Sunday, August 11, 2013
Sunday, June 30, 2013
A Post For Summer
I'm not sure I remember how to write. This has been such a wonderful Spring weather wise. We have had a lot of rain and I've seen enough of that. But our crops should do well. There have been some beautiful cool days. And daylight till 9PM.
I did very little all winter and didn't do too well on diet and exercise. It' been hard to crawl back and move around and lose weight. When May came I kind of came out of my shell. I went to 2 bon fires and played guitar sets. Then my son came to town for a week. I tried to keep up with him. We went to his cousin's wedding in Philly. Then my friend the professor from Norway came and visited for 3 weeks. I tried to keep up with him. We went to some cruise ins in my VW. We started my TR6 and drove it around the block. We drank gin and tonics and grilled out on the deck almost every night. We opened our pool. The prof went back to Norway.
I went to Loch Haven with friends in the Cherokee. The next day to another friend's airstrip Art's, and got to do a guitar set. Two days later to Cincinnati to see my buddy Geoff at his retirement party. Congrats my friend. The very next day to Baltimore to renew my instructor's rating. And on to Clearview to buy airplane stuff and dinner with buddy Dempsey.
Now I'm ready for the pace that I had during the winter. Part of chilling down I hope will be posting here. I'm behind on the mowing. The last few days I've done a lot, but there are still some wet places I can't get on. I'm busier than I thought I would be. With a long list of projects that I may be able to do. Maybe not.
As I grow older, do I get wiser? Yes, in many ways. But in many other ways, not so much. I am grumpier. Less animated. I saw a T shirt the other day that said:
"I used to care. I take a pill for that now".
I'm thankful that I am calm. Fed. Not in Pain. Have a beautiful, wonderful wife. A fantastic son, no fatal disease diagnosed as yet. I have troubles, we all do. We all will get sick and die. If I look around even just a little bit, I see folks with real bad troubles. If I ever get depressed because I can't have my way. Or some of my toys are broken. Or the day doesn't "click". Then I deserve to be told: "Lloyd, you are a stupid ass, shut up and get your perspective back!"
This is going to be a great summer with fly ins and cruise ins and I may have a little party here too.
Every day is a gift. Every day is a day you can re boot and start over. And for me, the full circle pilot:
Every day is Friday night!
Happy Solstice my friends. LLITTY :::::+:::::
I did very little all winter and didn't do too well on diet and exercise. It' been hard to crawl back and move around and lose weight. When May came I kind of came out of my shell. I went to 2 bon fires and played guitar sets. Then my son came to town for a week. I tried to keep up with him. We went to his cousin's wedding in Philly. Then my friend the professor from Norway came and visited for 3 weeks. I tried to keep up with him. We went to some cruise ins in my VW. We started my TR6 and drove it around the block. We drank gin and tonics and grilled out on the deck almost every night. We opened our pool. The prof went back to Norway.
I went to Loch Haven with friends in the Cherokee. The next day to another friend's airstrip Art's, and got to do a guitar set. Two days later to Cincinnati to see my buddy Geoff at his retirement party. Congrats my friend. The very next day to Baltimore to renew my instructor's rating. And on to Clearview to buy airplane stuff and dinner with buddy Dempsey.
Now I'm ready for the pace that I had during the winter. Part of chilling down I hope will be posting here. I'm behind on the mowing. The last few days I've done a lot, but there are still some wet places I can't get on. I'm busier than I thought I would be. With a long list of projects that I may be able to do. Maybe not.
As I grow older, do I get wiser? Yes, in many ways. But in many other ways, not so much. I am grumpier. Less animated. I saw a T shirt the other day that said:
"I used to care. I take a pill for that now".
I'm thankful that I am calm. Fed. Not in Pain. Have a beautiful, wonderful wife. A fantastic son, no fatal disease diagnosed as yet. I have troubles, we all do. We all will get sick and die. If I look around even just a little bit, I see folks with real bad troubles. If I ever get depressed because I can't have my way. Or some of my toys are broken. Or the day doesn't "click". Then I deserve to be told: "Lloyd, you are a stupid ass, shut up and get your perspective back!"
This is going to be a great summer with fly ins and cruise ins and I may have a little party here too.
Every day is a gift. Every day is a day you can re boot and start over. And for me, the full circle pilot:
Every day is Friday night!
