RIP, Greg Allman

Greg Allman is no longer with us:

Gregg Allman, the soulful singer-songwriter and rock n' blues pioneer who founded The Allman Brothers Band with his late brother, Duane, and composed such classics as "Midnight Rider," "Melissa" and the epic concert jam "Whipping Post," has died at age 69, Billboard has learned. He was diagnosed with hepatitis C in 1999 and underwent a liver transplant in 2010.
With his long blond hair, cool facade and songs that chronicled restless, wounded lives, Allman came to personify the sexy, hard-living rock outlaw in a life marked by musical triumph and calamitous loss.

He and his older brother, Duane, both died too young. Greg was only 69 when he passed away today. Duane, one of the greatest-rock-blues guitarists ever, was much younger, obviously, when he died in a motorcycle accident in 1971.

I used to be the roadie, soundman and backup singer in a blues band in Florida, and everybody in the band worshiped both Greg and Duane. Three of the five members of that band are dead now, as well. Not sure if that lifestyle comes with the blues-rock territory, but I see parallels. I miss them all.

The A-10 lives?

Donald Trump, blasted by the media and the left -- but I repeat myself -- as a moron, apparently has recognized something that the Air Force has been trying to ignore for about a decade at this point -- the A-10 is the finest ground-support aircraft in existence and needs to stay in the air until it can be replaced by something comparable:

Retirement rumors have swirled around the US military's venerable close-air support aircraft for years, but the battle-tested, 1970's-era airplane will live to fight for at least the foreseeable future, according to the Air Force.
President Donald Trump's first full budget, which was released on Tuesday, outlines plans for the Air Force to maintain its fleet of A-10 Thunderbolts -- commonly known by their nickname the "Warthog" -- along with "Dragon Lady" U-2 spy aircraft despite previous plans to replace both aging platforms in coming years.
"There is not a retirement date for the U-2 in this budget," Maj. Gen. James Martin, the Air Force's deputy assistant secretary for budget, said during a budget briefing at the Pentagon on Tuesday. "We plan to keep that platform well into the future."
The Air Force also confirmed Tuesday that it plans to maintain the majority of its A-10 Warthogs in coming years despite past considerations of divesting the entire fleet.
An Air Force official said the A-10 fleet was being kept indefinitely, but in the future, some A-10 aircraft could be retired as other aircraft become operational.

The F-35 has been touted as the replacement for the A-10, but that flies in the face of logic. The F-35 is a fast mover, and cannot carry the payload of an A-10. The A-10 can go in low and slow, drop its load and come back for more. Further, the A-10 is designed to taking a licking and keep on ticking. Search this blog for "A-10," and you will see examples. You can blow large important parts off of an A-10 and it will stay in the air.

Further, the aircraft is a fucking dump truck. The amount of weapons an A-10 can carry is frightening -- at least it is to the people upon whom the A-10 plans to drop said weapons. For the troops on the ground being supported by A-10s, that payload is salvation. Nothing on the drawing boards -- at least that anyone knows about -- can carry anything close to the destructive payload an A-10 brings to the battlefield. There are proposals that sound pretty good, but nothing anywhere close to ready to even take to the air, much less be deployed.

Thank God we have a president stupid enough to tell the Air Force brass to shut up and keep the A-10. Let's hope that Congress and the Air Force listen.







http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/24/politics/a-10-warthog-retirement-air-force-budget/index.html

Mrs. Wolves is good at storm clouds, too

Yesterday was pretty cloudy and rainy around here. Mrs. Wolves, naturally, went out an captured images of the gathering storm:

It was a pretty impressive display:

From all kinds of angles:

Pretty cool stuff.

I think most sentient beings already knew this

It would appear that America has a new burger champion, and it comes as no surprise to D.C.-area residents:

Americans aren't so wild about animal style anymore.
In-N-Out, which had been the nation's favorite burger chain for the past two years, has just been unseated by Five Guys Burgers and Fries, according to the Harris Poll's annual EquiTrend Study.

Five Guys is really good, as I can personally attest. I've had In-N-Out, and it's pretty good, too, but I am a Five Guys kind of guy in the end. I apparently am not alone:

This was the first year that Five Guys has achieved the number one spot in the poll.
The first Five Guys opened in Arlington, Virginia in 1986, and expanded to multiple DC-area locations by 2001.
In 2003, the restaurant started franchising and today there are nearly 1,500 restaurants worldwide.
The chain is known for it's simple red and white decor and similarly streamlined menu. Burgers, hot dogs and fries are the only items on order, in addition to milkshakes and other beverages.

Five Guys focuses on what it does well, and keeps doing it well. OK with me. Hope there's one near you.

Hat tip to Red State.

