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November 21st, 2009

01:09 pm - mostlycajun.com. Today in History – November 21 164 BC – Judas Maccabaeus, son of Mattathias of the Hasmonean family, restores the Temple in Jerusalem. These events are commemorated each year by the festival of Hanukkah. 1620 – Plymouth Colony settlers sign the Mayflower Compact. “Having undertaken, for the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith…” 1877 – Thomas Edison announces his invention of the phonograph, a machine that can record and play sound. A well-equipped machine shop could replicate his instrument. Can you build a CD writer? Or player? 1942 – Warner Brothers Cartoons: Tweety Bird, aka Tweety Pie, debuts in “Tale of Two Kitties” “I tawt I saw a puddy tat!” 1969 – The first permanent ARPANET link was established between UCLA and SRI. ARPANET is a precursor to the internet. 1980 – In recent Louisiana history, Lake Peigneur drained into an underlying salt deposit. A misplaced Texaco oil probe was drilled into the Diamond Crystal Salt Mine, causing water to flow down into the mine, eroding the edges of the hole. The resulting whirlpool sucked the drilling platform, several barges, houses and trees thousands of feet, to the bottom of the dissolving salt deposit. 1995 – Dow Jones closes above 5,000 for 1st time. Current Mood: tired Current Music: Airstream - Pat Metheny Group Tags: humor, m3m3

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01:59 am - Bacon-wrapped Roasted Turkey With Pan Gravy One of our local rags, the PiPress has run this AP story http://www.twincities.com/food/ci_13814759?nclick_check=1 Scary init? Current Location: comfy chair Current Mood: amused Current Music: The Moon Song - Pat Metheny and Charlie Haden Tags: f00d p0rnz

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November 20th, 2009

02:08 pm - )mostlycajun.com Today in History – November 20 1620 – Peregrine White, first English child born in the Plymouth Colony (d. 1704) 1789 – New Jersey becomes the first U.S. state to ratify the Bill of Rights. The present administration would like to retract a few of them now. 1820 – An 80-ton sperm whale attacks the Essex (a whaling ship from Nantucket, Massachusetts) 2,000 miles from the western coast of South America (Herman Melville’s 1851 novel Moby-Dick was in part inspired by this story). 1888 – William Bundy patents the timecard clock. 1923 – Rentenmark replaces the Papiermark as the official currency of Germany at the exchange rate of one Rentenmark to One Trillion (One Billion on the long scale) Papiermark. Wait for it… 1943 – World War II: Battle of Tarawa (Operation Galvanic) begins – United States Marines land on Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands and suffer heavy fire from Japanese shore guns and machine guns. 1985 – Microsoft Windows 1.0 is released. Macintosh users yawn…(or giggle…) Current Mood: satisfied Current Music: The Mist - Kitaro Tags: humor, m3m3

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01:26 am - Ain't it der Truth! Random pithy quote: The probability of someone watching you is directly proportional to the stupidity of your actions. Current Location: office chair Current Mood: amused Current Music: October 17 1988 - Keith Jarrett Tags: humor, m3m3

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November 19th, 2009

12:29 pm - mostlycajun.com. Today in History – November 19 1863 – American Civil War: U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address at the military cemetery dedication ceremony at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. 1928 – 1st issue of Time magazine, Japanese Emperor Hirohito on cover. Thirteen years later, they’d regret it. Today any America-hating bigmouth is fair game. 1959 – Ford cancels Edsel. Today they’d just double the advertising budget and pass out a few bonuses. 1965 – Kellogg’s Pop Tarts pastries introduced. Quick. Easy. Mediocre, but that’s good enough to sell. 1985 – Cold War: In Geneva, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet for the first time. Reagan doesn’t bow… Current Mood: artistic Current Music: From The Air - Laurie Anderson Tags: m3m3

