Sony advert

I've always thought "stop motion" looked pretty cool...this advertisement for Sony TVs is pretty cool as well.

H/T Last of the Few

Major B-Two-bige

In the spirit (get it?) of Southpark's Major Boobage episode...the B-2 guys can't be stopped they can only be contained.

Vets For Freedom

This tour came through Fort Hood just prior to Easter. Go see them if they are near you!

Girl Friday, 29 MAR 08

Another week gone and the end of March approaches. It's baseball season and all baseball fans have hope for their teams at least for a while (except the Rangers).

This week's Girl Friday, Playboy Playmate Cristy Thom can't seem to get out of the rack. Hope you all of you have a great weekend!

Litterbug!

U.S. Army Soldiers drop leaflets over several villages in the Rashaad Valley near the Kirkuk province of Iraq, March 23, 2008. The Soldiers are assigned to the 10th Mountain Division's 350th Tactical Psychological Operations. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Samuel Bendet.

How To Buy More F-22s

Maybe the USAF should take a page out of the RAFs book and start fundraising. To pay for one more F-22 they'd only have to sell maybe 900,000,000 of these suits...yeah, that's do-able.

RAF bikini ready for take-off
Last Updated: 2:53am GMT 27/03/2008

The Royal Air Force is celebrating its 90th anniversary with the launch of a "show-stopping" diamante-encrusted bikini.

The swimwear, which leaves little room for hanging medals, is part of the RAF Collection's Spring range.

The new range coincides with the RAF's 90th anniversary on April 1. The RAF hopes sales of the bikini, which features diamante roundels, will soar.

Some of the money raised by the licensing of the collection will support the RAF free museums, helping to preserve the history of the RAF.

A spokeswoman for the RAF Collection said: "The collection will enable the next generation to own a piece of one of the United Kingdom's most prestigious brands."

In RAF colours, the bikini top retails at £20, while the bottoms are £15. Sizes are available in 8 to 18.

The RAF Collection website, which sells the bikini online, describes it as a "show-stopping bikini (which) will make anyone's head turn, yet which is distinctly tasteful and flattering to the figure". The garment is also available through mail order.

The RAF advanced into new territory with the launch of a new leisurewear fashion range a year ago, when another bikini, decorated with a pink and blue version of the RAF roundel, was launched.

You know they'd get more profit per square inch of material if they sold swimsuits like this



H/T Last of the Few

Heavy Metal Southpark

I suppose you have to be a certan age to find this amusing...but to me this is pretty damn funny. I think the car in the actual movie was a Vette...but it's been a while since I've seen it.

See Kenny from the show Southpark ride the pre-historic bird from the movie "Heavy Metal"



For more Southpark stuff go HERE

It Doesn't Happen Very Often...

But I wish I could be out in Hollywood to see and hear this...

Yeah, they don't make em like that anymore. SIGH!

Easter Smack Down

This is old, and I've posted it before...BUT...The Easter Bunny Hates YOU!

WHAAAAAA!

In this article from the LA Times comes the news that USAF UAV operators compare themselves with prisioners...prisioners that get to go home at night and sleep with their significant others, or prowl the strip in Vegas...but other than that it's just like being a prisioner.

Pentagon battle breaks out over a spy plane

Defense Secretary Gates wants more unmanned Predator aircraft in Iraq. But the Air Force worries about the long-term viability of the spy plane program.

By Peter Spiegel, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
March 21, 2008

WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has ordered the Air Force to put nearly all of its unmanned Predator aircraft into the skies over the Middle East, forcing the service to take steps that officers worry could hobble already-stressed drone squadrons.

Pressure from the Defense secretary in recent months has nearly doubled the number of Predators available to help hunt insurgents and find roadside bombs in Iraq. But it has forced air commanders into a scramble for crews that officers said could hurt morale and harm the long-term viability of the Predator program.
...Some officers said pressure from Gates resulted in one plan that could have taken the Air Force down a path similar to the German Luftwaffe, which cut back training in World War II to get more pilots in the air.

"That was the end of their air force," said Col. Chris Chambliss, commander of the Air Force's Predator wing. The Air Force plan, presented to the military leadership in January, eventually was scaled back.

