Bayou Renaissance Man

In his usual famously polite, delicate, shy and retiring way, author and friend Larry Correia points out what's needed after the Chevron precedent was overturned.  I've edited it for language (this being a family-friendly blog), but if you want the unexpurgated original, it's at the link.

In honor of today's argument about Chevron, here's my proposal for a new government agency that I wrote on here years ago. The Department of **** Your Job Security. :D 

## 

We need somebody who actively HATES the government to run it.

If I was President (ha!) I would only create a single new executive branch entity. The Department of **** Your Job Security.

The DoFYJS would consist of surly auditors, and their only job would be to go into other government agencies to figure out -

A. do you ****ers do anything worth a ****?

B. which of you ****ers actually get **** done?

Then fire everyone else.

Right now it is pretty much impossible to fire government employees. The process is asinine. It is so bad that the worst government employees, who nobody else can stand, don’t get fired. They get PROMOTED. It’s easier, and then its somebody else’s problem.

But the DoFYJS don’t care. If your job is making tax payers fill out mandatory paperwork and then filing it somewhere nobody will ever read it? **** you. Gone. Clean out your desk.

We need to get rid of entire agencies. Gone. WTF does the Department of Education improve? NOTHING.

Gone. Fire them all. Sell the assets.

Any agency that survives this purge, move it out of DC to an area more appropriate to its mission. Do we need a Dept of Agriculture? Okay. Go to Kansas.

This will also cause all the DC/NOVA power monger set to resign so I don’t have to waste time firing them.

Oh, and right wing pet causes, you’re not safe. I worked for the Air Force. We all know that we could fire 1/3 of the GS employees tomorrow and the only noticeable difference would be more parking available on base.

Cut everything. We never do, because somebody might cry. Too bad. They’re called budget cuts because they’re supposed to hurt. Not budget tickles. **** you. Cut.

Shutting off the money faucet will also destroy the unholy alliance between gov/media/academia/tech.

Right now there is a revolving door, government job, university job, corporate board, think tank, the same crowd who goes to the same parties and went to the same schools and all that other incestuous **** just take turns in the different chairs.

Sell the ****ing chairs.

Every entity that gets tax money inevitably turns into a pig trough for these people. Cut it all off. All of these money faucets ALWAYS cause some kind of financial crisis later anyway.

See the student loan crisis caused by the government, here is free money, oh college has become expensive and useless, so now we need more government to solve it. You dummies get to pay for it. Have some inflation.

It’s all bullshit.

Quit pretending any of this makes sense.

The only way the leviathan shrinks is we elect people who actively hate the government to the government, and then only let them stay there long enough to **** the government without getting corrupted by it.

The instant you see the small government crusader you sent to DC going “Oh, well maybe an unholy alliance between the state and OmniGlobalMegaCorp to develop a mind control ray is a good thing” FIRE HIM.

So there you have it. That’s my platform if you elect me president. Fire ****ing everybody. And only give me one term. Thank you.

I think I've found my ideal candidate for November 2024 . . .

Peter

Trust Politico to report the obvious with an appropriate headline.

You mean, if we make an effort to give our taxpayer dollars only to those who are entitled to them, we save money?  Say it ain't so!

DeSantis signed a law last year directing hospitals that accept Medicaid to ask patients about their immigration status when they seek treatment. While the law does not force patients to provide hospitals with an answer, immigrant rights groups feared the mandate would scare migrants away from seeking urgent medical attention. The DeSantis administration and other Florida Republicans say any marked decreases in spending are signs his immigration crackdown is working.

Florida’s Emergency Medical Assistance program for undocumented immigrants has seen a 54 percent drop in expenditures billed to Medicaid this year — with less than two months remaining in the fiscal year — since the state immigration law took effect, according to a POLITICO analysis. Thomas Kennedy of the Florida Immigrant Coalition said while there is no concrete evidence that the drop in Medicaid spending is a result of the law, which took effect in July 2023. there have been other signs of fallout.

“Obviously, there’s been somewhat of an exodus of migrants in Florida,” Kennedy said. “When this was all going through — we had warned about the exacerbated work[force] shortages and the distressed industries — we said this would be a bad idea.”

Federal law bars undocumented immigrants from Medicaid eligibility, even if they meet other requirements. But federal law also requires that states authorize limited Medicaid coverage for migrants facing a medical emergency, including dialysis, a pregnant woman delivering a baby or trauma.

. . .

Data provided to POLITICO by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services show $148.4 million in state and federal Medicaid dollars went toward emergency coverage for immigrants in Florida in the year before the state’s new immigration law took effect. As of May 3, $67 million has gone toward emergency coverage this year. With two months left in the fiscal year that number will rise, but the state is still on track for a dramatic decrease in spending.

Thomas Kennedy doubtless has allies who believe that spending taxpayer dollars on those who are not entitled to them is "a bad idea".  Personally, I wish we had similar legislation in Texas.  Why should taxpayers be forced to subsidize those who broke the law to be here?

