Your reading assignment for today

How socialist labor killed a hundred million people.  Workers of the world unite!  Those Ukrainian kids didn't need to eat, and anyway they're Enemies of the Working Class.

And don't sweat it, Walter Duranty, the New York Times, the Pulitzer Prize Committee, and generations of self-styled intellectuals will worship you for it and white wash the ugly bits.

So remember, Comrade, we march together to the future!  Shoulder to shoulder!

Or else.

A little edge is a good thing

Screw the Beach Boys.  Give me a little Junior.

Of course the accordion is from the Dark Side

We all suspected this, but now there's proof.



Via email from The Gaijin.

What caliber for coyote?

Damn things don't even wait until night to start calling.  They use the creek next to the house as a super highway, and so they're basically a nightly presence.  Now, I don't mind wildlife, but I have a philosophical objection to wildlife that has forgotten their place on the food chain.

So - hypothetically speaking, of course - if someone wanted to scare off the beasts, what would work?  Suppressed .22 (to avoid scaring the White Folks)?  Crossbow (arguably not illegal hereabouts)?  Game cam with built-in flash attachment?

Hypothetically speaking, of course.

Remember how you slept through Grammar class?

So how's that working out?

The greatest miltary headfake of all time?

The easiest way to win a battle is to have more troops than the other side.  The problem is that if your enemy isn't an idiot, he'll reinforce his side when he sees what you've got.  This was a real problem in World War II when the Allies were planning on invading Europe - rapidly arriving reinforcements could throw the invasion back into the sea, or bottle it up on the beach head (Gallipoli, anyone?).

And so the Allies dreamed up Operation Mincemeat.

April 30, 1943 say the submarine H.M.S. Seraph surface off the Spanish coast.  A body was rowed towards shore and lowered into the water where the tide would cast it up on the beach.  The body contained a briefcase chained to the wrist, a briefcase filled with classified documents intended to convince Hitler that the planned invasion of Sicily was a diversion from the "real" invasions "planned" for Greece.  British Intelligence knew that Spanish officials were sympathetic to the Germans, and would pass the documents on to them.

But would they be believed?  This was a big gamble, because if the Germans smelled a rat, it would reinforce a sense of urgency to reinforce their forces in Sicily after the invasion.  And so British Intelligence worked overtime to make The Man Who Never Was believable.

It started with a body, one that would be presented as a Royal Marine intelligence officer who drowned after his plane went down on a flight to Gibraltar.  But "Maj. Martin" had to have the bits and pieces of a life that we all carry with us: old bills, a used bus ticket, tickets to a London play, a rather strongly worded letter from his bank about an overdraft, and a photo of his "fiancee", MI5 secretary Nancy Jean Leslie who died at the beginning of this month.  This is the photograph that saved thousands of Allied lives:

(Image source)

It worked spectacularly, so convincing Hitler that he had the real Allied plans that he forbade troop movements from Greece to Sicily for two weeks, and even sent Rommel to Greece to plan the defense.  Hitler was so mortified by the deception that when actual top secret documents about Normandy were found by the Wehrmacht the following year, Hitler dismissed them as fakes.

Athletes know that a head fake has to be convincing, but if done right will immobilize the opponent.  Rest in peace, Nancy Jean Leslie.

Real Steampunk

What's cool is just how well this century-plus old technology still works today.

Honey Do

Almost unloaded now.  This whole experience builds strong bodies seven ways.

Looking around, I realize that I no longer have an excuse for putting off the list of things I've been putting off:

Replace gas burner on grill.

Get new speakers for Home Theater (stupidly left in the wall at Chez Borepatch).  Get it set up, and run speaker wire to screened porch and maybe living room.

Get replacement capacitors for @#$% big screen TV which isn't TVing any more.  It's been a while since I've done serious soldering, but did a lot back at State U.  And besides, the caps will cost a couple bucks and a Saturday afternoon doesn't cost anything.  A new big screen costs enough to hurt.  I can heartily recommend that you do not buy a Mitsubishi TV, ever.

Check for mold in the ceiling of #1 Son's closet, now that it's dried out.  Treat the wood (I'm thinking Killz), patch dry wall and paint.

Fix waterfall in back yard.