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November 18th, 2009

11:05 am - mostlycajun.com. Today in History – November 18 1307 – According to legend, William Tell shoots an apple off of his son’s head. My brother the bowhunter could have done that with a stinkin’ walnut. 1803 – The Battle of Vertières, the last major battle of the Haitian Revolution, is fought, leading to the establishment of the Republic of Haiti, the first black republic in the Western Hemisphere. And two hundred years later, Haiti STILL hasn’t figured out how to get past the African definition of “republic”. 1805 – Lewis & Clark reach Pacific Ocean, 1st Americans to cross continent. 1883 – American and Canadian railroads institute five standard continental time zones, ending the confusion of thousands of local times. 1913 – Lincoln Beachey performs 1st airplane loop-the-loop (San Diego) 1916 – World War I: First Battle of the Somme ends – In France, British Expeditionary Force commander Douglas Haig calls off the battle which started on July 1, 1916. After 1.5 MILLION casualties, the British are a whole SIX MILES deeper in German territory than when they started. 1928 – Release of the animated short Steamboat Willie, the first fully synchronized sound cartoon, directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, featuring the third appearances of cartoon stars Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse. This is also considered by the Disney corporation to be Mickey’s birthday. Warner Brothers comes along in following years and shows how it’s supposed to be done. Mickey Mouse is a wimp. 1978 – Jonestown incident: In Guyana, Jim Jones leads his Peoples Temple cult in a mass murder-suicide that claims 918 lives in all, 909 of them at Jonestown itself, including over 270 children. Congressman Leo J. Ryan is assassinated by members of Peoples Temple shortly beforehand. Nutcase preacher with a socialist message disguised as Gospel leads people to their doom. Hmmm… Current Mood: amused Current Music: Golgotha - Asura Tags: humor

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November 17th, 2009

10:43 am - http://mostlycajun.com/wordpress/?p=8072 Random Thoughts for the Day • I think part of a best friend’s job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die • Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you’re wrong • I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger • There is great need for a sarcasm font • How the he** are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet? • Was learning cursive really necessary? • Map Quest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood • Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died • I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t at least kind of tired • Bad decisions make good stories • You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren’t going to do anything productive for the rest of the day • Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don’t want to have to restart my collection…again. • I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to • “Do not machine wash or tumble dry” means I will never wash this — ever • I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Damn it!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What’d you do after I didn’t answer? Drop the phone and run away? • I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste. • I keep some people’s phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call. • I think the freezer deserves a light as well • I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay (From a post on CSP Gun Talk’s Political Page by “BillD”) Current Mood: sleepy Current Music: 1-2 - Brian Eno Tags: m3m3

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10:40 am - This blog is the product of an undocumented journalist. Today in History – November 17 1800 – The United States Congress holds its first session in Washington, D.C. And it starts slowly sliding downhill… 1820 – Captain Nathaniel Palmer becomes the first American to see Antarctica (the Palmer Peninsula was later named after him). Explorer? No. Scientist? No. What, then? Seal hunter… 1871 – The National Rifle Association is granted a charter by the state of New York. 1917 – Ralph Johnstone become the first American pilot to die in a plane crash when he failed to pull out of a dive in Denver. There were earlier fatalities, but they were passengers. 1970 – Douglas Engelbart receives the patent for the first computer mouse. 1992 – Dateline NBC airs a demonstration show General Motors trucks, blowing up on impact, later revealed NBC rigged test. It’s the mainstream media, making up news as they go along. Now they’ve made up a President. Current Location: via mostlycajun.com. Current Mood: relaxed Current Music: 1-2 - Brian Eno Tags: m3m3

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November 16th, 2009

10:16 pm - Bab Speeling I actually managed to spell a word correctly tonight, call me chuffed. Oh, The word was extinguisher. Current Location: homey home Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: Thermographic Components - Atrium Carceri Tags: learning

