God Save The Queen

With the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign on September 6, 2022, the world saw an extremely rare event. Elizabeth was in Africa February 2nd, 1952, when her father, King George VI passed. She immedately accended to the throne, but her formal cornatin wasn't till June. Charels became king immediately upon Ellizabeth's passing on September 6, 2022, but his cornation is set for May 6, 2023.

If you haven't see it, I would recommend the series The Crown. It follows Elizabeth from child to older monarch, and you get the view of a head of state, and her dealing with the real powers behind, and in front of the thrown. And the dealing with her family, parents, siblings, and children. Expecially the kids. The grandkids will likely be part of the 6th and final season (don't think it's a spoiler, but Season 5 ended with Chuck and Di's divorce).

I know this scene took liberites, but it shows the shock she must have go through. She left on her tour of Africa as a princess and heir apparent. She walked in, likley not thinking right if you will, as she knows her father has passed. It was known that she and George VI were very close, and she was groomed for this day. But to have your mother and sister curtsy. But it was likely a real shock when the Queen Mum, her grandmother and mother of the late King did it.

Here is the scene. Powerful. Trust me, the series is well worth your time.

A look at the funeral of one America's greatest warriors

On my Bucket List is visiting his grave. I saw Ike's in 86, Bradley's in 19. But I will see General George Smith Patton's grave after I retire. 

Found this video by pure accident. I've read about the end in the classic Patton: Ordeal and Triumph, one of the two books the movie Patton was based on (the other is Omar Bradley's A Soldier's Story).

I remember one of the scenes of the movie, where he almost gets killed by an ox cart. His actual cause of death was almost as unbelievable, especially for a man well described as, "A pure warrior...what a magnificent anachronism." 

RIP General Patton. 

Is Hypocrisy the New Name of the Democrat Party?

Some months ago I became a weekly columnist for the American Free News Network. My post are generally every Tuesday morning. But here is one from a fellow columnist that is very pertinent with the Democratic party now. Especially with the elections ongoing, I think you'll find it interesting.

Remember, vote early, vote often! :<)

Is Hypocrisy the New Name of the Democrat Party?

November 2, 2022 by Ronald E. Yates

As the nation prepares to vote in the upcoming midterm elections, I couldn’t help recalling a couple of years ago when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stormed around the Capitol building purging it of all things reminiscent of the Confederacy.

That prompted House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to wonder if Pelosi should consider changing the name of the Democrat Party, given her newfound disdain for the Land of Dixie.

“The speaker has the power to do that,” McCarthy said in response to Pelosi, who ordered the removal of the portraits of four speakers who also served in the Confederacy.

“If the speaker is concerned about that, should she also start talking about changing the name of her party and chastizing the occupant of the White House?” McCarthy asked in a reference to Joe Biden, who referred to late Democrat Sen. Robert Byrd, a former KKK leader, as a mentor and “dear friend.”

In a letter to House Clerk Cheryl Johnson, Pelosi requested the “immediate removal of the portraits in the U.S. Capitol of four previous Speakers who served in the Confederacy: Robert Hunter of Virginia (1839-1841), Howell Cobb of Georgia (1849-1851), James Orr of South Carolina (1857-1859), and Charles Crisp of Georgia (1891-1895).”

A Confederate Democrat Speaker bites the dust al la Pelosi

All of those men were once members of her Democrat Party—the party that has a long, tumultuous history of defending the institution of slavery and fighting to keep it.

Pelosi also called for the removal of Confederate statues in the U.S. Capitol, characterizing them as “monuments to men who advocated cruelty and barbarism to achieve such a plainly racist end. The portraits of these men are symbols that set back our nation’s work to confront and combat bigotry,” Pelosi told reporters. “You have to see the remarks that they had made and how oblivious they were to what our founders had in mind in our country. We must lead by example, so we’re glad that that is gone.”

Pelosi’s comments and actions are the very height of hypocrisy, as well as an attempt to erase and rewrite American history.