The surge in drone flights is Gates' latest push for short-term measures to win the Iraq war that will have long-term implications for the U.S. military. In recent months, Gates has campaigned to increase the size of the Army and to ship new, heavily armored troop transporters, known as MRAPs, to Iraq.

Because of the far-reaching implications of the Predator debate, a fight has broken out between the Army and the Air Force over control of one of the most heralded technological successes of the war.

The Army has argued that more overhead drones will save troops' lives, a position largely adopted by Gates. But the Air Force has complained that simply demanding more, with no end in sight, would severely strain the service -- just as repeated deployments of ground soldiers has strained the Army.

"The leadership has to be careful," said one senior Air Force official who, like several others, spoke on condition of anonymity when describing internal debates. "If you keep on pushing them and pushing them and pushing them, and they say, 'Yes, yes, yes, yes,' at some point, they're going to break. Because they ain't going to say no until they break. No one wants to say 'uncle.' "

Gates set up a team within his office to examine ways to increase Predator flights last year, when 12 were continuously flying combat patrols. Now there are 22, and Gates is pressing for more.

His push to expand the use of drones grew out of a conviction last year that many agencies within the Pentagon were not at full war footing. By then, Gates already had taken aim at a pair of high-profile problems: failures that led to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center scandal, and MRAPs.

In an interview this year, Gates said the lack of spy planes -- known as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, or ISR aircraft -- was his third major gripe with the military leadership he inherited.

"In ISR, it was business as usual," Gates said. "I really pushed the Army and the Air Force -- particularly the Air Force -- and I intend to keep pushing because the unmet need is huge."

In response, the Air Force has stepped up training. Next year, commanders will train 200 two-man crews to remotely fly a fleet of Predators that numbers more than 100, as well as a larger version called the Reaper, mostly out of a spartan air base in the Nevada desert. Trainers will turn out more pilots for Predators next year than for all other Air Force fighter planes combined.

But in the most dramatic example of brinkmanship in the struggle, the plan debated by the military leadership in January would have shut down the Predator training operation in order to increase to 36 the number of Predators continuously flying combat patrols in the Middle East by August.

The plan was dubbed "all in" by its developer, Gen. T. Michael Moseley, the Air Force chief of staff.

Although the most drastic parts of Moseley's "all in" plan have not been carried out, the Predator program has been forced through three makeovers since July, and the service has had to take aggressive steps to meet the new demand.

At first, the Air Force extended the tours of the Predator crews. By September, however, officials began to recall many of the pilots who had completed their Predator duty and left for fighter and bomber assignments elsewhere.

Then, as part of the January deal, Predator and Reaper crews were frozen. Even pilots who have been flying drones nonstop for three years will have to remain in Nevada for at least two more years. Many of them originally were trained as fighter and bomber pilots.

Air Force officials are acutely aware that their concerns may seem like whining, particularly compared with Army counterparts who serve 15-month tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Still, Predator crews have been working 13-hour days, sometimes six days a week, for three years with no end in sight.

"Now we're saying: 'Hey, you guys are just going to be here until we stop,' " said Chambliss, the Predator wing commander, comparing the tours of duty to "a prisoner with a finite term versus a prisoner with a life sentence."

Cry me a river.

Damn Allergies

H/T BLACKFIVE

A child suffering from cancer becomes the youngest trooper in the 1st CAV.

From the Killeen Daily Herald

By George P. Slefo
Killeen Daily Herald

FORT HOOD – Five-year-old Gaven Cox was given one wish to do anything he wanted.

Instead of asking to go to Sea World or to meet Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, Gaven modestly asked for some McDonald's food. The child's parents laughed and told him to make another choice.

"He told us he wanted to be an Army soldier," said Melissa Heminger, Gaven's mom. "I was a little bit surprised that he asked for McDonald's, but in reality, he wanted to be a soldier since he was 3." ...

...While the Army has age restrictions on how old a person must be to enlist, it decided to make an exception.

Gaven, the nation's youngest soldier, is from Crandall and was "sworn in" there. Crandall is 27 miles southeast of Dallas.

The 5-year-old and his family arrived at Fort Hood early Thursday morning and were greeted by more than a dozen soldiers. He was wearing a miniature-sized combat uniform. In a few minutes, he was given a Kevlar helmet and dog tags and was promoted from specialist to sergeant.