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11:52 am - mostlycajun.com. Today in History – November 16 1532 – Francisco Pizarro and his men capture Inca Emperor Atahualpa. Yeah, I know it’s about gold, but they also halted the quaint practice of making mummies of living children. 1676 – First colonial prison organized in Nantucket Massachusetts. 1894 – 6,000 Armenians massacred by Turks in Kurdistan. In case you wondered how we ended up with all those Armenian names in the phone book. 1940 – Holocaust: In occupied Poland, the Nazis close off the Warsaw Ghetto from the outside world. Real ghettoes have soldiers who keep the occupants inside. Nobody gets out alive. 1945 – Cold War: Operation Paperclip: The United States Army secretly admits 88 German scientists and engineers to help in the development of rocket technology. These guys helped put us into space. 1963 – Touch-tone telephone introduced. Wonder how many folks still remember having to “dial” a phone? How about “wind” a watch? 1973 – U.S. President Richard Nixon signs the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act into law, authorizing the construction of the Alaska Pipeline. Current Mood: annoyed Tags: bah bah

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November 14th, 2009

11:54 am - mostlycajun.com. Today in History – November 14 1533 – Conquistadors from Spain under the leadership of Francisco Pizarro arrive in Cajamarca in the Inca empire. They didn’t have an exit plan either, so they just took all the gold and took over the country. 1862 – American Civil War: President Abraham Lincoln approves General Ambrose Burnside’s plan to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia, leading to the Battle of Fredericksburg. The Union lost this one with TWO casualties for every Southern casualty. In the long run, they could afford the losses. The South couldn’t. 1910 – Aviator Eugene Ely performs the first take off from a ship in Hampton Roads, Virginia. He took off from a makeshift deck on the USS Birmingham in a Curtiss pusher. 1965 – Vietnam War: Battle of the Ia Drang begins – the first major engagement between regular American and North Vietnamese forces. After the Ia Drang campaign is over, the Americans lose 304 KIA and the NVA loses over 1500. Current Mood: recumbent Current Music: The Big Sky - Kate Bush Tags: humor

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November 13th, 2009

04:09 pm - mostlycajun.com. This blog is the product of an undocumented journalist. Today in History – November 13 1789 – Ben Franklin writes “Nothing . . . certain but death & taxes” 1969 – Vice President Spiro Agnew accused network TV news departments of bias & distortion. And that was in 1969. Today he’d pop a gasket. They just ELECTED a president. 1969 – Vietnam War: Anti-war protesters in Washington, D.C. stage a symbolic March Against Death. They don’t march against the death that ensues in later years after they “give peace a chance”. 1970 – Bhola cyclone: A 150-mph tropical cyclone hits the densely populated Ganges Delta region of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), killing an estimated 500,000 people in one night. This is regarded as the 20th century’s worst natural disaster. 1985 – The volcano Nevado del Ruiz erupts and melts a glacier, causing a lahar (volcanic mudslide) that buries Armero, Colombia, killing approximately 23,000 people. FEMA slow to respond. Bush widely blamed. 1995 – A truck-bomb explodes outside of a US-operated Saudi Arabian National Guard training center in Riyadh, killing five Americans and two Indians. A group called the Young Baptists Islamic Movement for Change claims responsibility. Current Location: Home on LaGrange, thx to <a href="<lj user="beamjockey">">Mr Higgens</a> Current Mood: aggravated Current Music: 10-astral_waves - illusion of eternity (tibet in dub) 2 - Astral Waves Tags: hunting

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November 12th, 2009

11:09 am - Bambi Bambi walked right to me this morning. He's now being processed into MEATZ! I will eatz! Well and in Mr Tavian in there too. 15 yards from my ground stand that was set up downwind to the trail. Yes indeed, I did have the backstrap for brunch Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: The Morning Fog - Kate Bush Tags: foodz p0rn, hunting

