BMEWS
 
Death once had a near-Sarah Palin experience.

calendar   Monday - March 31, 2014

About time

Hu is on First!

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Posted by Christopher   United States  on 03/31/2014 at 06:23 PM   
Filed Under: • Fun-StuffHistory •  
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Busy busy busy

Peiper and I both have lots of things we have to get done right now, so posting will be light for a while longer.

I’m back to the dentist again this morning, and I’m hoping this time that things go right. Not that they went wrong the last time, but I’ve been living with low level pain for nearly a full month now, and I’m sick of it.

Interesting stuff in my inbox this morning ... improve your health via Indian food. A nice spicy curry, loaded down with turmeric and hot peppers, might actually be very good for both joint health and pain management. Turmeric is one of the best sources of a thing called circumin, which studies hasve shown to be quite effective against swelling. And it’s an anti-oxidant. Hot peppers contain capsaicin/capsicum. which also has several benefits, one of which is tricking the body into a lesser state of pain sensitivity. To me that’s interesting enough to explore further. And you get the fun of having a nice rich vindaloo. Cool.

Arrgh, the keyboard/internet is acting up. Some kind of delay is making the stuff I type not show up until about 10 seconds after I type it. Will scan for malware, then reboot. Be back later.

https://douglassreport.com/2011/03/21/circumin-fights-disease/
http://altmedicine.about.com/od/completeazindex/a/capsaicin_cream.htm

UPDATE: Ok, I survived. Crivens. 3 hours at the dentist. When I had the extraction done, they gave me a little post-surgical card that said “little chips” of tooth may surface in the excision area, don’t worry, they’ll pass. I’ve had a needle of broken tooth root stabbing the underside of my tongue for the past couple weeks, driving me crazy. So I got the dentist to take that out today. Dentistry is so primal ... he’s in my mouth with a pair of pliers and a spatula thingy ... and out comes a shard bigger than a grain of rice. Yikes! “Good thing you came back”, says Doc, “there’s no way that one would have ever worked it’s way out.” And the assistant lady is all “Gosh, this really is needle sharp on the end, isn’t it?” :glower:  hmmm

So, mostly better. Trying to have some enhanced soup here - organic potato leek soup right from the box, but enhanced with matzoh!  Matzoh makes everything better! And I’ve got massive amounts of the stuff - which is a tad challenging right now, since half my face is still under the anesthetic. Maybe I’ll have to hold off until the tingling stops.

Gak, I need a nap. Dental “adventures” are exhausting.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 03/31/2014 at 07:47 AM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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calendar   Friday - March 28, 2014

remembering, and mine will be the last generation to do so, personally.

Had it not been for Vilmar a year or so ago, I’d have never found what I am posting here. Should have done it sooner but things get lost among many other things and re-found later. I was clearing out files and dupes etc. when I came across this gem again. Actually, I was researching my late uncle’s plane (and the FLACK ALLEY was one of them) and his WW2 flying record. I discovered so many things about the man who I was always close to and in adulthood worked with, and was never bright enuff or curious enough to ask questions. I knew he was decorated, had the Purple Heart, DFC with clusters etc. As a kid, I actually went aboard that bomber before it left Texas for the flight to Europe. So it’s depressing that I never asked questions. Well, thanks to ppl like Vilmar and the net, I discovered that my uncle volunteered to keep flying beyond the required missions. I found every plane he was on too. And I found this diary (or maybe log entry?) below. It was not written by my uncle but that doesn’t matter. His plane too crash landed in a field in England shot up after his last volunteer mission. I know it’s a long read but think it’s worth your time.  They were mostly all so young.  I think my uncle was in his very early 20’s in the photo below.

Flak Alley” Terror

By Eino V. Alve (453rd)

August 25 – Belgium: This was one of our most dangerous missions. We were just entering the Zuider Zee or, as it was called “Flak Alley”. It was a narrow corridor with anti-aircraft guns on each side. We knew that if we were able to fly directly down the center of this alley, the flak would not be able to reach us. Suddenly a burst of flak exploded under our plane. The number four engine failed immediately. The bomb doors were partly torn loose and began to flap wildly. A fuel line was severed and the bomb bay was filled with gasoline and vapors. A fragment of the shell had hit the only vulnerable part of the system, and fuel began to drain from one of the tanks. We could explode any minute.

