My Family????

This "homeland" crap that suddenly started up in the last couple years pisses me off.

It reeks of the "fatherland" and "motherland" propaganda shit our enemies used throughout the 20th century.

The Nazi regime was "father" to the German people. The Soviet regime was "mother" to the Russian people.


This guy is our uncle and that's as close as I want the pervert.

I don't need the government to be my big brother, my parent, my nanny, or my caretaker.
It needs to maintain public services (roads, etc.), maintain foreign relations and the military, keep the states from squabbling, and stay out of my life.

The Goldberg File

Whoopi Goldberg, she of the manufactured pseudo-righteous outrage at Bill O’Reilly’s entirely factual assertion that Muslims attacked America on 9-11, appeared on the O’Reilly Factor on Fox on November 23rd. While Goldberg might be accorded some degree of acknowledgement for merely appearing on O’Reilly’s show, she revealed, in convenient capsule form, much that is wrong with the contemporary left.

Goldberg’s argument seemed to be that when O’Reilly said that America was attacked by Muslims--an incontestable fact--he was actually saying that all Muslims attacked America and that all Muslims want to attack America and that all Muslims are bad, hate adorable puppies (wait, they do hate adorable puppies)...or something like that.

She also took exception with the assertion that the Japanese attacked America at Pearl Harbor (yes, she actually did).

The RULE of 10'S

So I have been reading this week questions on how prepared people are for emergencies. Everything from a simple power outage, to a pandemic, to a full blown Zombie apocalypse. To measure my level of prep I use the Rule of 10s. Example: If you would lose power and not be able to leave the house due to quarantine. Will you be OK in:


10 minutes - computers crash, clocks blinking

10 hours - freezers begin to thaw

10 days - store shelves are empty

10 weeks - riots, looting, population migrations

10 months - organized criminal ransacking

10 seasons - starvation and ammo worth more than gold

10 years - new civilization begins to formalize

-- How ready are you?

Don't TSA Me Bro!!!!

A friend of mine sent me this about his TSA experience. He, unlike most of us, was coming back into the country from Afghanistan on a military charter.


As the Chalk Leader for my flight home from Afghanistan, I witnessed the following:

When we were on our way back from Afghanistan, we flew out of Baghram Air Field. We went through customs at BAF, full body scanners (no groping), had all of our bags searched, the whole nine yards.

Our first stop was Shannon, Ireland to refuel. After that, we had to stop at Indianapolis, Indiana to drop off about 100 folks from the Indiana National Guard. That’s where the stupid started.

First, everyone was forced to get off the plane–even though the plane wasn’t refueling again. All 330 people got off that plane, rather than let the 100 people from the ING get off. We were filed from the plane to a holding area. No vending machines, no means of escape. Only a male/female latrine.

It’s probably important to mention that we were ALL carrying weapons. Everyone was carrying an M4 Carbine (rifle) and some, like me, were also carrying an M9 pistol. Oh, and our gunners had M-240B machine guns. Of course, the weapons weren’t loaded. And we had been cleared of all ammo well before we even got to customs at Baghram, then AGAIN at customs.

The TSA personnel at the airport seriously considered making us unload all of the baggage from the SECURE cargo hold to have it reinspected. Keep in mind, this cargo had been unpacked, inspected piece by piece by U.S. Customs officials, resealed and had bomb-sniffing dogs give it a one-hour run through. After two hours of sitting in this holding area, the TSA decided not to reinspect our Cargo–just to inspect us again: Soldiers on the way home from war, who had already been inspected, reinspected and kept in a SECURE holding area for 2 hours. Ok, whatever. So we lined up to go through security AGAIN.

This is probably another good time to remind you all that all of us were carrying actual assault rifles, and some of us were also carrying pistols.

