General Update

There is a new link over in the Blogroll...
It's another blog from Risawn of Incoherant Rablings...
I know she's pretty pouplar already, but both her blogs are cool, I read them fairly often, so I'd thought I mention them.

That is all.

..and I Thought I was Being Cynical

Re: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
It started so well. I was being cynical when I said I was ready for a dissappointment... or I thought so... I was dissappointed.
Of course, how do you tell a five book story in two hours? You can't.
The movie hit on many of the defining points of the book:
Deep Thought, humans being the third most intelligent things on earth, 42, the computer Earth, Vogon destruction, Vogon poetry, mice, the maximum improbability drive, the whale/petunia incident, the Heart of Gold in all her glory, the departure of the dolphins, Slartibartfast and the planet factory, and Zaphod Beeblebrox's two heads and three arms...
It also got a lot wrong/made stuff up. I won't spoil it.
You should see the movie, however, as it very funny and loaded with the Adams narrative that we all love. The credits said 'Screenplay by Douglas Adams', but it did not quite feel like him.
The cast was FANTASTIC, I mean just amazing. Perfect. Arthur was, well... Arthur. Trillian looked exactly as I have always pictured her. Ford was spot on, too... again, just as I had imagined. Zaphod was Zaphod... show-stealin' spotlight-hoggin' long haired too-cool with clothes that were just totally over the top... PERFECT!

The visual sensibility was cool, too. The only thing that looked out of place was the Vogon ships. Somehow, I pictured the Heart of Gold as having a greater aspect ratio, but it still looked much like it 'ought' to have. There was a lot the movie got right, even if not for long...

I think it would be sweet if Sci-Fi Channel would take the entire thing and turn into a 10-part miniseries... I can dream, right? Ah, who cares... the book is infinitely better than TV, anyhow. I mean, how could you truly do justice to Vogon poetry (the movie tried)? How could you render the eternal perspective vortex on any known screen? I dunno... there's still room for a Restaurant at the End of the Universe movie... The job done on the whale/petunia incident leads to believe that justice could be done to the Hot Black Desiato stunt ship crash and the cow that wanted to be eaten.

If you are one of the poor saps that has not read the books, go read the first one right now. You'll be hooked and soon read the rest, I promise. Do yourself a favor.

Life, The Universe, and Everything

I'm going to collect names and places for my F22 post... my liking it has all to do with names and places... anyway, that happens tonight or so...

More immediatly, I'm off to see The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy...

We had some freezing rain last night... it was a very hard ice, too. It was murder getting it off of my vehicle, even with the aid of de-icer. Fortunatly, I have a nuclear-powered defroster... I just cranked to "Volcano Heat" and let it sit for a bit. Seriously, the cabin can get hot enough to de-ice itself. While I waited, I took up my mighty ice scraper and helped scrape off another Airman's car. She turned out to be a really cool person with a service history almost as wierd as mine...

Stand by for my AWESOME F22 MEGAPOST and grumpy rants about The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie...

"Be... EXCELENT... to each other..."

A380

"The son of a bitch will fly..."
The A380, Airbus's new jumbo SUPERMONDOjet has flown. At first, I questioned the utility of an airborn oceanliner that held 840 people, but then I saw some photos of some Asian hub airports... 747 after 747, some from the same city...
So, it flew. It's jet. It's huge. It's cool. Airports will need reinforced runways to handle the monster...
I am partial to the A320 family, though I never rode in a 321... but for the most part, I like the Fokker F100, the Boeing 717, 727, and 757. I think the F100 is the best of that bunch... anyway... it's late... bed time was four hours ago...

If I feel really motivated, I'll write about why I changed my mind on the utility of the F-22 (I used to think it was useless)...

Go hither!

Okay, if you are not reading Israellycool on a daily basis, you need to start: here's why. That is absolutly the best... moral of the story: Don't be a dumbass! Really, check your taget. Make sure it isn't you... and if you insist on nuking yourself, be sure and tell the world so we can laugh at you.

On a darker note...
"But the evil that we must fear most of all is the indifference of good men".
That's from one of my all time favorite movies, 'The Boondock Saints'. Now, I suppose that you cease to be a good man when you become indifferent to the murder described by the Father, or to (once again to Israellycool) rape in public!
To know of a crime in progress and do nothing is to become a criminal. It is your problem, it is your duty to do whatever you can to stop it. Don't assume that somebody else will step in. If you see something wrong, FIX IT! There are no excuses.
For example, there were at least three people who knew who kidnapped Jessica Lunsford AND where she was... they said nothing. Don't be like them...