Mrs. Wolves is seriously artistic

She takes pictures of the sky a lot. They are pretty good, in my opinion:

No, really:

Stuff happens in the sky, after all:

And, of course, if you didn't come here for pictures of the sky, by all mean, refer to the title of the blog.

Interesting traffic anomaly

There are two ways of tracking how often a post is visited on this site: through the "Posts" list, which shows hits, and through the "Stats" list, which shows the top five recent posts and, if you switch to the all-time list, the top ten posts. The numbers do not agree. According to the Stats list, this post is No. 8 all time. According to the Posts data, it is No. 5. Not sure how the difference comes about. Interesting. To me, anyway. I doubt y'all give a fuck. Probably not even the Canadians.

Yeah, guess I have to write another unemployment haiku

Something like this, I suppose:

Unemployed again.
Why does this keep happening?
Stupid industry.

This industry is so fucked up

So, I had a one-day project Tuesday. It beats unemployment, I guess, but for one day's pay, not really. Anyway, I was doing stuff online Tuesday night after I got home. Just before I was going to bed -- a few minutes before midnight -- I checked my email.

Sumbitch, at 11:55 pm I got an email saying the one-day project was a two-day project. So, I went in the next morning, and it was obvious not everybody checks their email at midnight. Some folks straggled in later, some never showed. And by 3:30, we were done.

This is such a stupid way to make a living.

I have to apologize to Dicky Betts

I was switching through stations today, and came into something in the middle of the song, specifically the guitar solo. I thought, Oh, Allman Brothers. The verse kicked in, and it was Molly Hatchet. Sorry, Dicky. A mistake like that is damn near unforgivable.

Another unemployment haiku

A one-day project
Makes me really feel like shit
Is this all there is?

So, my unemployment comes to an end. Sort of.

I haven't talked about it much, but I have been largely unemployed since the end of March. This would explain, of course, the near-complete lack of work-related posts. I worked for 10 days at the end of April, but basically I have been unemployed for six of the seven weeks since April 1. Not pleasant, trust me. There has been an unfortunate combination of not many projects available and not being selected for those projects that were available.

But no more. I have a project, starting tomorrow. And ending tomorrow. It is a one-day project. On the upside, the rate is decent. On the downside, well, it's only one day. Hope it leads to more

Clock boy loses again

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. Fuck head builds a replica of a bomb by tearing apart an old alarm clock (he didn't build shit), sets the alarm to go off during class then sues when school officials and police react as if he did exactly what he did, which was create a replica of a bomb. Fortunately, the judge was unimpressed:

A federal judge has dismissed a discrimination lawsuit brought by the family a Muslim student who was arrested for bringing a homemade clock to school that officials believed to be a bomb, saying the student's attorneys failed to prove he was treated differently based on his race or religion.
. . .

Mohamed Mohamed, the student's father, filed a federal lawsuit in August 2016 against the Irving Independent School District (IISD), MacArthur High School principal Daniel Cummings and the city of Irving, Texas, alleging officials violated the boy's civil rights by imposing a 3-day suspension for bringing the clock to school.
On Thursday, Judge Sam Lindsay of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas granted the defendants' motion to dismiss the lawsuit, saying the plaintiffs had failed to prove officials discriminated against Mohamed.
In his ruling, Lindsay dismissed claims against the city and the school district, writing that the court could not "reasonably infer that any IISD employee intentionally discriminated against [Mohamed] based on his race or religion."
He also dismissed the claim against Cummings, the principal, who Mohamed's team said violated his civil rights and treated the boy unfairly. Lindsay wrote the plaintiff's complaint "does not allege that [Cummings] treated [Mohamed] differently than other similarly situated students, and that the unequal treatment was based on religion or race."

This was never a case about an enterprising young man wrongly busted for bringing a homemade clock to school. There was no ingenuity involved. The clock was an old Radio Shack model that was taken out of its casing and placed in a pencil case, much like a suitcase bomb. The alarm was set to go off during class. The claim that Clock Boy home-built a clock has been thoroughly debunked.

Further, his father is a pot-stirring Islamist activist. The family moved to Dubai after the school incident, and the kid is a turd. The only downside here is that the family can file a new complaint or appeal.

Hat tip to Hot Air.

I love this stuff

Found a (subjective, obviously) list of the "12 sexiest aircraft of all time" that I largely agreed with. I can't even excerpt it. Just go look.

Drunk, stupid, or just in from Colorado?

My money is on drunk, since that's the talk in Washington:



But hey, she's completely credible, worthy of respect. At least we sent Boehner packing.