For example, Pelosi has yet to address the role her father, Thomas D’Alessandro Jr., played in overseeing the dedication of the Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee Monuments in Baltimore’s Wyman Park while serving as the city’s mayor in 1948

“Today,” her father said in remarks at the time, “with our nation beset by subversive groups and propaganda which seeks to destroy our national unity, we can look for inspiration to the lives of Lee and Jackson to remind us to be resolute and determined in preserving our sacred institutions . . . . to remain steadfast in our determination to preserve freedom, not only for ourselves but for other liberty-loving nations who are striving to preserve their national unity as free nations.”

Gen Robt. E. Lee & Stonewall Jackson statue in Baltimore

Ahem. “Preserving our sacred institutions?” Did you mean, perchance, slavery, Mayor D’Alessandro?

But wait. There’s more. Pelosi’s father also encouraged Americans to “emulate Jackson’s example and stand like a stone wall against aggression in any form that would seek to destroy the liberty of the world.”

Not exactly politically correct, is it, Nancy?

And, of course, that is exactly what’s wrong with the hysterical imbeciles who are toppling statues and attempting to erase and cleanse America’s checkered history.

The past is the past. People a century ago or longer thought behaved and spoke differently from people in the 21st Century.

They certainly did so in 1948 when Pelosi’s father praised Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson during the dedication of those statues. I wonder if Pelosi, in her fervor to cleanse history, will call for those statues in Baltimore to be ripped down.

But wait! The statues were removed by the city in the dead of night, thereby saving them from defacement and destruction.

In that case, I wonder if Pelosi will condone the desecration of her father’s grave (as some have suggested with the graves of Confederate soldiers) because he was sympathetic to those two giants of the Confederacy.

Don’t count on it. Pelosi has conveniently forgotten the dark history of her beloved Democrat Party.

For example, its founder, Andrew Jackson, was a slaveholder and Confederate politicians were ALL Democrats.

Hmm. As they say on TV: “And that’s not all!”

The Democrat Party for decades fought desegregation, formed the Ku Klux Klan, resisted Reconstruction following the Civil War, created Jim Crow laws, and instituted the notion of separate but equal in the South—a clear violation of the 14th Amendment of the U. S. Constitution that guarantees equal protection under the law.

Should this former Democrat President be purged?

The party itself is the very quintessence of hypocrisy. What about it, Speaker Pelosi? Is it time to cleanse the Democrat Party of its past sins? Should you not be working to eradicate its transparent and nauseating connection to the Confederacy?

Speaking of nauseating Democrats, what about Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va? A couple of years ago, on the Senate floor, he blathered that America “didn’t inherit slavery from anybody. We created it.”

That has to be the dumbest declaration ever made on the Senate floor. The Democrat Party has now completed its unconditional surrender to the forces of historical illiteracy.

Slavery has been rife throughout all of ancient history. Most, if not all, ancient civilizations practiced it, and it is described (and defended) in the early writings of the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Egyptians. It was also practiced by early societies in Central America and Africa.

Three thousand years ago, Egyptians enslaved Jews who eventually escaped via something we now know as “The Exodus.”

Then there were the Romans. They enslaved just about everyone they conquered. And lest we forget, what about the million or so Europeans who were kidnapped by African Muslims and forced into slavery?

Here’s another reality. Slavery in America existed long before the first Europeans arrived. American Indians were slaveholders before and long after slavery became an institution in the South. In fact, slavery is the only African institution ever adopted by this country.

And here’s another salient fact: Portuguese — not Americans — brought the first slaves to Jamestown in 1619.

For those in this country who believe slavery in the world ended with the American Civil War, guess what? It still exists today and is even more prevalent than it was in the 19th Century.

Every day across the African continent, black men, women, and children are captured, bought, and sold into slavery, with the Western world paying scant attention. For example, in Mauritania, slavery persists, with tens of thousands of blacks continuing to be held in bondage.

In Sudan, tens of thousands of African women and children from mostly Christian villages were enslaved during the jihad raids of the Second Sudanese Civil War. At least 50,000 remain in bondage today.

According to the Global Slavery Index (GSI), 106,000 black Africans are estimated to be enslaved in Algeria. Migrant women and children of both sexes risk being forced into sexual slavery while men perform unskilled labor.

