Not exactly an an uplifting song, but gives a good story why someone might want to own a gun, and why they are called “equalizers.”
Miranda Lambert has been on the country music scene for about a decade. Decent body… of music.
Forget who recommended the song, but thanks.
For those that thought it couldn’t happen, we’ll see. Obama is looking to stop insider leaks. Specifically by ordering federal workers to spy on each other, and it includes making failure to report a crime, a crime. East Germany, full speed ahead.
Can you saw “witch hunt?” Can you say “ideological purification?” can you say “regulatory capture?” I knew you could, boys and girls.
The 3rd Amendment is a rarely seen topic in US case law. But we now have a real 3rd Amendment case hitting the courts. For those that forget, it reads:
No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
Short version of the case: The police demanded a homeowner vacate his own home, so the police could use it as a lookout point in a domestic violence case. When the homeowner refused, they forced him out, and took his house over. When he tried to literally walk away, down the street, they detained him, and booked them for “obstructing justice,” though they were not formally charged.
Long form details at Courthouse News Service.
Cut to
INT – DAY – Bridge of the HMS Hussein
The spacious bridge is crowded with people at stations and standing or moving about. The Watch Commander stands next to the command chair. The side door opens, and the captain walks out, adjusting his medal-bedecked uniform, swagger-stick under one arm. Continue reading
Not Friday, but close enough, so I couldn’t pass it up. Happy 4th, folks!
A classic that would never be made today.
Fade in
EXT – DAY – Space, a hundred thousand kilometers from the planet
Tajemnica and Borealis drift apart, the glow around Borealis intensifies and it starts veering away, leaving just Tajemnica alone, heading in for the planet. The glow around the Tajemnica is weak. Continue reading
Today’s post for The Stars Came Back was delayed by power problems. Specifically, this (click to embiggenate):
What’s wrong here, boys and girls? It seems that Novelty Hill Road was shut down for about 12 hours, starting at 4:55 PM 02July2013, because some wood failed. If you look closely at the right-side ends of the pair of 6″x6″ wooden beams hanging on to a couple bits of angle iron, you can see that the bolt that used to hold them to the power pole pulled through the end. You can also see the bolt that used to hold them on the pole, not holding anything. (You can also see a pair of wood-pecker holes lower down, but that may be the subject of a future post). When the beams fell out of place, a wire going across the road pulled free, crossed the three lower / outside 7200 volt wires, shorting them, causing them to arc, melt, and fall (still live) to the ground, right along / across Novelty Hill road (second picture; it’s a fairly major commuter road). A fire was started at the base of the wooden pole (creosote-covered wood burns pretty well) from sparks and arcing that went down something on the side of the pole. A nearby house got hit with a surge/spike, and the owner said “everything just hummed for a moment” then every fuse, circuit-breaker, GFI, power-strip fuse, fluorescent light, and a some electronics that were plugged in blew, big time. Blew as in totally defunct, needs replacement, black marks. Apparently, one or more of the falling 7200 volt wires fell across the line to his house. No one seems to have been hurt, though a person from another nearby house apparently had some of the falling / flying molten metal weld / melt itself into the windshield of her car, and some of the hood / roof panels got weld/melt/burn spots as she was sitting at the intersection right underneath the spot where it happened. I just heard a huge pair of BWAAAAAAANT! sounds, then the computer UPS started beeping and the lights went out. Fun times. Got the generator out for a while to make sure the frozen stuff stayed frozen, etc. Finally got power back around 5:30 AM.
[sorry for the delayed post. Had a minor power problem, details later]
Fade in
EXT – NIGHT – Space, not far from a large, angry, dimly lit orange gas giant.
In the far distance, the sun of the New Medina system glows, shedding what little light reaches out to this far distant orbit. In the near distance, space glows and Tajemnica pops into existence. The hull is covered with the same tanks, turrets, and missile pods as before. From an internal magazine, a launch tube pops up and a missile is launched, glowing slightly rather than using conventional rocket motor. It heads for the massive failed star in the distance, rapidly disappearing into the distance. Continue reading
Fade in
INT – DAY – Officers mess
Helton, Lag, Harbin, Ahmed, Capt THRIM TOKAREV (commander of the 13th Mountain Shields, late 30s, short hair, goatee, medium skinned, scarred, tough, bull-necked and broad-shouldered) sit around the table discussing strategy. On a wall screen is the planetary alignment diagram, on the table screen is a layout of the expected battlefield. Continue reading
Fade in
INT – NIGHT – Tajemnica bridge.
Helton and Allonia sit, relaxed, chatting. Helton is in the command spot, Allonia is at com. Lighting is dim, background is quiet. Star diagrams and charts, systems status readouts, and a few internal passageway camera views are on the screens. One of the navigation chart diagrams suddenly starts blinking, then enlarges to take over several screens. Continue reading
Next time someone says they are OK with the NSA spying because they are “keeping us safe” and “if you do nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear” or some such fantasy, here’s something to consider. According to this, the most commonly crime prosecuted in the former East Germany in the five years before the unification was failure to report a crime you knew about. When the state knows everything, then NOT being a rat becomes more dangerous than being a criminal giving the police a cut of the action for protection, because you have no leverage. That thought should terrify folks when they realize what it really means.