Peter

From Sgt. Mom at Chicago Boyz, writing about "the LGBT-BLT lifestyle":

It used to be said that it was the love that dare not speak its name, now it’s the love that never shuts up.

Word (or words!).

Peter

I couldn't help laughing at this headline.

Mechanic builds record-breaking 50mph wheelbarrow

Dylan Phillips ... has just set a Guinness World Record for the fastest wheelbarrow after clocking speeds of 52mph (84km/h) during Straightliners Speed Week 2024 at Elvington Airfield in Yorkshire. 

He built the motorised contraption in his shed in Crymych, Pembrokeshire, and, when push came to shovel, smashed the previous record of 46mph (74km/h).

The 38-year-old said it felt "fun and surreal".

There's more at the link.

Having observed several building sites where records might have been set for the world's slowest wheelbarrow (or wheelbarrow operator), this one definitely made me chortle.  I wonder what builders' trades unions might have to say about that?  And I wonder how tightly it can corner?

Peter

President Javier Milei has given a very interesting interview to The Free Press.  In it, he discusses how "traditional" economic measures have landed Argentina in very troubled waters indeed, and how he's taking a wrecking ball to the State-dominated economy in an attempt to fix matters by restoring economic freedom.  What's more, it seems to be working - unlike the Biden administration's feckless efforts to control our economy, which are driving it into the dirt instead.

Argentina today is in grave crisis. It has defaulted on its sovereign debt three times since 2001, and a few months ago, it faced an annualized inflation rate of over 200 percent—one of the highest in the world.

Why? What happened?

Argentina’s new president says it’s simple: socialism.

When Javier Milei took office in December 2023, he became the world’s first libertarian head of state. During his campaign, he made his views clear: “Let it all blow up, let the economy blow up, and take this entire garbage political caste down with it.” In case the chainsaw he wielded on the campaign trail left any question about his intentions, during his victory speech last year, he reiterated his vision: “Argentina’s situation is critical. The changes our country needs are drastic. There is no room for gradualism, no room for lukewarm measures.”

There is nothing gradual about what Milei is now doing.

He’s eliminating government ministries and services, cutting regulations, privatizing state-run companies, and purposely creating a recession to curb the out-of-control inflation.

This is why people voted for him: change. They saw someone who could shake things up in a way that could turn out to be lifesaving for the country—even if it meant short-term economic pain. 

. . .

What really makes Milei unusual is that he is the ultimate skunk at the garden party. In a world of liberals and conservatives, he doesn’t represent either side. He is ultra-liberal on economics, but right-wing and populist on rhetoric. He is anti-abortion, but favors the legalization of prostitution. He wants to deregulate the gun market and legalize the organ trade. 

He calls himself an anarcho-capitalist, which basically means he believes the state, as he told me, is “a violent organization that lives from a coercive source which is taxes.” Essentially, he’s a head of state who really doesn’t believe in states. Or at least, not theoretically.

. . .

BW: Can you explain why you think economic libertarianism and anti-wokeism—for lack of a better term—go together? Because for many people here in the States, that’s not a natural pairing.

JM: The way people have been educated has not been for full freedom. The world I’m proposing is a more free world. This is why the culture battle is so important. The culture battle is part of showing the world that for many years, it was mistaken. In fact, what is today politically correct is an abhorrent world because it has loads of socialism. The tendency will always be toward socialism, and that’s the big battle. This is why it is said that the cost of freedom is constant surveillance.

The state exists because humans have failed to live together in peace. And this is why the state government exists. These problems are something that technology could fix. So this is very important because the real world may start to look more like the anarcho-capitalist ideal as technological progress evolves. This is why I’m trying to foster and showcase all technological matters in Argentina, because that will accelerate the progress of freedom. But even economists have not been educated to understand this. 

For now, it seems to be going very well, but what’s quite clear to me is that I will die fighting. I will not surrender.

There's more at the link.  It's all interesting, and well worth your time to read or watch on video.

Peter

It looks as if Chinese vehicle manufacturers are leading the way in affordable transport.  Bloomberg reports:

BYD Co. unveiled a new hybrid powertrain capable of traveling more than 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) without recharging or refueling, intensifying the EV transition competition with the likes of Toyota Motor Corp. and Volkswagen AG.

The upgraded tech, which aims to put more distance between BYD and its rivals, will be launched in two sedans immediately that cost under 100,000 yuan ($13,800), the automaker said at an event live-streamed Tuesday evening from China.

The longer range means some of BYD’s dual-mode plug-in electric hybrid cars can cover the equivalent of Singapore to Bangkok, New York to Miami, or Munich to Madrid on each charge and full tank of gas.

There's more at the link.

I've said for a long time that unless a vehicle can run 500 miles fully loaded, with air conditioner or heater running, through the most extreme weather, without needing time-consuming recharging, I'm not interested:  therefore, electric vehicles have been a no-no as far as I'm concerned.  Hybrids do better, but again, they're not built to carry heavy loads for long distances (something I do fairly often), so I haven't bought one.  BYD's approach marks the first time I've been seriously interested in a hybrid vehicle;  and at that price, it's very affordable.  (Ten will get you one that it won't be that low-cost if it ever reaches the USA.  Our bureaucrats and the Big Three will throw every obstacle in its path that they can to prevent that.)

