Sunday, June 19, 2011

BOHICA!

Bend over, here it comes, again. Seems that NATO had a "weapons malfunction" and a missile or smart bomb blew up a slew of civilians over in Libya. Including children. Now Gaddafi, Qaddafi, Kaddafi, however we're supposed to spell his name this week is calling for a global jihad against NATO. Please don't bet big money that he means Belgium.

The NATO idiot press officer called it a weapons malfunction. Um, it blew up. It was supposed to blow up. It did not malfunction. That, if it was a malfunction, was a targeting error. Either someone punched the wrong number into the coordinates or someone was looking at some kind of photo and thought that this building looked military so (s)he let 'em have it. It doesn't really matter.

My father's war, WW2, they sent flocks of bombers, blowing up whole cities, and still had to smash Hitler with many thousand ground troops killed. On the other side of the world, the only reason we didn't have to invade the home islands of Japan was the shock of those two atomic bombs. And it's lucky the shock worked because we were out of nukes when those two fired.

The next war wee had, air power didn't keep the Chinese from coming in and almost pushing McArthur's troops into the sea. The civilian leadership, rightly or wrongly, refused to bomb China and the Norks didn't have much worth bombing. So our air was tactical. Effective, yes, but still only tactical.

Fast forward to my war. The beginning of the gunships and then the first smart bombs. Smart bombs were going to change warfare forever. No longer would it take hundreds of bombs to knock out one bridge or one factory. Now one or two would do the trick. It didn't work because we didn't have the political will to abide by our treaty obligations and go to the aid of the RVN when the North Vietnamese broke the peace treaty and invaded, again. This is one of the left's proudest accomplishments. Some two million Cambodians dead but, what the Hell, we stopped Nixon's war! Funny how most of the Americans who died, died in LBJ, the Democrat that was elected on a peace in southeast Asia platform.

Since then we've fought several smaller wars plus two fairly big ones in Iraq. Each one had air power up front, taking all the headlines, each one needing Armor, Artillery and Infantry. Big surprise. The new game, of course, is how we take the casualties after we win the war.

And now this. It was bad enough that we had the al Qaeda and the Islamic Jihad, along with all those Iranian front groups out to kill us, now we have a new bunch, with a proven track record.

Meanwhile baby Assad, the chinless wonder is doing far worse in Syria than anyone in Libya ever thought of. And how many were killed in Iran awhile back?

So, what, exactly is the rule? Do we go to bombing to protect oil imports to France and Italy? I almost said "go to war" but we aren't at War. The President says so. Um, if it ain't war and we're killing folks, isn't that um, what's the word? Murder?

Here's my problem. We are blowing these folks up, for no real reason anyone can articulate, or if they can, they haven't bothered. When Reagan blew up Qaddafi's place he articulated a reason, that Libya bombed that nightclub full of American GIs. Agree or not, there was a reason given.

Now the shoe is on the other foot. Qaddafi has every reason to send whoever he can to not only blow up our servicemen and women but now, civilians. And we're going to say that it's not fair? Um, we killed their civilians.

Obama is going to be in serious trouble if Qaddafi manages a retaliatory attack and wipes out a couple dozen, or couple thousand citizens. and it ain't like that clown posse of Napolitano's is gonna stop them. That bunch couldn't catch cold walking through Michigan naked in January.

Does anyone in the Obama Administration manage to walk and chew bubble gum at the same time? I do not believe, even as war weary as some of us are, that Obama couldn't have gone to the Congress and said "Qaddafi needs to go, here is why" and not gotten the go ahead. Qaddafi could still retaliate, of course, but and least then Obama could have some cover. Not that it did Bush any good, of course but still. Some cover.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Fast And Furious?

I haven't said anything here about Operation Fast And Furious here because a whole lot of folks with more resources have been right in the middle of uncovering this mess. Folks like Michelle Malkin and The Sipsey Street Irregulars, both of whom I would have on my sidebar if I hadn't have borked my blogroll. Still, I have this one little thing to say...

Anyone who buys a firearm at a licensed dealer must provide identification, fill out the GCA'68 paperwork and then wait while the dealer calls it into the ATF. The ATF then gives a yes or no answer. Repeat, no firearm goes out the door without prior approval. *

Now we see that the Mexican government has filed suit against US gunmaking firms, the few that are left, over this. Um, it ain't the gunmaking firms, it's the government. And furthermore, why isn't the Mexican government suing all those outfits that make AK47s? After all, there are more of those down there than anything else, although most of them seem to be the Chinese copy.