The other Castle Doctrine

Okay, it's time I put something of my own out here... I've been refering to other people's stuff too much.

Immigration, Illegal, Defense, WHY?

WHY are so many people standing up in defense of illegal immigration? Why is The President, of all people, one of those defenders?
What stake do people have in the continued breaking of a reasonable law and in the continued breach of national security? Somebody pease tell me, I'd like to know.

Now, I have talked this issue out with people and one of things that I and others in my position have been accused of is xenophobia. Let's dismiss that right now: I am not xenophobic. Xenophobia is not related to law enforcement. I have nothing against Mexicans, I don't mind their culture, and I am not afraid of them. They are just people.
I mind when people from mexico take it upon themselves to blow off our laws and disrespect those who have worked hard to come to this land legitimatly. That is not xenophobia.

Anyway...
Why are there even any illegal immigrants? It's easy to get into this nation legally... REALLY easy, easier than any other nation in world, as far as I know. For crying out loud there are Mexican who LEGALLY commute over the border for work every day. Why sneak in?
Well, one reason that I can theorize is that if a Mexican is simply here, he can't go to our public schools or draw other benefits. He's simply a Mexican in another nation. Sneak in here, pass yourself off as always having been here, and you can circumvent all the work required to be a citizen and still get benefits.
Please tell me that I am wrong. Please tell me that illegal immigration is about laziness... somebody! Give me another reason!

To be a citizen of this nation is not a right. It is a privilege, one that must be earned (I wish people born here had to earn it, too... perhaps then they would appreciate this place more and treat it and it's citizens with greater respect). Most of my ancestors immigrated here from Sweden, Germany, and Poland after the cration of the United States. They all came legally, they all earned their citizenship. I know many Russian, Pole, Chinese, and other immigrants who have earned their citizenship. To come here and take what must be earned is not only an insult to those who do play by the rules, but theft from Americans.

That was illgal immigration; now it's time to review border security.
Why are there opponents to increased border security? Are the opposers involved in the trafficing of drugs and human cargo? That's about all I can think of... Oh, wait, maybe they have ties of some to the Mexican govenment... they seem to want our border loose... or maybe they just hate the US as it stands... did I miss anything?
Where does this leave President Bush?

This is turning into a war, whether we admit it or like it or not... Mexican troops are coming up here and doing things, like kidnapping our people (see Worldnet Daily or Google Mexican Incursion). This is unnaceptable and must not be tollerated. This is a threat to law and order. This is a threat to peace. Our people, our own INS officers, are being asaaulted, and they are not even allowed to shoot back in amny cases.

I don't know how practical this is, but I'd like to see sentry posts about evey mile or tow along that boder, basicaly just close enough to have line of site to the next post, and instruct the personnel posted to destroy anything moving north that isn't headed for a legitimate crossing... maybe put this line a mile north of the border do give people a chance to turn around.

We can secure that border. Between physical barricades, electro-optical sensors, synthetic aperature radar, and even just letting the border guards do their job, we can keep every last inch secure. The fact that the border is not secure is one of the few innexcuseable faults of the Bush administration, one of the many of the last one.

In all seriousness, would somebody please tell me why a loose border and illegal immigration are defensible issues? The comment link is right there...

I still don't fell better after saying all that... time for some terrorist-killin' action (Athena Sword for now)... and then off to work to fight the real battle.

On Fire

Wow, two of my favorite bloggers are just rocking today.
First up, go read what Michelle Malkin has to say, payin close attention to immigration, starting here.

That billboard REALLY pissed me off, but Michelle has all kinds of awesome things to say on the subject.

The other place that you just have to check out is IMAO, specifically this about the castle doctrine.
I have long believed that it was absurd to require people in their homes and on their property to first flee before bringing lethal force against assailants. For crying out loud, it's YOUR place, you should never have to retreat further than your own turf. Well, the bill that Frank describes is another step toward affirming the God-given rights of citizens and depriving criminals of legal protection from their victims.

Anticipation

For lack of anything better to say, there are only three days until the opening of the movie, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I know that it will be dissappointing, and those books are probably my favorites ever written, but I'm still excited.
I saw the BBC version some years back, and despite horrible production value, it was funny. Hopefully, Touchstone won't mess up too badly.

Eh, that's about it, from the unclass side, the weather was here, wish you were beautiful!

