March 2014 – Bring the HEAT

IPCC Warns on Global Warming, after the Coldest Winter in US in a Century

Well, we have reached the last day of March in 2014. Just in time for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to send out another alarmist shill about Global Warming/Climate Change. Anthropogenic Climate Change, to be exact. Requiring “action”. Which is a code-word for “money”. Otherwise, disaster, death, murder, rape, starvation is sure to ensue. You get the idea. Seems like we have heard it all before, dunnit?

Of course, Socialist-Communist American President Barack Obama is solidly behind such “action”. Especially since that action has the desirable side-effect of destroying our capitalist economy and providing further excuse for even more crushing environmental regulation, exponentially expanding the statist command economy he desires so much. Vice President Biden, he of the “perfect skin”, is in full agreement. Which means, it seems, that the inside of his head is not quite as well-kept as the outside.

We are to believe, of course, that the natural cycle of changes in the Earth’s climate which we have proof occurred hundreds of millions of years before man came to be, is now entirely our fault. And that the massive and growing number of skeptics in the scientific community remain “just a few deniers”.

Let’s give some local flavor to the debate. Where I live, March 2014 has had a mean temperature nearly NINE DEGREES below normal. That is an astounding figure. In March of 2012, when we had temperatures in the 70s for several days and the global warming alarmists were in full frenzy, the mean temperature was just 7.2 degrees ABOVE normal. Despite their prognostications of certain doom, March of 2014 is actually significantly colder than March of 2012 was warm. Such is also not in isolation. The previous 12 months have been a full 2.0 degrees below their average since 2006. Talk about “hockey stick” graphs.

Nationally, the US just experienced the coldest six months in more than 100 years. Since the winter of 1911-12. If that is true in the US, it is very likely true in Canada and Mexico. For the last six months, at least one quarter of the globe has been significantly colder than the norm. Climate scientists have already been caught red-handed manipulating data sets to produce “global warming” outcomes. As have US agencies. These aren’t mistakes. Not errors in calculation. They are LIES.

Our President, not surprisingly, is using those lies to perpetuate HIS agenda, and the agendas of his political and financial supporters. For people like Barack Obama, the truth is something to be avoided at all costs. That should surprise nobody. After Benghazi, Obamacare, the IRS scandal, Fast and Furious, “red lines”, etc., he can be called an inveterate liar.

And it shouldn’t surprise us that Obama embraces the Global Warming anti-capitalists. It isn’t like he doesn’t have a history of hanging out with Weathermen.

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It would seem that the “just a few deniers” have a few things to say. It makes a good read.

Load HEAT- Lisa Faulkner

Lisa Faulkner is relatively unknown here in the US, though some of you may know the 41 year old blonde beauty from Canada’s Murdoch Mysteries.

Personally, I’ll always remember her from her very brief role on the Brit series Spooks, better known here as MI-5.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8d1FILAguKE

After the Wars – Post-Kaiser survey of Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans – The Washington Post

The Washington Post and Kaiser Family Foundation conducted a nationally representative survey among Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. Click “Detailed view” on any question to view results by military branch, combat arms/combat support, gender and other groups.

via After the Wars – Post-Kaiser survey of Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans – The Washington Post.

There’s a long list of questions, and some very interesting answers. I haven’t gone into the detailed breakdown by branch, Combat Arms/Combat Support or gender yet. But overall, most troops seem to feel their service was a positive experience.

We needed this back in my day.

Rather blatantly stolen from CDR Salamander.

[scribd id=214336866 key=key-1o1ws1cx66cd66jt9y1r mode=scroll]

The Russians Are Coming

Late on Friday afternoon, news broke that Russian President Vladimir Putin had called President Barack Obama at the White House to discuss the possibility of a diplomatic resolution to the crisis in Crimea. The two agreed to dispatch their chief emissaries to talk details about how to diffuse the situation. But while a settlement might now be a possibility, United States and NATO intelligence assessments agree that the likelihood of Russian troops crossing the border into eastern (and possibly northern and southern) Ukraine grows by the hour. So, is this another Putin psych-out? It may well be.