My milkshake's better than yours

Gun-control freak Rep. Val Demins, D-Fla., apparently believes that different rules apply to members of Congress when it comes to Constitutional rights. The former police chief of Orlando once had her duty pistol stolen from her unlocked vehicle and was officially reprimanded. Naturally, this has done nothing to cool her gun-control ardor, naturally directed at responsible, legal gun owners.

When she posted on her Facebook page about her anti-Second Amendment stance, she got a little pushback, and her response was informative:

When a commenter asked Demings if they ever found her stolen handgun and suggested that she be more responsible with her own firearms before talking about gun control for others, Demings offered a peculiar reply:

Screenshot via Facebook

Different how? I missed that part in the Constitution. Of course, this is how liberal Democrats think -- they are born to rule, and you are born to serve. So shut the fuck up because their rights are different than yours. Obviously, you have not considered the awesome transcendence of  Rep. Deming's First Amendment rights:

Sometimes you just have to stand up and say, "NO!"

This is one of those times:

If we want to cut the environmental impact of livestock, switching to insects and imitation meat products is our best bet, according to a new report.
The inevitability of turning to insects to feed the world's growing population has been looming for a while. And now we finally have some data on how much this shift would actually help the planet.

No. Just no. What the fuck is wrong with these people? These Malthusian assholes have been predicting worldwide famine ever since Mathus himself in the 1800s. He was wrong then, and these assholes are wrong now. Paul Ehrlich, a favorite of President Shithead -- excuse me, Obama -- was famously wrong about all of his predictions about how the world was going to run out of this and that and that overpopulation would cause mass starvation worldwide. You want to eat bugs instead of steak? You first.

DAMN that oppressive wood paneling

The University of Michigan apparently is planning to renovate the Michigan Union building, a 100-year-old landmark on campus that houses, among other things, many student organizations' offices. Naturally, the university asked for student input on the renovation. Naturally, campus libtard snowflakes being who they are, the university received some truly bizarre bullshit input:

Anna Wibbelman, former president of Building a Better Michigan, an organization that voices student concerns about university development, stated at a student government meeting in late March that “minority students felt marginalized by quiet, imposing masculine paneling” found throughout the 100-year-old building, the meeting’s minutes state.

 The building, dubbed by campus officials as “one of the University of Michigan’s most recognizable landmarks,” is set to undergo a massive, $85.2 million renovation project, and as part of that process architects have sought the input and advice of students.

From the people who need safe spaces from ideas that differ from their own, I guess this is no surprise, really. Still, it is a little difficult to believe that wood fucking paneling is oppressing people somehow. How delicate are these losers, and how do they expect to survive in a world that is, let's face, just fucking full of wood fucking paneling? And why is it that only minority students feel oppressed by "masculine paneling?" Or is it just women? And how can you tell the paneling is masculine? And why did you even devote any effort to making that determination?

Apparently, this level of snowflakeness is too much, even for a properly liberal university like Michigan:

Asked to weigh in on Wibbelman’s comments, campus spokesman Rick Fitzgerald stated in an email to The College Fix that “concern about the paneling is not something that has been brought forward to the university as a concern from students, who have been involved with developing this project for several years and through dozens of meetings. Students certainly have expressed a desire that the renovation assures a welcoming, inviting, and student-oriented building. It is their building.”
“There is a significant presence of wood paneling on the interior of the building and we expect most, if not all of it, will remain after the renovation,” he said.

Thank God for that dose of sanity, I suppose.

Caseless ammo on the horizon?

Yes, caseless ammo has been around for a couple decades, but it always has been experimental, at least as far as combat use is concerned. The problem has always been durability -- while caseless ammo weighs far less than a round with a brass casing containing the primer, the powder and the bullet, as it does away with the casing, caseless ammo has so far failed to pass the test when it comes to the banging around that comes with carrying ammo into combat and using it there.

There is a possibility those problems have been  -- or at least are being -- overcome:

The U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Army agree they may have finally found a caseless ammunition design that will work reliably in combat and be much (37 percent) lighter than conventional 5.56mm ammo. Caseless ammo is not a new concept but you need the right materials and right design to make it work. It’s all a matter of getting the right tech and the right design.

The effort is driven by the need to reduce the amount of weight soldiers and Marines carry into combat. Combat loads, including pack, body armor, weapon and ammunitition, typically weigh 70 pounds or more for a patrol of any duration  Efforts to reduce the weight of food and shelter elements continue, but gains there are incremental. No one has found a way to reduce the weight of water. That leaves body armor, weapons and munitions. Kevlar doesn't weigh much, and many soldiers and Marines already decline to insert  the "chicken plates" -- heavy ceramic plates intended to be inserted to protect the chest and back from heavier caliber ammunition than the Kevlar is designed to stop -- because of the weight factor.