So we’re in line, going through one at a time. One of our Soldiers had his Gerber multi-tool. TSA confiscated it. Kind of ridiculous, but it gets better. A few minutes later, a guy empties his pockets and has a pair of nail clippers. Nail clippers. TSA informs the Soldier that they’re going to confiscate his nail clippers. The conversation went something like this:

TSA Guy: You can’t take those on the plane.



Soldier: What? I’ve had them since we left country.



TSA Guy: You’re not suppose to have them.



Soldier: Why?



TSA Guy: They can be used as a weapon.



Soldier: [touches butt stock of the rifle] But this actually is a weapon. And I’m allowed to take it on.



TSA Guy: Yeah but you can’t use it to take over the plane. You don’t have bullets.



Soldier: And I can take over the plane with nail clippers?



TSA Guy: [awkward silence]



Me: Dude, just give him your damn nail clippers so we can get the f**k out of here. I’ll buy you a new set.



Soldier: [hands nail clippers to TSA guy, makes it through security]

This might be a good time to remind everyone that approximately 233 people re-boarded that plane with assault rifles, pistols, and machine guns–but nothing that could have been used as a weapon.

Remember - I'm from the Goverment - I'M HERE TO HELP!

At the heart of the controversy over "body scanners" is a promise: The images of our naked bodies will never be public. U.S. Marshals in a Florida Federal courthouse saved 35,000 images on their scanner.


A Gizmodo investigation has revealed 100 of the photographs saved by the Gen 2 millimeter wave scanner from Brijot Imaging Systems, Inc., obtained by a FOIA request after it was recently revealed that U.S. Marshals operating the machine in the Orlando, Florida courthouse had improperly-perhaps illegally-saved images of the scans of public servants and private citizens.

Urinal protocol vulnerability


When a guy goes into the bathroom, which urinal does he pick? Most guys are familiar with the International Choice of Urinal Protocol. It’s discussed at length elsewhere, but the basic premise is that the first guy picks an end urinal, and every subsequent guy chooses the urinal which puts him furthest from anyone else peeing. At least one buffer urinal is required between any two guys or Awkwardness ensues.

Let’s take a look at the efficiency of this protocol at slotting everyone into acceptable urinals. For some numbers of urinals, this protocol leads to efficient placement. If there are five urinals, they fill up like this:

The first two guys take the end and the third guy takes the middle one. At this point, the urinals are jammed — no further guys can pee without Awkwardness. But it’s pretty efficient; over 50% of the urinals are used.

On the other hand, if there are seven urinals, they don’t fill up so efficiently:

There should be room for four guys to pee without Awkwardness, but because the third guy followed the protocol and chose the middle urinal, there are no options left for the fourth guy (he presumably pees in a stall or the sink).

For eight urinals, the protocol works better:

So a row of eight urinals has a better packing efficiency than a row of seven, and a row of five is better than either.


Guys: if you enter a bathroom with an awkward number of vacant urinals in a row, rather than taking one of the end ones, you can take one a third of the way down the line. This will break the awkward row into two optimal rows, turning a worst-case scenario into a best-case one. On the other hand, say you want to create awkwardness. If the bathroom has an unawkward number of urinals, you can pick one a third of the way in, transforming an optimal row into two awkward rows.

And, of course, if you want to make things really awkward, I suggest printing out this article and trying to explain it to the guy peeing next to you.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have a president in the White House who referred to Americans who disagree with him as 'our enemies.'

Think about that.

He actually used that word.

When Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush used the word 'enemy,' they reserved it for global terrorists and foreign dictators -- enemies of the United States. Enemies of freedom.

Enemies of our country.

Today, sadly, we have president who uses the word 'enemy' for fellow Americans -- fellow citizens. He uses it for people who disagree with his agenda of bigger government -- people speaking out for a smaller, more accountable government that respects freedom and allows small businesses to create jobs.

Mr. President, there's a word for people who have the audacity to speak up in defense of freedom, the Constitution, and the values of limited government that made our country great.

We don't call them 'enemies.'

We call them 'patriots.'"

- House Republican Leader John Boehner

Still Valid Today....