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Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Time to restock the warehouse
Angels it is time to RESTOCK THE SA WAREHOUSE:

BEEF JERKY
TUNA POUCHES
PEANUTS
PEANUT BUTTER AND CRACKER SNACKS
RAEMEN NOODLES
TOOTHBRUSHES
TOOTH PASTE
RAZOR
SHAVE CREAM
TRIAL SIZE SHAMPOO
TRIAL SIZE CONDITIONER
TRIAL SIZE DEODERANT
TRAIL SIZE BODY WASH

WE CAN DO THIS ANGELS!!

--Chuck
Written at 1/17/2012 08:19:00 PM by Chuck.
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SOPA and PIPA
11/19:  The blog is back to normal.  Don't think that this battle has been won.  It's not over yet.  If you didn't get through on the phone/internet yesterday to your congressman, please try again today.
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Banned by Mike Yon, made illegal by SOPA/PIPA

This is what the internet will look like if SOPA or PIPA get passed.

Don't believe me?

What can you do? This link works too.


~~Code Monkey (with Chux blessing)



PS Yeah, comments are offline.  Bitch to your congress critter instead of singing to the choir here.  #kthxbai

(And yeah, the cheezburger network will be offline today as well.)

Also:
Bouhammer
Day By Day
Minecraft
Wikipedia
Written at 1/17/2012 07:01:00 PM by Code Monkey.
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Monday, January 16, 2012
With Allies like these...
So, you taxpayers might want to ask your gummint just WTF the State Department is doing to fix this:

Supply likes in Afghanistan, or more appropriately to Afghanistan, are weird.  We fly in troops and very-high priority supplies, but the bulk of our supplies is trucked in through the mountains of Pakistan… our ally in the War on man-caused disasters.  You taxpayers pay THROUGH THE NOSE for this freight, which is brought into a port, loaded onto trucks, and driven to us.  We have to pay the drivers extra because the trip is so hazardous.  We have to pay the government of Pakistan for passage.  We have to pay the local tribal warlords for “protection”—to keep them from attacking our convoys.  We then have to pay the drivers extra for the tolls they pay to leave Pakistan.

But that’s really the cost of doing business.  (Business with the country that harbored Osama Bin Laden, and continues to, if not provide safe haven for many other Taliban leaders, then either actively not look for them, or they really, really suck at it.)

But even that isn’t the point—about six weeks ago, we identified some 24 people with an assortment of weapons near the afghan border—in a place we were looking for insurgent activity.  They weren’t, as far as we could tell, Pakistani military.  We even asked the PakMil liaison if they had any units operating in that location.  The PakMil answered no, they must be insurgents.  So we dropped a couple of “Welcome to Afghanistan” and “Someone in America still remembers 9/11” packages on them.  End result:  24 dead non-Pakistani military.

Then the PakMil started going apeshit, saying that, yes, in fact, those were their military, they just weren’t where they were supposed to be, or the liaison read the coordinates wrong, or they were always such good, quiet neighbors, or whatever they thought they could say to shift blame.  Turns out, all they had to do was shift blame by continuing to claim that they told us the formerly above room temperature guys were their military and somehow, we fucked up.

Now, the gummint of Pakistan (our allies, mind you) have blocked all coalition forces freight from transiting their border.  What does that mean?  It means that hundreds of thousands of TONS of materiel and supplies are sitting on trucks in Pakistan, waiting at the Torkham gate to be attacked and plundered by either the Taliban, local warlords, or the Pakistani government.  It also means that supplies we normally rely on through ground resupply will have to be flown in—but they can’t just fly in the supplies that are already in Pakistan, they have to bring new supplies all the way in to Kuwait and then fly them from there.  Any idea how many planeloads of cargo it takes to supply some 30,000 troops with food, fuel, ammunition, repair parts, clothes, mail, construction materials, weapons, vehicles, bulk and critical medical supplies, etc?  Not to mention the equipment that the units rotating in are sending, and the equipment departing units are bringing home. 

There simply are not enough airplanes, crews, or hours in the day to do it.  It would require something like the Berlin airlift, but instead of supplying a city, it would have to supply an entire country. 

And what do our “Allies” want to allow our cargo transit through their borders?

Not much—just an apology, an admission of guilt, …and of course, more money.

--Chuck
Written at 1/16/2012 06:10:00 PM by Chuck.
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Sunday, January 15, 2012
Backpfeifengesicht

Word of the Day. Backpfeifengesicht (German) 

Means:

 

A face badly in need of a fist.

 

Some people, we just suspect deep down that the only way to get through to them is by violence. Or perhaps the violence is the only thing that will make us feel better.

 

It's the friend who insists on telling racist jokes in front of your mixed-race girlfriend, a co-worker who's constantly sniveling about minor grammar issues on your post-it memos or any number of entertainers you see on magazine covers.

 

Courtesy of Germany, this nameless horror is in fact named backpfeifengesicht, a face that cries out for a fist in it. Everyone knows at least one of these people. If you don't, it might be you.