The cockpit was clear of gas, but vapors were all I could see in the bomb bay. Due to the loss of No. 4 engine, we could not keep up with the rest of the formation. Bob Jordan and Bill Heerts realized that the flapping of the bomb doors could cause a spark and that would be the end of all of us. Bob then proceeded to remove his chute to enable him to reach out to kick the remaining doors loose. To do this, Heerts held Bob’s parachute harness while Bob literally hung out in empty space to kick the doors free of the plane. Together, these two men actually saved the lives of the entire crew.

During this same time, a shell exploded directly in front of us. I could see the fiery center. During our training, I remember being told that the next explosion in a case like this would be in the same area, but exactly on the target. “Count to ten and then change direction” – thousand one, thousand two, etc. Immediately upon turning, another explosion occurred where we would have been if we had not turned. This one German gunner had us “bracketed”; that is, he knew our exact air speed and altitude. To confuse him, the next time I would change altitude after flying for another ten seconds. It worked again! Now another gunner began firing and we were surrounded by flak. The No. 3 engine was hit and had to be “feathered” (stopped). With two engines out on the same side, the plane began to turn or “yaw” to the right. With the help of Horton and his long, strong legs we were able to hold the rudders long enough to engage the autopilot, which kept the plane on course.

At this point, I must admit, fear got the best of me. Emergencies were occurring faster than I could cope with and figure out what to do next. Co-pilot Horton had kept his “cool” and pointed to the airspeed. In changing altitude I had ignored it and we were about to go into a flat spin. In a B-24 a flat spin is almost uncontrollable and makes a “bail out” impossible. This realization shocked me enough to get me “back on tract” and do what I was trained to do – save the crew and the equipment.

Horton now left his position and went to the bomb bay area to supervise and do whatever he could to help. The crew was already doing what had to be done; lighten the aircraft by unloading anything that was loose, radios, flak suits, ammunition, etc. They knew that with all the fuel we were losing, a lighter craft would go further on less fuel. Bombardier Moore and Navigator Marx were concerned with the bombs which were still on board. They spotted a heavily wooded area over which we were passing and “salvoed”, or dropped together, the entire bomb load. Because we were over Belgium and friendly territory, it was important not to cause any damage to life or property with our bombs if at all possible.

To increase our chances of survival, all electrical equipment, which might cause a spark and ignite an explosion, was turned off. The damaged gas line couldn’t be repaired, nor could the gas be transferred, since the pump motor could cause a spark. We had done everything we could think of to help us survive the long, lonely trip back to England. The rest of our group was now out of sight.

Flying alone, we became sitting ducks for German fighter planes. This crippled B-24 was an easy target. A fighter plane did pick us up, but thank God it was American not German. He was flying a P-47 and came within eyeball range. He called over the radio “Hello big friend, this is your little friend. How much fuel do you have?” Just then a flak battery had our range and began firing again – hoping to finish us off.

Our “Little Friend” dove earthward, heading directly toward our enemy. His courage and skill put a stop to the German firing. We were saved. At this point, we could have headed for Sweden and internment for the rest of the war. However, with the P-47 at our side as an escort, I was determined to get our old B-24 safely back to Old Buck.

The aircraft had stabilized by now but it was losing altitude steadily, due to the loss of No. 3 and No. 4 engines. However, once we reached 10,000 feet, it leveled off and maintained altitude. We were now confident that “big friend” would get us back to Old Buck even though the two right engines were inoperative. In the distance I could see a sight that never looked better to these weary eyes – the White Cliffs of Dover – We were Home!

We landed without any problems, but our faithful B-24 was full of holes. It had no brakes or flaps and was damaged beyond repair. She never flew again, and was only used for parts.

We were an hour and a half-returning and discovered that many thought we had been downed. And they would have been right, had it not been for the help of our “Little Friend”. I regret that I never got the name of that pilot who escorted us to safe territory. It seems we had another bit of luck going for us that day. I learned that the crew chief of our plane put in an extra amount of gas for this flight. I don’t know what made him do it, but without his prescience, we wouldn’t have made it back to England. Later, we found out that the official records listed one B-24 bomber missing from our Group – we had fooled them!

-30-

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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 03/28/2014 at 01:41 PM   
Filed Under: • War-Stories •  
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A Nice New Erection

And a decent size one too, considering that it’s white!

