And to the surprise of many, I still have them!

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But one of the resolutions passed (and reportedly approved by 99% of the nearly 2,000 party members) at the party’s first national policy convention since 2003 [held in Winnipeg, hence the post title] called on the party to get behind legislation that would “remove authority from the Canadian Human Rights Commission and Tribunal to regulate, receive, investigate or adjudicate complaints related to Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act.”

That’s right, they’re talking about getting rid of that nasty Sec. 13 in the Human Rights Act, which makes it an offence for a person to communicate telephonically or by internet “any matter that is likely to expose a person or persons to hatred or contempt by reason of the fact that that person or those persons are identifiable on the basis of a prohibited ground of discrimination“.

Yeah, that one.

And, honestly, I wouldn’t shed any tears over it’s removal. It should be interesting to see what [if anything] happens next.

Apparently, some issues can actually unite, at least some, groups “from the left, right and moderate centre”. Who knew?

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Behold members of the ”Black Gang” with stained dungarees and smelling of Bunker A. Hard, hot, dangerous work. No air conditioning in the office, here.

Up on the roof, cranials, helmets, ear protection and colored jerseys define those of a loftier persuasion. These uniforms shown above define the job — they show Who’s Who and serve to promote safety.

And there are the SWOs.

SWO sweaters, matching SWO jackets, all designed to accent those Black Shoes.

Could be called “Spiffy.”

It’s a great Navy, isn’t it?

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Just in case you were wondering if you would really like to go for a spin with Lex on his weekend job. This should help you decide.  Don’t be shy. Check it out.

So, Lex, think you can free up an afternoon for me sometime next summer?

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Peter Robinson wrote:  Laughter, wit, a tough Boston charm, and perpetual ebullience—those are the characteristics I associate with Dean Barnett.  Dean and I met when he was a media fellow here at the Hoover Institution not quite two years ago, then stayed in touch by email and telephone.  He was quick and widely-read and wrote like an angel.  And he loved the fellowship of journalists. 

What a loss.  What a void.  May angels sing him to his rest—and comfort all who loved him, including Hugh Hewitt, Hugh’s producer, Duane Patterson, and our friends at the Weekly Standard. 

Mark Steyn wrote: 

‘Dean Barnett, RIP 
… Even though he’d been under the shadow of death for years, he was such a grand example of someone who, gloomy odds notwithstanding, just gets on with living his life and pursuing his dreams that I assumed he’d beat this latest setback like all the others. Sitting in for Hugh Hewitt, he interviewed me just a couple of weeks ago and had the best line of the exchange, talking about Charlie Gibson clucking like a metrosexual schoolmarm. He was a good-humored partisan, which is ever more an endangered species, and he always remembered to see the comedy in his own side. 

When I was on the radio with him, he liked to call it “All-Accent Thursday”. The first time I heard him I vaguely wondered whether the extra-thick chowdah accent was some kind of put-on, but he talked like that off-air, too. If he’d gone to some career advisor, they’d have said, “Radio? With those vowels? Only after vocal-chord implants.” But he was funny and insightful in a way that a lot of guys with the million-dollar dulcet tones aren’t, and so he got to host a nationally syndicated show coast to coast. He was a natural blogger and broadcaster, and, while it’s a tragedy that it should all end just as he’d found a national audience for his talents, he went a long way in his short life. I shall miss him enormously.’ 

As will I. 

Bill Kristol wrote: 

‘I’m struck, reading some of the tributes to Dean tonight, how much he affected not only those who knew him personally, but also many who had corresponded with him, and many who simply knew him through reading him. He touched an awful lot of people, of all ages and types, and touched them deeply. Some he taught about politics, some about sports, some about how to write and think–and some about life.’ 

Damn straight.  We’ll miss you Dean. 

(posted by lex on behalf of Craig Mclaughlin)

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DESPITE being shot twice during an ambush in Afghanistan, an SAS soldier lashed himself to the front of his patrol vehicle so he wouldn’t be left behind if he passed out from loss of blood and kept on fighting.

The Digger is expected to be recommended for a high level bravery award.

Suffering from serious upper body wounds, the soldier struggled on to the front of his SAS long range patrol vehicle (LRPV) and, under heavy fire, used a rope to attach himself firmly between the vehicle’s bull bar and radiator.

Once he was secured, and there was no chance that he would fall off if he fainted, he picked up his rifle and resumed firing at the enemy during a two-hour fighting withdrawal.

SAS troops and their special forces comrades from the Commando Regiment are well aware of the slow and painful death that awaits them if they are captured by the Taliban.

The Digger, who cannot be identified, faded in and out of consciousness, emptying several magazines as volleys of enemy rounds and rocket propelled grenades, rained down around him.

He was finally evacuated from the battle field at high speed still lashed to the front of the LRPV.

Not a bad effort that.

Of course, with the good….

… comes the bad:

While the Diggers fought for survival, bureaucrats in Canberra docked the pay of more than 100 SAS men, including many serving in Afghanistan.

Several troops had been told they had debts of $30,000 for allowances that shouldn’t have been paid and were being forced to repay the funds.

The issue was resolved yesterday when army chief Lieutenant General Ken Gillespie admitted it was a fault with the auto pay system, adding it would be fixed immediately.