After his promotion, young Sgt. Cox gave a proper Army salute and was given a mission...

For the rest go HERE and bring some Kleenex, it's allergy season.

Easter Egg Hunt CXL

After a tragic military working dog accident, the annual Fort Hood Easter Egg Hunt and Spring Festival has been cancelled, after the guest of honor was eaten by a working dog known as Bango.

Pole Dancing Candy

Welcome to the "Peeps Show"!

H/T Ace of Spades HQ

Things That Make You Go HMMMMM

From page 23 of the Army Times dated, 24 MAR 2008.

In honor of the 5th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq the Army Times has published some facts and figures. One such figure was the number of flight hours flown in support of operations.

USAF: 633,000 (since 2005, no data was available for years prior)
US Army: 2.2 million (this figure was for both OIF and OEF, one can assume the OIF figure will be a little more than half of this because there are more aviation ops in OIF)
USMC: 576,000

Another figure was awards given

MOH: Army: 1
USMC: 1

DSC/AF Cross/ Navy Cross
USAF: 0
USA: 8
USMC: 17
USN: 1

Silver Star
USAF: 11
USA: 385
USMC: 77
USN: 40

Legion of Merit
USAF: 3
USA: 59
USMC: 28
USN: N/A

Distinguished Flying Cross
USAF: 269
USA: 96
USMC: 24
USN: N/A

Bronze Star
USAF: 1881 (91 for valor)
USA: 58,877 (1,843 for valor)
USMC: 1,940
USN: 2,258

There was no info given for Air Medals.

What is interesting to me, other than the sheer number of bronze stars awarded to every first sergeant and commander company grade and above, is the fact that although the Army outflies the USAF in hours by about a 2 to 1 ratio, the DFC ratio is reversed (roughly).

I guess those guys are just that much more brave than us Army guys...that or thier chain of command is actually willing to reward people for actions taken on the field of battle. What a novel concept.

Girl Friday, 21 MAR 08

Someone's not quite ready for the easter parade.

Dana Dicillo, is the cyber girl of the week for Playboy, she's also the Girl Friday, for this Friday, the 21st of March 2008.

Y'all have a great weekend!

Jack Ryan to Return

In this STORY from Ain't it Cool we're told the following:

The plan, apparently, is to have Raimi direct a whole series of movies focused on a Ryan even younger than Ben Affleck. The first could hit cinemas as early as summer 2010.

According to Variety, the studio has not decided whether to use another Tom Clancy novel or just go the James Bond route and switch to stories not based on books.

If they really wanted to go younger, the ideal character to use would be Clark...but what the hell do I know, I've actually read some of the books. I look for this to get horribly jacked up.

The English Language Just Isn't My Bag Baby...

This sign spotted during a "piece" rally in San Fran...

5 years to many what?

English isn't their thing ya know, they spent all their time in school studing geo-politics...

yeah right, and by geo-politics I mean doobie rolling and hash pipe maintenance.

H/T to ZOMBIETIME for hanging out with hippies so we don't have to.

Rollin' With Saget

Kinda old (I think I saw this back in '04) and filthy as hell...



Still funny though...'night Michelle

Girl Friday, 14 MAR 08

Lacey Underall? No it's Karen Witter, Miss March 1982...she looks like Lacey though, or the actress that played Lacey.

Have a great weekend!

Where's Tony?

If she would only stay there the troops would be happy and the Cowboys might win.

Via Dirty Harry's Place

California Dreamin'

Dreaming of day when there will be an organization that is sworn to defend the rights of free speech and other cool stuff dude...



I'm not a big fan of the "Daily Show" but this is pretty good.

Link stolen from Ace of Spades HQ who stole it from Hot Air who stole from Comedy Central.

Pussycats in Kuwait

From this DOD release

America Supports You: Stars Rock Kuwaiti Desert in Support of Troops
By Samantha L. Quigley
American Forces Press Service


CAMP BUEHRING, Kuwait, March 11, 2008 – For more than four hours last night, Camp Buehring, in the middle of the Kuwaiti desert, became a hard-rocking outdoor amphitheater.
Before the music began, about 5,000 servicemembers heard a message of support and appreciation from President Bush. Both Lt. Gen. James J. Lovelace, commander of U.S. Army Central and Combined Forces Land Component Command, and his deputy, Maj. Gen. Dennis E. Hardy, visited with the performers and thanked them for their support.

