What do you bet his name is ricochet?

Just funny, that's all.

Cheetah in super slow mo.  It's cool how the head stays basically still even at 60 mph.

Useless but very entertaining skill.  Cut an apple in half with nothing but your bare hands.

Wow!  Talk about class and real style.  Hugely enjoyable.

The Obama administration, with the stroke of a poison pen, has destroyed 40% of California's oyster production, wiped out a 100 year old family business, and thrown 30 people out of work in a state with one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation.

All in the name of environmentalism.

  "Kevin Lunny’s struggle to keep his family’s oyster farm running in Point Reyes National Seashore appears to be over, closing out an era of oysterman plying the park’s pristine waters and ushering in the nation’s newest ocean wilderness.
U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s announcement Thursday that he was allowing the oyster farm’s lease to expire took many by surprise — especially Drakes Bay Oyster Co. owner Lunny — whose family also operates a cattle ranch in the park.
“We expected a different decision. We really thought that there was a right and a wrong here, and we expected the secretary to make the right decision,” Lunny said.
Salazar’s move keeps intact a Congressional mandate from 1976 that sought to restore Drakes Estero to its natural state, removing the oyster racks and motor boats used to shuttle the shelled delicacies to and from shore. Environmentalists and the National Park Service said the farm disturbed harbor seal pupping, and damaged native plants.
In the end, after millions of dollars spent on studies and years of heated debate, Salazar decided that returning the area to its natural state was more important than allowing a popular local business to continue operating."

It's surprising that they would do this in a deep blue state, but then again, devastating the econony and hurting everyday Americans is the goal, it seems, of these government thugs.

Excellent advice from It Ain't Holy Water.  We do need to do what ever we can to keep jobs in the US, especially now that the Obama people have four more years to damage our country as much as they can.

  "Any time you call an 800 number (for a credit card, banking, Verizon, health and other insurance, computer help desk, etc) and you find that you're talking to a foreign customer service representative (perhaps in India , Philippines , etc), please consider doing the following:

After you connect and you realize that the customer service representative is not from the USA (you can always ask if you are not sure about the accent), please, very politely (this is not about trashing other cultures) say, "I'd like to speak to a customer service representative in the United States of America .."

The rep might suggest talking to his/her manager, but, again, politely say, "Thank you, but I'd like to speak to a customer service representative in the USA ."

YOU WILL BE IMMEDIATELY CONNECTED TO A REP IN THE USA . That's the rule and the LAW.

It takes less than one minute to have your call re-directed to the USA .

Tonight when I got redirected to a USA rep, I asked again to make sure - and yes, she was from Fort Lauderdale .

Imagine what would happen if every US citizen insisted on talking to only US phone reps from this day on.

Imagine how that would ultimately impact the number of US jobs that would need to be created ASAP.

Remember

The goal here is to restore jobs back here at home - not to be abrupt or rude to a foreign phone rep.

You may even get correct answers, good advice, and solutions to your problem - in real English."

Interesting demonstration of quick shooting archery.

The perfect Christmas present for those new parents next door.

A bit of useless but still interesting lore relevant to both aviation and the Colt 1911 in battle.  Pictures of the two combatants above.



  "The Storch was also the last German aircraft shot down in air combat on the Western Front, on the morning of V-E Day. Lieutenants Duane Francies and William Martin, flying a Piper L-4 Cub for the 5th US Army Division, spotted a Storch circling below them. They immediately dove on the airplane and opened fire with their Colt .45s, with the result that the Storch made a emergency landing with its engine hit. The Americans landed their Cub and - following a short gun battle - captured the two Germans. Observer Martin won the Air Medal for his role, but pilot Duane Francies had to wait 22 years until the story was told in Cornelius Ryan's book, "The Last Battle," before he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. While it was the last Luftwaffe plane lost on the western front, this Storch was also the only German plane shot down by pistol fire during the Second World War."

Right on target.

From Diogenes Middle Finger.

Cool.

Found this on Fresh Eggs Daily.  It sounds like a great thing to try over Christmas break, especially if you have your own eggs.

