Month: September 2012

Well! THIS is Encouraging!

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Armada of British naval power massing in the Gulf as Israel prepares an Iran strike

Battleships, aircraft carriers, minesweepers and submarines from 25 nations are converging on the strategically important Strait of Hormuz in an unprecedented show of force as Israel and Iran move towards the brink of war.

Western leaders are convinced that Iran will retaliate to any attack by attempting to mine or blockade the shipping lane through which passes around 18 million barrels of oil every day, approximately 35 per cent of the world’s petroleum traded by sea.

A blockade would have a catastrophic effect on the fragile economies of Britain, Europe the United States and Japan, all of which rely heavily on oil and gas supplies from the Gulf.

Marvelous. Juuuust marvelous.

Quote of the Day – Mark Steyn Edition

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The men who organized this attack knew the ambassador would be at the consulate in Benghazi rather than at the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli. How did that happen? They knew when he had been moved from the consulate to a “safe house,” and switched their attentions accordingly. How did that happen? The United States government lost track of its ambassador for 10 hours. How did that happen? Perhaps, when they’ve investigated Mitt Romney’s press release for another three or four weeks, the court eunuchs of the American media might like to look into some of these fascinating questions, instead of leaving the only interesting reporting on an American story to the foreign press. — Mark Steyn: An act of war, not a movie protest

Quote of the Day – Tyler Cowen Edition

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As people, [Republican leader Mitt] Romney and [U.S. President Barack] Obama are not that different. Both are in bad situations, for reasons not of their own making. If Obama wins, which seems more likely, we probably get more of the same – gridlock, nastiness. If Romney wins, we have to ask, ‘Do Republicans really mean what they’ve been saying?’ I think they don’t. It’ll be like the Bush years – right-wing versions of left-wing ideas.

But you won’t hear the words “Supreme Court Justice Eric Holder.”

SandCastle Air

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For the first six Gun Blogger Rendezvous, I drove from Tucson to Reno.  It’s about 15 hours each way, if you average 55MPH over the trip including stops for food and fuel.  I can do that in one shot, but that’s about my limit.  This year I got an interesting offer.  Danno from Sandcastle Scrolls was going for the first time – and Dan owns a plane.  A plane that cruises at 200MPH.  Specifically, this plane:


Pretty, isn’t it?  It’s a 1967 Cessna 310, with two Continental fuel-injected 471 cubic-inch six-cylinder boxer engines rated at about 260Hp each.  At 200MPH, they burn about 25GPH for an average fuel economy of 8MPG – not bad at that speed.  As Dan reported on his blog,

We fired up the #1 engine at 10:27 local and shut them down 3:26 later on the ramp at Carson City.  (note flight time is not the same as engine time.  Engine time includes taxi time at each end while flight time is from take off to landing.)

Beats the hell out of 15 hours.  Including idling, run-up, takeoff and landing, we burned about 91 gallons each way.  At well over $5/gal.  Ouch.  Still, the scenery from 8500 to 10,000 ft ASL is a lot nicer than it is at ground level over Nevada:


Trust me, the desert is MUCH prettier from the air.  And you don’t get to do this – our approach and landing at Carson City:

http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf
Dan’s been flying about 25 years.  He greased the landing at Carson, and did it even better on our return to Chandler.  Not a bad way to travel!  And without blogging, I’d never have gotten this chance.

Oh, and the speed?  Here’s the proof:


That’s from the GPS on my Blackberry.

Quote of the Day – The Brink Edition

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On paper, given Obama’s record, this election should be a cakewalk for the Republicans. Why isn’t it? I am afraid the answer may be that the country is closer to the point of no return than most of us believed. With over 100 million Americans receiving federal welfare benefits, millions more going on Social Security disability, and many millions on top of that living on entitlement programs–not to mention enormous numbers of public employees–we may have gotten to the point where the government economy is more important, in the short term, than the real economy. My father, the least cynical of men, used to quote a political philosopher to the effect that democracy will work until people figure out they can vote themselves money. I fear that time may have come.

—

I am afraid the problem in this year’s race is economic self-interest: we are perilously close to the point where 50% of our population cares more about the money it gets (or expects to get) from government than about the well-being of the nation as a whole. Throw in a few confused students, pro-abortion fanatics, etc., and you have a Democratic majority.

John Hinderaker, Powerline, Why is This Election Close?

Don’t they always protest after losing an election that the populace inexplicably didn’t “vote in their own best interest”?

9/11

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So, Muslim protesters attacked the U.S. Embassies in Cairo, Egypt and Benghazi, Libya because they were upset about

A 14-minute movie trailer, posted on YouTube in English and Arabic, (that) portrays Muhammad as a womanizer and fraud

Well whoop-te-do.

Reportedly, the attackers killed one person in Libya. It is not known whether the victim was American or not.

And you know what the most important thing I learned is?


According to Bloomberg:

In Egypt’s capital, Cairo, Islamist demonstrators scaled the walls of the U.S. Embassy, ripped down a U.S. flag and chanted “Obama, we are here to sacrifice for Osama.”

 The Egyptian crowds, numbering in the hundreds, chanted “We are all Osama bin Laden” as the U.S. marked the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks that killed about 3,000 people on orders of the man the protesters were extolling.

Isn’t that special!

I think we’ve restocked on JDAMs and Mavericks, and I understand that the Army is issuing a new and much-improved round for the M4.

UPDATE 9/12/11:  The U.S. Ambassador to Libya and three staffers have been killed.  That’s our thanks for helping oust Gaddafi.

“We sacrificed dozens and hundreds during the uprising for our dignity. The Prophet’s dignity is more important to us and we are ready to sacrifice millions,” said mosque preacher Mohamed Abu Gabal who joined the protest.

Well, there are tens of millions of Americans prepared to help you make that sacrifice, Mohamed.