Which brings us back to the weight of the weapon and its ammunition. The Army has been working on it for several years:

Meanwhile the U.S. Army completed development of a new LSAT (Lightweight Small Arms Technology) 5.56mm machine-gun in 2012. But this new machine-gun was tested using two types of lightweight ammo and it wasn’t until now that one of those lightweight ammo designs reached the point where it was ready for combat testing. The LSAT machine-gun weighs 4.27 kg (9.4 pounds) compared to 8 kg for the current M249. Moreover, the ammo for the new machine-gun is 37 percent lighter as well. Thus the new machine-gun, with 1,000 rounds of ammo, weighs 13.9 kg (30.6 pounds), which is 40 percent less than an M249 with a thousand rounds. Moreover, the new ammo takes up twelve percent less space. Developers are working on caseless 5.56mm ammo that will take up 40 percent less space.

The problem with caseless ammo always has been that it doesn't hold up well under combat conditions. Without a brass case, propellant has a disturbing tendency to separate from the bullet under rough handling. That pretty much renders caseless ammo useless. It would appear that Army testing may have resolved those problems:

In early 2012 eight LSAT machine-guns and 100,000 rounds of the telescoped ammo were delivered for army troops to actually use and passed field tests. At this point it became possible to use the same technology for a new assault rifle. While LSAT passed muster with the troops and the realities of use in a combat zone by 2012 most of the fighting was over. The new machine-gun will be much appreciated by infantry operating in Afghanistan, where the machine-gunner is often lugging his weapon and all that ammo up steep hills. But back home there was less enthusiasm, and money, for a new generation of assault rifle and light machine-gun.

The ammo used in the test is not caseless - "telescoped ammo" basically has a plastic case. Nonetheless, plastic weighs less than brass, and apparently caseless ammo is making progress. The guys toting the ammo into combat will doubtless appreciate the effort.

Miss USA commits blasphemy, liberals demand excommunication

Newly selected Miss USA Kara McCullough, who competed as Miss District of Columbia, has put liberals in a frenzy with her comments during the pageant about health care:

An African-American nuclear chemist from Washington, DC, won the 2017 edition of Miss USA on Sunday night after telling the audience about her conservative political viewpoints.
Kára McCullough, a 25-year-old nuclear chemist who works for the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, told the audience how she doesn't necessarily view herself as a feminist and said that health care is a privilege and not a right.
She also won plaudits for wearing her hair natural and curly throughout the competition.

Apparently being African-American and holding conservative views (even if this is the only conservative view she holds -- I don't know) is unacceptable:

McCullough’s remarks set off an instant Twitter debate over the polarizing issue with Republican attempts to repeal and replace Obamacare serving as a backdrop.
“Miss DC was my fav but ... not after that answer,” wrote Twitter user Charlsley Carey. “Everyone has a right to health care.”

Liberals, apparently, do not understand what a "right" is. But we knew that. In any event I'm sure it didn't hurt Ms. McCullough's performance that she is smoking fucking hot:

She's also a nuclear scientist and, since she was born in Naples and grew up in Virginia Beach, I'm going to guess she's a Navy brat. All in all, not a bad package.

And, as Real Clear Politics points out, Ms. McCullough tends to highlight the difference between conservatives and progressives. Conservatives deal with the real world and try to be consistent. Progressives, not so much:

NBC's Peter Alexander grills Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Cali.) for her displeasure at President Trump firing FBI Director James Comey after she had announced in January that he has lost all credibility after attending a classified briefing conducted by the now-former director.
In March, Waters issued a press release that read Comey "advanced Russia's misinformation campaign."
"I do not necessarily support the president's decision," Waters said. " I think that if the president would have fired him when he first came in, he would not have to be in a position now where he is trying to make up a story about why. It does not meet the smell test."However, in the interview Wednesday on MSNBC, asked if she would be okay with a hypothetical President Hillary Clinton dismissing Comey from his position, Waters said yes.

This sort of inanity prompted Real Clear Politics to give us this juxtaposition:

Works for me.

Tom Brady has a sense of humor

I don't want to like him. But he makes it hard. Tom Brady, quarterback of the New England Patriots and owner of more Super Bowl rings than any other quarterback in NFL history, will be on the cover of the football video game Madden 18. Many previous coverboys have suffered serious, even career-ending injuries, giving rise to the belief in the "Madden Curse." Brady is having none of it in this video on Facebook.

Wish I could embed the video. And I hope Tom is wrong, so my beloved Packers can stroll on through to the Lombardi Trophy.

Apparently, I have been approaching weight-loss completely the wrong way

Guess I need to move to Venezuela:




Hat tip to Hot Air.