Sound familiar? For Democrats, it should. It’s what that party supported and protected for decades in the South until President Lincoln and the Union Army ended slavery by force.

Grant and Lee at Appomattox

And by the way, as bad as the turgid goons who ripped down statues in the summer of 2020 think this country is, America remains the only nation that fought a bloody civil war to end slavery.

But even then (unlike the demented zealots who rampaged through our cities in 2020), with more than 600,000 Americans from both sides dead and millions wounded in the Civil War, there was room for forgiveness, benevolence, and graciousness.

At the South’s surrender at Appomattox, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant allowed Gen. Robert E. Lee to keep his sword. As Lee mounted his horse to leave, Grant saluted him. Then, after announcing the South’s surrender at the White House, President Lincoln ordered the band to play “Dixie.”

It was a stunning and humane way to end the bloodiest war in America’s history–a point that is lost on the destructive imbeciles who ran amok in our cities a couple of summers ago.

Multiple nations are paying for Obama's "Worst Mistake"

One of the many disastrous foreign policy efforts of the Obama presidency was overthrowing nations in the Middle East. For a candidate who ran on a “no war” promise, he seemed to have no issue with interfering with an unstable hostile state (Syria), making it worse; an allied nation (Egypt), almost giving it to the Muslim Brotherhood, and; and a stable non-hostile state, Libya, turning it into a disaster.  

The Legacy of Obama’s ‘Worst Mistake’

There’s a problem with the American way of war.

 

By Dominic Tierney April 15, 2016

In a Fox News interview last Sunday, Obama was asked about his “worst mistake.” It’s a classic gotcha question, but he had an answer ready. “Probably failing to plan for the day after, what I think was the right thing to do, in intervening in Libya.” This was yet another act of presidential contrition for the NATO operation in 2011 that helped to overthrow Muammar Qaddafi but left the country deeply unstable. In 2014, Obama said: “[W]e [and] our European partners underestimated the need to come in full force if you’re going to do this. Then it’s the day after Qaddafi is gone, when everybody is feeling good and everybody is holding up posters saying, ‘Thank you, America.’ At that moment, there has to be a much more aggressive effort to rebuild societies that didn’t have any civic traditions.” In recent interviews with The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg on the “Obama Doctrine,” the president bluntly said the mission in Libya “didn’t work.” Behind closed doors, according to Goldberg, he calls the situation there a “s*&^ show...”

Mr. Obama, maybe you should have thought (snicker) about that before you decided to overthrow one of the successes of the Iraq War. Qaddafi, no angel, in the aftermath of Saddam Hussein’s ouster, gave up his WMD program, settled the civil actions arising from the Lockerbie Scotland airline bombing, and was cooperating with us on intelligence matters. In case you never understood this, we don’t necessary need friends, or allies in other nations. A non-hostile but stable nation is also good to have. We had that in Libya, until you and your Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton,  turned stability to a “s*&^ show.”

 

Perhaps you and Mrs. Clinton should read something other than Rules for Radicals, like a biography of one of your predecessors, Dwight Eisenhower. He was famous for many things, including thinking things through. He had been planning major operations for decades, and he always asked, “And what next?” You plan for what will come after you execute your grand plan.

 

The results of your great plan in Libya? Well, from the CATO institute:

The Obama Administration Wrecked Libya for a Generation

Such is the cost of America’s promiscuous war‐​making

Libya’s ongoing destruction belongs to Hillary Clinton more than anyone else. It was she who pushed President Barack Obama to launch his splendid little war, backing the overthrow of Moammar Gaddafi in the name of protecting Libya’s civilians. When later asked about Gaddafi’s death, she cackled and exclaimed: “We came, we saw, he died.”

The arrogance, hubris and incompetence of Mrs. Bill Clinton never ceases to amaze me. 

Alas, his was not the last death in that conflict, which has flared anew, turning Libya into a real‐​life Game of Thrones. An artificial country already suffering from deep regional divisions, Libya has been further torn apart by political and religious differences. One commander fighting on behalf of the Government of National Accord (GNA), Salem Bin Ismail, told the BBC: “We have had chaos since 2011.”