Then, before comedian Carlos Mencia got the troops laughing, he gave them some words of thanks.

“You guys work every single day doing a job that other people would never even dream of doing,” he said. “You do it proudly, and you do it with a smile, and I salute all of you.”

Mencia’s job was to keep the troops in stitches between music sets by Disturbed, Filter, the Pussycat Dolls, and actress/singer Jessica Simpson, a job at which he more than succeeded.

Then it was DJ Z-Trip’s turn to crank up the volume on some special mixes.

The troops’ reactions to the rock groups were quite different from they way they reacted to Simpson and the Pussycat Dolls. The latter groups elicited shouts of appreciation, and even marriage proposals.

There was no doubt the troops were excited to have the entertainers come all the way out to Kuwait just to perform for them.

“Yeah, it’s breaking my heart,” Indiana Army National Guardsman Staff Sgt. Brad Thurman joked, adding that he’s looking forward to seeing Disturbed

It's nice that the FOBITs were shown some love...now if we heard about these people performing at FOB Falcon or Taji, that would be something. But the folks at the pointy end of the stick don't get that many shows.

Good on all the "stars" for coming though!

I'm guessing My Space has something to do with this...just guessing.

Goodbye to the Cockroach

The USAF says goodbye to the F-117 at Holloman AFB, NM today...


From Ares:

The F-117 has been on its way to retirement since the early 1990s, when plans for a modernized version were passed over in favor of the Joint Strike Fighter. A Serbian missile battery shot down a Nighthawk in March 1999, raising questions about the jet's vulnerability even at night. (It was never cleared for action in daylight). By the 2000s, the F-117 was dedicated to a small set of missions, including precise attack on very hard targets and strikes where "eyes on target" were essential.

The USAF says that the F-117 is being replaced by the F-22, but that's not really correct. Until the F-22 gets its synthetic aperture radar (SAR) mode, which won't happen until 2012, the Raptor is bombing on GPS coordinates alone, which is inherently less accurate than the F-117's laser designator.

Also, there's no known hard-target version of the 1,000 lb GBU-32 Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM), the biggest weapon carried by the F-22. The F-117's combination of stealth, laser accuracy and hard-target capability won't be equalled until the JSF enters USAF service.

Guitar Heroes

Army aviators are doing far more than anyone knows in the GWOT...Michal Yon tells the story of some aviators belonging to 4-6 CAV...

Guitar Heroes
Michael Yon
Mosul, Iraq
10 March 2008

Men crept in darkness to plant a bomb. They moved in an area where last year I was helping to collect fallen American soldiers from the battlefield.

Terrorists. The ones who murder children in front of their parents. The ones who take drugs and rape women and boys. The ones who blow up schools. The ones who have been forcibly evicted from places like Anbar Province, Baghdad and Baqubah by American and Iraqi forces. Terrorists are here now in Mosul. They call themselves al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). AQI cannot win without Baghdad, and cannot survive without Mosul. The Battle for Mosul is evolving into AQI’s last great stand.

And there were the men planting the bomb. It is unknown if the men with the explosives were al Qaeda, but they were planting a bomb and that was enough. Many terrorists murder only for money. Like hit men. They might have nothing against the victim. It’s just business. Although understanding enemy motivations is key to winning a war, out on the battlefield, such considerations can become secondary, as divining the motives of a would-be killer is less important than stopping him.

The bombers were being watched. Invisible to them, prowling far overhead, was a Predator.

The Predator is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) whose eye sees through the darkness. The night sky is the jungle where it hides. The Predator strikes with more suddenness and force than any tiger. I often watch the live feed streaming down into the Tactical Operations Centers (TOC) around Iraq, while crosshairs track the enemy, and the screen lists data such as altitude, azimuth, ground speed, and the precise grid coordinates of the target. The Predator carries a deadly Hellfire missile, but also has other weapons, like the crosshairs on its eye, which links down to soldiers watching the video and data feed. The soldiers have radios to other soldiers with massive arrays of weapons. With that combination, every weapon the US arsenal can be brought into action. Unarmed spy planes, like the Shadow, often allow enemies to escape—the difference between success and failure is often measured in seconds. The Predator can launch an attack with its Hellfire, but the most devastating attacks are usually the result of closely-coordinated teamwork between soldiers on the ground and in the air, using information provided by the Predator above. Combat at this level is an elegant dance under a burning roof.