That explains a lot

Polls show that most people (meaning those who do not receive government subsidies and are forced to buy high-cost, low-return health insurance policies) think Obamacare stinks. Yet, the media keeps telling us that people love Obamacare. Insurance companies beg to differ, since it is a recipe for disaster, but it turns out that the public perception of how "popular" Obamacare is also might be incorrect:

A majority of online and social media defenders of Obamacare are professionals who are "paid to post," according to a digital expert.
"Sixty percent of all the posts were made from 100 profiles, posting between the hours of 9 and 5 Pacific Time," said Michael Brown. "They were paid to post."
. . .
His shocking analysis was revealed on this weekend's Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson, broadcast on Sinclair stations and streamed live Sunday at 9:30 a.m. Her upcoming show focuses on information wars and Brown was describing what happened when he had a problem with Obamacare and complained online.

 This doesn't surprise me. Obamacare forces people to buy dozens of coverages most people will never need or want, and that drives up the cost. It ignores religious freedom and imposes mandated coverage across state lines without allowing insurance companies to sell polices across state lines. It embodies all that is bad about health insurance while doing nothing to reform coverage.

To call it the "Affordable Care Act" is laughable. Only people getting government subsidies find the coverage affordable. Everybody else forced to buy an Obamacare policy pays high premiums and high deductibles. For most people not getting subsidies, the deductibles are so high they are unlikely to ever see their "insurance" ever pay for anything.

And how affordable do the people paying the taxes to fund those subsidies find this coverage to be? Yeah, not so much.

Turkmenistan, in the house!

So, we have our first visitor from Turkmenistan. And just who, or what, is Turkmenistan? Glad you asked:

Turkmenistan . . . formerly known as Turkmenia is a country in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north and east, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the south and southwest, and the Caspian Sea to the west.
Turkmenistan has been at the crossroads of civilizations for centuries. In medieval times, Merv was one of the great cities of the Islamic world and an important stop on the Silk Road, a caravan route used for trade with China until the mid-15th century. Annexed by the Russian Empire in 1881, Turkmenistan later figured prominently in the anti-Bolshevik movement in Central Asia. In 1924, Turkmenistan became a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic (Turkmen SSR); it became independent upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The country is mostly desert, and it is up to its ass in natural gas -- fourth-largest reserves in the world. That might be pre-fracking in the U.S., though. It also has a lot of oil, and grows a lot of cotton. It has a hard time getting that stuff out of the country, though, because it is so isolated. Apparently, tourism is on the rise. If you like sand, and mosques, I guess:

Anyway, welcome to Eff You! Come back soon, and bring your friends.

Yeah, you might be a redneck if . . .

. . . tomorrow is bulk trash pick up day and there are pickup trucks running all over your neighborhood picking up things they can sell for scrap metal. Ooooooo-weee. Git er dun, baby.

Yeah, so I was out walking Jeb the Wonder Dog and there had to be four or five pickup trucks and at least one minivan out going around, picking up metal items people had put out at the curbside. I can't lie, if I had a pickup truck -- and, really, I should -- and had known tomorrow was bulk trash pickup day, I'd have been out there, too. I am unemployed, after all. But that kind of stuff is a sure sign you live in the country.

The market is dead

It's one thing when the market is dead and you're in the middle of a decent gig that has some legs. That is not currently the case. After five months on a good gig, I spent three weeks looking. Got something that lasted 10 days, which plotzed a week ago. And now, the market is dead. Yeah, I'm looking at exit strategies, because every time I look for a new gig, I get this:



It is not encouraging.

The Russians are fucking killing it lately

Not sure why, probably has nothing to do with Comey, Trump and Hillary, but Russia is driving traffic most days lately. Still looking for porn, I guess. Fuck them and their nasty pornographic search for hot naked babes doing nasty things. Not that I'm trying to drive traffic or anything.

KItty in a box

Is there any need to say more?

I think not. Why they get into boxes (and bags), I don't know. They just do.

Not sure how she ever gets to brush her teeth

Mrs. Wolves is often called upon by the kit-tays to turn on the faucet in the bathroom sink so the kit-tays can drink. She always does so. In the morning, this can make it difficult to brush her teeth:

No, really:

I'm not kidding:

Seriously difficult:

I don't have this problem because I don't let the kit-tays drink from the sink while I am brushing my teeth. This, apparently, makes me a cruel person.

Hard to make a bed around here

I don't know if all cats do this, but our cats flock to bed-making like moths to a flame. Start flapping sheets, and they come a-running. This can make it difficult to change sheets. These photos actually are in reverse order, but they illustrate our cats' affinity for interfering with  bed-making. They like to lie around on top of the process and groom themselves:

They also like to roll around and play in the middle of the process:

And, of course, they like to crawl into the unspread covers and complicate efforts to spread things out:

All in all, it can be a little difficult to get a bed made around here.