WAY too much Star Trek

If this doesn't make you say 'for cryin' out loud', nothing will.
I was reading Space.com's Astronotes, and I came across the 21 April entry. Title: Beamed Into Space: Whale Songs. I almost fell out of my chair laughing when I realized that it was not 1 April.

WHAT? Can you say "way too much Star Trek?" I suppose this is a great idea since there are so many whales in space... okay, other than the one that was sent crashing into a planet in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but since that one went splat into what it coined 'ground', it's not in space anymore.
You know, I am not so arrogant as to assume that aliens can understand humans off the bat, and maybe they can understand whales, but should't we figure out what the whales mean before we beam their ramblings into space? For all we know, the whales could be saying 'kill us all' or 'screw you' in the aliens' language... we could be beaming alien profanity into space right now... Wow. Imagine that headline: Loopy Hippies Bring Alien Apocalypse On Mankind. (for proof of loopy-ness and hippie-ness, go to the Whalesong.net site. At least they fund themselves.

Well, have a good laugh, and if you wanted to hear whalesongs LIVE IN CONCERT, you now know where to go.

Ayn Rand Honored

Head over to Intellectual Conservative and read the article about Ayn Rand.

I just today discovered this site after following a link from Ann Coulter's page. It looks like a pretty cool place, especially since my first visit found a link about one of my favorite authors right at the top of the page! For crying out loud, they have a little tiny picture of her in their title!

For those of you who have not read or even heard of Ayn Rand, and I'm continually surprised by how many people haven't, this is not a bad introduction.

Earth Day

Plant a tree, cut down a tree that is crowding others... Yes, that's right: forest management is a GOOD thing... Trees are so cool.

There's a lot of stuff making me see red right now, but it's a day of green, so I won't bother with it. You get to hear about my bike ride instead...

I made the third flight on my new Specialized Hardrock Comp... It was all on paved trails, so I didn't get to unleash the beast at all. I did get to see no less than a dozen mule deer, although it could have been the same six twice. I also ran into clouds of sleepy (it was chilly out) mousquitos so thick that they seemed to slow me down. Not nice. Colorado is not supposed to have that many mousquitos! Shoot, I saw more mousquitos today than all my time ever spent in Colorado before... EVER...

I need to find some propper trails for that bike, though. A few days ago, I took it down into some floodplains with plenty of hills and prairie dog mounds and just went to town... that bike positively begs for twists and air.

Choose your weapon

I was over at Incoherant Ramblings and saw a funky little preferred weapon quiz... I stand with her on the dating service's merits, but this was a fun little test. Here's mine:

Shotgun You preferred a weapon with 60% power over speed and 74% range over melee.

You use a Shotgun. While not the fastest gun in the west, a shotgun's raw power and ease of use make it an extremely potent weapon. Some shotguns can also be loaded with many different types of ammunition, providing a versatility many guns don't have. Choosing your shots, you fell your opponents immediately and without pause.

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 80% on power You scored higher than 88% on range

Link: The What's Your Signature Weapon Test written by inurashii on OkCupid Free Online Dating

Funny, I just 'rediscoved' shotties on Athena Sword las night... and on HL2, a game where I went for the Colt Python over the SPAS 12... no more...
Hmm, I should get one for airsoft...

Save the animals... for a price...

For a price, You can save some animals. This guy is a genius! I wish I had thought of that, although I eat an inordinate ammount of tofu as it is...

If we are not supposed eat animals, how is it that they are made of meat? I bet few bit the dust to provide the brats and burgers for our unit barbeque today... I thank those animals, for they were rather tasty.

On a totally unrealted note, I'm taking a liking to the Pope... Here's why:
"Christianity is not "our" work; it is a Revelation; it is a message that has been consigned to us, and we have no right to reconstruct it as we like or choose."
Ah, yes... truth... that which can not change.

I hear a lot of whining that the Pope is not South American. I read one guy who said that 'we need a pope for the people, who will work to end poverty..." yada yada yada.
I hear others condemning the man for being a Nazi.
Well...
As to his being German and not, say, Brazilian... SO WHAT? He could be a martian for all I care. Does it really matter where he's from?
German soldier DOES NOT EQUAL Nazi... people at that time had no choice. Serve or die... some people should shut up.

Fox News has more.

It's still true...

Nuts, it's ALWAYS true...