The Predator peered down on the terrorists planting the bomb. There were too many targets for one Hellfire missile, and it’s better to conserve the weapon when possible, since the Predator must fly far to reload.

A group of four Kiowa Warrior pilots were only a few minutes away from the enemy, but their helicopters were on the ground and the engines were cold, while the pilots were waiting in a building near the runway, playing Guitar Hero to pass the time.

A soldier interrupted the Guitar Hero session, telling the pilots to get in the air. Orders would come over the radio. The pilots abandoned Guitar Hero and raced out the door into the cold night to their OH-58D Kiowa Warriors, economy-sized helicopters that would make a Ford Pinto seem spacious. The pilots crammed two each into the two helicopters, strapping in, cranking engines, while radio chatter had already started. The pilots learned that the Predator had identified a target, which it would laser-designate for a Hellfire shot from a Kiowa.

Minutes after the first alert, rotors were chopping the cold air, the instrument readings looked good. The pilots changed the pitch of their rotors to bite the air and lifted slightly off the ground, backing out of their parking spaces like cars. After backing out, they stopped in a hover, and began to move forward, pulling away from the other helicopters. The Kiowa Warriors lifted into the sky over the runway, heading south, then east toward the lights of the city of Mosul only a minute away. They didn’t get far...

...Pilots are not supposed to fly under one hundred fifty feet but are often at more like twenty or thirty feet, though I have seen some fly much lower. In 2005, I photographed a Kiowa and could read the time on the pilot’s watch (without telephoto). I asked an infantry commander if he thought the pilot would get into trouble if that photo were published, and he suggested not to publish it, so I canned it. LTC Jamison leaves the altitude to the discretion of the pilot in charge, but generally they have to be either very high, or very low.

The quick and the dead: Truly

During the Jihad Shift, the pilots’ only real defense is to swoop low and fast, point their rockets or .50-caliber straight at the enemy and squeeze the trigger, while often the left-seater is leaning out the door shooting their M-4 rifle. This is “Red Baron” stuff. The machine gun and rockets are locked rigidly on Kiowas, unlike an Apache where the pilot can fly a safe distance and practically just look at a target and think bad thoughts and the target bursts into flames. For the Kiowas to draw blood during the Jihad Shift, they have to take the same chances that mosquitoes take when they land on the back of your neck. In fact, the codeword the insurgents use for Kiowas is “mosquitoes.”

The Jihad Shift often results in shootout where two people in a tiny helicopter fight an enemy who is often better armed and waiting in ambush. The enemy actively tries to draw the Kiowas into ground-based ambushes. At least sixteen Red Catcher helicopters have been hit by enemy fire in the first eight months, often causing severe damage. But for serious luck and fancy flying, it’s a wonder that Red Catchers haven’t been shot down all over Mosul...

For the rest of the story go HERE.

Just to set the record straight, Apache crews can't always sit back and kill the bad guys from a distance, I know it seems that way to those that only see it through the gun camera tapes. But I have lost friends and have seen too many aircraft come back shot up after missions...I know better.

C-130 Dance Party

Quite possibly 99% more gay than any USAF video ever posted before.

This doesn't exactly fill me with confidence about those C-130 rides I have been forced to endure in country.

Link via Last of the Few

Sunday Motivator

Someone is really hard up for a drink.

What The Hell Is In The Water Out There?

At the risk of insulting all people from California...WTF Dude?!?

From OPFOR comes the link to this STORY

Anti-war judge rejects foster teen's bid to join military
By Dana Bartholomew, Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 03/07/2008 07:16:45 AM PST


SIMI VALLEY - Shawn Sage long dreamed of joining the military, and watching "Full Metal Jacket" last year really sold him on becoming a Marine.

But last fall, a Los Angeles Superior Court commissioner dashed the foster teen's hopes of early enlistment for Marine sniper duty, plus a potential $10,000 signing bonus.