… in 2011, the Arab Spring engulfed Libya, as people rose against Gaddafi’s rule. He responded with force to reestablish control. However, Western advocates of regime change warned that genocide was possible and pushed for intervention under United Nations auspices. In explaining his decision to intervene, Obama stated: “We knew that if we waited one more day, Benghazi…could suffer a massacre that would have reverberated across the region and stained the conscience of the world.” Russia and China went along with a resolution authorizing “all necessary measures to prevent the killing of civilians.”

In fact, the fears were fraudulent. Gaddafi was no angel, but he hadn’t targeted civilians, and his florid rhetoric, cited by critics, only attacked those who had taken up arms. He even promised amnesty to those who abandoned their weapons. With no civilians to protect, NATO, led by the U.S., bombed Libyan government forces and installations and backed the insurgents’ offensive. It was not a humanitarian intervention, but a lengthy, costly, low‐​tech, regime‐​change war, mostly at Libyan expense. Obama claimed: “We had a unique ability to stop the violence.” Instead his administration ensured that the initial civil war would drag on for months—and the larger struggle ultimately for years…

And thanks to Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama’s foolishness, they turned a stable nation in an unstable region into an example of disaster. Critically, Libya’s inventory of 20,000 Man Portable Air Defense Systems (MANPADS) was lost, and the US and Israel had only recovered 5,000 of them as of 2013. 

Amazingly, ten years since Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama “worse mistake,” other nations are having to deal with this disaster of foreign policy. The Italians have elected a new prime minister, Giorgia Meloni. One of her promises is to “secure the border” (Sound familiar?). 

From the Washington Post:

… (Giorgia) Meloni has also called, repeatedly, for a “naval blockade” of the Mediterranean. A spokesman for Meloni said Monday that such a move could only be led by Europe, and in cooperation with North African countries.

 

In her interview with The Post, Meloni said “migrant flows need to be managed,” because “nations only exist if there are borders, and if those are defended.” She said that Italy had been giving immigrants few legal pathways, while instead letting migration be dominated by “smugglers” and “slave drivers.”

But there is no question thanks to the chaos of Libya, established by the Obama’s interference in their nation, Europe is having to deal with millions of refugees. Italy is having to deal with over a million refugees from the Libyan civil war. Did the US start the civil war, no. But interference by the US and NATO was a disaster, causing a strain on the nations of Europe and Africa. 

I can recommend another book to Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton, Once an Eagle. Towards the end, the protagonist, Sam Damon, is speaking with an officer of the fictional nation of Khotiane (obviously an allegory of Vietnam). The officer reviews with Damon how Great Britain almost entered on the side of the south during the American Civil War. He makes the point just as Britain had no business being in that conflict, the Americans have no business in Khotiane’s fight. “It is our civil war.” 

Unfortunately Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton didn’t learn that lesson. And Europe, as well are other nations, are paying the price for it.

We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor...

In the very hot summer of 1776, representatives of the original thirteen colonies of Great Britain met in Philadelphia, and discussed as serious a subject as could be deliberated. They were about to commit treason against the sitting monarch of England, George III. As this meant nothing short of death in case they were captured, there was no going back once this document was signed. And many of the 56 signers  paid the ultimate price for their actions that summer.

Rush Limbaugh Jr., the father of the late great Rush Limbaugh, gave a presentations on what happened to these men. Of the 56 signers, five were captured by the British, tortured, then executed as traitors. Nine fought in the Revolutionary War and died. Two of the signers lost sons serving in the Colonial Army, while another two had their sons captured by the British Army. Twelve lost all their worldly possessions when the British ransacked and burned their homes. 

A sobering thought at what men in the 18th Century risked and sacrificed to establish the United States of America.  

I've heard from some that America has never been so divided as today. Seeing we had a Civil War break out, not to mention minor open rebellions (e.g., the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794) I can't agree. But as we've had one challenge after another, on the anniversary of our independence, it is good and proper to reread the document that started it all. And while we will not "...mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.," we are, as citizens, called upon to continue the work to make us a more perfect union. And on the 246th anniversary of our nation's founding, please read the document that founded the greatest nation on Earth. 

My fellow Americans, Happy Independence Day.

In Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, 

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

---

Georgia

Button Gwinnett

Lyman Hall

George Walton

 

North Carolina

William Hooper

Joseph Hewes

John Penn

 

South Carolina

Edward Rutledge

Thomas Heyward, Jr.

Thomas Lynch, Jr.

Arthur Middleton

 

Massachusetts

John Hancock

Maryland

Samuel Chase

William Paca

Thomas Stone

Charles Carroll of Carrollton

 

Virginia

George Wythe

Richard Henry Lee

Thomas Jefferson

Benjamin Harrison

Thomas Nelson, Jr.

Francis Lightfoot Lee

Carter Braxton

 

Pennsylvania

Robert Morris

Benjamin Rush

Benjamin Franklin

John Morton

George Clymer

James Smith

George Taylor

James Wilson

George Ross

Delaware

Caesar Rodney

George Read

Thomas McKean

 

New York

William Floyd

Philip Livingston

Francis Lewis

Lewis Morris

 

New Jersey

Richard Stockton

John Witherspoon

Francis Hopkinson

John Hart

Abraham Clark

 

New Hampshire

Josiah Bartlett

William Whipple

 

Massachusetts

Samuel Adams

John Adams

Robert Treat Paine

Elbridge Gerry

 

Rhode Island

Stephen Hopkins

William Ellery

 

Connecticut

Roger Sherman

Samuel Huntington

William Williams

Oliver Wolcott

 

New Hampshire

Matthew Thornton

Back when flying was a luxury...

Not an abuse.

When I was four (1969ish) I flew from Atlanta to New Orleans for a family funeral, and plane travel was very high class. Understandable, it wasn't something people did everyday, unless you had a lot of money (or a great corporate expense account). But over the years, especially after deregulation, air travel evolved to lower cost, allowing more people to fly. These days, commercial flying is more like buses with wings than luxury transport, unless you want to pay for business/first class, i.e. through the nose. War story from my time in Korea, I was purchasing my ticket home, Economy was (1989 dollars here) around $750.00. I looked into upgrading, if it was only a few hundred more, might be worth it with a 20 hour flight ahead of me. I checked Business Class, $2,000. No, I think I'll go cheap.

I was looking at these picture from a recent Aviation Week, brings back memories when the airlines were luxury, and you paid a fortune for it. Well, you want that, you can still get it, just pay though the nose.

Enjoy these pictures.

Interior of a Fokker Transport used on European airway in 1923.

The Dornier Do.X flying boat, 1929

Fokker F-32 in 1932

Executive Transport in 1935, Woolaroc III.

Private aircraft were designed for better vision from the inside. The original article reads,
"There's plenty of room for the family in the rear seat of the Stinson SR 10C."

Air France Sleep in 1947.

Boeing 707, 1956.

Interesting look at the word in air travel.

A Hail Mary that didn't work.....

The Battle of the Bulge (officially called the Ardennes Counteroffensive) started in early December 1944. Hitler hoped to catch the Allies napping. He did.

In the beginning of the operations, the US 106th Infantry Division was overrun, and the 101st Airborne Division went to secure the critical city of Bastone. And it's arguable, this was the Finest Hour, for the American Army. This week marks the 75th Anniversary of this epic battle. I think I gotta watch Pattonthis weekend.

‘Nuts!’ US troops thwarted Hitler’s last gamble 75 years ago

BASTOGNE, Belgium (AP) — Pvt. Arthur Jacobson was seeking cover in the snow behind a tank moving slowly through the wooded hills of Belgium's Ardennes, German bullets whizzing by.

That was when he lost his best friend and Bazooka team partner to sniper fire. “They couldn't hit him, he shouted," Jacobson said wistfully. “Those were his last words.”

The recollection of his worst day in the Battle of the Bulge still haunts him, three quarters of a century later during the first return of the 95-year-old to the battlefield....
The fighting in the bitterly cold winter of 1944 was unforgiving to the extreme...

...What Jacobson didn't know then was that he was part of the battle to contain Nazi Germany's desperate last offensive that Adolf Hitler hoped would become his version of the Allies' D-Day: A momentous thrust that would change the course of World War II by forcing U.S. and British troops to sue for peace, thus freeing Germany to focus on rapidly advancing Soviet armies in the east.