Here are 10 facts on the ground that add up to a very real chance that Russia might still invade Ukraine:

via The Russians Are Coming.

At least go hit the bullet points.

I would have thought the Russians would have rolled earlier, with momentum on their side. But it takes time for their agents to stage the proper conditions on the ground. We’ll see. At any event, Putin won’t stop until he has at least de facto control of Ukraine.

Scott AFB airmen to mop, vacuum own buildings to cut costs – U.S. – Stripes

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. — Scott Air Force Base airmen on April 1 will assume more responsibility for most mopping, vacuuming and grass-cutting at dorms and office buildings that do not fall under the “prestige” category.

The new program is the result of Air Force-wide cost-cutting efforts. Scott will save about $1 million from custodial and groundskeeping contracts in the first year of the austerity program, according to Maj. Michelle Sterling, operations flight commander for the 375th Operations Squadron.

“If there is a need for vacuuming that’ll be the responsibility of the folks who live in the facility,” Sterling said.

via Scott AFB airmen to mop, vacuum own buildings to cut costs – U.S. – Stripes.

Oh, the horror!

Watch morale and retention plummet!

Hugo Boss Awarded Contract For Joint Service Uniform Design

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has awarded a $3.3 billion contract to German fashion designer Hugo Boss AG for a new Joint Service Uniform to be worn across all military service branches, Duffel Blog has learned.

Featuring a high button collar, knee-high spit-shine-able leather dress boots, and a rounded service-type garrison cap with plastic visor, the JSU concept evokes the crisp lines and sharp appearance of the uniforms Hugo Boss created for the German military from the early 1930′s through the mid-1940′s.

“Standardizing service uniforms across all branches with the JSU will save a huge amount of money, and by eliminating the hodge-podge appearance of mismatched uniforms, we present an image of a much more professional military culture,” said Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

via Hugo Boss Awarded Contract For Joint Service Uniform Design.

America Rising: I'm Just Wild About Harry!

Seems that Harry Reid wants us to believe that he never stated that the legion examples of the horrendous impact of that colossal train-wreck known as Obamacare were simply “lies” made up by Republicans. Not only did he claim such was “simply untrue”, but Harry made that claim while admonishing a Republican Senate colleague who had called him out for his words. Reid’s piqued denial came after having said precisely what he was accused of saying (on CSPAN, no less), on the Senate floor barely a month earlier. (See links in the previous sentence for Reid’s statements.) Ol’ Harry’s shenanigans would otherwise have escaped the dogged investigative talents of the Mainstream Media except for a wonderful little organization called “America Rising PAC”. Their digging unearthed Senator Reid’s earlier comments, exactly one month prior.

Exactly a month ago today, Harry Reid took to the Senate floor to say that the ObamaCare horror stories that were being told across the country were lies:

“We heard about the evils of Obamacare, about the lives it’s ruining in Republicans’ stump speeches and in ads paid for by oil magnates, the Koch brothers. But in those tales, turned out to be just that: tales, stories made up from whole cloth, lies distorted by the Republicans to grab headlines or make political advertisements.”

Today, Harry Reid took to the same Senate floor to say that he had never said that any ObamaCare horror stories were lies… to his recollection:

“Mr. President, the junior Senator from Wyoming has come to the floor several times recently talking about the fact that examples that he and other Republicans have given, dealing with ObamaCare, examples that they think are bad, I’ve called lies. Mr. President, that is simply untrue. I have never come to the floor, to my recollection, and I never said a word about any of the examples that Republicans have given regarding ObamaCare and how it’s not very good.”

So let’s go to the videotape!

The americarisingpac.org posting has gone absolutely viral. I have it on the best of sources that Karl Rove “tweeted” it, and now the Daily Caller picked it up, as has CNS, Town Hall, Fox, the Weekly Standard, Heritage, the American Thinker, and a number of others. No word on MSNBC or CNN saying a peep about Harry’s little falsehood. What a shock.

