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

Author: Zero Ponsdorf

  • Somewhere an Anti-gun Liberal is Crying

    While I am chuckling.
    Guns are a big seller on Black Friday

    Gun dealers flooded the FBI with background check requests for prospective buyers last Friday, smashing the single-day, all-time high by 32%, according to bureau records.

    Deputy Assistant FBI Director Jerry Pender said the checks, required by federal law, surged to 129,166 during the day, far surpassing the previous high of 97,848 on Black Friday of 2008.

    The actual number of firearms sold last Friday is likely higher because multiple firearms can be included in a transaction by a single buyer. And the FBI does not track actual gun sales.

    OTOH, I need a coupla more SKS carbines and missed out.

  • Damn That Fine Print!

    It  ain’t a done deal so I’m just enjoying a laugh.
    Senate Approves Bill that Legalizes Sodomy and Bestiality in U.S. Military

    The Senate on Thursday evening voted 93-7 to approve a defense authorization bill that includes a provision which not only repeals the military law on sodomy, it also repeals the military ban on sex with animals–or bestiality.

    On Nov. 15, the Senate Armed Services Committee had unanimously approved S. 1867, the National Defense Authorization Act, which includes a provision to repeal Article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ).

    Article 125 of the UCMJ makes it illegal to engage in both sodomy with humans and sex with animals.

    Can’t you just see some Senator or aide saying “What, how’d that get in there?”

    And I just gotta ask… Is this a move to protect gays, or an attempt increase recruitment from among certain ethic/religious groups?

    h/t Don Surber

  • Leave No Man Behind Unless…

    I’ll let our shipmate AW1Tim do the talking from his place.

    A disturbing and infuriating situation has arisen.  Apparently, under the “leadership” of  CDR Renee Richardson, USN – head of the Department of Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel, the US Navy has decided NOT to repatriate the bodies of US Navy sailors interred in Tripoli. These men were sailors from USS Intrepid who lost their lives in an attack against the Barbary pirates.

    This nation has ample resources to repatriate the remains of these brave sailors to their United States, and see them buried with full military honors. Yet, our own Navy, under the leadership of CDR Richardson, has chosen to abandon their bones to the soil of a foreign land, a land that has, more often than not, been hostile to our nation.

    That this slight to these sailors should take place should not surprise anyone who has seen the demise of tradition and honor under recent CNO’s.  Those Navy leaders placed diversity above warfighting, and have chosen to expand their own “diversity enterprise” at Millington while discharging competent Petty Officers from the fleet to “trim the budget”.

    This Navy has chosen to also abandon the former USS Olympia, the last surviving warship of the Great White Fleet to it’s likely demise of either being sent to the breakers, or sunk at sea.

    We are throwing good money down the black hole of shipbuilding on such un-needed and inefficient platforms as LCS & DDG-1000, yet we can’t find the funds to bring a few good men home.  Big Navy has more admirals per sailor than at any point in our history, more staffs and Make-Work commands than ever before, yet we can’t save USS Olympia, the last of her kind.

    CDR Salamander has an excellent piece about this, and I encourage all of you to take a few minutes and read his article. When you’ve finished, call your Congress Critter(s) and give them a piece of your mind regarding this situation.

    The men of USS Intrepid have lain in foreign soil long enough. It’s time to bring them home.

  • Better Late than…

    By now most of the TAH readers have seen this story elsewhere, but just in case:

    Via Don Surber

    Ralphie was born about 70 years too soon. In “A Christmas Story,” he asks the Santa at Higbee’s for a Daisy gun and is told “you’ll poke your eye out, kid.” That was Cleveland, circa 1940.

    In Scottsdale, Arizona, 2011, not only is the weather better but Santa is Second Amendment friendly. Santa will pose with the whole family and their weaponry at the Scottsdale Gun Club from 10 AM to 3 PM on Saturday, December 10. The charge is $5 for members, $10 for non-members.

    I’m so sure I WANT to be pictured with any weapons I might have, but the concept is just sweet.

  • Just In Case You Are Wondering…

    Christmas is just around the corner ya know.

    Since Jonn isn’t paying a bonus this year you kindly folks might be wondering what to get The Navy Geezer?

    This will do quite nicely.

    Zombie-pocalypse? Psh, f*cking bring it. This Mossberg Just-In-Case kit includes a 12-gauge Mossberg 500 Pump-Action, resealable storage bag, waterproof carrying tube, as well as a “Survival Kit in a Can,” multi-tool and serrated knife. Don’t forget to bring your own shells—and lots of them—there are seven billion potential brain-suckers out there.

    I’m fixed for 12 gauge shells; I just need this kit.

    Thanks.

  • MOH Awardee Suing BAE Systems.