Happy Solstice my friends. LLITTY :::::+:::::
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
The Citadel
The Citadel. No, I'm not talking about the military college of South Carolina. That fine old school in Charleston known as the West Point of the South. A fine school indeed. No, there is another Citadel I really want to talk about. But where, where do I begin? The topic is so target rich for a liberal atheist like me. This is going to be lots of fun. I hope.
"The Citadel" is a planned gated community in Idaho. It is to be a walled city of 3 to 7 thousand people.
It will be centered around a gun factory called III Arms Company. The walled city will be about one square mile, but there will be housing outside the walls as well. The residents will be known as "Patriots". Before they can set up their residency, they will have to go through an application process. And sign the "Patriot Agreement".
I won't take time to tell you about the Patriot Agreement. But I just have to tell you one thing about it which is quite a tell. Each "Patriot" over the age of 13 must own at least three firearms: A handgun of his own choice, a rifle of his own choice, and an AR15 variant with at least 1000 rounds at the ready. And qualify annually with these firearms.
There is more. So much, much more. But we can all just go to their website and read all about it.
I'm interested in this from the sociological viewpoint. Fascinated! I wrote a post in this blog about rich folks dropping out of the "socialist big government America". It was back in August of 2011 and it was called "Tycoons and Typhoons". The folks I wrote about then were just babes in the woods compared to these Patriots. The island owning drop outs were just rich guys who didn't want to obey U.S. laws and never wanted to deal with poor folks unless they were servants. In that post I pointed out that it was just too easy to poke lots of huge holes in the idea.
Okay, enough background. I just can't wait to opine about this concept.
The first irony is: The Patriots (and I just love them) are seeking, according to their manifesto, Freedom. Ah, Freedom. So they are going to take their guns and get inside a walled compound with rules. Kind of like a prison? (Yea, this is too easy).
The second irony: They say that anyone is welcome to apply to join their ranks. They warn that Liberals, and Socialists, and Marxists will not be welcome. And they do not expect to have law enforcement, so they expect their members to be God fearing so all can be trusted. This reveals a naivete, do ya think? They all believe in god and guns. What could go wrong?
Third irony: Remember the story of Masada? The Jews up on the mountain top that had their own community inside the Roman Empire. They didn't have to do anything wrong or illegal, to make the Romans want to kill them. They just had to be there and not recognize Rome. Rome could not stand it. I'm sure you know what happened. Or can guess.
Fourth irony: From what I could read in their agreement, it seemed guns and freedom were the important thing. I didn't see the vision about crops and self sustaining energy and medical care and care for babies and the aged. They claim to want freedom and insulation from a collapse of the U.S.; and loss of the power grid, and a total breakdown of the U.S. infrastructure. So they have a bomb shelter mentality. They would never be able to hold off a bunch of starving, end of the world, Mad Max's, even if they had 1000 rounds each. The guys on the islands would have a better chance. But they've sucked me into their insane world with this kind of speculation. You can think of lots more things.
I could go on and on. I'd like to go on and on. But I'm not going to.
I really, really, hope that this community gets built. It's a grand experiment. I don't think it is noble. At all. And I think it will help us all learn things about ourselves as a culture. As a society. As a nation. My guess is that this experiment will somehow yield the opposite of what it's creators want.
I told my wife that I was going to write this post and I was pretty jazzed about it. She told me that Glen Beck is starting one of these communities. It will be called "Independence". I shall find out about that!
I wonder what kind of guns they will have.
LLITTY ::::::+::::::
"The Citadel" is a planned gated community in Idaho. It is to be a walled city of 3 to 7 thousand people.
It will be centered around a gun factory called III Arms Company. The walled city will be about one square mile, but there will be housing outside the walls as well. The residents will be known as "Patriots". Before they can set up their residency, they will have to go through an application process. And sign the "Patriot Agreement".
I won't take time to tell you about the Patriot Agreement. But I just have to tell you one thing about it which is quite a tell. Each "Patriot" over the age of 13 must own at least three firearms: A handgun of his own choice, a rifle of his own choice, and an AR15 variant with at least 1000 rounds at the ready. And qualify annually with these firearms.
There is more. So much, much more. But we can all just go to their website and read all about it.
I'm interested in this from the sociological viewpoint. Fascinated! I wrote a post in this blog about rich folks dropping out of the "socialist big government America". It was back in August of 2011 and it was called "Tycoons and Typhoons". The folks I wrote about then were just babes in the woods compared to these Patriots. The island owning drop outs were just rich guys who didn't want to obey U.S. laws and never wanted to deal with poor folks unless they were servants. In that post I pointed out that it was just too easy to poke lots of huge holes in the idea.