I'm sure that my better half will find something to add to this list.

Happy blogiversary

MaddMedic started blogging five years ago.

Tattoo Protips

Tacitus brings 'em.

Seriously, when there's a Totally Tattoo Barbie, you're not chasin' what you think you're chasin'.  Srlsy.

Jimmie Rodgers - Waiting for a Train

(image source)

The Leftist Elite used to celebrate the working man, and nobody represented that like Jimmie Rodgers.  Born poor as a son of a railroad man, he followed in his father's footsteps.  Hanging out with hobos and brakemen as a teenager, he learned to play guitar and sing.

And he became one of the legends of Country Music.

Music was a side show to Rodgers, who recorded when he could in the 1920s and 1930s.  Sadly, he was stricken with tuberculosis, and died young in 1933.  Just shy of his 36th birthday, be had gone to New York City to make some recordings but was so weakened by his affliction that he joined in death the discoverer of penicillin (no, it's not who you think).  Ironically, the penicillin cure didn't help either against tuberculosis.

But this is music from when Progressives weren't embarrassed by working men, or working men's music.  It would be A Good Thing if they'd learn to appreciate it again.

A steady hand and a watchful eye

Grant me, O Lord, a steady hand and watchful eye, that no one shall be hurt as I pass by. Thou gavest life, I pray no act of mine may take away or mar that gift of Thine.

Shelter those, dear Lord, who bear my company from the evils of fire and all calamity.Teach me to use my car for others need; Nor miss through love of undue speed.

The beauty of the world; that thus I may with joy and courtesy go on my way.

St. Christopher, holy patron of travelers, protect me, and lead me safely to my destiny.

- Prayer to St. Christopher

It took far longer to get home than I had hoped.  I packed up FOB Borepatch and hit the road, stopping overnight in Waco to get at least a little bit ahead of the drive.  Since the truck drives a lot slower, that two hours turned out to be a good thing.  Plus I got to eat at The Elite Grille in Waco, which serves up a mean chicken fried steak (just ask Uncle Jay, although he seems - sadly - to have closed his blog).

The plan was to head to Tyler and I-20, and then home.  Tyler was actually an easy shot, and then I pointed the tires east.  Alas, by Jackson it was looking like I wouldn't make it that day.  Mississippi roads are bumpy, and I had a load that while I had packed it tetris-like, would still shift if I gave it the roller coaster treatment.  Plus I was plumb tuckered out from the previous day's loading.  And so I pulled off the road to gas up at the Pilot in Meridian.  I had to wait in line because the gas was cheap, cheap, cheap ($3.49/gal).  Then I parked it where I could get out easily (dualie rear view mirrors on the doors make it hard to see behind you when you back up).  I figured I'd call the travel department and have them get me a hotel room.

I stayed over night in Meridian, Mississippi.  While struggling with the economy like much of rural America, the town center there is entirely charming in a Mayberry RFD sense.  Plus, I had dinner at Weidmann's restaurant, a town landmark since 1870.  The pork chop was properly done (many places ruin them; this did them perfectly), the fried green tomatoes were excellent, and the au gratin potatoes were perhaps the finest I've tasted.

Recommended, as is Meridian.  If all you see is what's visible from I-20, you're missing the good stuff.  Plus Country Great Jimmie Rodgers is from there, and hopefully I'll get one of his songs up tomorrow.

Then home today.  The truck is half unloaded, but that's OK - don't need to get it back until Monday, and I need to make some space for the furniture I've brought back.  Idle thoughts from the road:

This was the first time I realized just how obnoxious it is when someone passes a truck on the right hand side.  I never really made it instinctive to look first at the bottom mirror that was trained on the blind spot, rather than the top one what was a wider angle view.  I wonder if that one guy had to change his shorts.  Hope so - serve him right for sneaking up on the right when traffic was bunched up.

Truckin' is fun.  Here's me swapping stories with the guys who get fewer miles to the gallon.  See if you can guess which of those rigs is mine.

I've been (mentally) whining to myself that I'm in not particularly good shape.  Let me tell you, a day loading heavy stuff into the truck has rather buffed me up.  After a day of unloading, I may be able to go to the gym without being humiliated.  In fact, I'm feeling rather the beach is that way-ish.

