Robocalling Assholes

I got a "robocall" the other day. In case you don't know the term, a "robocall" is typically a recorded political announcement.

I hung up.

Then the phone rings again, and it's the same announcement with a preface of "please don't hang up, this is an important message."

I hung up. But the call didn't go away. When I picked up the handset again, the announcement was still going on.

You bastard.

I know who you are. I'm not voting for you, period. Ever.

Skycatcher

This is the Cessna 162 "Skycatcher," Cessna's entry into the light sport aviation category.

I think it looks as though it has the razorback fuselage of an early Cessna 150



the tail of a later model 150

and the nose gear of a Grumman Yankee.

In other words, it looks kinda kludgy to me.

I'm not convinced that the LSA category is going to make it over the long haul. I don't see the market for $100,000 two-seaters that are limited to VFR day only (they can be flown at night, but you need a private pilot license for that, which defeats the whole "no medical exam required" purpose of LSA). Lots of companies are jumping into this market and, based on the boom-bust cycle of general aviation over the last 60+ years, I'd say most of them are going to lose their shirts.

Once Great Britain

This tale comes courtesy of the Munchkin Wrangler:

A woman is accosted by two thugs. One jumps on the hood of her car. She drives off, at low speed, and manages to shake the thug off. She then calls the cops and she's the one who gets arrested!

Here is my modest proposal:

The next time the Germans want to invade the place, let's give the guns to the Germans.

Cat Blogging

George is comfy on his husk pillow.


He loves that pillow. I have to wash the cover fairly frequently.

Gracie is hiding.


Tomorrow she is going in to have her butt shaved; I brought down her carrier tonight. She heard the clanking the door makes, so she is hiding.

Sights

This is the rear sight from a M1903A1 Springfield rifle. It is a "ladder" sight, graduated out to over 2,000 yards. I have to wonder what utility these sights really were on a battlefield, they seem designed for target shooting. On the ladder part is a notch that is visible when you flip the sight flat, supposedly regulated for a 500 yard zero.


This is the rear sight from a Moisin-Nagant M1891/30. They were originally calibrated in arshins; the Soviets recalibrated them to meters when they reworked the rifles. The sights are sturdier, if not as precise, and to my non-groundpounder eyes, seem better suited for the intended use.



(I need to get better at the exposure bit, sorry.)

Lest We All Forget

We are about this far past this moment, when Lieutenant Command Codpiece was strutting his stuff:

Several thousand dead Americans (including those from the Coalition of the Billing).

A couple tens of thousands of Americans wounded or maimed for life.

Up to eighty years worth of services to be provided for by the Veterans' Administration for those wounded or maimed.

Several million Iraqi refugees.

Tens of thousands of dead Iraqis, if not hundreds of thousands.

Several hundreds of billions of dollars from the US Treasury, to be paid for by our descendants.

"Mission Accomplished." "Stay the Course." "Return on Success."

Yeah, right.

Might I suggest this, in memory of Sen. Aiken of Vermont:

"Declare Victory and Get the Hell Out."

News for the Stupid

The Director of National Intelligence says that Russia and China are spying on us.

No shit, Bucko. Did you have to become the DNI to realize that?

They spy on us. We spy on them. Everybody spies on everyone else. That's the way it is. We are decades past idiots like Stimson, Hoover's Secretary of State, who shuttered American codebreaking in the late 1920s by proclaiming "gentlemen do not read each other's mail."

Spies spy. Get over it.

Republicans Bashing Hillary

As the Republicans bash Hillary Clinton for favoring universal health care, keep this in mind.

Governor Mitt Romney signed a bill providing universal health care for all residents of Massachusetts.

So by going around bashing Hillary Clinton over this issue, he is showing himself to be the vilest sort of hypocrite. He is a Bill Bennett level hypocrite (remember him, the guy who was in favor of virtue and against vice, but he exempted playing slot machines as as "vice", having bet more than $200 million over several years).

This is even more hypocritical than his sons serving the nation by campaigning for him.

Bush: Fantasy Warrior

Dan Froomkin, in yesterday's Washington Post, noted that the Chimperor told a bunch of sycophants that he wished he could serve in Iraq except that he is too old.

That is just too rich. Chimpy did everything he could to avoid having to carry a M-16 during the Vietnam War. Anyone who was sentient during that war (and who was paying attention) knows that the National Guard was a place where people pulled strings to get their kids and younger relatives into. While General Hershey and the draft boards were taking everyone they could get their hands on to feed into the McNamera/Westmoreland Meatgrinder, the National Guard didn't need recruiters.

Chimpy got into a "champagne unit" of the Texas Air National Guard, a unit that was the place of choice for politically connected Texicans and athletes from the pro teams in the state. And sure, Disgustus Maximus was so interested in aviation that, to my knowledge, he never flew another airplane after he deserted from the Alabama National Guard.

But now he pines for war. Too bad nobody else in his family, such has his daughters or his nephews, share his desire to go to Iraq and run around in 130deg heat with a M-4 and full body armor.

Here's a solution: Congress should pass a bill granting Bush a waiver of the Army age requirements. And then let the little fuck resign, go through basic and go off to Iraq and fight in his war.

Congress should call the bluff of this disgusting weasel.

TimesSelect

The NY Times announced this morning that Times Select, their pay-only access "feature", is going away. They'd rather have the increased traffic and the revenue they can get from advertising, which they determined from the number of links from other web sites.

For their columnists, I think it is a good thing. More readers means more influence. So instead of people blogging about what they said, you can go read it for yourself.

For the Times, it's a bet whether the increased ad revenue will make up the loss of the subscription fees. They said they were pulling in $10 million a year from online subscriptions.