I want to get this post of thanks started. Laughing Wolf, a guest poster at Black Five had put up a short post on how much money he wasn’t spending at Hilton corporate properties, as fall out of how the DC Hilton mis-treated the owners of Fran O’Briens.

I commented that it would be great if someone would create a website where those protesting the action to close down a restaurant that served meals to our wounded veterans would show graphically the mounting lost revenues. The mind of any human loves graphics….I like computers, but I’m not up to the integration of data to a website, so I figured posting the thought might get someone’s attention.

In just short of one hour and 56 minutes, MSchienle popsted he had registered the domain of Perish Hilton and just happened to make a living taking data, formatting it and posting in in web based formats. I followed the link to the website Custom Visuals, LLC and I’d say this poster is up to the task.

For your readers, if you’re upset about the decision to shut down Fran O’Briens in DC, and you travel, shunning putting money in Hilton’s cash register, check out this method of making your feelings known. I have no idea on how this will come off, but…keep checking to see when the site comes up and any directions for submitting receipts for adding to the accumulating data.

BZ to MSchienle for supporting our troops!

For a short history lesson, Fuzzybear Lioness broke the story earlier this year about Hilton, just two months before the end of the lease for the restaurant in the basement of the DC Hilton, that they had decided not to renew. John of Castle Argggh! picked the story up (he has a much bigger readership) and the rest is history. It certainly was a main point of discussion at the MilBloggers Conference in April, 2006, as we met there Friday night before the conference to support Fran O’Brians.

Try one of these for better traction across obstacles and bogs:

H/T: Popular Science

More cool, as in waaaayyyyy cool stuff. Less than one oz, can be mono or binocular setup…

Another fine looking product, with all sorts of implications for warfighting, and just plain old video watching and regular work. When the resolution gets up with 17″ display capability, then great for the leading edge games programs.

Oh…and it’s out of Israel, too.

And…how about true 3D displays?

Man Arrested for T-Shirt over faceSo a guy had a t-shirt wrapped around his face:

Someone who police described as a “concerned citizen” told officers that a “possibly armed” masked man was walking down 10th Street.

Officers found Richardson with a brown T-shirt wound around his head and face, leaving only his eyes uncovered, “like a ninja mask,” police reports said.

He was unarmed, police said.

Great….wasn’t it just in the last few years the ACLU people made sure a Muslim woman wasn’t punished for her burqa face mask in Florida?

Who missed this in 2003?

The Florida statute that criminalizes mask-wearing dates to 1951, enacted with a bill outlawing the burning of crosses in an effort to prevent Ku Klux Klan symbols, according to a Tampa Morning Tribune article from April of that year. Other states have similar laws.

Nope, no profiling here, associating a style of dress with behavior….move along…and by the way, take off that long, black overcoat, would ya?

The law exists because of the close association between mask-wearing and troublemaking, he said.

Will they start arresting all muslim woman who are strick adherents to their beliefs, or will they only pick up and jail non-muslims with t-shirts on their head on the side of the street.

The article begins setting the stage to make sure no one if offended with this lead in:

Watch out, costume partygoers, stage actors and pranksters: Wearing a mask in public is a crime.

No mention of women being ultra-modest, but…maybe it’s just me.

However…there is a “loophole” (go figure!):

There is one day of the year when this rule is quietly dropped from police manuals, McKinnon said: Halloween.

Part II

I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but it seems something is very wrong in the world of international relations….

Summary of my confussion:

Hezbollah (translated “The Party of Allah”), a military on a shoestring style organization, dedicated to the extermination of those humans of Jewish descent, has conducted cross international boundry incursions to kidnap citizens of another country and susbequently has been launching unguided rockets from Lebanon (a soverign nation, with defined borders), into Israel (a soverign nation, with defined borders – sorry for the repetition, but I want to make sure my assumptions and quandry are understood). Israel, as a recognized nation by United Nations mandate in 1948, responds in an act of self defense to recover the kidnapped citizen (soldiers) and to cause the cessation of the offensive actions of Hezbollah, and thereby keep the rest of their citizen safe from harm.

