H&I Fires* 22 DEC 2008

Open post for those with something to share, updated through the day. New, complete posts come in below this one. Note: If trackbacking, please acknowledge this post in your post. That's only polite.
********************************

I believe in reusing things.  Heh.  We've got B-52s in service that are as old as I am.  When I was in command, I had a Q4 Meteorological set that was identical to the one my father had in his unit when he was in command.  Given the circumstances of where and what unit's we commanded, it might even have been the same set.  At least it was new when he had it...

That said, sometimes making do is really making a virtue of a vice.

Take this picture, which is not actually avian reproductive activity (heh, would that it were so simple).



We're looking at the epitome of manned space flight.  A design that made it's first flight in 1981 (the shuttle) sitting on a design that made it's first flight in 1969, the Boeing 747.  Heh.  At least the 747's  are still being new-built and are up-to-date, vice the Shuttles.  NASA, why hast thou forsaken me?  Oh, I know why.  The Presidents we've been electing, and the Congresses they contend with, have little vision or patience for this sort of thing.  Sigh.

Here's a slightly larger version of that pic, if you wish.  -the Armorer

***************************************

Yay!  Great news!  We won the White House!  Ruh-roh, we won the White House, and the House, and the Senate...

Democrats are facing an especially precarious version of that dilemma. In crafting a package that will sink hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars into the economy, they are apprehensive about the fallout if the economy merely continues sputtering along for several years.

And lawmakers are already mindful of how they will face voters less than two years from now. The ruling party almost always loses seats in midterm elections, and that trend could be exacerbated for the Democrats if voters think they threw billions of dollars at the economy with little to show for it.

Heh.  That's okay.  If it fails, we know whose fault it will be.  The full blame will fall on the 40-something Republicans in the Senate.  Yeah, that's it!  It  will be their fault.  Heh.  The kabuki continues.     Of course, nothing is that simple.  Both sides were asleep at the switch, or hoping the house of cards would last until their retirement.  -the Armorer

**********************************

I disagree completely with Heartless LIbertarian on this issue.  Functional form has a beauty all it's own - and this is a sweeeeeet-lookin' example of it.  If you win it, Heartless, we'll be happy to host it here in the Arsenal.  -the Armorer

**********************************

I'm going to go see Valkyrie - but I've seen enough of the trailers to come to the conclusion that when Tom Cruise can play Tom Cruise playing someone like Tom Cruise he is a pretty good actor.  In the same way, say, that John Wayne playing John Wayne playing someone like John Wayne, John Wayne was a pretty good actor.  But Tom Cruise playing a disillusioned German Junker just ain't happening.  Think John Wayne as Temujin, and you have Tom Cruise as Oberst Graf von Stauffenberg.  I doubt the full movie will change my thoughts much on that subject, however well the rest of the subject of the July Plot and the players therein is portrayed.  I was born in Germany, lived and worked among Germans, to include having friends when I was a soldier who would have been contemporaries of Oberst von Stauffenberg - and Tom Cruise just ain't working for me there.  -the Armorer

*******************************