Still, berated in a Senate estimates hearing yesterday, fixed today… amazing how quickly things can work with the right motivation

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I know just enough about computer hardware to be dangerous–to myself and the hardware, haha!  My computer turned itself off yesterday and refused to restart.  Any help would be HUGELY appreciated.

Here’s the situation:

1.  LED indicator for the power button on the case comes on, but NOTHING happens, nothing starts, no fans, not whirring/clicks.  Nothing.

2.  In the last few months it has seemed to turn itself off randomly or failed to come out of hibernation.  I never saw it go off suddenly, so figured maybe an automatic update had restarted it.  I’ve set it in BIOS and Windows to turn off if there are power fluctuations, so I figured that was a possibility, too, and didn’t worry .

3.  Yesterday it turned off without warning while I was using it, after giving me a blue-screen error.  Then it did it again after a momentary freeze, but there was no error messages, etc.  It did it several more times, but restarted when I pressed the button.  The interval between restarts was shorter each time until it refused to start at all.

4.  I have since removed all power and batteries to reset, to no avail.  I’ve checked all power connections on the motherboard and components (and removed connections to components and tried to restart).  No effect.  I checked the life on the MB battery and I have removed RAM and tried to restart.  Same results.

5.  When I opened the case, I noticed that the CPU heat sink was covered in heavy dust and cat fur.  The CPU fan is recessed into the heat sink and blows downward, but the dust/fur had literally created a barrier between the center of the heat sink and the back of the fan.

Any thoughts?  I’m hoping it’s just the power supply, but then why would the LED light work–is it powered by the battery?

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Two reasons. One, I couldn’t decide what to put up on my blog. And second, I grew up on a Navy base. Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, WA to be exact.

Whidbey Island is the plug that almost fills the top of Puget Sound. It is the largest island in the lower 48 (the Supreme Court ruled long ago that Long Island isn’t really an island, since it is connected to the mainland by a causeway). During the early days of WWII, the Navy was looking for a good place to stage anti-submarine patrols over the waters of the Northwest and to train airgroups for the Pacific. Whidbey was actually two fields. The first was the seaplane base. A marina, pier and an enormous parking area were built on the shores of Crescent Harbor. Soon after, a land plane base, later named Ault Field was constructed just north of there. The base was a boomtown set in what was formerly a very sleepy little farming town.

After the war, the base was still used for patrol planes, but much of the activity had died down. Whidbey was something of a backwater to Naval Aviation. So it remained for decades. But as the Vietnam war began to heat up, a major decision was made that would bring NAS Whidbey back to some prominence. The A-6 Intruder was entering into the fleet. The Navy’s Master Jet Base concept said that instead of grouping entire airwings at a station, each station would be the consilidated home for a type of jet. Typically, there would be a base on the East and West Coast for each type. Thus, while NAS Lemoore was home to the A-4 Skyhawk (and later the A-7 Corsair II and our humble host’s beloved F/A-18 Hornet) the decision was made to base all West Coast A-6 squadrons at NAS Whidbey. As the war grew in size, so did the A-6 community. With the seaplanes gone, that part of the base was turned into housing for dependents.

Towards the end of the war, the need for a dedicated electronic warfare aircraft saw the development of the EA-6B Prowler. The powers that be figured if NAS Whidbey made a good home for Intruders, it would make sense to have its close cousin the Prowler stationed there as well. But there would be no East Coast homebase. Oceana, the East Coast home of the Intruder was getting crowded, and there was plenty of room at Whidbey to fit all the Prowlers.

And so it came to pass that in late 1973, my dad was sent to NAS Whidbey. I was a youth of 6 whole years. I liked Whidbey. I lived  Right. On. The. Beach. which is pretty dang cool for a kid. All kinds of trouble to get into. But my favorite thing was to go to Ault Field when they had fly-ins.

When a carrier was returning from a Westpac deployment, they would launch all the planes a short distance off the coast of the carrier’s home port. Each carrier had a squadron of 12 or so Intruders and a squadron of 4 Prowlers. These squadrons would fly up the coast and return home to NAS Whidbey, where wives, sweethearts, children, parents, and well wishers would gather to greet them. In the days leading up to their return, the squadron wives would put up “Burma Shave” signs with cute sayings to welcome their sailors home. But the big event was gathering at the squadron hangar and watching an entire squadron come into the break at high speed before splitting up and landing. After taxiing in, shutting down, and dismounting, the aircrews would be greeted by a crush of family rushing to  squeeze them in hugs 9 months in the making. Cake and puch were there, but I’m not sure I ever saw anybody partake (besides me, of course. I never say no to free cake!)

This is all a pretty long post, especially since the whole point was I wanted to put up this youtube of a real plane, not some plastic bug.

watch?v=9kEfuJUsuMM

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I am writing and producing a short film for a carrier museum that describes the technical process of launching and landing from the deck of a carrier.  Most of the folks at this museum are museum people, not Navy people, so I need some extra technical guidance and hope the readers of this site can help.  Please contact me via e-mail at harman-”at”-ironboundfilms.com.  Your assistance will ensure you won’t visit this museum and go “What the hell?”  Thank you!

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