Okay, enough background. I just can't wait to opine about this concept.
The first irony is: The Patriots (and I just love them) are seeking, according to their manifesto, Freedom. Ah, Freedom. So they are going to take their guns and get inside a walled compound with rules. Kind of like a prison? (Yea, this is too easy).
The second irony: They say that anyone is welcome to apply to join their ranks. They warn that Liberals, and Socialists, and Marxists will not be welcome. And they do not expect to have law enforcement, so they expect their members to be God fearing so all can be trusted. This reveals a naivete, do ya think? They all believe in god and guns. What could go wrong?
Third irony: Remember the story of Masada? The Jews up on the mountain top that had their own community inside the Roman Empire. They didn't have to do anything wrong or illegal, to make the Romans want to kill them. They just had to be there and not recognize Rome. Rome could not stand it. I'm sure you know what happened. Or can guess.
Fourth irony: From what I could read in their agreement, it seemed guns and freedom were the important thing. I didn't see the vision about crops and self sustaining energy and medical care and care for babies and the aged. They claim to want freedom and insulation from a collapse of the U.S.; and loss of the power grid, and a total breakdown of the U.S. infrastructure. So they have a bomb shelter mentality. They would never be able to hold off a bunch of starving, end of the world, Mad Max's, even if they had 1000 rounds each. The guys on the islands would have a better chance. But they've sucked me into their insane world with this kind of speculation. You can think of lots more things.
I could go on and on. I'd like to go on and on. But I'm not going to.
I really, really, hope that this community gets built. It's a grand experiment. I don't think it is noble. At all. And I think it will help us all learn things about ourselves as a culture. As a society. As a nation. My guess is that this experiment will somehow yield the opposite of what it's creators want.
I told my wife that I was going to write this post and I was pretty jazzed about it. She told me that Glen Beck is starting one of these communities. It will be called "Independence". I shall find out about that!
I wonder what kind of guns they will have.
LLITTY ::::::+::::::
Monday, January 14, 2013
Them Sailplane Terrorists
Yikes. I havn't posted in so long. I should have a lot to say. I should be older and wiser. But it seems the older I get, and the more I learn, the less I really want to say. I'll probably never completely shut up though. I talk because I want people to pay attention to me. I desperately want people to like me. Yet I have been cocooning here at my place with my wife and a few animals. It's a big social day if I go out to the store. I'm also not attending to my toys which need to be run and warmed up and charged up and prepared for a long cold winter. Nor am I winterizing the house. Or writing a song or a book or a blog post. Is it alright for me to do nothing? My wife seems cool with it. Which makes me very lucky. Like me, she never seems to get bored. I'm not thrilled and extremely happy about doing "nothing". I just haven't had a yen to go somewhere, do something, or be somebody. As far as my health, I need to start moving around more.
But for this post I have motivation! A big dose of the muse! What is it? It's an aviation article I've read about a sailplane pilot who gets thrown in jail! I've had about a dozen forwards and links on this article sent to my E-mail. It's a surrealistic tale.
The guy takes off in a sailplane (glider). He is towed up and released a few thousand feet above his home base airport in South Carolina. He's going to fly a 500km triangle and return back. This is no little feat. The airplane has no engine. There are no mountain ridges to give him lift from the prevailing wind. There are no bigger mountains to form a "wave" to take his glider up ten or fifteen thousand feet. He's riding on "thermals". Shafts of rising air. He uses his vast experience to find these thermals. His flight on this particular day was almost four hours. That's a long time in an airplane with no engine. The lift (thermals) on this day were not as strong as expected. He had to cut his planned route short and head back home. He made a try for some lift by a lake in a known area. He crossed over a power plant he was familiar with. Then he circled in small thermals as the wind drifted him back toward home. He was monitoring the radio frequency of a nearby airport. He heard chatter on the radio about a glider and a power plant. So he called in to this nearby airport. And he was told that the authorities wanted him to land there. So he did. That is when he was arrested and handcuffed. He was put in jail for 24 hrs. He wasn't allowed to make a phone call for several hours. Enough time elapsed that his home field knew he was down somewhere, and possibly needing help. He was reported overdue. Finally, the folks at the home field found out he was okay, but still in jail. When he was released after 24 hours in a crowded cell, he was debriefed by the TSA, Homeland Security, and Sheriff. He was told that they would not let him go unless he agreed not to file suit.