Frankly, if BYD is that far ahead of Ford, General Motors and Chrysler Stellantis, it deserves to eat their lunch.

Peter

This car chase video made me laugh.  Considering the punishment taken by the pickup being pursued, from both its driver and the police chasing it, it might as well be a video advertisement for the toughness of the truck!

I'm glad they took that driver off the road, but I daresay he'll be back . . . more's the pity.

Peter

I think several people have every reason to celebrate this weekend.  First off, in Australia, a light aircraft carrying a family experienced engine failure, and made a skin-of-their-teeth landing at a local airport - missing trees and rooftops by literally inches.  (A tip o' the hat to Australian reader Andrew for sending me the link to this video report.)

The pilot appears to be a former South African, like myself - his name and accent are unmistakeable.  Kudos to him for a remarkable (and very fortunate) piece of piloting.

Next, closer to home, a skydiving flight narrowly avoided tragedy.

A pilot and six passengers on a skydiving flight jumped from a small plane just before the aircraft crashed in a Missouri field on Saturday, according to federal authorities.

The single-engine Cessna U206C crashed at about 1 p.m. near the Butler Memorial Airport, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) told Fox News Digital in a statement. 

The agency said preliminary information indicates the plane was flying a “skydiving mission,” and that the pilot and all passengers escaped the plane before the crash.

. . .

Paramedics treated the pilot and passengers at the scene before they were all released, the sheriff’s office said.

First responders found the aircraft wreckage in a hayfield east of the airport’s runways, according to the sheriff’s office, which described the plane as a “total loss.”

There's more at the link.

This accident surprised me because the pilot was wearing a parachute.  Skydiving pilots often don't wear one, partly due to space considerations (they typically cram as many skydivers as possible into the aircraft, leaving minimal room for the pilot) and partly because it usually takes time to get all the skydivers out of the plane, so that in an emergency, the pilot might not have time to get out himself.  (To illustrate, a recent Swiss skydiving aircraft accident killed the pilot.)  Congratulations to all concerned on their survival, and to the pilot on being more than usually safety-conscious.

I've flown many thousands of miles in single-engine light aircraft, bopping around the African continent;  and my wife learned to fly in Alaska, and knows what it's like to land on sandbars, moraines, tundra and other "interesting" surfaces.  We both have a lively appreciation for the dangers and difficulties involved in using small aircraft.  In both these cases, we're very glad that nobody was harmed.

Peter

... Beethoven's Ninth Symphony was performed for the first time in Vienna, Austria.  It went on to become perhaps the best-known symphony in the classical music repertoire.  The anniversary is being celebrated there with all due pomp and ceremony.

The symphony, widely regarded as one of the great masterpieces of Western classical music and culminating in the Ode to Joy, was first performed in 1824 in Vienna, where the German composer lived and worked for most of his life.

Now the city is celebrating with a series of performances of the symphony, notably by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by famed Italian Riccardo Muti.

“It's the whole world to us to be able to sing this wonderful message of love,” Heidrun Irene Mittermair, an alto in the Vienna Singverein Choir, told the BBC. “You're lifted up at the end, when you're singing.”

Heidrun, like the rest of the singers in the Singverein Choir, is not a professional musician - she’s a schoolteacher. But her choir sings at Vienna’s famous Musikverein Concert hall, with the Vienna Philharmonic, one of the world’s finest orchestras.

Over the past few days, the choir has been singing the stirring Ode to Joy, the choral finale of Beethoven’s Ninth. Based on a poem by Friedrich von Schiller, it embraces a vision of universal brotherhood.

The musicologist Otto Biba said the symphony was revolutionary, partly because it culminated with singing.

“It was a symphony, but with something new in the fourth movement. There was a choir on the stage and the soloists were starting to sing," he said. "There were so many new details. It was very difficult for the musicians, and very experimental.”

“Beethoven opened the door to the future. It's a work left by Beethoven for the next generation,” Mr Biba said.

There's more at the link.

It's worth remembering that Beethoven composed this symphony while almost completely deaf.  At its premiere performance, conducted by Michael Umlauf, Beethoven was on stage as well, and tried to conduct his own work, but lost his sense of timing due to his deafness.  At the end of the piece: 

Beethoven was several bars off and still conducting; the contralto Caroline Unger walked over and gently turned Beethoven around to accept the audience's cheers and applause. According to the critic for the Theater-Zeitung, "the public received the musical hero with the utmost respect and sympathy, listened to his wonderful, gigantic creations with the most absorbed attention and broke out in jubilant applause, often during sections, and repeatedly at the end of them." The audience acclaimed him through standing ovations five times; there were handkerchiefs in the air, hats, and raised hands, so that Beethoven, who they knew could not hear the applause, could at least see the ovations.