A Bridge Grows In Hunterdon

The new White Bridge Road bridge over in Franklin Township is nearly finished. The old one, an iron truss built in 1886, was a beat up, rotten hulk that not even massive life support could save. So after years worth of designing, funds finding, neighborhood bickering, and a slew of not always sympathetic press, last summer the old bridge went away. And work began on the new one, from the water’s edge on up. New foundations, new abutments, and a new drainage system went in. The pre-fabricated trusses were ordered ... and then winter set in early, and work came to a halt. With nearly all the snow gone by early March, the trusses were delivered and dropped in place with a crane. After that all the beams, stringers, guard rails, feet, straps, and now the deck plating went in. It’s nearly done, save for laying on some asphalt, hooking in some new guard rail, and repaving the road on both ends. And (drum roll please) I’m pretty sure that it’s a real truss bridge. The lower chords are not so massive that they could carry the entire weight themselves. No, the truss is actually doing its job. And the trusses are big enough, just barely, for a road that wide. And that’s a good thing. Because we love our old bridges here in Hunterdon County, and sometimes this has lead to cost saving designs where the new bridge is actually a simple girder span, but with a pretend truss stuck on top, to “make it look right”. Hey, we derive a lot of income around here based on our country quaintness, so it behooves us to pay attention and do things like this project properly.

Click any of the pictures for a much larger version.


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View from the West end, showing the 16’ skew. Skew means the sides are offset from each other; from above the bridge is a polygon, not a rectangle.

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View from the East end. Note moderate sized lower chords and beams.

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A nice view of the lattices and a peak underneath.

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Detail view of lattices, decking, guard rails, two piece lower chord



I thought at first they had actually put this together with rivets, but all those bumps are actually nuts and bolts. Which are stronger than rivets, and easier to maintain. You betcha, they’ve built a white bridge on White Bridge Road (when the county painted the old bridge green once, the neighborhood turned up in the middle of the night with gallons of white paint and “fixed” that error!); it’s a real truss bridge ( an alternating verticals Warren pony truss using gusset plates instead of pinned sections ), and it has some actual lattice in it. Lattice - also sometimes called lacing - is the criss-cross strapping used to connect one smaller bit of beam to another one, to make a bigger, stronger beam while using less steel. Back in the day when steel was expensive and labor cheap, metal bridges were made almost entirely of latticed bits. This one has a few real lattices, where the beam is built from two lesser pieces, and several false ones, where a big solid beam was used, and lattice was just tacked on later for show. Both are easy to spot in the last picture.

The new bridge is two generous lanes wide, and I’m sure that it will be rated at at least 30 tons. Which means emergency vehicles can now cross the bridge when necessary, instead of having to drive 5 miles around the other way. Unfortunately, heavy trucks will now be able to cross as well, which is why the neighborhood wanted to keep the dilapidated old bridge. Because nobody wants their quiet street of expensive antique rural homes turning into a shortcut to the highway for big rigs at all hours of the day and night. Although I doubt that would happen here anyway, given that White Bridge Road is sort of off in a quiet corner to begin with.

So there you have it: a brand new modern bridge, built to look like it was made 90 years ago. And I’m sure it will get a nice power washing before the opening ceremony, which ought to be pretty soon.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 03/28/2014 at 12:29 PM   
Filed Under: • Bridges •  
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meanwhile, here in Hunterdon

My post on Barnes Wallis, “Winning the war with weeds and seawater: the geodetic airframe” is taking far longer than expected. Just too darn many links and too many interesting side tracks. Like why the Pidgeon Process for isolating magnesium is so bad for Climate Change.

So here’s a picture  of Islamic Rage Boy with a pancake on his head  of the new bridge going up 3 hills over here, the new white bridge on White Bridge Road.

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Pretty neat, huh? It’s a half connected Warren pony truss. But what makes it super neat is that the bridge was designed to carry modern loads while still looking like an old time bridge. So note the lacing between the beams, and the extensive use of rivets on the gusset plates. Cool. Because the folks in the neighborhood really really loved their old iron bridge (ca 1898), but it was just too beat up, too rotted away, and too weak to do the job any longer. 

If the rain lets up, I’ll run down to the job site today and get some fresh pictures. For now, here’s a link.

And Barnes Wallis? What a genius. What an amazing natural engineer. If Wallace, from the claymation films featuring Wallace and Gromit wasn’t named in his honor, he ought to have been. Cracking toast, what a brain he had.

Never heard of him? Actually, you probably have. He’s the WWII Dam Busters guy, but that was one of his lesser accomplishments.

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On May 16, 1943, 19 aircraft took off from RAF Scampton, Lincs, to fly to Germany’s industrial heartland and destroy the heavily-defended Mohne, Eder and Sorpe dams on the River Ruhr.

The Lancasters were carrying 9,000lb of ­“glorified dustbins” – bouncing bombs designed by Sir Barnes Wallis, the “wizard boffin” immortalised in the gung-ho 1955 film The Dambusters.

