from those 8 failed state healthcare exchanges alone.  God only knows how much of the other roughly $4 billion in Federal funds spent to date setting up health exchanges has will eventually join it.

    Hell, even that “success story” in California can’t seem to do any better than around 40% of its estimated potential for enrollment.  “Only” somewhat over $1.065 billion in Federal tax money was spent on that      PoS operation      wonderful healthcare exchange.

    It’s got a great website, though.  Yelp was so impressed that they gave it a highly noteworthy “one-star” rating.

    I didn’t know better I might start thinking that maybe this whole concept might be flawed.

    But our      Fearless Leader       current POTUS keeps telling us that this ObamaCare stuff is a “really good deal” and will “make healthcare more affordable”.  I guess that means something else must be causing all these failures.

    And everyone knows that the current POTUS would never lie to us about healthcare.  After all:  everyone that liked their health insurance or doctor got to keep them when ObamaCare rolled out, right?

  • Bet His Replacement Stays Awake

    According to reports from the South Korean National Intelligence Service, the North Korean People’s Armed Forces Minister – Hyon Yong Chol – was a bit drowsy during a meeting recently. He dozed off.

    At some point, he apparently also “talked back to” his boss – Kim Jong Un, known here at TAH as “ND:tBF”.

    ND:tBF apparently didn’t like that. So he removed the guy from his position as Armed Forces Minister.

    Then he had him executed.

    Using anti-aircraft gunfire.

    In front of hundreds of onlookers.

    At a shooting range at the Kang Kon Military Academy in Pyongyang.

    Seriously.

    I’m guessing the guy’s successor won’t be dozing off in any staff meetings.

  • Another Is Home

    In January, DPAA identified and formally accounted for the following US soldier from World War II. Regrettably, I appear to have missed the original announcement of his change in status – hence this delayed article. My apologies.

    • Flight Officer Arthur J. LeFavre, 599th Bombardment Squadron, 397th Bombardment Group, US Army Air Forces, was lost on 23 December 1944 in Germany. He was accounted for on 22 January 2015.

    Welcome home, my elder brother-in-arms. Our apologies that it took so long.

    Rest in peace.

    . . .

    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 mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from recovered remains against mtDNA from a matrilineal descendant can assist in making a positive ID for unidentified remains that have already been recovered, or which may be recovered in the future.

    While I’ve not yet found instructions for submitting a mtDNA sample on DPAA’s web site, their site now has what appears to be a decent “Contact Us” page. The page doesn’t have guidance concerning who may submit a mtDNA sample or how to submit one, but the POCs listed there may be able to point you in the correct direction if you’re interested.

    If you have a missing relative from World War II, Korea, or SEA, please consider contacting DPAA and see if you qualify to submit a mtDNA sample. If you qualify, please consider submitting such a sample. By doing so you just might help identify the remains of a US service member who’s been repatriated but not yet been identified. Or you may help to identify remains yet 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.

    Again: my apologies for the belated notice.

     

    (Author’s Note: the rank above is indeed correct. From 1942-1945, the US Army Air Forces had warrant officer pilots, navigators, flight engineers, and bombardiers. “Flight Officer” was the proper title for that rank; it was equivalent to today’s W1.)

  • Not Good News

    Fox News is reporting that a USMC UH-1 with 8 aboard (6 US, 2 Nepalese) is missing in the vicinity of Charikot, Nepal.  The aircraft was from Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 469.

    It is unknown at this point whether the aircraft was able to land safely, or precisely where it may have returned to earth.

    US Marines are in Nepal supporting humanitarian relief efforts in the aftermath of the recent Nepal earthquake.  Regrettably, such relief operations are often dangerous – sometimes nearly as dangerous as a shooting war.

    Should you be so inclined, now might be a good time to send a mental request to CINC-ALL regarding the well-being of these troops – one asking for His assistance in quickly locating and returning them safe and sound.

  • Happy 90th, Mr. B

    Today is the 90th birthday of a gentleman named Lawrence Peter Berra.  He’s still with us.

    If the name doesn’t ring a bell – maybe that’s because most people know him by his nickname vice his given name. That nickname? “Yogi”.

    Berra’s baseball career really needs no rehashing among baseball fans.  He’s a in the Baseball Hall of Fame, and is among the most recognizable and well-known people ever to play the sport.  But ESPN has a short article today with some of Berra’s (alleged) quotes, quotes about him, and a brief career highlight or two.  It’s worth a look IMO.

    Oh, and yes:  Berra is also a vet.  He served in the Navy as a gunner’s mate during World War II.  He was one of the crew of the USS Bayfield during D-Day.

    Happy 90th, Mr. Berra.  Here’s to many more.

  • Doesn’t Surprise Me One Bit

    As Jonn’s previously noted, it seems that a guy named Seymour Hersh – a longtime investigative reporter well-known for his work regarding the US military and Intelligence Community – has looked into the bin Laden raid. His conclusion?

    Well, Hersh says that the POTUS did order the raid. He also says that US Navy SEALs carried it out.

    He also says damn near everything else the current       gang of fools and tools running the show in DC       Administration has said about the raid is . . . well, pretty much bull. From a very long (approx 10,000 word) article Hersh recently published in the London Review of Books:

    This spring I contacted Durrani and told him in detail what I had learned about the bin Laden assault from American sources: that bin Laden had been a prisoner of the ISI at the Abbottabad compound since 2006; that Kayani and Pasha knew of the raid in advance and had made sure that the two helicopters delivering the Seals to Abbottabad could cross Pakistani airspace without triggering any alarms; that the CIA did not learn of bin Laden’s whereabouts by tracking his couriers, as the White House has claimed since May 2011, but from a former senior Pakistani intelligence officer who betrayed the secret in return for much of the $25 million reward offered by the US, and that, while Obama did order the raid and the Seal team did carry it out, many other aspects of the administration’s account were false.

    “Kayani and Pasha” here were Pakistan’s two most senior military leaders at the time of the bin Laden raid.

    Yeah, Hersh is a liberal; I don’t much care for his politics either. But he’s also quite good at what he does. He the guy in the press who first went bigtime public with the My Lai scandal. He beat Jack Anderson to the Glomar Explorer story (Anderson only gets credit for breaking that one because the CIA Director convinced the New York Times – who Hersh worked for at the time – to sit on Hersh’s story about same that was ready considerably earlier than Anderson’s). He’s also gone public with a number of other stories related to various national intel communities and/or governments blatantly lying to the public.

    Jonn’s take on Hersh’s latest is quite different than mine.  FWIW:  best I can tell Hersh has been far closer to right over the years much more often than he’s been wrong when he’s writing about clandestine and/or intel matters. Believe him or not about this one as you like.

    I’d not recommend dismissing out-of-hand his main points here, though. Hersh is one reporter who truly knows how to do his “homework” on this kind of subject – then actually does it before he publishes. Plus, he’s been raising questions about the “official” account of the bin Laden raid for approaching 2 years – and calling out the media for not raising more questions about that account.

    Again:  I don’t agree with Hersh’s politics, but the man knows his business.  And when writing about the intel world, he’s got a pretty good track record.

    As I said earlier, the article is quite long (about 10,000 words) – but if you have some time, IMO it’s damn well worth a read.

    Yeah, IMO your leg was wet again, courtesy of the current Administration, circa mid-2011.  And I’m pretty sure that wasn’t rain.

     

    (PS:  no taradiddles were utilized during the preparation of this article. [smile])