"Today, we need a nation of Minutemen, citizens who are not only prepared to take arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as the basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom."
John F. Kennedy

No Shame

Go over to Israellycool and read this. No shame at all... I mean it's funny and at once sad. Real soldiers wear their colors, real soldiers don't hide behind women... or as women when they are men.
Shoot the person who shoots you, I guess. I would say 'shoot the ones with AKs', but I have seen that go terribly wrong.
Anyway, go to Isreallycool... it's a really cool blog and I told you to.

Spring Cleaning

I know I've not been up long, but I needed a name change. Something less an inside joke, something more Air Force, something... Stargate? Yep... That saying is one of my favorites (even since before I got hooked on Stargate) and it nicely sums up much of how I feel...
I also hate the way this place looks. I need to make it more open... So, changes ahead...

Hydrate or die! ...but not too much...

There is an article on Drudge that mentions the dangers of overhydration. Summer is upon us, sportsfans, and hydration is important as ever. Read the article, take it to heart, but don't slack off your water (WATER, not gatorade) intake. I've already had to treat a dehydration case and it's only April. Stay safe, drink up!

Not to sound like a commercial, but Camel Baks ARE God's gift to mankind. We in the military swear by them. I use mine on and off duty and I can't even remember how I skiied without it. If you spend time outdoors, I highly recommend one. Don't cheap out, either. The Camel Bak is not cheap, but it is durable. I have beaten the tar out of mine (as in fallen on it, frozen it, stepped on it, poked it...) for two years and it still holds up.

Civics: Does anyone learn them anymore?

There is a man here in Colorado who apparently sided publicly with notable anti-American and fake Native Ward Churchill. Well, he is a city employee... and the city was not amused. They asked him to go home one day and have since been monitoring him with police.
Now, I'm not so sure that a police escort is the right or fiscally responsible thing to do, but that's not what is at issue here. The issue is that this man is complaining that his 1st Amendment rights have been violated. I ask, how have they been violated?

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Okay, no law has been made. No effort has been made to make him shut up. Where is the violation? He sided with a man who celebrated the deaths of two thousand plus Americans and now his employer has decided that they don't want him running around publicly praising such things. The First Amendment gives no protection from other citizens...

Also, isn't it a bit odd that when a Liberal (I assume, but then again, what Conservative would celebrate the death of Americans?) says something offensive, we are forced or at least encouraged to let it go because of 'free speech'... but should a Conservative say something offensive, he must immediatly shut up and appologize? Let's have some equality here!

All I can say to this guy is: Your own medicine does not taste too good, does it? Also, if you like it when Americans die, please leave the country immediatly. I hear Al Qaeda is a bit short of cannon fodder.

Europe vs USA

I'm going to write about European culture today. Recently, there has been quite a bit of banter about the rifts between Europe and the USA, about how a lot of Europeans don't like us and what not. I'm am about to take a stab at why there are such diffeneces between our cultures, at why there is friction, and why people believe what they believe. Pardon me if I wander...