In denying the Royal High School student delayed entry into the Marine Corps, Children's Court Commissioner Marilyn Mackel reportedly told Sage and a recruiter that she didn't approve of the Iraq war, didn't trust recruiters and didn't support the military.

"The judge said she didn't support the Iraq war for any reason why we're over there," said Marine recruiter Sgt. Guillermo Medrano of the Simi Valley USMC recruiting office.

"She just said all recruiters were the same - that they `all tap dance and tell me what I want to hear.' She said she didn't want him to fight in it."

Sage, 17, said he begged for Mackel's permission.

"Foster children shouldn't be denied (an) ability to enlist in the service just because they're foster kids," he said. "Foster kids shouldn't have to go to court to gain approval to serve one's country."

Mackel, a juvenile dependency commissioner at the Children's Court in Monterey Park, declined through a clerk to speak about any court case or comments she may have made in court.

Transcripts of juvenile court hearings require a special release from a judge. Court
officials said a transcript of the Sage hearing, if released, would not be available for a week or more...

To read the whole story go HERE

More Motivation

For more like this go to HERE

Uh....OK

I received this link from The Bronze.

And with that I present chicks in bikinis firing automatic weapons...



...it's like your own little "R Rated" Candy Stripe Nurses movie from the 70's without the nudity...it makes no sense at all but you can't look away from it.

Outside the Wire

Remember The Alamo

From the Texican Tattler

On this day in 1836 the Alamo was lost...

To the People of Texas & all Americans in the world

Fellow Citizens & Compatriots

I am besieged by a thousand or more of the Mexicans under Santa Anna. I have sustained a continual Bombardment & cannonade for 24 hours & have not lost a man. The enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion, otherwise, the garrison are to be put to the sword, if the fort is taken. I have answered the command with a cannon shot, & our flag still waves proudly from the walls. I shall never surrender or retreat. Then, I call on you in the name of Liberty, of patriotism & everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid with dispatch. The enemy is receiving reinforcements daily & will no doubt increase to three or four thousand in four or five days. If this call is neglected, I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible & die like a soldier who never forgets what is due his own honor & that of his country. VICTORY or DEATH.

William Barret Travis(1)
Commandancy of the Alamo, Béxar
Feby. 24, 1836

VICTORY OR DEATH!
RIP Defenders of the Alamo.

Motivation

Girl Friday, 7 MAR 08

Happy Friday!

Demi Jessica (what kind of name is that?!?) is a Cyber Girl of the Week for Playboy. More significantly she is the Girl Friday for this Friday the 7th of March.

Remember the Alamo!

Female Bloggers Reveal All...

H/T My Pet Jawa

In hot blog on blog action 5 female bloggers like Amanda Carpenter (pictured below) reveal "everything" about themselves.

Amanda started paying her own bills at 17, paid her own way through college at Ball State after a career ending injury cost her a softball scholarship, and she had, literally, 27 different jobs -- at Levis, Bath And Body Works, cocktail waitressing, the Sunglass Hut, landscaping, etc. -- before she got a full-time position after graduation.

In her senior year, ironically, Amanda wasn't allowed to join the school paper because she wasn't a journalism major, so she started rabblerousing online. She wrote about how the school's tuition money was being spent, she posted professors' salaries, and she started getting more and more attention -- some of it negative -- for her work. Those efforts eventually helped land her a post-college job with Human Events. From there, she moved on to a full-time gig with Townhall. She also blogs at Glamour.

Sounds like she had a hard time holding a job...wonder what the hell is going on there. ;)

For more "revealing" stuff go to THIS PLACE and have your every wish come true...that is if your wish is to read about 5 fem blogers and their adventures in blogging.

Sounds Good To Me

FCC Okays Nudity On TV If It’s Alyson Hannigan

FCC Okays Nudity on TV...as long as it's Alyson Hannigan

Gun Incident Near the Bush Ranch

CNN reports about a pistol packing grandma near the President's ranch in Crawford.

CRAWFORD, Texas (CNN) — A Danish journalist came this close to getting shot Saturday by an elderly woman packing a pistol near President Bush's ranch here in what was easily the strangest incident I've ever witnessed covering the White House.