This site is as SFW as blog brother PISSED's place.  If you like his site, you'll like this.

Packing a truck really is like real world, 3-D tetris.  Err, that will buff you up for the beach.

I'm happy to be home, but think that I'll miss Texas.

Home

Back safely inside the Camp Borepatch secure perimeter. More to follow, but I have a truck to unload.

FOB Borepatch signing off

[EOT]

Any western Georgia gunsmiths looking for an apprentice?

No, it's not me, but send me an email if you might be interested.

Coffee. Black.

Need coffee.

The storm before the calm

It's a bit odd knowing that this will be my last night at FOB Borepatch.  The truck is here, packing will go quickly (I have a roll of furniture-wrap), and the dolly is ready to roll.  By afternoon, we should be out, Lord willing and the creek don't rise.

Seeing the place get stripped down makes me realize just how hard I tried to make it homey.  Kind of pitiful, really.  I won't miss the place. Texas, yes.  Austin, heck yeah.  Being away from home for 5 weeks at a time?  Not so much.

I always had a soft spot in my heart for the Saber-tooth Gorgon

The era before the Dinosaurs was fascinating, with all sorts of prototypes of what would become major animal phyla (well, plant phyla too, but I sadly lack the imagination required to be a paleobotanist).  The Mammals descended from a strange group that was dominant at the time, the mammal-like reptiles.  They dominated the end of the Paleozoic Era, the "Old Life" before the Dinosaurs of the Mesozoic.

One of the great mysteries of the history of life on Earth is the repeated Mass Extinction events.  The disappearance of the Dinosaurs is pinned on an asteroid event, but that extinction is only one of very, very many.  In fact, the definition of the end of one era (say, the Permian) and the beginning of another (the Triassic) is defined as a mass extinction event.

Literally, we cannot describe the history of life on this planet without using these mass die-offs as a yardstick. So what caused them all?

A new scientific paper looks to possibly revolutionize the study of Paleontology, and coincidentally sweep "consensus" Climate Science with it.  Henrick Svensmark's Cosmic Ray hypothesis is no stranger to long time readers.  What's new is a correlation of the fossil record with the well-known astronomical calculations of nearby Supernovae.  The correlation is eerie.

Keep your eye on this one.  Rather than the rococo climate models, brimming with epicyclic escape clauses, "gridding", "adjusting", and "smoothing", you have a simple hypothesis that maps very, very closely to a data set that stretches back a half billion years.

Read it all, and short the solar and wind power generation companies.

Your military thoughts for the day

Isegoria is on a roll, on the sort of thing he does best - deep historical thinking on military matters.

Who was a tougher WWII opponent, the Germans or the Japanese?  If those traits could have been combined, we might not have been able to win.  It might even be that probably we couldn't have won.  Yikes.  I'd extend his thinking to say that al Qaeda was trying to introduce some of the German General Staff concepts to what is essentially a WWII Japanese mindset.  Thank the Lord and the U.S. Military that they cut that particular experiment short.

Perhaps that's Osama bin Laden's great Strategic Fail.

Who was tougher, WWII Marines or today's Marines?  Very interesting reading.  Two different approaches to the problem of how you bring maximum firepower to bear.

If you (like me) groove on military history, you should be following him.  Just sayin'.

Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Libertariorum

Science as we know it really came into existence on July 5, 1687.  Sir Isaac Newton published his three volume opus Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, and the world was suddenly and irrevocably different.  Sir Isaac provided a framework for thought, a rigorous analysis that included his Laws of Motion, his Law of Universal Gravitation, and a theoretical framework that explained Johannes Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion, which Kepler had derived from analysis of Tycho Brahe's careful observational data.

Newton provided an elegant mathematical framework that not only explained Kepler's Laws, but predicted further scientific advances.  It is likely the most important scientific work ever written.

Aretae may be doing that for the political philosophy of Libertarianism.  If I had a bit more brains and a bit more of a work ethic, you might read that here.  But I don't and I don't, and so get you over there.  This is big, important stuff.

He complained when I compared him with Aquinas, and now here I'm comparing him with Newton.  But these are Laws of Governing, elegant in their simplicity and pregnant with predictive power.  Go, read.

Yes, it's long.  So's Newton.  Git.