Even though American culture is almost entirely spawned from European sources, we have evolved (some would say devolved) into one thing while the Europeans from which we are descended evolved into another. From the beginning, America was filled with individualists and dissidents, those who did not feel at home in Europe. This was only the beginning.
Europeans, ever since the light of the Renaissance began to shine, have been involved in the active advancement of their culture and technology. We have don the same here, but for less time and with an emphasis on technology. Americans have, for the most part, been a 'it's good the way it is' people when it comes to culture. When this factor is combined with the physical distance to Europe, it seems to a casual observer that the Europeans are moving beyond us as we stand still. The grass is always greener...
Europe has always been a cultural center, and shiny, new things are always coming from there. They are indeed advanced and sophisticated, always on if not defining the cutting edge. Look at their cars: an American made the car into reality, but is was the Europeans that advanced it. A European car of today positively shames an Amercan car... and our backward laws keep many of those refined cars off of our roads. Europeans were the first to embrace the aircraft in large numbers, especially for military purposes. Just look at what Germany had for a fighter in 1939 compared to what we had. It was the Europeans that began to make cars safer, roads safer, trains safer... They were the ones that had the downright artistic mass trasport in their cities. Appliances, clothing, electronics, culture... the Europeans seem to lead the way. They are widely held as the example to follow. If Europeans are doing it, it brings up the question 'why aren't we?'
Europe has become an ivory tower. Sure, they are sophisticated. I'd say they are too sophisticated. Yes, that's right: too much of a good thing. Where have their lofty ideals and advancements taken them? As a culture, theirs has slipped past ours in their disconnection from reality. They have insulated themselves from truth. As they tried to reach ever higher places for their culture, places ever cloer to perfection, they have been forced to confront human nature in its most elemental and evil form, forced to confront that which is not or can not be understood. When these ugly things surfaced, the reaction of European culture seems to have been to build a wall that shileded the uglieness from sight. To confront the ugliness would be to admit that so much of their path was wrong.
In the Dark Ages, reason was drowned by 'the church', in reality a power-mad organization that had about as much to do with God and Christianity as the NAACP has to do with advancement of anyone. Scientists were persecuted. When Europe was reborn, there was a move away from anything to do with God and the supernatural and toward pure reason. Reason became the ultimate authority, evolving into human reason, evolving into blind faith in humankind. They went too far, making science a god, therefor making man into a god.
When bad things happened, this new god was shown to be impotent, but still the faith persisted.
Europe began a mass disconnection, with a population that almost exclusively lives in an urban environment. The goal of the culture became control over everything. What they can not control, they ignore.
This is not totally removed from what is happening in American culture. Over here, however, we have the stabilizing influence of the Heartland, flyover country. These are people who's livelyhood is directly connected to the land. They have little patience for castles in the air, for ideas that are prettier on paper. They have measure of control over our government and it is they who have slowed our headlong rush to follow the very things that we fled to get to this nation.
In Europe, the culture has become almost completely divorced from the land upon which they live. They assume that this disconnection is a good thing, so it is cultivated. The more separated they become, the more they seem to think that they have a mandate to bring the world after them.
This is to say states with great control, massive public works to manage the population... totalitarianism, to be short. As reason bcame god became man, man has become the state and the state therefor god. The view that it is the state that grants rights to the people is very much the European way. In America, it has been held that people simply have rights, granted by God, and that the people tell the state what it can and can not do. Even if you don't believe in God, you surely believe that humans have rights that are not up for negotiation, rights that DO NOT come from the state: they simply exist.
Now, let's look at the complete folley of this European way: They are sophisticated. They are advanced, more than we. Now, has this stopped them from being any less barbaric or sadistic? Genocide is relatively unkown on this cointinent. Yes, I am aware of what happened to the natives. Compare that to the rampant and wholesale destruction that has defined Europe... we never had a holocaust here. We didn't start two world wars. We didn't bury millions upon millions because they worshiped differently.
Compare racism here and there: Anti-semitism is a way of life, in all practicality, in Europe. They had just as many troubles with civil rights as we.
Many seem to gloss over the brutality of Europe when making the point that Americans need to be more like the Europeans. most places in Europe, if you become too much of a burden, you are discarded, like if you are old and need treatment for a persistant disease. Even their crime is worse... it just does not show as much becuase here, you'll be killed. There, you'll be maimed and left to die.

To clarify and conclude:
Europe has advanced, but the advance has been heartless and soulless. They have failed to confront the evil nature of humans by making humankind a god. They have forgotten that there are things that can not be controlled. They have never recognized that rights are intrinsic. I say take their cars and leave their ways, but most of all, do not listen to them when it come to securing the world against tyranny and violence. They had the chance to stop two world wars and failed both times. Both times it was the United States that ended the wars and rebuilt. We may not be sophisticated, but we are right because we remember that there are things beyond our control and we recognize that rights are not negotiable.

That's my rabid rant for today...

I don't know how to ride a motorcycle

Motorcycles and bikes are two completely different animals, I found out. I never rode one until today. It may be a while before I try again, like after a class...
To make a long story short, I ran into a parked vehicle... MY parked vehicle... it made a funny sound.
Kids, motorcycles and Charlie Foxtrot just don't mix.

Hold the Phone!

Holy holy holy crap! I can't believe somebody said this in Hawaii without getting lynched!
This woman is great... and that was such a nice article.

It's Over

No more Ironman... It was fun. I will definitly do it again next year.

You all know the Pope is dead. I am not a Catholic, but I think that I and everyone else can acknowledge this man as one who did his best for all of us and for God. He worked for the fall of Communism and for general human rights. While I had cause to disaggree with him at times, I think the world is less for his passing. RIP.

AFTAC Ironman mile 85

I saw more owls... LOTS more... in fact, they were all over the place.
I can't wait untill this event is over... two more days, fifteen more miles.

I know they are just another stupid pop outfit, but O-Zone's Dragostea Din Tei is one infectious song... I can't stop listening to it! I hope I get sick of it soon.