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November 11th, 2009

01:52 pm - To my Brothers and Sisters To all my Bothers and Sisters, past, present and future. Stand Tall, you are counted. Current Mood: thankful Current Music: Bird Charmer - Harold Budd Tags: mindfulness

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11:18 am - mostlycajun.com. This blog is the product of an undocumented journalist. Today in History – November 11 1620 – In what is now Provincetown Harbor near Cape Cod, the Mayflower Compact is signed on the Mayflower, establishing the basic laws for the Plymouth Colony. (Old Style date; November 21 per New Style date.) 1634 – Following pressure from Anglican bishop John Atherton, the Irish House of Commons passes “An Act for the Punishment for the Vice of Buggery”. Today it is becoming part of the curriculum of public schools. 1864 – American Civil War: Sherman’s March to the Sea – Union General William Tecumseh Sherman begins burning Atlanta, Georgia to the ground in preparation for his march south. We haven’t forgotten. 1918 – World War I ends: Germany signs an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car outside of Compiègne in France. The war officially stops at 11:00 (The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month). The French keep the railcar as a memento. Hitler delightfully has France sign their surrender in it at the beginning of WW II. 1940 – World War II: Battle of Taranto – The Royal Navy launches the first aircraft carrier strike in history, on the Italian fleet at Taranto. Italy loses three battleships sunk and two damaged. You’d have thought we’d see this and take a long look at our own fleet at Pearl Harbor, huh? 1942 – World War II: Nazi Germany completed their occupation of France after France’s puppet Vichy government surrendered to the Allies in North Africa. Not just ANY country can surrender twice in,once to each side, in a single war. 1965 – In Rhodesia (modern-day Zimbabwe), the white-minority government of Ian Smith unilaterally declares independence. Rhodesia is known at this time as “Africa’s Breadbasket”. Now it’s known as “Africa’s Basket Case”. But those evil white interlopers aren’t in charge any more. Current Mood: awake Current Music: Acperience (Dex and Jonesey's - Hardfloor Tags: m3m3

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November 10th, 2009

11:51 am - Happly Birthyday Debel Dogz I hold the US Marines in the highest regards, they truly are guardians at the gate. So here is a bit tounge in cheek list a Gunny gave to my lil ol AF buttz... it works. In Honor of the USMC Birthday - Marine Rules for Gunfights 1. Bring a gun. Preferably two guns. Bring all of your friends who have guns. 2. Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice. Ammo is cheap. Life is expensive. 3. Only hits count. The only thing worse than a miss is a slow miss. 4. Move away from your attacker. Distance is your friend. (Lateral and diagonal movement are preferred.) 5. If you can choose what to bring to a gunfight, bring a long gun and a friend with a long gun. 6. In ten years nobody will remember the details of caliber or tactics. They will only remember who lived. 7. If you are not shooting, you should be communicating, reloading, and running. 8. Use a gun that works EVERY TIME. “All skill is in vain when an angel pisses in the flintlock of your musket.” 9. Someday someone may kill you with your own gun, but they should have to beat you to death with it because it is empty. 10. Always cheat; always win. The only unfair fight is the one you lose. 11. Have a plan. 12. Have a back-up plan, because the first one won’t work. 13. Use cover or concealment as much as possible. 14. Flank your adversary when possible and always protect yours. 15. Never drop your guard. 16. Always tactical load and threat scan 360 degrees. 17. Watch their hands. Hands kill. (In God we trust…everyone else keep your hands where I can see them). 18. Decide to be aggressive ENOUGH, quickly ENOUGH…hesitation kills. 19. The faster you finish the fight, the less injured you will get. 20. Be polite. Be professional. And have a plan to kill everyone you meet. 21. Be courteous to everyone, friendly to no one. 22. Your number one option for Personal Security is a lifelong commitment to avoidance, deterrence, and de-escalation. 23. Do not attend a gunfight with a handgun the caliber of which does not start with a “4.” Happy Birthday, Devil-Dogs! Current Location: home Current Mood: thankful Current Music: Slink - Lyle Mays Tags: quotes