Holiday Eggnog

(makes approximately 3 quarts)

~Ingredients~

8 fresh eggs, plus 4 additional eggs separated

1-3/4 cup sugar

2 cups heavy cream, plus 1/2 cup

6 cups whole milk

Vanilla bean

1 Tablespoon vanilla bean paste

1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, plus more for garnish

1/2 cup bourbon

1/4 cup sherry

1/4 cup brandy

~Method~

Whisk the 8 eggs plus 4 additional yolks with the sugar in a medium bowl until pale yellow and thick.  Heat the 2 cups heavy cream, milk and scraped vanilla bean in a large saucepan over medium-low heat, whisking until hot.  Add about a cup of the milk mixture into the whisked egg and whisk to blend, then pour the egg/milk mixture into the hot milk in the saucepan and continue to cook, whisking, for about 3-5 minutes, or until thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon.

Pour the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer into a bowl and allow to cool. 

Add the vanilla bean paste, nutmeg and liquors to the eggnog and stir well.  In a small bowl, beat the 4 egg whites until soft peaks form and then gently fold into the eggnog.  In a clean chilled bowl, beat the remaining 1/2 cup heavy cream to soft peaks and fold it into the eggnog.  Refrigerate until chilled, then garnish with additional fresh grated nutmeg and serve. 

Over Thanksgiving I profitably employed myself on a major clean out job of the fireplace.

All the ash taken out and mulched into the garden ( I hear tell it makes the soil "sweet.")

Vents cleared, glass doors scrubbed.

Works pretty good now.   Doppler radar shows major rain on the way, with what they call a Pineapple Express set up to pump wet tropical air and water all the way from Hawaii straight into Northern California.   Five inches expected through Sunday, and it's already lightly sprinkling outside.

When collecting the wood, I saw a coyote float soundlessly through the field behind the house.  My dogs clueless.

Considering that, I have a nice fire of Eucalyptus and miscellaneous slash going right now, with only the reading light on here at the computer.  Two kids and the wife are expected home any minute. Third kid home from work about nine tonight.  Soup bubbling in the slow cooker.

Nice.

My wife, the early years.

You know which one she is.

Three hoods decided that they were going to rob the convenience store while a woman was behind the counter.

They barged in, pulled guns and began firing them in the air.  Suddenly the gal behind the counter pulled her own and shot at least two of the crooks, one in the chest, driving them out of the store.

Once again, an armed citizen wins in the battle against the takers of society.

From Zero Hedge:

Five years ago, every American would have considered a trillion-dollar budget deficit a national tragedy.  If you believe the CNBC parrot show, NOT having a trillion-dollar deficit is now a sure sign of the Apocalypse.  I speak of course of the cleverly dubbed “Fiscal Cliff,” which panicked CNBC apologists are required to mention no less than 5,000 times a day.  We’re told ad nauseam that going over the cliff will drag the US into recession.  Here’s what we’re not told: The US has been in recession 9 of the last 10 years.  It’s in recession this year, and no matter what CNBC’s financial terrorists say or the idiots on Capital Hill decide, it will most certainly be in recession in 2013.

Creating the illusion of economic growth is easy if you can print money.  It’s a prank you can play on an entire country.  Cut the value of the currency in half and the economy’s size will appear to double.  If it doesn’t, you’re in recession (whether you know it or not). 

Looks like the city of Detroit is either going to be given the option of bankruptcy by the state, or in the alternative be voted out of existance.

Either way it is a sad end to what was once a proud city.  This is where the Progs are taking the rest of us if we let them, California and Illinois probably first.

Call your congressperson and encourage them to get the country's house in order, for whatever good it will do.

 

Dang.  The only thing better than actually flying like this is to have a buddy photograph it while you are doing it.

News story of the day.

Boom!  Lights out.

Australian salt water crocs....always hungry.

Since Jesse Jackson Jr. has gone insane and cannot work, his seat in Congress is up for grabs, but the only thing the black power brokers are concerned about is that a white person could win it if too many black candidates run.  

