Ball Diamond Ball

Well, three races are now complete in F1. And what a start to the season.

I probably should note that I am a Lewis Hamilton fan. He is a 3-times world champion, this despite being the #2 driver for Mercedes, behind Nico Rossberg. Last year Nico won the world championship purely by luck. Probably recognizing it isn’t like to recur he then retired after the season.

This year has been altogether different from last year. Last year the Mercedes team pretty much ran off and hid from the rest of the field, and first and second were mostly pretty much set. The rest of the field raced for what was left.

Nothing like that THIS year. In the first race in Melbourne Hamilton won, but in Shangai Sebastian … Continue reading →

My good friend, the Honorable Allen Clark will be hosting a national security luncheon this week and I am flattered and honored that he has invited me as his guest to lead the invocation.

Having not done this before I am hoping our crew here can offer some pointers and advice.

I will not be offering a generic invocation and will reference Jesus Christ.

What are some things you recommend to do or specifically avoid?

Thank you,

You could win one of these handsome mugs.

This post reaffirms the intellectual value of this forum and the high honor of its members and I am not just saying that because I am on the payroll – I would say it for free!

A fortnight ago or better our resident Curmudgeon (Reserve Status) posted a comment in a highly intellectual thread about shaving or at least I think it was about shaving. Anyway he recommended I give this fine Italian shave soap a try.

Previously I’d been using The Art of Shaving’s cream at ~2x the price. Today was the inaugural Proraso shave with my Dovo German straight razor (NATO is not obsolete!) and I … Continue reading →

We do have a really good showman in the oval office.

Cruise missiles in Syria while dining with the Chinese Leader

Carrier battlegroup to the region off North Korea.

US coal now replacing North Korean Coal to China. (Such a deal I got for you!)

Kim threatening a nuke test Saturday.

We just happen to demo one of the more unique weapons in the arsenal against the almost universally accepted foe in Afghanistan.

I expect ten or twenty of these might really screw up that artillery aimed at Seoul.

Weapon Safety On                                                                      Weapon Safety Off

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XENOPHOBIA is a first-contact novel by Peter Cawdron, who seems to have a cottage industry of first-contact novels.  I bought this book on the strength of a recommendation.  I will let you know what I think of it either from the first page, or the first act.  :-)

When an alien spacecraft appears in orbit, America is thrown into turmoil. US troops are withdrawn from hotspots around the globe to provide support at home.

In Malawi, Africa, a band of US Rangers remains behind to serve as peacekeepers, but when hundreds of alien spacecraft begin soaring overhead, the dynamics of war take on an entirely new dimension.

I have shied away from science fiction recently, because most of it is bad.  Here’s to hope!

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Update:

The plot thickens.  I have removed the battery and sought a replacement.  Supposedly not hard to find online, but no authorized Apple joint will touch them, so getting one in person is not so easy.

For our callers abroad, BDB reports that the local dial-in numbers can try to trick you into hanging up by prematurely and erroneously informing you that there are no other callers. Upon your entering the access code, the voice tells you there are no other callers even if there are. Then it asks you for the host code or to just hit #. Do the latter.

US: 515-604-9908
Access Code: [see chat]

Decision Desk just rolled out a new 2016 election map, this one by precinct. Given there is no national database at that level, it took serious shoeleather to assemble.

It shows the blue islands are being swallowed.

Now, why do I care? I live in a blue state that is committing North Korea like suicide economically. $15 minimum wage, more feel good regulation, sanctuary state, anarchist pothole brigades.

I see the local politics getting quite extreme in these little Venezuelas without the Oil and it may be time to skedaddle across the Columbia to a blue state that has more brakes on the insanity … Continue reading →