----The solo glider pilot did not do one single thing against regulations on the flight.
----There was no restricted airspace in the area
----in fact he was within 2 miles of an active general aviation airport where airplanes fly every day.
----The 70 year old pilot is an instructor at his home airport, where among other things, he teaches
airspace rules and regulations.
----The FAA stated that this pilot had done nothing wrong.
Well I'm sorry folks. Maybe I just have an authority complex But it just chaps my roids to hear a story like this. So there are a dozen Sheriff's cars waiting for this "terrorist" to land. They rush him and cuff him. Okay. But he's in a little, light, glider. Easy to search the glider. No bomb or BB gun. A 70 year old mild mannered man. You check his credentials. The sailplane's credentials. Maybe see if he is drunk. Call back to his home base, he needs to talk to them anyway, for a ride and to decide what to do with the glider overnight,etc. Maybe call back to the power plant (which is not illegal to overfly) and check that all is well. You can do all this in ten minutes max right at the airplane. It all checks out. All is well.
So how did we get from meeting the airplane when it landed and challanging the "suspect", to taking the guy to jail and holding him behind bars for 24 hours? I must be missing something on this one.
When the TSA is hassling people, and it is obvious that the people are not terrorists, they (the TSA) are doing something they don't need to do. So how often do they not do things that they do need to do?
This happened last summer. Why didn't we hear about it sooner?
LLITTY ::::::+::::::
But for this post I have motivation! A big dose of the muse! What is it? It's an aviation article I've read about a sailplane pilot who gets thrown in jail! I've had about a dozen forwards and links on this article sent to my E-mail. It's a surrealistic tale.
The guy takes off in a sailplane (glider). He is towed up and released a few thousand feet above his home base airport in South Carolina. He's going to fly a 500km triangle and return back. This is no little feat. The airplane has no engine. There are no mountain ridges to give him lift from the prevailing wind. There are no bigger mountains to form a "wave" to take his glider up ten or fifteen thousand feet. He's riding on "thermals". Shafts of rising air. He uses his vast experience to find these thermals. His flight on this particular day was almost four hours. That's a long time in an airplane with no engine. The lift (thermals) on this day were not as strong as expected. He had to cut his planned route short and head back home. He made a try for some lift by a lake in a known area. He crossed over a power plant he was familiar with. Then he circled in small thermals as the wind drifted him back toward home. He was monitoring the radio frequency of a nearby airport. He heard chatter on the radio about a glider and a power plant. So he called in to this nearby airport. And he was told that the authorities wanted him to land there. So he did. That is when he was arrested and handcuffed. He was put in jail for 24 hrs. He wasn't allowed to make a phone call for several hours. Enough time elapsed that his home field knew he was down somewhere, and possibly needing help. He was reported overdue. Finally, the folks at the home field found out he was okay, but still in jail. When he was released after 24 hours in a crowded cell, he was debriefed by the TSA, Homeland Security, and Sheriff. He was told that they would not let him go unless he agreed not to file suit.
----The solo glider pilot did not do one single thing against regulations on the flight.
----There was no restricted airspace in the area
----in fact he was within 2 miles of an active general aviation airport where airplanes fly every day.
----The 70 year old pilot is an instructor at his home airport, where among other things, he teaches
airspace rules and regulations.
----The FAA stated that this pilot had done nothing wrong.
Well I'm sorry folks. Maybe I just have an authority complex But it just chaps my roids to hear a story like this. So there are a dozen Sheriff's cars waiting for this "terrorist" to land. They rush him and cuff him. Okay. But he's in a little, light, glider. Easy to search the glider. No bomb or BB gun. A 70 year old mild mannered man. You check his credentials. The sailplane's credentials. Maybe see if he is drunk. Call back to his home base, he needs to talk to them anyway, for a ride and to decide what to do with the glider overnight,etc. Maybe call back to the power plant (which is not illegal to overfly) and check that all is well. You can do all this in ten minutes max right at the airplane. It all checks out. All is well.
So how did we get from meeting the airplane when it landed and challanging the "suspect", to taking the guy to jail and holding him behind bars for 24 hours? I must be missing something on this one.
When the TSA is hassling people, and it is obvious that the people are not terrorists, they (the TSA) are doing something they don't need to do. So how often do they not do things that they do need to do?
This happened last summer. Why didn't we hear about it sooner?
LLITTY ::::::+::::::
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