Like those white people are so irresponsible, filling inner cities with slums full of unemployed, violence prone crackers, overburdening the safety net with demands for money, in spite of a system front loaded with legally required favoritism to make it easier for those of pale complexion to get into good schools and thereafter receive nice jobs ahead of other people who are objectively better qualified.

Yeah, it's a problem that a white person might get elected, since they are known to be loud victimization mongers, training fellow whites that they are all discriminated against and oppressed, even though the only discrimination is in their favor.   It's a problem that a white person might be elected because they are famous for corruption once in power, and we couldn't have that.

It's a problem that a white person might get elected, because of course whenever someone of color gets a seat in Congress, it has to stay that way forever, or else it's discrimination and prejudice.   And after all, anyone who doesn't share the same skin pigmentation as Mr. Jackson Jr. can't possibly understand the very unique and special needs of the black population of the district, like good jobs, safe streets, cost effective government, excellent schools.  Yeah, those things are only possible if a person of the same color as Mr. Jackson Jr. is elected.

Martin Luther King, Jr. is rolling over in his grave.

And meanwhile, in Wisconsin....

Update: Unbelievable!  Only in Chicago.

This chick looks like she has been to Seattle.

Freckles, they are good.   Nose rings not so much.

This is true for any big city.

Then, the munchies.   Buy stock in fast food.

A Brazilian prank show put people in an elevator, then tricked them into thinking there was a ghost in there with them.  Pretty funny, and really well done.  I'm surprised that no one attacked the ghost, myself.

Via Ace.

They cracked a 250 year old code, and found a secret society hiding inside.

• SAMPLE OF ORIGINAL TEXT

  

• MACHINE-READABLE TEXT

  z ns eh n hd iot hk tri j ns ah b mal tri nu h z ih plus c ni three bar d r. ki mu del oh s z uh three zs lip o.. pi iot oh r g zzz ni x. ns ah j iot del gam zzz y.. lam l iot hk p z eh plus f plus uu cross c. iot bas uu c del grr cross c. oh arr lam f h. nu x. uh : j sqp lam e m. ns r. gs m. c. : uu h tri sqi : lam gs grr y.. ru ah ds bar p. arr uh b m. oh c. : uu h tri sqi c. tri bar n z grr bar m. ah x. uu o m. grr iot c. n bar ns uh c x. ih hd zzz y.. plus zs del eh hd n. c. lam uu

• GERMAN RESULTS

  die historie von dem ursprunge der *lip* *o..* die neugierigkeit ist dem meNschlicheN geschlecht an geerbt wir wolleN offt eine sache wisseN blos des wegeN weil sie geheim gehalteN

• ENGLISH TRANSLATION

  The history of the origin of the Oculist society. Curiosity is the inheritance of mankind. Frequently we want to know something only because it needs to be kept secret.

There is a secret online gun store that will literally sell anyone anything.

To access it, you have to use powerful encrypting software.

And you will have to pay in bitcoins.

They will ship your firearm to you in pieces unlikely to draw the attention of the Post Office.

And you will get to do time in a federal prison if the government catches you.

Want drugs too?   Same thing with illegal chemical mood enhancers.

The internet is either an amazing resource, or in this case, a great medium for a government sting operation.

The Supreme Court is set to hear a case that will determine whether logging in the US continues, or whether it is regulated out of business.

Unsurprisingly, the two culprits here are the 9th circuit court and the EPA, both of which organizations apparently believe that wood products should be extremely expensive and sourced from overseas.

The case is Georgia Pacific West vs. Northwest Environmental Defense Center.

From the Washington Times article:

The 9th Circuit ... found that every drainage ditch and culvert on every forest road used by a logger could qualify as a “point source” under the Clean Water Act. Effectively, each pipe and channel directing water sooner or later to a fish-bearing stream must receive a federal permit to operate.

The difference between the BMP and permit systems is simple. BMPs emphasize results. Forest owners and regulators cooperate to make and measure improvements (such as keeping culverts clear of debris so stormwater doesn’t dam up), learning and adapting as new information becomes available. In contrast, permits put a premium on litigation and obstruction.