The most inefficient procurement system in the world is going to balk at cost for a vastly superior infantry rifle?

The answer is, yeah, maybe:

The Marines are considering arming more of its infantry with a lightweight, highly reliable automatic rifle, but there’s one catch: It costs about three times more than the
The standard-issue M4 carbine could be replaced by the M27 infantry automatic rifle. Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller said the M27s that have already been deployed are “the most reliable, durable, and accurate weapons in our rifle squads,” according to Marine Corps Times.

So, the most reliable, durable and accurate weapon might not be purchased because it costs too much? Maybe, maybe not:

The M27, a variation of the HK416 built by the German gunmaker Heckler & Koch, sells for about $3,000. The M4, which is used by most Army and Marines combat units, is manufactured by Colt Defense and FN America and costs less than $1,000.

To my knowledge, Heckler & Koch does not make guns in the U.S. Colt does, of course, and FN America, a subsidiary of Fabrique Nationale, a Belgian gunmaker, has been making firearms in Columbia, S.C. for more than 20 years. Factor? I don't know. The Marines aren't making anything clearer:

The M27 is said to be far superior to the M4, but Marine Corps Times quoted Neller as saying that while he is looking at a new weapon for infantry Marines, “we have to balance improved capabilities and increased lethality with cost.” But, he added, “our infantry Marines should be the most lethal force we can afford.”

The Corps is talking about arming 11,000 infantrymen with the M27, at a cost of about $33 million. That compares to a cost of about $11 million to give them new M4s. The difference of $22 million in the modern procurement budget is negligible. More gets spent on paper clips at the Department of Defense annually. Not sure what the problem really is, but Marines should have the best combat rifle available, considering what we ask of them.

And now, a little M27 video:

$2,000 bail? If I had done this, I'd be under the jail

I'm sure that if I committed a couple of felonies like these in The Peoples' Republic of Montgomery County, I would not be making bail and I would be looking at many, many years in jail. I guess it helps to be an illegal alien:

Mario Granados-Alvarado, a Wheaton resident who is from El Salvador, had been arrested May 1 in Kensington after allegedly driving a stolen car on school property. In the trunk of the car, police found an assault rifle that had been stolen from a City of Rockville police cruiser. Officers also discovered a second stolen car and a second stolen gun nearby.
Granados-Alvarado, whom police previously referred to as Mario Alvarado, was issued a $2,000 bond and released Wednesday, according to court documents. However, ICE had put out a detainer on him the day before and officers with the agency arrested him after his release, according to a press release publicized Monday.

He stole a car. He stole a rifle from a police car. He apparently stole another car and another gun. Despite this, it took The Washington Post five paragraphs to mention that the Border Patrol "determined [the suspect] had entered the country illegally from Mexico, according to ICE. He was issued a notice to appear in immigration court. Matthew Bourke, an ICE spokesman, wrote in an email that Granados-Alvarado was in removal proceedings at the time of his arrest by Montgomery County police.

So home slice was here illegally, committing felonies, and he was given bail that cost him $200 to meet? Really? The story mentions that this turd "may face deportation." Fuck chops should already be gone. It is worth noting that Montgomery County claims it is not a "sanctuary county," but they released this asshole on a low bail despite a detainer notice on Granados-Alvarado and it was up to Howard County authorities to arrest and hold the fucker for ICE:

County officials have insisted the county is not a sanctuary jurisdiction because it cooperates with ICE by providing the agency with county arrest and detention information through the state.
On Friday, Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh sent a memo advising local law enforcement agencies against holding undocumented immigrants past their release dates for federal authorities, except in cases where there is a judicial warrant or probable cause, The Washington Post reported. He warned that complying with immigration detainers could put state and local jails at legal risk.

Maryland is a great place to be an illegal alien, at least in a few counties. The red counties actually comply with federal immigration law and hold people the feds have asked be held. But since the charges are in Montgomery County, what do you think the odds are this guy gets a slap on the wrist and winds up evading ICE? I put the odds of him actually being deported at very low.

Lots of deals at Amazon

Feel free to support the blog by taking advantage of deals like these:

$30 off Echo

$25 off Fire HD 8 

and, of course, Save on Kindle.

You can support the blog without any cost to yourself. Hook a brother up, y'all. Thanks.