For those who've never been to Vienna, and never heard the world-famous Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra or seen the Musikverein, here are both of them in a single video.

Timeless indeed, and well worth commemorating on this anniversary.

Peter

I was intrigued to read an article at The Aviationist.

65 years ago today on April 24, 1959, legend has it that an aviation stunt so bizarre it defies belief actually took place in the Mackinaw Straits between the upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan.

A U.S. Air Force RB-47E Stratojet reconnaissance aircraft piloted by Strategic Air Command pilot Capt. John Stanley Lappo was said to have flown underneath the Mackinaw Bridge where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron converge. As history records the event, no photos of the aircraft flying under the bridge exist, but the stunt, if it actually did happen, created enough buzz that a legend was born.

According to the thisdayinaviation.com website and the Wikipedia page for the Mackinaw Bridge, fitting a Boeing RB-47E Stratojet under the Mighty Mac was a tight squeeze with little margin for error. The highest place between the water surface in the Mackinaw Strait and the bottom of the Mackinaw Bridge is 155-feet at the center. The tail of an RB-47E stands 27-feet, 11 inches off the ground. If you do the math, that leaves about 127-feet of space between the water and the bottom of the bridge to play with. Considering the RB-47E stall speed in these conditions may have been as slow as 150-190 MPH, the plane would cover that distance in altitude in just over a second or two.

As the story goes, and is told in several media outlets, Capt. Lappo was, “Reported by his navigator” to some higher authority after the bridge fly-under. The legend claims that Lappo was, “charged with violating a regulation prohibiting flying an aircraft below 500-feet”. No great aviation tale is complete without details, and the story is that Capt. Lappo was permanently removed from flight status by the Commanding General of the Eight Air Force, Lieutenant General Walter Campbell.

. . .

Most stories about the alleged fly-under appear on the internet after 2019. Before that, there is no verifiable report of the incident. Given these results, all the features of an urban legend exist here. This is not to say the story is impossible.

There's more at the link.

I can see a fighter or fighter-bomber flying under that bridge, just as has been done to other famous bridges around the world (for example, see the Tower Bridge Incident in London, England in 1968).  However, the much larger, less nimble and maneuverable B-47 bomber would be very difficult indeed to fly through such a confined space.  If it was done, one can only tip one's hat to the pilot in admiration.

The question is, did it ever happen?  There seems to be no conclusive evidence out there.  I would think an incident like that would have attracted attention and headlines from all over, so I'm confused.  Was there an orchestrated cover-up by Strategic Air Command, so as not to encourage any of its other pilots from trying the same trick?

If any reader can shed any further light on the subject, please let us know in Comments.  I'm sure I'm not the only one intrigued by this rumor.

Peter

It was a sad occasion, but marked with honor and community support.

You probably remember 17-year-old Cameron Blasek. He's the Indiana teen who refused to take the American flag off his truck when triggered [school] administrators demanded he do so.

If you recall, he doubled down and covered his entire truck with the flag, thanks to a Cincinnati graphic design company.

He hasn't stopped there.

Last Thursday, out of the blue, Cameron got this heartfelt message from someone in Oklahoma asking for a favor. Turns out, it was from the family of Jaxon, a 13-year-old kid who had decided not to continue with chemo after fighting cancer from the age of two.

Jaxon's last wish?

He wanted to ride to his final resting place in Cameron's truck, decked out in the Stars and Stripes.

Without thinking twice, Cameron and his dad hit the road for that long 16-hour haul to Oklahoma. Cameron's mom wrote on Facebook that this is one of those favors you "drop everything you thought was important and say yes to without a second thought."

There's more at the link.

Here's a TV news report about the incident.

Well done, Mr. Blasek and family!  I wish we had more like you in our midst.

Peter

It's hard to feel much sympathy for the deceased in this faked crime.

Rasshauud Scott, 22, was seen on surveillance footage late Jan. 27 running up to a couple filling up their car at a Chevron gas station in Houston, Texas, according to court documents shared by Fox News Digital.

After seemingly robbing the pair of a purse and wallet, he turned and ran — before an alarmed witness pulled out a gun and shot him in the head, killing him, the affidavit notes.

However, a series of messages later showed that Scott wasn’t even really robbing the couple — with his widow, Sade Beverly, telling cops it “was a set up” as part of an ongoing crime ring, the docs said.

His alleged accomplice, William Winfrey, 30, told Scott the fatal robbery would be the “usual gas pump s–t,” telling him to “make all that s–t look real,” according to the affidavit.

In a police interview, one of the pretend victims “confirmed that the robbery was in fact a set-up, and the purpose of the scheme is to obtain a U-visa,” the affidavit said.

That refers to “U Nonimmigrant Status,” which is granted to victims of certain crimes who have suffered mental or physical abuse and are helpful to authorities investigating or prosecuting suspects.

Police then realized there was a “pattern” of similar reported robberies — and that the victims “had applied for, or been granted U-visas due to their status as victims of these crimes,” the affidavit said.