“WE WERE THERE TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT"

The Battle of the Bulge "is arguably the greatest battle in American military history,” according to the U.S. army historical center. Such perspective came only later to Jacobson, who was barely 20 at the time.

“They really didn't tell us anything," he said . "The Germans had attacked through Belgium, and we were there to do something about it.”

Out of the blue at dawn on Dec. 16, 1944, over 200,000 German troops counter-attacked across the front line in Belgium and Luxembourg, smashing into battle-weary US soldiers positioned in terrain as foreign to them as it was familiar to the Germans.

Yet somehow, the Americans blunted the advance and started turning back the enemy for good, setting allied troops on a roll that would end the war in Europe less than five months later.

This battle gained fame not so much for the commanders' tactics as for the resilience of small units hampered by poor communications that stood shoulder to shoulder to deny Hitler the quick breakthrough he desperately needed. Even though the Americans were often pushed back, they were able to delay the German advance in its crucial initial stages. The tipping point was to come later...

...“The thought was that Germany was on its knees and could no longer raise a big army,”said Mathieu Billa, director of the Bastogne War Museum.

Still, Hitler believed Germany could turn the tide, and centered on regaining the northern Belgian port of Antwerp with a push through the sparsely populated Ardennes.

The 120-mile (170 kilometer) dash seemed so fanciful that few of Hitler's own generals believed in it, let alone the allied command. Allied intelligence heard something might be afoot, but even on the eve of the attack the U.S. VIII Corps daily note said that "There is nothing to report."

For days to follow, the only reports would be bad for U.S. troops retreating amid word that SS troops were executing their prisoners — like at Malmedy, where 80 surrendered soldiers were murdered in a frozen field...

...Nowhere was that tipping point more visible than in the southern Ardennes town of Bastogne, where surrounded U.S. troops were cut off for days with little ammunition or food.

When Brig. Gen. Anthony C. McAuliffe of the 101st Airborne received a Dec. 22 ultimatum to surrender or face total destruction, he offered one of the most famous — and brief — replies in military history: “”Nuts.""

Four days later, Patton's troops broke the encirclement. And so it went with the Battle of the Bulge too, with the U.S. troops gaining momentum after Christmas...

The German's had the initial advantage of surprise, and poor weather that kept Allies air grounded. However, the German's never got to their first objective of Antwerp, and the Allies quickly recovered:

...firm resistance by various isolated units provided time for the U.S. First and Ninth Armies to shift against the northern flank of the penetration, for the British to send reserves to secure the line to the Meuse, and for Patton's Third Army to hit the salient from the south. Denied vital roads and hampered by air attack when the weather cleared, the German attack resulted only in a large bulge in the Allied lines which did not even extend to the Meuse River, the Germans' first objective. The Americans suffered some 75,000 casualties in the Battle of the Bulge, but the Germans lost 80,000 to l00,000. German strength had been irredeemably impaired. By the end of January 1945, American units had retaken all ground they had lost, and the defeat of Germany was clearly only a matter of time. In the east the Red Army had opened a winter offensive that was to carry, eventually, to and beyond Berlin.

The father of a close friend was in one of Patton's "three divisions" that broke though to Bastone, relieving the 101st. The youngest veterans of that fight are now in their 90s. Damn, has time flown. But to borrow the phrase from Lincoln's Gettysburg address, "...The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here...."

To the men who have passed, Rest In Peace. To those who are still here, thank you is all we can say. God knows, we can never repay our dept to you.

God I miss this man more and more as the years go on...

Reagan was the first candidate I voted for in 1984, and I was always proud of that. Over the years I've gone between elections where I voted "for" a canidate (George HW Bush 88, GW Bush 00) to against the opposition (McCain 00, Trump 16). But I've always been proud of this, a nineteen year old being able to vote. God bless America! I remember when I found out he had passed, and for the first of many times, unashamedly wept in my patrol vehicle.

