Saturday, November 30, 2013

It's transport aircraft over at the Friday Flyby.



Starry night



Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules aircraft from Air Station Clearwater is parked on the tarmac in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The aircraft has four 910-horsepower Allison P56-A-15 turbo prop engines and has a multi-mission capable range of more than 2,400 miles.
(U.S. Coast Guard photo illustration by Petty Officer 2nd Class Robert Colon, 15 MAY 2013.)

    Looks like the end of a perfect day


    Sound money - what would it look like?

    Via the Deliberate Agrarian, an essay on specie based money, why it was originally mandated by our country's constitution, and an explanation, in a round about way, of the popularity odd alternative currencies currently enjoy.

    Plus, there are kind words about one of my favorite presidents, Andrew Jackson, who hated fiat currency, and had an epic and bare knuckled battle with that era's version of Greenspan/Bernanke over the issue.

                                                                     A true American

    Wednesday, November 27, 2013

    It's National Beard Month

    One of my Scratch and Spit buddies sporting an epic beard while enjoying the High Sierras. 

    This was at the end of October, and I started mine growing then, so it's looking good now, but it will be coming off on December 1st.


    Man skill: how to carve a turkey

    Impress the relatives, thrill the wife, amaze the kids.   Watch and learn.

    George is the Man!


    Tuesday, November 26, 2013

    Indian headdresses explained.





    A beam of sanity shines out over the smoldering ruin of an insane state




      "Judge Kenny ruled that the state does not have a valid financing plan, which was required under the 2008 bond measure, Proposition 1A."

    Imagine that, our state government can't even comply with the most basic legal requirements to just get the program off the ground!
       
      "The measure included provisions intended to ensure the state did not start the project if it did not have all of the necessary funds to complete a self-supporting, initial operating segment."

    Good thing someone had the good sense to add this into the measure!  Who would have thought that a government would just blow off the necessity to have enough money on hand to properly begin the bullet train to nowhere?

       "The state rail agency created a funding plan, but it was an estimated $25 billion short of the amount needed to complete a first working section of the line."

    25 billion?  Chicken feed for the lightly taxed producers of California, who already shoulder the burden to support a seething, angry and violent mass of illegal aliens.   What's wrong with adding the state's unions to their already crushing load?

        "Kenny ruled that the state must rescind the plan and create a new one, a difficult task because the state High-Speed Rail Authority hasn't identified sources of additional revenue to allocate to the project."

    Let's hope this is the de facto end of this idiotic idea to build a state version of Amtrack.

    Smart car..

    ... stupid driver.


    My kinda reading material




    Russians.

    It's like someone in Russia said, "let's build the most awesome, over the top, rocket shooting plane the world has ever seen!" Then everyone looked at each other and shouted, " Da!"



    Classic


    I hear the thunder, I see the storm a - coming...


    Almost 80 million people with employer health plans could find their coverage canceled because they are not compliant with ObamaCare, several experts predicted.
    Their losses would be in addition to the millions who found their individual coverage cancelled for the same reason.
    Stan Veuger of the American Enterprise Institute said that in addition to the individual cancellations, “at least half the people on employer plans would by 2014 start losing plans as well.” There are approximately 157 million employer health care policy holders.
    Avik Roy of the Manhattan Institute added, “the administration estimated that approximately 78 million Americans with employer sponsored insurance would lose their existing coverage due to the Affordable Care Act.”

    And these folk will see exactly what a disaster it will be for those who have now had their personal policies made illegal and cancelled by Obamacare, and who will be without insurance on January 1st.

    This is shaping up to be a political firestorm of epic proportions. 


    The faster, the better.

    Monday, November 25, 2013

    Cabin Porn

    Cabins are always better if they come with a waterfall.


    I wonder where it is now?


    The “Monster Gun” — Tanjore, Tamilnadu, 1858, photo by Linnaeus Tripe. About the cannon (24 feet 5 inches), the photographer writes: “It has received the name of Rajah Gopala, and as this is a name of Vishnu it may be inferred that it was made by one of the Vaishnava Nayakar kings. It certainly belongs to that period. It is said to have been once fired, on which occasion the inhabitants of the Fort were warned by beat of drum to leave their houses. A trail of powder was laid for two miles and 40 minutes elapsed before the fire reached the gun. The sound, it seems, was as if Mount Meru had exploded…” (British Library)

    Obamacare seminar in New Mexico gets a less than enthusiastic response



    But many of those seminars have been sparsely attended. A free health insurance exchange seminar and dinner scheduled last week in Bloomfield was cancelled due to a lack of response.
    “We advertised for three weeks before, put it on our reader board and hand-delivered invitations to various doctor’s offices and small businesses,” said Bloomfield Chamber of Commerce President Janet Mackey. “We only had seven people RSVP, and since we were also going to be providing dinner, we thought with so few people it would be a waste of resources.”
    Only 10 people attended a separate seminar in Wednesday at the Courtyard by Marriott in Farmington.

    Sunday, November 24, 2013

    Mondays, they're like that.


    Biscuits in the big skillet

    The wife took Doug, our sourdough starter, and used him to make this, a lovely batch of biscuits in the large Lodge skillet.

    We're gorging on them now. :-)


    Spiritus Sanctus




    Epic battle between cougar and bighorn results in fatal fall from cliff.



    Found along a closed road in Glacier National Park.  Apparently, the battle between them resulted in both falling to their deaths on the road below.  The jungle (or as here, the mountain wilderness) is red in tooth and claw.

    Link to more pictures, but be warned, they are not for the squeamish.

    Apex predator.


    Friday, November 22, 2013

    Worked for me.


    Sacrilege!

    But still cool.


    You're just not all that.


    Freckles, they are good.

    This is so classy!


    Good to know


    November is National Beard Month




    Skateboarder and Mercedes race down the Franschhoek Pass mountain road in South Africa

    Via Bayou Renaissance Man.  It's a commercial, but a good one.

    It's Jolly Green Giant time over at the Friday Flyby

    Plus a story about an incredible American airman.


    Refueling over Vietnam, with Skyraider escort.

    Virgin Atlantic head Richard Branson: book your space flight with Bitcoin

    My prediction: First this, next regular air fare.

    Even if our government tries to destroy Bitcoin, it looks like it will be entrenched in other Anglosphere countries.  More and more interesting developments on Bitcoin seemingly everyday.

    Friday Open Road