 The issue here is clear.  If every culvert and ditch needs a federal permit, every culvert and ditch becomes a lawsuit and a way to make it impossible economically to proceed.  It is an environmentalist whacko's dream.  It is a way to end logging completely.

The consequences are enormous both to the cost of the product and to those thousands of people who make their living on logging or it's support services.  Just like the coal industry, the Progs are gunning for a full stop to all logging, and damn the consequences.

These people truly are evil.

Hahahahaha!

Cabin porn

This would be my winter hideaway.

Summer would be in Alaska, or Montana.

Proof that cats are smarter than you might think.

Too cool not to post.

Down in the Lone Star State, bumper stickers supporting secession are all the rage.

Cool science fiction mix

This is a beautiful Toyota Sequoia, a 70 thousand dollar car when fully optioned.

Up in Canada, a man in Waterton, south of Calgary, came out to his car to discover that a grizzly bear had pulled the door open and climbed inside, but that somehow the door shut behind him, leading the bear to believe he was trapped.

Don't trap a pissed off grizzly bear inside your car.

The bear immediately tore everything up inside, setting off two air bags in the process.  

 In addition, Toyota engineers believe that when Ol' Griz ripped all the wiring out of the headliner, he caused multiple alarm bells, dings, sparks and voices to go off.  Just what Bruin wanted to hear, no doubt.

Toyota didn't think there was any way they could put this mess back together at a reasonable cost.  In fact, they stopped counting at 60K, and the insurance company manned up and totaled the car.

To add final insult, the grizzly laid a giant smelly load in the back seat, and finally broke out the back window to escape.

I'm sure he is still telling his buddies out in the wilderness stories about this little incident.

Via Yougottobekidding, with a hat tip to Lloyd Kahn.

Hey, Mike Miles over at Ninetymilesfromtyranny has found the perfect Christmas present for hairy chested men. 

Just add bacon and the Swedish bikini team to cook it!

A bit of Thanksgiving cheer for everyone.

From Mausers and Muffins, a great Johnny Cash Sunday story.

  "Severe thunderstorms had been culling the area.  After listening to the old fashioned stereo  for a while, I went to bed, leaving it on, noticing the light on the console near the bed but deciding just to roll over and sleep.  About 2 in the morning, the power went out, then came back on immediately. Then there was a small click sound, the drawer with the CD in it opening and closing, played on the cold air. The sound, unusual in my sleep, brought me up from deep slumber, but just barely.

As the ground shook and the sky boomed, the bedroom windows lit up with lightning. My eyes still closed, I was not yet aware of where I was, the sleep still lingering. Then a deep voice filled the room.

And I heard as it were
the noise of thunder
One of the four beasts saying come and see
and I saw
And behold a white horse 

From my somnolent state all I could think was "It's GOD. . and He sounds just like Johnny Cash".

Via Borepatch, enjoy the sight and sound of two low passes by a P-51 Mustang, the sleekest fighter ever built.

Evidence suggests that back in the 1880's a comet broke up and the fragments, which were large and many, barely missed striking Earth.

   "Manterola and company end their paper by spelling out just how close Earth may have come to catastrophe that day. They point out that Bonilla observed these objects for about three and a half hours over two days. This implies an average of 131 objects per hour and a total of 3275 objects in the time between observations.

Each fragment was at least as big as the one thought to have hit Tunguska. Manterola and co end with this: "So if they had collided with Earth we would have had 3275 Tunguska events in two days, probably an extinction event.

Ha, ha, ha.

It's kinda been this type of Thanksgiving break.  It will be hard to go back to the grind day after tomorrow.

If chickens were into vengence.

First snow

Cool.  Don't know what it's supposed to mean, but cool.

I suggest they try bacon and eggs instead.

Ever tried CCI Stingers in a little Ruger SR 22?

Hollywood quality muzzle blast.

I guess that's called augured in!

Has to be a photoshop.

Where I'd rather spend black Friday.

Orcas Island, Washington

More "takers" behaving with class and self control. Naturally, this was taken at a Walmart in Georgia.

On line shopping people!!

Freckles, they are good.