    Dunno quite what to make of this?
    Decorated Marine Sues Contractor

    Two months ago, Dakota Meyer was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Barack Obama for his service in Afghanistan, the military’s most prestigious award. On Monday, Sgt. Meyer alleged that a defense contractor has called him mentally unstable and a problem drinker, ruining his chances for a job in the defense industry.

    (…)

    Soon after joining BAE, Sgt. Meyer learned it was trying to sell advanced thermal optic scopes to Pakistan, according to the suit. In an email to his supervisor, identified as Bobby McCreight, Sgt. Meyer voiced his objections to the sale, the lawsuit states.

    “We are taking the best gear, the best technology on the market to date and giving it to guys known to stab us in the back,” Sgt. Meyer wrote to Mr. McCreight, according to the lawsuit. “These are the same people killing our guys.”

    While in the Marines, Sgt. Meyer had served along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Many in the military who have served on the border have said in interviews they view Pakistan as an unreliable ally, as likely to help Taliban insurgents as they are to aid American troops.

    The story gets uglier:

    In the suit, Sgt. Meyer said that after he voiced his criticism, Mr. McCreight began “berating and belittling” him. The supervisor criticized Sgt. Meyer for making a trip with their BAE division president and made sarcastic remarks about Sgt. Meyer’s nomination for the Medal of Honor, allegedly ridiculing his “pending star status,” the suit says.

    My money is on the Marine, but the dancing is gonna be something to watch.

    h/t John Gresham on FB

  • Time Warp – Afghanistan. Chuck Z. Style

    We all recognize that Afghanistan is only barely emerging from its own sort of dark ages.

    Major Chuck Z. may have accidentally discovered a way to move the process along?

    From over at his place:

    Afghans, it seems, have their own slavish adherence to regulations, at least in terms of religion.  The call to stick your ass in the air came about 20 minutes early today.  I was in my office at the Border Police headquarters I have several offices, this one is where I work from to ensure that our mentorship and partnership with these WOGs goes well) but that’s a whole ‘nother ball of wax.

    Anyway, there’s a PA system in my office.  Lots of lights and buttons.  May as well put a “wet paint” sign on it too–I’m going to play with it.  I pushed a couple buttons, and the pre-recorded call to prayer starts up.  I figured it wouldn’t be a big deal, people would check their watches and realize the error.

    Allah is never off time, it seems.  About 20 seconds into the recording (while I was pushing buttons, again, to make it stop) the mosques around the Headquarters started playing the call to prayer.  All the Afghans started filing out of offices and barracks to go pray.

    I asked one of the terps about this–he said that when the prayer call is heard, you go pray, period.  Not everyone has a watch or can tell time, but everyone can hear the call to Allah.  And if a call is heard by a mosque, they will make their call and the others will follow.  Then they will adjust their clocks, so the next call is sounded at a set time from the last call.

    So, I may have figured out a way to establish Chucks Daylight Savings Time.  Just adjust by a couple minutes every day, and soon, I can get Afghanistan off the weird 30-minute time shift (Afghan Time is +30 minutes to everywhere else in the time zone) and eventually have them on Eastern Standard Time.  Sure, their prayers would all be in the middle of the night, but Allah wants what Allah wants.

    To be sure, humans are creatures of habit that CAN be screwed with regardless to their ethnic/religious  background, but the image of  Chuck frantically trying to un-fuck the situation cracked me up.

    I never knew Chuck before he got blown out of his tank in Iraq, but gotta wonder if maybe he has developed a sort of perverse TBI symptom that subconsciously makes weird stuff happen to him.

    A  few days ago the timing of his bowel movements saved him from getting blown up yet again so my question ain’t as silly as it seems.

  • Self Esteem vs Reality

    This does not bode well…

    Top Defense Scientists Send Out S.O.S. for Scientists and Engineers
    I’ll skip to the kicker:

    The decline in teaching our children in STEM fields –science, technology, engineering, and math—is frightening. Just look at the facts: According to the National Center for Education Statistics, a more level comparison from country to country, U.S. eighth-graders science scores ranked 11th against many Asian countries and Russia. It goes downhill by the time high school graduation arrives with a rank of 25 against 34 other nations. Chinese students have an 89 percent college admission rate, higher than America’s 70 percent. Narrowing the focus on science and engineering:

    • India graduates 230,000 engineers every year, another 50,000 earn master degrees and still another 20,000 earn a doctorate.
    • The U.S. graduates about 7,000 engineers each year, but 55 percent are earned by foreign students. Another 3,000 earn master degrees and a mere 9,000 earn a doctorate.

    It’s difficult to get verifiable numbers from China, but I would suspect that they are closer to India’s than ours.

    Of course, what the author calls STEM fields require students to deal with facts, and 2+2=4 kinda stuff.  No blue ribbon just for showing up.