More farming

I went to The Farm again earlier this week, just to check on things. Things are popping. The peppers, which I just put in, are doing well:

The peas are going gangbusters:

The spinach volunteers from last fall are getting massive, and the spinach we planted this spring is coming in nicely:

Lettuce and radishes also are coming in well:

The first crop of beans are up:

Lettuce and cauliflower also going well:

As is the broccoli:

The brussel sprouts are doomed, but they are thriving at the moment:

We have a bed with swiss chard, some kind of lettuce and kale volunteers that is doing well:

The garlic is coming in, along with some parsnip volunteers:

The potatoes are busting:

As are the onions:

As you can see, we have lots of crops in the ground this year. I look forward to harvest, and I also have more to report in a week or so on new crops.

Farming

OK, so I went to The Farm last week. One of the beds had some kale volunteers and a bunch of weeds. I decided to turn it into potatoes:

Farmer Tom wanted to keep the kale volunteers in hopes that they would go to seed, so I had to plant around them. It wound up looking like this:

Also, after the heroic efforts by Minnesota Wolves and Cpl. Wolves a few weeks ago digging up two new beds, Farmer Tom put some dirt on them to build them up a bit:

So, I spread the dirt around to make it so we could plant something:

Same went for the second bed:

 Yes, I spread that around, too:

On bed number one, we put up a fence to keep the deer out. The plan was to put up a trellis and plant cucumbers:

More on that later. We also put up a fence around new bed No. 2:

Back to bed No. 1, we set up the poles for a string trellis. We also did mound through the middle of the bed and around the perimeter, then planted cucumber seeds:

Bed No. 2 is supposed to get squash and zucchini later. I also put up part of the string trellis for the peas:

I will finish it later, when the peas start to climb higher. My final task was to put in some pepper plants. I had five -- three bell peppers, and two hot peppers. I also needed to weed:

I weeded, and I put in the plants. The bell peppers are on the right, and the hot peppers on the left:

I plan to get three more hot peppers and put them in later. we'll see how things go in the meantime.

I can't fault Aaron Rogers for this move

We recently heard that Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers was no longer dating actress Olivia Munn. I felt like Aaron was doing well dating her, but it would appear he has traded up:

Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has apparently wasted no time getting over his breakup with actress Olivia Munn. TMZ spotted the athlete on a golfing date with star of upcoming Baywatch reboot Kelly Rohrbach, who steps in for Pamela Anderson as C.J. Parker. Why golf? Rohrbach used to play for Georgetown University’s team.

Traded up? Yeah, Olivia Munn is hot. Smoking hot:

Kelly Rohrbach? Sweet baby Jesus:

Oh, to have choices like these. Good for Aaron. Now bring home another Lombardi Trophy.

You can't argue with science

I've often pondered why Democrat women -- at least those who hold office, with some exceptions -- tend to be but ugly. At last, I have my answer:

Hillary Clinton. Barbara Mikulski. Dianne Feinstein. Nancy Pelosi. Samantha Power. Janet Reno. Donna Shalala**. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Barbara Boxer. What do all of these women have in common? They are Democrats. And they are butt ugly. Mere statistics alone would suggest if you got a dozen or so Democrat women politicians together there would be some glimmer of attractiveness, no matter how dim, somewhere. But you would be wrong.

That's right, science confirms what our eyes see. Conservative women are better looking:

Research has found that being attractive influences many things in a person’s life — their salary, their popularity and grades in school, even the prison sentences they receive. So why not their politics?
A recently published study in the Journal of Public Economics concludes that the attractiveness of a candidate does correlate with their politics. They find that politicians on the right are more good looking in Europe, the United States and Australia.

It makes sense, really. Democrats push a philosophy of victimhood -- they tell all of their various constituent groups that they are victims. Life has never been worse for women in this country, or for blacks, or for gays, or for whoever, even though all of those positions are demonstrably false. Is life perfect? No, but things have never been better, and they continue to improve. So, naturally, people who don't feel like victims don't subscribe to the politics that drive people to the Democrat party. And science concurs:

The study shows correlation, not causation, but the researchers float a simple economic explanation for why this might happen. Numerous studies have shown that good-looking people are likely to earn more, and that people who earn more are typically more opposed to redistributive policies, like the progressive taxes and welfare programs favored by the left.
The researchers also offer a more general psychological explanation for the trend: That good-looking people are often treated better than others, and thus see the world as a more just place. Past studies have found that the more attractive people believe themselves to be, the lower their preference for egalitarianism, a value typically associated with the political left.

It makes total sense. "Feminists" and Democrats will never say anything bad about the treatment of women or gays in Muslim countries, but are happy to make it sound like life in the U.S. for women and gays is the next worst thing to Auschwitz. Obviously, it isn't, but women are clearly oppressed in Muslim countries and gays are freaking executed.

OK,, so I'm sorry ugly people aren't treated as nicely as good-looking people. Is that any reason to try to subject me to socialism? Fuck off. It's not my fault I'm pretty.