I understood, maybe falsely, from my education in Civics/Government over the many years, that the purpose of a government was, at the top level, to defend their citizens, where every they may be, and to control those lines in the sand, earth and water, called borders.

The majority of the world leaders chastise the attacked country and tell them to stop protecting their citizens.

The nation from where the attacks eminate from first claims impotence, then (today), says they will send their Army in to assure the peace, if the attackee ceases and desists. The really important answer I need is whether the Lebanese Army is inept, incapable, impotent (in the most derogatory of meanings) or up to the task of taking on an entrenched organization, that has managed to obtain and transport into a soverign nation, heavy military anti-aircraft and -tank and rocket type artillery pieces, as well as standard light infantry rifles and crew served weapons….

The world is upside down and the precedent here is the same situation could now happen across any borders and we will then have a model of how the world is to respond: Praise the attacker (who, via massive media campaigns, claims they have been wronged since time long passed, in this case in point, thousands of years), and pressure the defender to stop defending themselves.

Read the rest of this entry »

One daring Navy 1110 LT, and sailors with many hours of practice behind them…

Navy Drill Team Video

Welcome LGF Lizards!….

While you’re here, feel free to browse my attempts at writing and please visit some of the excellent MilBlogs listed to the right!

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Evil use of Photoshop:

First noticed on LIttle Green Footballs August 5th. It has sent ripples across the world, with Reuters trying to back-pedal from the photog that seems to have a penchant for “modifying the truth” via digital software. Not a good thing at all, and there are plenty of people, more plugged in and more capable thatn I to comment. Stroll over to LGF (the main page via the link under the picture) and you’ll get a few more than a few eyefulls of the discussion, among many other blogs/news reports.

Good use of Photoshop:

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If you’re a submariner, then this would also be considered a good use of photo editing software:

Then again, you can appreciate if you’re from the VP-, HS-, HSL-, VS- or surface community, too. Just a Mk 46 would be a smaller “ride.”

Thanks to Little Green Footballs for the Open Thread!

The daily geo-political and cultural news provides way too much to easily digest, so I’m thinking it over.

In the works: A “Sea Story” (actually based in fact…but aren’t they all) from 20 years ago. Tease: Something about constuctive and virtual targets, project people looking over your shoulders and 6 days without sleep, oh, yeah, and T’Hawks.

In the mean time:

But if you get hungry while surfing, how will you finish your blogging post?

I found the virtual kitchen and it has a ferrous door fridge, and 207 magnetized words. Play with care….

Get there via this link.

Oh, and just where is Castro right now?

One more for the computer humor/rivalry files:

From the Virginian-Pilot:

Petty officer held in secret for 4 months.

NORFOLK — A petty officer has been in the Norfolk Naval Station brig for more than four months facing espionage, desertion and other charges, but the Navy has refused to release details of the case.

The case against Fire Control Technician 3rd Class Ariel J. Weinmann is indicative of the secrecy surrounding the Navy military court here, where public affairs and trial court officials have denied access to basic information including the court docket – a listing of cases to be heard.
[…]
The command’s e-mail to The Pilot this week said that Weinmann was arrested at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport on March 26 after he had been listed as a deserter. Fleet Forces officials refused to release the so-called charge sheet, which would detail the accusations against the sailor.

Weinmann had been serving aboard the submarine Albuquerque until he deserted in July 2005, according to Brown. Weinmann enlisted in July 2003, he said.

The enlisted man could face a court-martial. An investigative officer who presided over the Article 32 is expected to release a report to Weinmann’s command in the coming weeks. Besides espionage and desertion, Weinmann is charged with failure to obey an order and acts prejudicial to good order and discipline, according to Brown.

Interesting….any of you sub sailors have more details?

H/T: Sailor Bob’s bulletin board

On a car (of course):

“Some days all I want to be is a missing person”

Ever had that feeling?