Winfrey was arrested Wednesday and charged with murder in connection with Scottt’s death. He was denied bond Monday.

There's more at the link.

I've learned to assume that at least one in five of the people I see around me every day in north Texas are armed.  It used to be less, but now that Texas is a constitutional carry state (i.e. not requiring a permit to carry a gun), it could well be more.  People are fed up with criminals trying to make an easy buck off locals;  and they're ready, willing and able to do something about it.  Texas grand juries, too, have frequently proved to be less than sympathetic to deceased criminals, often no-true-billing those who shot them even when strictly speaking, they didn't have sufficient legal grounds to do so.  (See this recent case, also in Houston, for an example.)

Congratulations and thanks to the bystander who shot the criminal.  He obviously feared getting into trouble for his actions, because he initially fled, but he later handed himself over to police and was exonerated of any offense.  Scott's partner in crime, however, now stands accused of murder, because he was part of a crime that resulted in a death.  That's entirely as it should be, IMHO.  The late Mr. Scott thought he could get away with the same fake crime, repeatedly.  He learned better - or, rather, his surviving family and friends learned better.  It's a pity he no longer has that opportunity, but that's his own fault.

Peter

I was reminded of an old XKCD comic by a post on MeWe yesterday.  With all the current kerfuffle over Israel, Gaza and what have you, it seemed particularly appropriate.  Click the image to be taken to a larger version at the strip's Web page.

I don't care whose side you're on in the Middle East dispute, I think we can all agree that's funny!

Peter

Back in May 2023, and again in August of that year, I put up a selection of excerpts from Richard Wabrek's excellent collection of "Deplorable Wisdom" - quotations from all over about anything and everything that had caught his fancy over 30 years of collecting them.

I continue to enjoy the collection on a regular basis.  It's the kind of book where you dip into it during free moments whenever you feel like it, and you're sure to find something to amuse or interest you, or make you think.  It's a great collection, and I'm grateful to Mr. Wabrek for compiling it.

Here's another selection from the book.  Enjoy!

“A product demonstrator at the Las Vegas SHOT Show was speaking of a competitor’s product: ‘When their part was installed, the guns went civil service in under 1,000 rounds.’  After he used this term a few times, an audience member asked what he meant.  The instructor replied with a smile: ‘The gun went civil service. That means it won’t work, and you can’t fire it’.” — Anonymous

“Andersen’s (?) Law of Survival for Low-Level Managers: “Never be right too often.” — Anonymous

“Blair’s (?) Observation: The best-laid plans of mice and men are about equal.”

A variation on a verse by Robert Burns in his poem, To a Mouse: “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men Gang aft a-gley.”

“Those who have given themselves the most concern about the happiness of peoples have made their neighbors very miserable.” — Anatole France, Nobel-Prize-winning French author (1844–1924)

“The angels take no interest in the sports of man, save archery.” — Persian saying

“Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him.” — Aldous Huxley, English writer and philosopher (1894–1963)

“If you are guided by opinion polls, you are not practicing leadership—you are practicing followship.” — Margaret Thatcher, prime minister of the United Kingdom, known as “The Iron Lady” (1925– 2013)

“Just be thankful we’re not getting all the government we’re paying for.” — Will Rogers, American vaudeville performer, actor, columnist, humorist, and social commentator (1879–1935)

“Politics is supposed to be the second-oldest profession.  I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.” — Ronald Reagan, 40th president of the US (1911–2004)

“When there is lack of honor in government, the morals of the whole people are poisoned.” — Herbert Hoover, American politician and engineer, 31st president of the US during the Great Depression (1874–1964)

“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.” — Greek proverb

“When liberty becomes license, some form of one‑man power is not far distant.” — Theodore Roosevelt, 26th president of the US, author, recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor, and pioneering conservationist (1858–1919)

“Give the vote to the people who have no property, and they will sell them to the rich, who will be able to buy them.” — Gouverneur Morris, the author of the Preamble to the US Constitution and Founding Father (1752–1816)

“Scientifically, a raven has seventeen primary wing feathers, the big ones at the end of the wing.  They are called pinion feathers.  A crow has sixteen.  So, the difference between a crow and a raven is only a matter of a pinion.” — Anonymous

“Whoever said you can’t buy happiness forgot about puppies.” — Gene Hill, American author and outdoors columnist (1928–1997)

“I’m all in favor of the democratic principle that ‘one idiot is as good as one genius,’ but I draw the line when someone takes the next step and concludes that ‘two idiots are better than one genius’.” — Leo Szilard, Hungarian-German-American physicist and inventor, holder of the patent on the nuclear fission reactor, collaborator with Albert Einstein (1898–1964)

Szilard was one of the five, Jewish-Hungarian scientists known as “The Martians.”  Someone once remarked that the only explanation for five geniuses originating from the same small part of Hungary at the same time was that they were all really Martians and chose Hungary because the language was about as intelligible as Martian.  I first read this anecdote in The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes et al.  Highly recommended.

“Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it.” — Charles Spurgeon

“Never argue with an idiot.  They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.” — Mark Twain, American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer (1835–1910)

“I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure, which is—try to please everybody.” — Herbert Bayard Swope, American editor and journalist (1882–1958)

“A recent traveler returning from Pakistan reports that there is no racial discrimination in that country—only a good deal of ethnic homicide.” — Jeff Cooper, Lt. Colonel of Marines and the father of modern practical shooting (1920–2006)

“Masculine republics give way to feminine democracies, and feminine democracies give way to tyranny.” — Aristotle, Greek philosopher and polymath (384–322 BC)

In a similar vein:  “Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.” — Aristotle

“A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money.” — G. Gordon Liddy, American lawyer, FBI agent, talk show host, actor, and convicted felon (1930–2021)

Liddy was the chief operative in the Nixon administration Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of President Nixon.

“What this country needs are more unemployed politicians.” — Edward Langley, British mathematician and author (1851–1933)

“The trouble with practical jokes is that very often they get elected.” — Will Rogers, American vaudeville performer, actor, columnist, humorist, and social commentator (1879–1935)

“Dreams will get you nowhere, a good kick in the pants will take you a long way.” — Baltasar Gracian

“There are more things on this planet with fangs, claws, poisons, and scales than there are things that are warm, fuzzy, and full of love.  It’s a simple fact.” — Master at Arms James Albert Keating

“The problem with ‘post-modern’ society is there are too many people with nothing meaningful to do, building careers around controlling the lives of others and generally making social nuisances of themselves. They justify their meddling by discovering ‘social problems’ and getting the media to magnify them out of all proportion.” — Graham Strachan, attorney and author

“If the automobile had followed the same development as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon, and explode once a year killing everyone inside.” — Robert X. Cringley, the pen name of technology journalist, Mark Stephens

“I do benefits for all religions.  I would hate to blow the hereafter on a technicality.” — Bob Hope, British-American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer, dancer, and film star (1903–2003)

“I have noticed even people who claim everything is predestined, and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road.” — Stephen Hawking, English theoretical physicist and cosmologist (1942–2018)

“Under capitalism, man exploits man.  Under communism, it’s the opposite.” — J.K. Galbraith, Canadian-born, American economist, diplomat, and public official (1908–2006) 

“What is a communist?  One who hath yearnings
For equal division of unequal earnings,
Idler or bungler, or both, he is willing,
To fork out his copper and pocket your shilling.”
 — Ebenezer Elliott, English poet (1781–1849)

There you are - your compendium of thoughts for today, and the coming week.

Peter

Matt Bracken, former SEAL and author of several books, has written about his sense of connection to the Francis Scott Key Bridge disaster.  He helped to build several bridges in that area during the 1970's as a teenager.  I found his description of the hard work involved very impressive.

I worked on the 95 and 395 "flyover" bridges over the same river ... I was at the bottom working down in a cofferdam. My working area looked like the artist's rendition on top. Square, with a barge and crane by it. The bottom working area looked like in the photo, but we were not near anything and did not have a foot bridge. We were out in the middle of the river. We were brought to the barge on work boats, and lowered down into the bottom of the river bed in a "man basket." We jack hammered the bed rock to make about 100 holes in a pattern, put dynamite into them, covered it all with a giant steel mesh blanket, (lowered by the crane), then we got far away. The steel blanket would fly up into the air above the cofferdam but it contained all the rocks and rubble.

Then we'd go back down and put all the rocks into an empty cement bucket lowered down to us by the crane. Anything too big to lift by hand had a steel wire choker put around it for the crane to lift out and put on other barges for removal. When all the rocks and boulders were out, we did the jack hammering again. We'd have to change the jackhammer drill bits for longer ones as we went down. 2', 4', 6'. That was heavy work. It took several men to lift the jackhammers out of the holes with the long bits on them.

The dust and noise was unbelievable. Just yellow foam earplugs. Pumps on the barge running 24/7 to keep the river out because the cofferdam's interlocking steel planks were not watertight. When we had a new pattern of 100 or or so holes, all drilled to the same level depth, we did another demolition charge with dynamite the size of paper towel tubes down each hole. I eagerly worked with the demo-man as his assistant, nobody else wanted to be near cases and cases of dynamite! Before I was ever a SEAL, I had personally put blasting caps into probably a thousand dynamite charges, about 100 per "shot."

The wires were wrapped around the charges and that's how we lowered them down each hole, by their blasting cap wires. Pea gravel was poured down each hole to "tamp" the explosions for maximum power. Then they were all wired together for one big blast. I was alone at the bottom of the cofferdam with the demo man for all of that charge preparation and placement and wiring. All the other older construction workers wanted nothing to do with demo, but I loved it! Then the crane would lift us up and we'd be taken far away. I would be standing next to the demo guy, and I got to push the button a few times. BOOM! Then repeat the process deep down into bedrock under the Patapsco River with jackhammers. Those supporting piers are STRONG. I think of the 395 as "my bridge."