It all started so innocently as I sat with a group of Danish journalists just down the street from Bush's ranch during a visit by Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen. The two leaders were having lunch on the ranch, so I was waiting at a nearby historic one-room schoolhouse with White House staff to interview Rasmussen after the meal. Then the prime minister was going to do a brief press conference with the Danish press corps.

Terkel Svensson, a writer for the Danish News Agency, could not get wireless Internet access at the schoolhouse to file a story. But Svensson could get his cell phone working so he called his editor in
Copenhagen and started wandering across a quiet country road as he chatted away.

"I was just so occupied dictating my story that I didn't really see where I went," Svensson told me later. "I was just walking and talking."

What Svensson didn't realize was that he had stopped walking a couple hundred feet away, on the front lawn of an elderly woman. An elderly woman who looked through her window and didn't like that a strange man was standing outside her house. An elderly woman who had, um, a gun.


Next thing you know the woman is outside, no more than a few dozen feet from the journalist, demanding that he leave. "Suddenly she comes out and she says, 'Get off my property. You're trespassing,'" recalled Svensson.

Svensson was too preoccupied to notice the pistol, and was not aware that Texas law gives homeowners leeway on using a weapon when someone is trespassing on your property. All of us journalists across the street were too far away to see the pistol at first, until a Danish photographer with a telephoto lens announced to a bunch of us that there was indeed a weapon in the elderly woman's right hand.

For the rest go HERE. There's much more entertainment to be had in the comments.

Would I have handled it another way? Yeah, but there is no evidence that the gun was cocked or even loaded. That an old lady in the Texas countryside has a weapon is a surprise to someone? Methinks they are making a bigger deal out of it than it is, because it fits their preconceived notions about Texas and Texans. Oh Well...welcome to Texas, now get the hell out.

A Low Pass...

Well a bunch of low passes actually...enjoy.



Taken from The Last of the Few

I'm Sure You Won't Hear Too Many Mentions Of This...

Flag watercolor image swiped from HERE

Today is TEXAS INDEPENDENCE DAY!

So go down to your local mercado and buy some stuff and have yourself a fiesta!

A Candidate You Can Trust

Via Neptunus Lex

There will be no fighting in the War Room in a Muffley administration. Hang on to your "precious bodily fluids" though.

News for all you Helo Geeks

I could have used this a few times...

FORT RUCKER, Ala. - Unmanned aircraft systems are giving Apache helicopter pilots a new war-fighting advantage.

Apache pilots can now receive video from unmanned systems for advance targeting information without entering harm's way. Demonstrated for the first time January 31 at the Army Aviation Senior Leaders Conference, this effort is part of a rapid acquisition program to increase interoperability.

Live footage from a Shadow Unmanned Aircraft System was streamed to the cockpit of an Apache helicopter through Video from UAS for Interoperability Teaming Level II or VUIT-2.

"This is a big step for manned-unmanned teaming," said Col. Derek Paquette, Apache project manager. "Ultimately, VUIT-2 will increase the survivability and lethality of the Apache Longbow aircraft by providing aircrews and ground commanders increased situational awareness, decreased sensor to shooter timelines and increased reaction time."
VUIT-2 is able to receive video from nearly all unmanned aircraft systems operating in Iraq and Afghanistan. It also provides joint interoperability by giving Apache Longbows the ability to receive Air Force and Navy video from platforms such as the F-15, F-16, F-18 using Sniper or Lightning Pods.

Currently, manned-unmanned teaming in Apaches relies on radio transmissions from the UAS operator to describe a target of interest. Now with the advent of VUIT-2, the Apache pilot can quickly visualize, assess the situation, and prepare for target engagements before he is even in weapons or Modernized-Target Acquisition Designator System range. UAS video is displayed in the cockpit on the Apache Longbow's Multi-Purpose Display, and Apache Longbow sensor video can be transmitted to Soldiers on the ground.

VUIT-2 capabilities will be fielded to theater by this summer and is approved for nine Longbow Apache battalions during fiscal years 2008 and '09.

I don't think I have to explain why this is a good thing. On the other hand maybe I do, people ARE kind of stupid.

It is sad that I find out about it by reading it on the internet...and I am an Apache pilot.

Speaking of stupid, Hope for change...change for hope.