Agency emails I actually get versus agency emails I'd like to get

The factor missing from the actual emails is, of course, honesty. Let's not forget Rule No. 1 -- they're lying. Sure, it often is because the law firm that hired them is lying, and so the agency has to lie to cover for the law firm, but they're still lying. The end of my most recent project is, I think, illustrative. We got an email from the firm Monday afternoon urging us to finish the available batches by the end of the day Monday, feel free to stay as late as you like to accomplish that, and don't worry, we have more data to upload overnight. Might not have been completely true. and it forced the agency to start lying. We got an email at about 8 pm letting us know that the agency had not heard from the firm about whether we were employed the next day, but they assured us that we would get definitive word by 10 p.m. Monday. Yeah, at about 10:30 pm Monday, we got this:

As of now, the Firm still is not certain if they need you to report tomorrow. Please check your email again in the morning.Sorry for the inconvenience. Please confirm receipt. Thank you.

Did I ask whether we had more information? Oh, hell yeah. Did I get a good answer? Fuck no. I sent an email trying to get an answer and got deflected yet again:

We have not received definitive word from [the firm] whether they will need you to report later today.
Thank you for checking in. We’ll be in touch as soon as we have further information.

So, in the morning, of course we got more information, right? Um, no. At about 1:30 pm, we got this:

[The firm] has confirmed that there is no further work. Many thanks to you all for your help in completing the [firm's] review within their deadline. The Firm is most appreciative as well. If you left personal items there, let us know. Also, please return the [firm's] key fob to [the agency] and we’ll get it back to [the firm].

So what are the emails I would have liked to see? They would go something like this. The first one would have read along these lines:

As of now, the Firm is pretty sure they're going to fuck you and end the project early, but they really don't want to tell you that just yet. They are afraid you might jump to another project and that they might still need you. Please  accept the fact that you are unemployed as of now. Sorry for the inconvenience. Please let us know whether you are filing for unemployment benefits.

 Next, of course, I would like to get this email:

The firm is still lying to us about whether they intend to bring you back tomorrow, even though it is after 11 pm and of course they already know whether there is work for you. We're really glad you're still on the hook, but you really are kidding yourselves. No way in hell do you have a job tomorrow, but no one has confirmed that yet, so hang tight.

And then we would get this:

Yeah, the firm has acknowledged what you have known for at least a day: You're fucked. No more work, don't let the screen door slap you in the ass on the way out and, oh by the way, yes you need to come by the agency office and drop off the key card the firm gave you or else we will charge you a bunch of money for it. We don't care how far you live from here.

Naturally, I don't expect to ever receive this kind of honesty. After all, that would violate Rule No. 1.

Well, that was quick

Ten days into my latest project, that shit died. We were told two to three weeks. Yeah, Rule No. 1 still applies. Last night we were told to wait until we heard whether we were needed today. We were supposed to hear last night by 10 pm. We didn't hear until close to 1:30 pm. And what we heard was, "Hey, you're fired." How about that swordfish?

And they want equal pay? Seriously?

I've been sitting on this for a while because I've been busy, but this shit really makes me wonder what the fuck "feminism" has come to. Let's face it, in the entertainment industry -- and sports qualifies -- your pay level is driven by your performance level and appeal. That's why the NFL is doing so well. Ditto for the NBA and baseball. NHL players make less because fewer people watch. Same for men's soccer (in this country) and, naturally, for women's soccer (in this country). So how the fuck do U.S. women soccer players get off bitching about equal pay with men given this:

The USA women's football team were convincingly beaten by a team of adolescents in a embarrassing defeat for the world champions.
They were roundly outplayed, losing 5-2 against FC Dallas Under-15s academy side who took full advantage of their big day.
The players did not appear to allow the display to subdue their spirits and posed with the opposition for photos after the game.

Maybe they weren't taking it seriously, maybe they didn't play hard, but they got beaten by a bunch of guys under 15 years old. Is this a good contract-negotiating maneuver? Apparently:

The U.S. women’s national team believes its new contract is both fair and good for the future of the sport.
The U.S. Soccer Federation and the team’s union announced Wednesday that a labor deal had been struck to settle an at times contentious dispute in which the players sought equitable wages to their male counterparts.
The collective bargaining agreement runs through 2021, meaning the players will be under contract through the 2019 World Cup in France and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The women will receive raises in base pay and bonuses as well as better provisions for travel and accommodations, including increased per diems. It also gives the players some control of certain licensing and marketing rights.

Just think how much they could have gotten if they could beat 14-year-old boys. I don't think there is an under-15 girls team in the country that could beat the national men's team unless they threw the game. I haven't heard anything about the women's team throwing the game.