Bill Whittle does Kipling.

And it will leave you wondering what society has really learned over time.  Based on the most recent election, it has learned nothing at all.

A well earned hat tip to American Digest.

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of Wisdom and Virtue, with terror and slaughter return!

Good night to a great Thanksgiving.

Everyone has probably seen this picture of the wife of the Cambodian president offering up what for a westerner would be simple greeting, but for anyone in Asia would immediately be seen as an insult, a greeting fit only for a servant.  

Specifically, it is the traditional sampeah greeting.  For a person of high status, the hands are held just below the nose.  For a person of equal status, they are held at the chin.  Where she is holding them is for the lowliest of servants.  No wonder that her husband there in the middle is so amused.  So, probably, is everyone else in Asia.

The beclownment continues

When the Pilgrims first attempted to set up a colony in the new world, they organized themselves communally, holding all property in common and working not for themselves, but for all together.

Sounds good, exactly like the Progs want for Americans today.  If you contest this ideology, you are 'greedy," or "selfish."

However, the Pilgrims learned the hard way that socialism doesn't work at all.  Listen to the words written by their leader, William Bradford, as he contemplates the practical effects of both systems of organization, interpreted by Professor Paul Rahe, in his book Republics  Ancient and Modern:

William Bradford, Governor of the Plymouth Colony, reports that, at that time, he and his advisers considered “how they might raise as much corn as they could, and obtain a better crop than they had done, that they might not still thus languish in misery.” And “after much debate of things,” he then adds, they chose to abandon communal property, deciding that “they should set corn every man for his own particular” and assign “to every family a parcel of land, according to the proportion of their number, for that end.”

The results, he tells us, were gratifying in the extreme, “for it made all hands very industrious” and “much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been.” Even “the women now went willingly into the field, and took their little ones with them to set corn; which before would allege weakness and inability; whom to have compelled would have been thought great tyranny and oppression.”

Moreover, he observes, “the experience that was had in this common course and condition, tried sundry years . . . amongst godly and sober men, may well evince the vanity of that conceit of Plato’s and other ancients applauded by some of later times . . . that the taking away of property and bringing in community into a commonwealth would make them happy and flourishing.” In practice, America’s first socialist experiment “was found to breed much confusion and discontent and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort.”

In practice, “the young men, that were most able and fit for labor and service, did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children without any recompense. The strong, or man of parts, had no more in division of victuals and clothes than he that was weak and not able to do a quarter the other could; this was thought injustice. The aged and graver men to be ranked and equalized in labors and victuals, clothes etc., with the meaner and younger sort, thought it some indignity and disrespect unto them. And for men’s wives to be commanded to do service for other men, as dressing their meat, washing their clothes, etc., they deemed it a kind of slavery, neither could many husbands well brook it.”

Naturally enough, quarrels ensued. “If it did not cut off those relations that God hath set amongst men,” Bradford notes, “yet it did at least much diminish and take off the mutual respects that should be preserved amongst them. And [it] would have been worse if they had been men of another condition” less given to the fear of God. “Let none object,” he concludes, that “this is men’s corruption, and nothing to the course itself. I answer, seeing all men have this corruption in them, God in His wisdom saw another course fitter for them.”

The moral is perfectly clear. Self-interest cannot be expunged. Where there is private property and its possession and acquisition are protected and treated with respect, self-interest and jealousy can be deployed against laziness and the desire for that which is not one’s own, and there tends to be plenty as a consequence.

But where one takes from those who join talent with industry to provide for those lacking either or both, where the fruits of one man’s labor are appropriated to benefit another who is less productive, self-interest reinforces laziness, jealousy engenders covetousness, and these combine in a bitter stew to produce both conflict and dearth.

Clearly, lessons unlearned or forgotten must be learned again, the hard way.  It will be a tragedy that these truths of human nature will need to be painfully demonstrated again to modern Americans, many of whom apparently live to get their free Obama phone, and hopefully a leader with the vision of Bradford will be there to make plain the reason socialism can never be the answer.

Tonight's theme: dem dames

Teenagers all over will be delighted by this.