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November 9th, 2009

08:30 pm - Random pithy quote Random pithy quote: America is built on a tilt and everything loose slides to California. - Mark Twain Current Mood: amused Current Music: First Circle - Pat Metheny Group Tags: humor

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05:27 pm - Thinking "Going RIF" needs to join Going Postal This is a well thought out rejoinder to CAIR the the Tranzi Libtards all-ways claiming they are the victims: Forbes.com Los Estados Unidos 'Going Muslim' Tunku Varadarajan, 11.09.09, 12:00 AM ET "Going postal" is a piquant American phrase that describes the phenomenon of violent rage in which a worker--archetypically a postal worker--"snaps" and guns down his colleagues. As the enormity of the actions of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan sinks in, we must ask whether we are confronting a new phenomenon of violent rage, one we might dub--disconcertingly--"Going Muslim." This phrase would describe the turn of events where a seemingly integrated Muslim-American--a friendly donut vendor in New York, say, or an officer in the U.S. Army at Fort Hood--discards his apparent integration into American society and elects to vindicate his religion in an act of messianic violence against his fellow Americans. This would appear to be what happened in the case of Maj. Hasan. The difference between "going postal," in the conventional sense, and "going Muslim," in the sense that I suggest, is that there would not necessarily be a psychological "snapping" point in the case of the imminently violent Muslim; instead, there could be a calculated discarding of camouflage--the camouflage of integration--in an act of revelatory catharsis. In spite of suggestions by some who know him that he had a history of "harassment" as a Muslim in the army, Maj. Hasan did not "snap" in the "postal" manner. He gave away his possessions on the morning of his day of murder. He even gave away--to a neighbor--a packet of frozen broccoli that he did not wish to see go to waste, even as he mapped in his mind the laying waste of lives at Fort Hood. His was a meticulous, even punctilious "departure." We are a civilized society. One of our cardinal rules of coexistence is that we (try always to) judge people only by their actions and not by their identity, whether racial, religious or sexual. This is our great strength as a society, and also, in the present circumstances, our great weakness: How to address the threat posed by the fact that, of the hundreds of thousands of Muslims in our midst, there are a few (perhaps many more than a few) who are so radicalized that they would kill their fellow Americans? Must we continue to be neutral in handling all people from different groups even though we know that there are differential risks posed by people of one group? The problem here is a heightened version of the airport security problem, where we check all people--including Chinese grandmothers--regardless of risk profiles. But can we afford that on a grand, national scale? (And I mean that question not merely in a financial sense, but also in terms of the price we'd pay in failing to detect a threat in time.) This being America, we will insist on going a long way to preserve the appearance of equality, and that is no bad thing in terms of moral principle. But like all values, the appearance of equality is not infinite in its appeal--especially if it flies in the face of common sense and self-preservation. A short time after the shootings at Fort Hood, President Obama asked us not to jump to conclusions. To many Americans, this was a grating request, of a piece with the political correctness that was responsible--it has emerged--for the hands-off treatment by the Army of Maj. Hasan. How else could he have been left in the position of treating U.S. troops, given the stories we've now heard about his incendiary statements and apparent incompetence? This is the same mindset that led the FBI to deny the possibility that the Fort Hood massacre was linked to terrorism even before they could have had any idea that was the case. We don't have to be paranoid about Arab males; we just have to avoid the opposite: Being fearful of coming across as Islamophobic, and thereby failing to look straight at a situation. This is part of a larger--and too-hot-to-touch--American problem, which is the privileging of religion, and its frequent exemption from rules of normal discourse. Muslims may be more extreme because their religion is founded on bellicose conquest, a contempt for infidels and an obligation for piety that is more extensive than in other schemes. President Obama was as craven as a community college diversity vice-president when he said that no one should jump to conclusions. Everyone did, and he lost credibility with people who cannot stand civic piety in the face of the murderous kind. Muslims are the most difficult "incomers" in the ongoing integration challenge, which America has always handled with pride--and a kind of swagger. We're the salad bowl/melting pot. Drive through Queens to see how we do this. America differentiates itself on integration from Western European countries, which are far more cringing and guilt-driven in their approach. But can the American swagger persist if many Americans come genuinely to view Muslims as Fifth Columnists? The integration compact depends on a broad trust that the immigrant's desire to be American can happily co-exist with his other forms of racial/cultural/religious identity. Once that trust doesn't exist, America faces a problem in need of urgent resolution. Have we reached that point of breakdown in trust? Not yet, I think, and not by some distance; but a few more murderous incidents of the Maj. Hasan variety--a few more shouts of "Allahu Akbar" as Americans are shot dead--will push many Americans on to a dangerous cusp. I will end on a practical note. The PC--political correctness--problem is an obvious and thorny issue that the U.S. Army, at least, has to tackle. The Army had a self-identified Islamic fundamentalist in its midst, blogging about suicide bombings and telling everyone he hated the Army's mission; and yet, they did, or could do, nothing about it. In effect, the "don't-jump-to-conclusions" mentality was underway long before this man killed his colleagues. So, first, it should be part of the mandatory duty of every member of the armed forces to report any remarks or behavior of fellow service members that could be construed as indicating unfitness for duty for any reason. Second, there should be a duty to report such data up the chain of command, regardless of the assessment of the local commander. Third, there should be a single high-level Pentagon or army department that follows all such cases in real time, whether the potential ground for alarm is sympathy with white supremacism, radical Islamism, endorsement of suicide bombing or simple mental unfitness. Let the first lesson of the Hasan atrocity be this: The U.S. Army has to be a PC-free zone. Our democracy and our way of life depend on it. Tunku Varadarajan, a professor at NYU's Stern Business School and a fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution, is executive editor for opinions at Forbes. He writes a weekly column for Forbes. (Follow him on Twitter, here.) Current Mood: pissed off Current Music: Airstream - Pat Metheny Group Tags: pain

