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.