Always very high decibels. Giant pumps running, and a half-dozen jackhammers going all the time down in a steel box! Injuries like cuts were wrapped in pieces of t-shirt and duct tape until the end of your work day. The workers were very tough men. West Virginia hillbillies, Vietnam vets and ex-convicts. Working with them down in the cofferdam and on other Baltimore mega-construction jobs in the 1970s gave me the confidence to become a SEAL. Other summers I also worked on big highway and land construction projects down in Dundalk, but working at the bottom of the Patapsco River stands out in my mind above them all.

I think I was 16 or 17 at the time. I was a card-carrying member of International Union of Laborers. If you said you were 18, and looked like you could work, you were good to go. In those days, driver licenses and union cards were not laminated, and did not have photos on them. I showed up for my first construction job with a beat-up hard hat, a dirty tool belt and dirty work boots and was hired at a construction trailer in the pre-dawn dark. My dad and J had told me what to do and say and it worked. I was hired and never looked back. I was making $ 5.50 an hour when the minimum wage was about $ 1.50. I was making triple what my high school friends made at pizza joints.

J also worked the big concrete pours high up on the 40-story Transamerica Tower in downtown Baltimore. I did nothing even close to that. We never worked the same jobs, but for all of them, we took several buses in the dark in our hardhats and work boots with our tool belts to get to the jobs, and we came home filthy. But everybody on the buses had great respect and deference for construction workers back then. We were "the hard hats" who were visibly building up Baltimore and the whole port area month by month and year by year!

There's more at the link.

Thing is, Mr. Bracken and I are very close in age, and we both left school earlier than usual and immediately started hard work in different fields.  (I enlisted in the military very shortly after I turned 17, and was in the field before I turned 18.)  We learned early and often that we could count on nobody but ourselves to make our way in life, and that hard work - sometimes brutally hard work - was part of that.  There was precious little cosseting or cuddling by touchy-feely workmates and colleagues.  You did your job, and carried your share of the weight, or you were "dealt with".  (You needn't ask me how I know this!)

Nowadays, if you had someone of that age start such a difficult, dangerous occupation as Mr. Bracken's, or enlist in the military at a younger-than-usual age, the Karens of this world would scream their heads off about child labor abuse, or undue pressure on unformed minds, or something else ridiculous.  They ignore the reality that not so long ago, people in their mid-teens were already embarked on their careers, often married, sometimes about to give birth to their first child.  Life was like that back then.  Your life expectancy wasn't great to begin with, so you got on with living as early and as hard as you could.  (US life expectancy at birth in 1900 was only about 48 years.)

I don't think Mr. Bracken or myself suffered any harm through being "kicked out of the nest" younger than usual, or having to work hard to make our way.  I daresay it did us good.  How many youngsters of today get the same opportunity, or learn the same life lessons, as we did?  And is the younger generation today any better for that?

Peter

Courtesy of James Higham at Nourishing Obscurity, I came across this touching video.  It seems there's only one surviving airworthy Hawker Hurricane fighter from the Battle of Britain in 1940.  The mechanic who worked on that aircraft during the Battle is still alive, at 102 years of age, and was recently reunited with the plane.

A WWII RAF veteran had the chance to fly alongside the aircraft he helped maintain during the heroic Battle of Britain in 1940.

Jeff Brereton, who celebrated his 102nd birthday earlier this year, took to the air in BE505, the world’s only two seat Hurricane, with R4118, the only remaining airworthy Mk 1 Hurricane to have taken part in the Battle of Britain, and the aircraft Jeff worked on, flying alongside.

Jeff, who lives in Evesham, Worcestershire, said: “I have great memories of the plane. Of all the aircraft I dealt with, that was the one that stuck in my mind. It was unbelievable to be able to see that aircraft again, that it had survived.”

There's more at the link.

Here's a video report, including mid-air images.

I found the story particularly moving because my father was also an aircraft mechanic during the Battle of Britain.  I wrote about his World War II service some years ago.

It's nice to come across a good news story like this in our turbulent, not-so-good world.

Peter

If you're in the market for a .22LR semi-auto rifle, CDNN Sports has a great deal for the next couple of days on the Winchester Wildcat.

I like the Wildcat as, basically, a cheaper clone of the very well-known Ruger 10/22.  It even accepts magazines for the latter rifle, including Ruger's 25-round BX.  It's not as customizable as the 10/22, but as a plinker and all-round useful .22LR rifle, it's more than adequate out of the box, without add-ons.  I've used them to introduce disabled students to rifle shooting, with considerable success.  If you'd like to learn more about them, Shooting Times' review is here, and Guns & Ammo's review is here.

CDNN is offering a discounted price, plus on top of that there's a $25 rebate from Winchester - but the latter is only valid until March 26th, so if you want it, you'll have to move fast.  They have three models available;  click each link to take a closer look.