 

 

--Chuck


Written at 1/15/2012 02:30:00 AM by Chuck.
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Wednesday, January 11, 2012
2012 Gun Blogger Rendezvous
The Gun Blogger Rendezvous has been a generous and loyal supporter of Project Valour-IT over the years. The dates for the 2012 Rendezvous were announced just after Christmas.
"The contract is now signed for the 2012 Gun Blogger Rendezvous. The dates will be September 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th of September. This is the second week in September, as usual."
Start looking for good rates on plane tickets and bookmark their page for updates.

~~Code Monkey
Written at 1/11/2012 07:34:00 PM by Code Monkey.
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Monday, January 09, 2012
"A Message From Our President..."

Written at 1/09/2012 07:53:00 AM by Chuck.
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Wednesday, January 04, 2012
Airplane of the Damned VIII, About Damned time
I finally arrived in San Antonio. It's late, I'm tired, and rather than bothering with the trek out to my Sister's house, I just grabbed a room at a nearby hotel and am finally going horizontal for the next 10 hours or so.

--Chuck
Written at 1/04/2012 04:54:00 PM by Chuck.
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Airplane of the Damned VII, this is Damned ridiculous
So my four hour delay in Amsterdam did, in fact, cause me to miss my connection and final leg of this journey to San Antonio.  Delta more than made up for it, however, by adding ANOTHER leg to the trip because, hey, What could possibly go wrong?

US customs wasn't bad, that is to say, I wasn't held for a bribe nor did I have to threaten to place a call to the Secretary of Homeland Security.  

But the real kicker--because my flight changed so close to its departure, and because I had no checked baggage, and because hell, I don't know why, I got e magical SSSS security code, good for one enhanced screening and sexual assault.    I'musually understanding and helpful... I have shrapnel here, here, here, and here, an implant here, skin grafts here, etc.  not this time.  Let them figure this shit out on their own.  Welcome to America, this is the land you fight to protect, now if you'll just putyour feet here, we'll subject you to the exact same treatment we would any suspected terrorist.

--Chuck

P.S.  I had a nice conversation in Amsterdam with an Expatriate from Brooklyn who now lives in Norway.  Hadn't been back to the US in 30 years.   US Homeland Seurity made a pretty good argument for him.  Another cool thing in Amsterdam: you go through security at your gate.  Lines are nearly non-existant, save for the people getting on your plane.

P.P.S.  I have gone from Afghanistan to America and have been travelling for the last 80 something hours. The sum total of everything I carried fits into a backpack... A small one.  People need to learn to pack and carry way less shit.
Written at 1/04/2012 04:51:00 PM by Chuck.
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Airplane of the Damned VI, land the Damned plane already
Arrived in Amsterdam this morning.  You know what helps you get through a flight from Bahrain to Amsterdam, after the trip I've had?

Gin.  Flying on KLM with Dutch stewardesses who can spot someone who needs more than the "1 drink per hour" rule.  Sitting next to a very nice scottish lady who shared my taste for the Bombay sapphire.  And lunesta.  Take one and sleep wherever you are.

The only bad thing about the whole seven-hour flight?  My seat didn't recline, but the seat in front of me sure did.  

Add more gin.  Sleep sitting straight up.  Bonus:  no drool.  Drawback, upper and lower back pain.  Solution--Gin and Tonics for breakfast in the Netherlands.  Still haven't seen windmills or wooden shoes, but the day is young.

--Chuck
Written at 1/04/2012 04:49:00 PM by Chuck.
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Airplane of the Damned V, Transatlantic Damned
Airplane of the Damned V, Transatlantic Damned

Remember all the good things I said about KLM/Delta?

Forget that shit. Sure, the staff are very courteous and polite. Sure, they pass the booze out liberally (once. One beverage service, on a ten hour flight.). After that, you have to ask just for water.

All that aside, what I really enjoyed was getting everyone on the plane for the pilot to THEN discover that something in the cockpit isn't working right. So they got the mechanics to come fix it. Which they couldn't. So they moved us over to the maintenance ramp... Rather than unloading the plane... And there we sat, while they fixed whatever it was (or, I suspect, while the pilot sobered up.)

We sat there for four freaking hours.
O
Time enough to get us off the plane and get every one of us a new flight, even if they had to use other carriers. But no way, no how. We were on this plane until this shit got fixed.

So they eventually fixed the plane, and I'll arrive in Detroit a mere three hours after the airplane that was to take me to San Antonio, left.

With any luck, (and really, on this trip, there is no luck but bad luck) I will be able to simply hop a later flight and still arrive tonight. I have full faith and confidence that Delta will absolutely do right by me. Sorry, I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.

Oh, and joy of joys, I get to clear US customs when I get to Detroit. I hope they are as cheerful and polite as usual, I really need the stress relief.

Why do I get the feeling that I am going to end up living in the international terminal at Detroit Airport?

--Chuck


--Chuck
Sent from my ENIAC-1

Written at 1/04/2012 01:58:00 PM by Chuck.
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