So far it seems like the ATF let 1700-1800 guns "walk" into Mexico. This, of course, is a tiny fraction of the guns the cartels have. Seems they buy most from international dealers in places like Venezuela, the second biggest supply is Mexican soldiers either deserting to join the cartels or just selling the weapons.

So, pardon me for bein' a pore dumb redneck but shouldn't Mexico be suing the ATF, Venezuela, China and their own Army before they get to our gunmakers?

Okay, we know that the guns involved in this operation were used in at least two murders of US law enforcement officers, another was used to shoot down a Mexican government helo. Here is something else we know. The people that figured this operation out call Sarah Palin stupid. God save the republic.

* Certain firearms, those made before 1898 and muzzle loaders seem to still be exempt from all this but I haven't noticed the Cartels using Brown Bess Muskets much.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Flag Day, 2011

So as soon as it was daylight I put Cochise' Apache Princess out in the backyard, let Bingo T. Pug out the front and put out my flag. I sometimes wonder why I bother, this bein' a three house street and all, then I remember that I'm flying her for Linda Lou and me.

I read that there are folks in the media and in Washington, DC claiming that the recession is over. They must not get out much. I live in Texas. The state where some 38% of all new jobs since the recession started got "created". I hate that word, no one creates a job. An employer works hard enough to build the business and then needs someone to do some of the work. With a little luck then the boss and the new employee work hard enough to where there is enough work that a new employee is needed so they hire someone else.

Anyway, over a third of all these new jobs are in Texas. Yet we drive down the roads and see all these vacant buildings where there once were businesses. We see all these houses for sale, many have been on the market since the Pelosi Speakership was news. I guess not being able to travel is a good thing now. If the "Vibrant Texas Economy" looks like this the rest of the country must look like the poor side of Dogpatch.

So Obama is going to focus on jobs now. How many times is that now? Does Obama even understand what a job is? Or why there are jobs? I don;t see where he and Me-Chelle have ever had real jobs where they actually created anything of value. Or even bought or sold anything of value. Obama is focusing on jobs? His EPA is causing several big coal fired electric generating plants with nothing to replace them. Word is that bills will go up at least eleven percent. I'd bet that is the lowball estimate. Now look, if Einstein were still alive he probably wouldn't be staying up nights worrying about me outsmarting him but here's my question. Grey Davis was fired as California Governor, right? Over electric rates, among other things but failure to provide power was the big thing.

So, Obama is, as he promised, going after coal, causing electric rates to "necessarily skyrocket." This after seeing Gray Davis fired. And he's doing this before the election. And this Obama feller goes around talking about how smart he is?

Tuesday, June 07, 2011

Congressman Weeniewagger

I really don't know where to begin with this Congressman Weiner thing. I go over to one of the 12 bazillion links from Ace of Spades or the Puppyblender and see that liberal women are attracted to Weiner because he screams at Republicans. Then they call this chicken lipped nebish an "alpha male". That pencil neck an alpha male? Heck, he'd have to study hard to be a zeta male. Someone tell me how long this punk would last in boot camp.

Weiner is the result of the feminizing of the American male. Not all males have been feminized, of course, it's just that those who have not are unwelcome in polite society. A Marine or an old school Boatswain's Mate must use the servant's entrance and not come into the parlor with the "quality", at least not until reaching the Flag Officer ranks.

Weiner isn't alone, of course. Look at the new mayor of Chicago. Another pencil neck who has made his living destroying other people by using words that, in my great grandfather's day would have got him horsewhipped, if not called out to a gunfight.

Weiner is not the problem, merely a symptom. I am not going to ever say that men with no chests should be thrown out of society, I am saying that men (and women) should be held responsible for their speech. And, yes, I mean fistfights. I mean we should again recognise the concept of "fighting words".

Personally I don't care what kind of pictures the Weeniewagger sends to women who ask for a look at his needledick. If he sent those same pictures to a woman who had not asked to see his ridiculously small package I would expect her husband, boyfriend or father to go searching for him. Nor would I be particularly interested in what he held in his hands. Heck, most of the young women who are paid to make me ache in places that I haven't even thought of in decades could hunt him down and stomp him like a snake. And bein' good Texas gals, they would! Weiner is supposed to be a grown man, let him take full responsibility for his actions, and their consequences.