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09:12 am - mostlycajun.com. Today in History – November 9 1799 – Napoleon Bonaparte leads the Coup d’état of 18 Brumaire ending the Directory government, and becoming one of its three Consuls (Consulate Government). In a single decade France goes from being ruled by an inbred fop to a mob of intellectuals to this trio including a dwarfish Corsican. Way to run a revolution, Pierre! 1906 – Theodore Roosevelt is the first sitting President of the United States to make an official trip outside the country. He did so to inspect progress on the Panama Canal. 1917 – Joseph Stalin enters the provisional government of Bolshevik Russia. Born as Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili in Georgia, he’s about as much “Russian” as Obama is “American”. 1921 – Albert Einstein is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work with the photoelectric effect. Obama is going to receive the same prize for showing up in a room where there IS light. 1938 – Kristallnacht, Nazi Germany’s first large-scale physical act of anti-Jewish violence, begins. The name is from the broken glass from Jewish homes and shops. Do you get the ominous feeling that we’re headed for our own versions of the Reichstag Fire and Kristallnacht? 1965 – Several U.S. states and parts of Canada are hit by a series of blackouts in the Northeast Blackout of 1965. It affected Ontario, Canada and Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, New York, and New Jersey in the United States. Around 25 million people and 80,000 square miles (207,000 km²) were left without electricity for up to twelve hours. The initiating cause is an incorrectly set protective relay which is why I try to pay close attention when working on things like this. 1989 – Cold War: Fall of the Berlin Wall. Communist-controlled East Germany opens checkpoints in the Berlin Wall allowing its citizens to travel to West Germany. People start demolishing the Berlin Wall. As in “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down THIS wall!” Current Mood: sleepy Current Music: 02. Icefire - Pat Metheny Tags: m3m3

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