(BTW – I think the Judge likely believes what he says when he reports that, but I do not have an independent verification of his reported fact- anyone know for sure the stats on that? Even if it’s not the number one “crime,” if it’s anywhere in the top hundred it is bad.)
(Later Edit: How big a step is it from “see something, say something” to “see something, you are required to say something” with some sort of nebulous protections that may, or may not, protect you if you do say something?)
Fade in
EXT – NIGHT – Deep Space
Three ships hang in the near black darkness. A supply ship, Tajemnica, and Borealis. The three are all “snuggled up” together, airlock to airlock, supply ship in the middle. In the far background, stars and the Milky Way turn lazily by, making the three ships seem insignificant. Continue reading
Interesting how the media and some of the other things are portrayed.
Fade in
INT – DAY – Tajemnica mid-deck passageway, near a stairwell
Helton, looking tired, walks heavily down the stairs, and clumps down the passageway headed for the galley. He pauses and looks through a window into the cargo bay, where two formations with about one hundred young men are doing drills wearing armor and carrying shields. The formations face one another as shield walls layered four ranks deep, and they are practicing pushing forward against the other, while the other side falls back in good order on command. Shove, counter-shove, advance, fall back, bugle call, change direction, do it again. Through the open windows a crashing of metal and flesh, a grunting of men struggling to breath and keep going, corrections and encouragement from the experienced soldiers. Another short bugle call and they both fall back a few steps and then rest in place a moment. Kwon steps up next to him to watch as well. Continue reading
Fade in
EXT – DAY – Training field on New Texas
Aerial view of a vast grassy plain in full, bright sun. It looks like a really hectic Day One in a HUGE boot camp. On a large training field, there are thousands of young men in companies of a hundred or so running all sorts of speed, agility, and strength tests. Each company has a handful of guys in uniform, and they are racing individuals and teams against one another in a high-speed, highly competitive, multifaceted course selection. The guys in uniform are broad-shouldered, sold-looking, mature men with short hair and a serious look. Continue reading
Fade in
INT – DAY – Officer’s mess
Helton, Lag, Kat, Harbin, Bipasha, Allonia. On the wall and table screens is a lot of text, and a star-system planetary diagram with a dozen planets on it. The fourth planet is alone on one side of the star (at the 12 o’clock position), with most of the planets are almost completely on the far side (between the 5 and 7 o’clock positions). A gas giant is at the 3 o’clock position at the outside edge. Continue reading
Fade in
INT – DAY – Bridge of star-liner Borealis
The spacious bridge is full of busy, stressed-looking people trying to figure out what their situation is, pouring over sensor data, internal system monitors and readouts, and status reports from throughout the ship. The captain, a slender, dark-skinned, dapper man in immaculate uniform sitting in the command chair, looks worried. A middle-aged woman, the FIRST OFFICER, approaches him in a uniform with several stripes on the sleeves, also looking worried. Continue reading
Fade in
INT – DAY – Robo-moon entry tunnel
Aerial shot following the ship.
The tunnel is a couple of times wider than Tajemnica. It is lined on all sides with dual turrets, rail-gun in the middle and a laser bump on one side. Dozens of them. They pass slowly down the tunnel, with massive doors opening before them, and closing behind, like a giant series of air-locks. They pass five sets of them, and the space between them is much longer than the ship. They are going deep inside the moon. After the last set of doors, it opens into a large domed room, at least a kilometer across. Tajemnica rotates and settles down toward the “bottom” of it, settling onto a large well-lit “X” on the floor, one of a half-dozen. There are a number of large hatches surrounding the room, both at ground level and higher up on the walls. The side ramp lowers slowly. Allonia walks down the ramp, and over to a nearby kiosk, and extends her hand. Continue reading
Current country rock chick Kaylee Rutland has a song about a classic sort of situation – dad making sure his little girl is properly treated, and the guys that come a’court’n are worthy of their pride and joy. Cute, fairly predictable, fun.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LP56ZO6ZM1s
Just thinking out loud here. Why is the current Syria situation NOT considered a win-win? I mean, yeah, it sucks for Syria, but that part of the world has been in various stages of suckitude pretty much continuously since well before the first Persian empire threw up there. But consider a simplified view of it: LOTS of Islamic radicals go there to fight, and die in the process (i.e., they are not butchering civilians and imposing Sharia elsewhere). One side buys guns with profits from the opium trade from Russia, the other side buys guns with oil profits from us, everyone gets to export young male Islamic radicals there. Heck, seems to me Russia and the US should be ENCOURAGING it to fester in the name of national security and as a domestic jobs program…. I mean, if it’s OK for the Islamic world to deliberately leave the Israel “problem” fester and use it for domestic political purposes, is this not simply a “balanced approach” to the region?