It is difficult to tell if the far-left crusaders and fellow-travelers that have populated Congress and the Obama Administration, including President Obama himself, have yet to grasp the import of the information age or not. Or whether they think that things they have said publicly, recorded on audio or video, can simply be made to be forgotten by indignantly asserting after the fact that they were never said. Or, if they are arrogant enough to believe that their standing among the American public is so esteemed that nobody cares. Or, perhaps, that the beholden formerly-independent press will dutifully bury such stories and intentionally spin and obfuscate the truth in their “analysis” of whatever unpleasant issue the Administration wants entombed and out of the public eye. Perhaps it is some combination of all of the above.

Certainly with Benghazi, and the IRS scandal, voter intimidation in Philadelphia, Fast and Furious, Obamacare, the DoJ AP phone subpoena scandal, and myriad other scandals big and small, this Administration and its minions in Congress have lied repeatedly, deliberately misleading the American public with the complicity of the Mainstream Media, who act, nearly universally, as shills for their political patrons. We know what happens when the line is not toed. Just ask Sheryl Atkisson, whose probing of the Benghazi debacle made Obama & Co. distinctly uncomfortable, or the aforementioned AP reporters.

So now we have Senator Harry Reid, doubling down on his accusations by lying about his previous statements. Imagine if this was Boehner or Rand Paul, or Ted Cruz. This would be fodder for the talk shows for weeks, and the MSM would work hand in glove with the Obama Politburo to destroy the Republican politician in question. But this is Harry Reid, the leftist Senator from Nevada, Senate Majority (for now) leader, and he thought he could bald-face bullsh*t on the Senate floor, and claim he never said what he is on record as saying.

And he’d have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for those meddlesome kids!

H/T to DB!!!!

Jeremiah Denton, RIP

In 1965, the A-6 Intruder community was very small. On its very first combat deployment, with VA-75, there would be four aircraft losses. One crew, Jerry Denton and Bill Tschudy, were captured, and would spend nearly 8 years as Prisoners of War.

My folks knew Denton, and his wife Jane, fairly well. As I said, the A-6 community was quite small.

Denton’s leadership and character while in captivity were legendary. It was he who first managed to provide evidence that the North Vietnamese were systematically torturing captured US aircrew. While being filmed for propaganda purposes, he blinked Morse code- T-O-R-T-U-R-E.

Upon his return from North Vietnam, he would continue his Navy career, eventually retiring as a Rear Admiral.

He was later elected to one term in the US Senate from Alabama.

Jerry Denton passed away this morning in Virginia Beach, VA.

COL George “Bud” Day- Misty 01, MOH, and the Collings Foundation

A reader sent in a tip for this.

Fairly early in the Vietnam War, one of the challenges the Air Force faced was interdicting the flow of supplies from North Vietnam to the south. Strike packages had a hard time locating convoys to attack, and had little time on station available to hunt for them. The normal procedure would be to dispatch a Forward Air Controller (FAC)to locate targets for them. But the small Cessna type planes used by FACs were far too vulnerable to the North Vietnamese air defenses to be used.

A handful of pilots thought that specially trained crews could use fast mover jets to perform the “Fast FAC” mission. The aircraft chosen was the F-100F. And the first leader of these crews was Bud Day. Known by their call-sign “Misty” the Fast FACs greatly improved the ability to locate and attack supplies heading south.

But it wasn’t without loss. Bud Day himself would be shot down in 1967, and endure 5 and a half years as a POW. His conduct as a POW were so exemplary that he was decorated with the Medal of Honor. In addition, he was also a recipient of the Air Force Cross.

The Collings Foundation:

The purpose of the Collings Foundation is to organize and support “living history” events that enable Americans to learn more about their heritage through direct participation. The original focus of the Foundation was transportation-related events such as antique car rallies, hill climbs, carriage and sleight rides, along with a winter ice-cutting festival in Stow, MA areas. During the mid-eighties, these activities were broadened to include aviation-related events such as air shows, barnstorming, historical reunions, Wings of Freedom Tour, Vietnam Memorial Flights, joint museum displays and living history events.

One way to fulfill this mission is to operate a Vietnam Memorial Flight, with aircraft including an F-4 Phantom, a TA-4J Skyhawk, and an F-100F, which the Collings Foundation has painted in the markings of COL Day’s “Misty 01.”

COL Day passed away in July of 2013.