Last week I was the 30th Anniversary of the opening of the Berlin Wall, and these words still stir today:



I was looking on YouTube and found an interview, Tom Brokaw with the outgoing president, on my 24th birthday of all days. Really interesting, and he mentions how, even in 1989, how college students were ignorant of who's side Hilter was on in World War II (20.00), and the lack of civics in "modern" culture (19:00). Good lord he would be shocked today with the idiots who have grown up hating the country and society that has made them a fortune. He does mention he would campaign to eliminate the two term limit on the president. I will respectfully disagree, if anything, it must be put on the Congress and a form of it on the judges, but another issue for another day.


RIP President Reagan. God we need you now.

A look back at 20th Century teaching...

My friend Darren at Right on the Left Coast has mentioned occasionally that his smart board is not necessarily more efficient as a chalkboard for teaching math. Personally I think if the instructor, briefer, presenter, cannot keep the target of your efforts engaged, it won't matter if the words and images are on a smart board or not. With that in mind I found this article and it's fascinating. Lessons from a 1917 classroom, found on old chalkboards, during renovations.

School Stumbles Upon Chalkboards From 1917 During Renovation, Perfectly Preserved Lessons Provide Rare Look Into Past.

Classrooms at Emerson High School in Oklahoma City were getting a routine facelift when renovators accidentally uncovered an incredible glimpse into the history of American education.

Construction workers were removing chalkboards– taking them down to replace them with new Smart Boards– when they stumbled upon some older chalkboards underneath. Luckily, they stopped to examine the chalkboards before destroying them, and they quickly realized that the boards were from 1917… Nearly 100 years ago! Stuck underneath layers of other boards, these antique chalkboards had been preserved with the chalk still on them, providing an amazing view of life in a mid-20th-century classroom.

Dates on the board are from late November and early December 1917, with illustrations celebrating Thanksgiving in untouched chalk.

“It was so eerie because the colors were so vibrant, it looked like it was drawn the same day,” said English teacher Cinthea Comer. “To know that it was drawn 100 years ago… it’s like you’re going into a looking glass into the past.”

Principal Sherry Kishore says she loves the discovery, and she’s been amazed to see how the school taught basically the same lessons back then as it does today, but the teaching techniques are totally different.

The wheel above, for example, is an outdated method for teaching multiplication. “I have never seen that technique in my life,” Kishore said.

Another common lesson that looks different is the Pledge of Allegiance.

“I give my head, my heart, and my life to my God and One nation indivisible with justice for all.”

It’s unclear why this pledge differs from the early version of the Pledge of Allegiance that was established in 1892, but it clearly borrows some phraseology from that Pledge.

One lesson that is no longer taught in schools today is a lesson on hygiene. One section of the board– pictured below– lists “My Rules To Keep Clean” with tips like “Take my bath often” and “Wash my teeth.”

Principal Kishore showed her 85-year-old mother the board, and the familiar curriculum left her speechless. “She just stood there and cried,” said Kishore. “She said it was exactly like her classroom was when she was going to school.”

Kishore’s mother would have started school in the mid to late 1930’s, over a decade after the boards were drawn, but the rediscovered chalkboards are no doubt more familiar to her than the high-tech chalkboards used today!
Principal Kishore has called this discovery the highlight of her career. She is working with the school district and the city to preserve the boards.

Lessons in needed subjects (reading, writing, and arithmetic), not gender studies and global warming. And it was part of what was needed to produced functional citizens for the republic, and that is not an exaggeration. When education was done right! :<)

KGB...GRU...CIA?

KGB.

A quote stolen from Robin Williams in Moscow on the Hudson. Three words that would terrorism Russians for decades, now there is a museum to this group.

This August I'll be attending the Blue Knights International Convention in Rye Brook, New York. I think I'm going to be taking a side trip to this part of NY.

A peek into the world of Soviet secrets

NEW YORK — “This is a Bulgarian umbrella; have you heard about this one?” Agne Urbaityte asked, pointing to a blue umbrella behind a glass case. There was a needle peeking out from the top.

“It’s a weapon umbrella,” she said. “You press the button here, you see the needle, the needle goes out and shoots a small shot of ricin poison. It’s still the most harsh poison in the world.”

Soviet propaganda. 

