Nom de plume: Rivrdog

Prom Week

According to a local TeeVee station, it's "Prom Week", the week when most of the local kiddies try to pretend that they can, by God, conform to an external code of dress and behavior.

My old friend, the Coyote Kid, sends me a link to a USMC blog, and that blog contains an old chestnut, "rules for dating a Marine's daughter"

It's appropriate to the weekend. 

The Last Six Seconds of Life

Here's a story, told in a crisp military fashion, about the importance of doing your life right, all the way to the end.

It is a story of two Grunts, US Marines, who gave their lives for their country and particularly, in this case, for their fellow Marines.

Read it. Then read it again, because you will have choked up when you first read it, and every word of the General's narrative is important to read and retain.

May YOUR and MY lives be so well spent as were those of these two lads.

The story was relayed to me by a combat-proven Marine, who wore his Combat Infantryman's Badge proudly into the US Air Force where he finished his military career...

H/T to the Coyote Kid

Why the FBATFE can't win

It's in the 2-20 edition of Atlantic magazine.

Think improvised weapons, with all the manufacturing facilities of a modern society at hand to make them, and thousands of laid-off, retired or just plain super-skilled machinists, welders and fitters.

Look over the photos, and note expecially the simplest, in photo #25. H/T to the Coyote Kid for the linkage.

Strategically, the ability to project explosive projectiles by any means in short-range urban warfare means that it's difficult to hold ground for long. The short-range capabilities of this improvised artillery also means that modern projectile-tracking systems are less effective against it. BTW, those projectile-tracking systems require the holding of ground in the city in combat, see above.

All moral references aside, this is a classic David vs. Goliath story in Syria. A rag-tag but dedicated force with improvised weapons (including slingshots!) against a modern army with modern weapons AND air supremacy. Note that Goliath is losing the war.

There's an "elephant in the room" for the gun-banners, who are, after all, merely another brigade in Obama's army of wannabe sturmtruppen for the wannabe Reich. It's simply this: while the gun-banners are making their desperate push to stop semi-auto rifles and pistols, there are new welders and fitters being trained every day, and thousands of retired/laid off ones whose hands haven't forgotten how to work and join metal.

The smart militia organizer* thinks beyond who has an AR or AK or a truckload of ammo. He thinks of welders and fitters. Yes he does.

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*Obama gets all the headlines as the "Capo Regime" of Community Organizing, but in fact, there are others doing this work for the other side.

The Broken Window fallacy...

Two minutes and forty-one seconds to educate you out of Obama-mania on "jobs".

John Stossel nails it, and YOU have been educated, thanks to the Coyote Kid, who gets a tip of the hat.

Guest Blogger

I have summarily promoted the Coyote Kid to Guest Blogger status, since he provides me with so much blogging material. I have been a guest out in his home in SW South Dakota, and he is a retired military guy like myself, and a retired cop like myself (only he made Lieutenant before he retired, and I put in 25 years as a Patrolman). He is an Armorer (by profession, as he did that for both the cop and military shops). He does well with a computer, too. The only thing he doesn't want to do is a blog, so he is satisfied to let me do the writing or editing. I don't mind that, since his ideas are original and his understanding of them correct.

Here, without further ado, are the Coyote Kid's smart ideas of the day:

• Train yourself in CPR. Yes, most of us older types WERE trained in chest-compression/rescue-breathing CPR, but it is difficult to do unless you practice, and I'll be the first to admit I haven't worked out on Resusci-Annie in years. Here is the NEW CPR, chest compressions only. Learn it (or re-learn it). BTW, unless I miss my guess, that is AZ Gov Jan Brewer introducing it, and she is MY idea of a Stateswoman.
• Here is a Powerpoint of black-and-white photos of Africa. Most are professionally retouched, but all are excellent. Enjoy. Download Africa in B&W
• Here is a link to previous Hollywood "A-list" stars and their cars. Just search on "stars and cars" and you will find many more such lists, most of them much more current as to time.
• Now, go take this civics test. I have to report that I missed two out of the eleven, which means there are few more involved in the news than I (but not many).
  

Now, go below the fold where the Kid's best comm of the day resides. You might have guessed it's NSFW...