Heck, if he sent such pictures to my daughter she would first pray for him. If he showed up and she thought he was a danger to her children she'd shoot him down like a rabid coyote. Or her husband would.

Another thing that bothers me about this whole thing is how the lefties always talk about we, on the right, want to force our values on everyone. Yet it is the left who want Kindergarten kids to start learning about condoms. So, when they do it it's "education", if we do it it's forcing our values on people. Well, we haven't always lived up to our values, as a matter of simple fact, there has only been one perfect person in all history, according to most of us in this country. And He believed in fighting words if you look at what He did in that temple to the moneychangers.

Now it may seem like I too am using fighting words. Well, okay. I'm a little old for fistfights but, if a leftist, especially one I have named here mad enough, come on down. Put a little something in your hand, we'll go out to the vacant lot and see who walks out. I'm game, are they? If not, they shouldn't talk like that about us and they shouldn't strut around like banty roosters. Congressman Weiner may have stones, although from that underwear pic you couldn't prove it. He does, otherwise, act like a screeching eunuch.

My Computer Has The Fantods

I can't get online much because the old computer that I plugged in when my new computer got bit with a bad virus of some sort now has a bad case of the screaming fantods. We are, for the next few months, stuck with dialup. And, out here, that means aol. Every other Internet provider with dialup is long distance from here. Now I wasn't exactly a big fan of aol even before Huffington took over the place, it's worse now. Still, a few months and we'll have something else.

My problem is that my computer starts just computing away at something no one is telling it to do. Further, I sign on to Firefox and the firefox window won't stay on Firefox. Even on this, Linda Lou's computer. Sigh.

Anyhow, I do not know what waol is. Whatever it is, it takes over and won't turn loose. I fight with it and then it comes up "program not responding" on me and when I hit the end now button, it won't end. Even pushing the big button on the front of the computer won't work, I have to unplug it.

What I have to do is figure out why Firefox won't give me a Firefox screen. Oddly, on this, Linda Lou's computer, which she guards jealously when she's awake, Firefox gives me an "Inbox" screen and I keep asking for Firefox.

Meanwhile we seem to have picked up something awful, a while back my sister called, out of the blue, because she got an E-mail from our aol account, swearing up and down that I needed everyone to send money because I'd been robbed at gunpoint in London. Now we haven't been able to buy enough gas to go to that little six stool lunch counter in Hugo, Oklahoma but we're supposed to have driven to Great Britain?

This on top of the person or persons who bought a plane ticket to Cairo, Egypt. Now folks, I don't fly. And if I did fly, there isn't enough in our bank account to fly to Cairo, Illinois.

So, anyhow, I won't be around much until we get this all sorted out. Oddly we were still paying for a three year contract with Norton Antivirus. The folks in India and I were getting to be quite the friends as I kept trying to explain to them that my antivirus didn't work and they kept telling me that they couldn't help it because of my slow Internet connection. So, I asked for my money back, they said that THAT was not a tech support issue. So, here I am with a very expensive computer, on which payments are still due, a three year antivirus contract, on which payments are still due, and the computer won't work because of a virus infection which I cannot afford to make go away. Sigh.

Meanwhile I had much to say about Weinergate. and much to say about the anniversary of the Battle of Midway and D-Day. The anniversary of the battle of the Valley of the Greasy Grass, aka Little Big Horn is coming up, too.

In other news the Physical Terrorists are taking a lot out of me. They are adding weight to the weight machines, adding more exercises and, generally workin' me like an old Missouri mule. I told the little girl Physical Terrorist who has more muscles than I do that if she kept workin' me like a rented mule I was gonna forget I'm housebroke.. Poor girl didn't understand. So I asked her if she'd ever seen a housebroke mule. Heck, the poor girl didn't know exactly what a mule is. This in Greenville, Texas where folks were still using mules right up til Ike was President.

I'm gettin' old. Oh well, when I was a kid people not much older than I am now were talking about how it was during Teddy Roosevelt's Presidency.

The good news? They might build a muscle on me. I have been resisting putting our new laptop online here at home but, I might as well. We got it so Linda Lou could get online at the hospitals, not that she did, very much. Might as well use it, by the time we're able to go anywhere it will be obsolete.