Thank goodness this was not the real thing. It was the kind of tool famously used to kill Bulgarian dissident author Georgi Markov on Waterloo Bridge in 1978, roughly a decade after he defected to the West. Many have speculated since that the KGB was involved.

Urbaityte, 29, was standing against a wall at the recently opened KGB Spy Museum in Chelsea, a warehouse-type space housing what Urbaityte said were thousands of artifacts documenting the rise of the Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti, or the Committee for State Security in English, which is better known as the KGB, the Soviet Union’s intelligence agency and secret police.

The museum opens at a time when Russian intelligence services have been at the forefront of both pop culture and current events. “The Americans,” the FX show about a married couple who spy for the Soviet Union in Washington, has been a cultural phenomenon. It won a Golden Globe this year for best television drama. (Another popular TV show, “Homeland,” has had Russian antagonists.)

A lipstick gun. Also, a weapon umbrella
that shoots the poison ricin.

In a news story that seemed as if it were straight out of “The Americans,” in December, Maria Butina, a 30-year-old Russian, pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiring to act as a foreign agent. As part of a deal with prosecutors, she acknowledged that Russian officials were behind her efforts. Last year a former Russian spy was poisoned with a deadly nerve agent in Salisbury, England, drawing international outrage. Prime Minister Theresa May said it was “highly likely” that Russia was behind the attack.

And a newly released KGB archive has revealed the names of 4,141 Latvians who might have been secret informants for the Soviets.

But this museum, Urbaityte said, is apolitical.

“It’s historical and about technological progress; you cannot erase facts from history,” she said in an interview, sitting next to her father, Julius Urbaitis, 55. They are the co-curators of the new institution.

Urbaitis said the Spy Museum was the culmination of three decades of collecting items related to the KGB. He first had an interest in World War II artifacts, but when he acquired a listening device that belonged to Adolf Hitler, he became fascinated with espionage, he said. The family hails from Lithuania, where they founded a museum in 2014 called Atomic Bunker — which was actually based in an old nuclear bunker.

“My dad has a collector’s spirit,” Urbaityte said.

This Russian-made M-125 cipher machine also was known as a Fialka.

Some of the objects from Atomic Bunker have migrated to Chelsea. About half the items in the collection, a combination of original artifacts and copies, are owned by the father-daughter duo. The other half were acquired separately by the curators. Urbaityte and Urbaitis do not own the museum, which is private and for-profit. The owners have chosen to remain anonymous.

The museum does not shy away from depicting the harsh tactics of the KGB. There are interactive exhibits, like a model of a chair used for interrogations.

“If people want to, we can tie them up,” Urbaityte said.

The tour starts with a mock-up of a chief officer’s workspace. A mannequin wearing a KGB chief officer’s uniform is at a desk with a flag of Soviet Russia behind him. To the mannequin’s left sits a bronze desk lamp, which, according to the curators, sat in a villa belonging to former Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. Nearby, Russian propaganda posters cover a wall. One of the oldest items in the space is a switchboard from 1928. Its operator was almost always recruited by the NKVD, a forerunner of the KGB, according to a description of the item.

There are also original doors from a KGB prison housed at the back of the museum. The accompanying information reads: “People who did not take psychologically the interrogation process well were put into soft cells. Then people were given various medications to turn from a politically idealistic person into a vegetable.”

Many of the exhibits are dedicated to showing exactly how the KGB carried out business, particularly surveillance. Several glass displays show where KGB agents would embed lenses and bugs: in rings, watches, belt buckles, cuff links and dishes, among other places.

This is not the only spy museum in the United States, of course. There is Spyscape, which opened early last year on Eighth Avenue at 55th Street. And Washington has the International Spy Museum. The National Museum of Intelligence and Special Operations is in development and is scheduled to open next year in Ashburn, Va.

As we finished our tour, I couldn’t help but ask: Had the curators seen “The Americans?” After all, some of the devices in the museum were likely to have been visible on-screen in the show.

“It is precise and it’s good and we loved it,” Urbaityte said...

I've been meaning to start watching The Americans, it looks like an interesting series. I just don't watch much TV these days. But I will make time for this museum this summer.