Wildcat with olive drab green stock:  $174.99 after rebate

Wildcat with Truetimber Strata camo stock:  $174.99 after rebate

Wildcat with black stock and Reflex sight:  $199.99 after rebate

I'm not being compensated in any way by CDNN or Winchester for recommending this:  in fact, they don't know I'm doing so.  I just like to pass on to my readers good deals that I find.  I'm certainly going to take advantage of this one for myself, too.

Remember, you have to order by tomorrow to get the Winchester rebate.

Peter

India's military did a good job on Saturday when it stopped pirates who'd taken over the MV Ruen, a cargo vessel.  The combined operation was an intricate affair that would have been a serious test for any first-rank military, and India carried it off in style.

New Delhi says naval surveillance assets were tracking the ship in the Arabian Sea, when the pirates fired on an Indian reconnaissance drone and the naval vessel from which it had been launched, the INS Kolkata.

“In a reckless hostile act, the pirates shot down the drone and fired at the Indian naval warship,” the Indian navy says.

In response, New Delhi launched its operation to liberate the Ruen, which involved additional naval vessels, a Boeing C-17 Globemaster, a Boeing P-8I Neptune maritime patrol aircraft and an unspecified high-altitude remotely piloted aircraft.

The Ruen was forced to stop after the Kolkata took unspecified action that “disabled the ship’s steering system and navigational aids”, according to India. Marine commandos then moved in.

While the hijacked vessel was under surveillance by an Indian navy P-8I, commandos parachuted from an Indian air force C-17 into the water several hundred metres from the Ruen.

The marine force boarded several motorised rigid inflatable vessels, which also appear to have been air dropped into the area, and then boarded the Ruen via a set of hull-mounted stairs.

Images of the operation show a number of commandos descending toward the sea under canopy, while a grey C-17 climbs after a low pass. A cloud of red smoke just off the Ruen’s bow marks the commandos’ aquatic drop zone, where their small boats are visible.

A single Hindustan Aeronautics Chetak helicopter bearing the orange, white and green roundel of the Indian navy is also visible in one photo, providing overwatch of the commando raid.

The marines were successful in boarding retaking the Ruen, according to New Delhi.

“Due to sustained pressure and calibrated actions by the Indian navy… all 35 Somali pirates surrendered,” India says. “All 17 original crew members of MV Ruen were also safely evacuated from the pirate vessel without any injury.”

There's more at the link.

It's been announced that, since they fired on Indian Navy assets, the pirates will be taken to India and tried there under international anti-piracy statutes.  I suspect they'll spend a long time behind bars there.

To co-ordinate and mount such a complex operation at short notice, involving assets from more than one branch of the military over a distance of several thousand miles, would challenge even the best armed forces.  It speaks well of India's that they succeeded on their first attempt.

One hopes that Somali pirates in general, who've been ramping up their activities due to the turmoil in maritime circles caused by the Houthi conflict in Yemen, will learn from this;  but they've been a problem for centuries, and I daresay they'll go on being a problem until they're permanently eliminated, root and branch, from that part of the world.

Peter

(American football, that is.)

I came across this video while searching for something else.  It's 40 minutes of some of the most astonishing moments in National Football League history;  no replays, no slow-motion, just the events as they happened.  Some of them really are amazing.  If the video doesn't display (sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't), click the link provided to view it on YouTube.

I'd have loved to see slow-motion replays of more of those incidents.  Even so, they're highly entertaining, to say the least.

Peter

If you have a rifle or two you'd like to equip with a telescopic sight, but can't justify several hundred dollars for most of the offerings currently out there, Primary Arms has a good deal at the moment.  It's for their Classic Series 3-9x44 Rifle Scope, currently priced at just $94.99.

It has a 30mm scope tube, which transmits more light, more efficiently than the typical 1-inch tube used on most lower-cost commercial scopes.  That means using 30mm. mounts and/or rings, of course, which are a bit more expensive, but not too much so.  You'll have the opportunity to buy discounted scope covers and mounts if purchased with the sight, which is useful.  It uses a standard duplex reticle, with no bullet drop compensation or range-finding ability, but for its target market that's probably not a problem.  I intend it for use at up to 300 yards, and out to that range I can compensate for bullet drop and windage by eye.  Any competent rifleman should be able to do so, if he knows his firearm and ammunition.

I've been trying one out, and I'm pretty impressed by it.  It works just fine for cartridges from rimfire to .308 Winchester, and I presume it'll probably suffice for more powerful ones too, despite their heavier recoil.  At its price point it's probably unbeatable value right now.  I own several Nikon ProStaff scopes, which were (sadly) discontinued a few years ago, and always found them to be very good value for money.  Well, this Primary Arms scope is at least as good as them in terms of optics, gathers more light, and costs a lot less than they did.  I don't know how Primary Arms managed to hold this price point, but I'm not complaining!  I just bought a couple more to put on rifles that don't yet have scopes, because with my eyes getting as old as the rest of my body, iron sights are really not an option for me any more.

(No, Primary Arms isn't compensating me in any way to boost their products - they don't even know I'm writing this article.  I just like what I bought, and I like to tell my readers and friends about good deals when I find them.)

Recommended.

Peter