Almost half of the 113 airmen who took off on that historic mission never made it back.

Hopgood and Byers were among the 53 British, American, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand airmen killed.

Three others were shot down and taken prisoner while 1,294 people on the ground in Germany were killed – many prisoners in forced labour camps.
,,,
“When Barnes Wallis heard about the losses he broke down and cried. He said ‘I’ve killed all those young men’.”

But, Johnny [Sqdr Leader John “Johnny” Johnson] says, Guy Gibson told him: “No Barnes, you didn’t. Without you that raid could never have taken place.”

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Dr. Barnes Willis, pictured in front of a Lancaster bomber, perhaps one used in Operation Chastise.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 03/28/2014 at 09:51 AM   
Filed Under: • BridgesHistoryMilitaryUK •  
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calendar   Thursday - March 27, 2014

Bad Week To Be A Democrat

Thieves, Thugs, And Murderers

3rd Prominent Democrat Politician Arrested in 2 Days

Charlotte Mayor Busted For Bribery, Fraud, Extortion



imageFBI agents on Wednesday arrested the mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina, for allegedly taking tens of thousands of dollars worth of bribes “in exchange for the use of his official position,” the U.S. attorney’s office said.

Patrick D. Cannon, 47, faces federal charges of theft and bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds, honest services wire fraud and extortion under color of official right, according to a press release from U.S. Attorney Anne Tompkins of western North Carolina.
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Federal authorities launched their corruption investigation in August 2010, using FBI agents who posed as commercial real estate developers and investors looking to do business in the North Carolina city, Tompkins’ office said.

Investigators documented five separate occasions between January 2013 and February 2014 in which Cannon allegedly took more than $48,000 in cash, airline tickets, a hotel room and a luxury apartment from the undercover agents.

In the last instance, authorities say Cannon got $20,000 in cash in the mayor’s office.

He allegedly accepted the largesse in exchange for returning the favor using his powers as a City Council member, mayor pro tem and, eventually, mayor.

Cannon appeared in court Wednesday and was released on bond, the U.S. attorney’s office reported.

If convicted on all charges, he could be sentenced to as many as 50 years in federal prison and pay as much as $1.5 million in fines, officials said.

While this seems bad enough, it’s hardly a drop in the bucket compared to yesterday’s busts of two leading California Democrats, accused of all the usual corruption, plus being in neck deep with organized crime, running guns to/from terrorists, and running murder for hire hit squads. Crivens!!

California state senator Leland Yee arrested in FBI sweep
Remember Yee? He was the guy pushing for a blanket Assault Weapons ban. Take those guns away from the citizens, to fight crime!

imageA longtime California politician who was praised for his efforts to make government more transparent and authored gun control legislation was arrested Wednesday, accused of conspiracy to deal firearms and wire fraud.

The allegations against State Sen. Leland Yee were outlined in an FBI affidavit in support of a criminal complaint against him and 25 other people. The affidavit was unsealed on Wednesday, as Yee was scheduled to appear in court.

Yee performed “official acts” in exchange for donations from undercover FBI agents, as he sought to dig himself out of a $70,000 debt incurred during a failed San Francisco mayoral bid, according to court documents.

Yee is also accused of accepting $10,000 in January 2013 from an undercover agent in exchange for his making a call to the California Department of Public Health in support of a contract under consideration with the agency.

Also named in the affidavit is Raymond Chow. Chow, who is also known as “Shrimp Boy,” was the former leader of a Chinese criminal organization with ties to Hong Kong. Chow is accused of money laundering, conspiracy to receive and transport stolen property and conspiracy to traffic contraband cigarettes. He and Yee were arrested earlier in the day during a series of raids by the FBI in Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Yee was released from custody shortly before 7 p.m. on a $500,000 unsecured bond. He left the federal courthouse in San Francisco without comment.

His lawyer, Paul DeMeester, said Lee plans to plead not guilty but declined to discuss the case in detail, saying it’s complex. The complaint is 137 pages.

137 pages long? Oh, I’m sure the whole thing is a complete fabrication. And major involvement in a Chinese Tong? Horry Clap. How awful! How stereotypical!! How raycis!!!

Chow acknowledged in an unpublished autobiography that he ran prostitution rings in the 1980s, smuggled drugs and extorted thousands from business owners as a Chinatown gang member, KGO-TV reported two years ago.

In 1992, Chow was among more than two-dozen people indicted on racketeering charges for their alleged involvement in crimes ranging from teenage prostitution to an international drug trade mostly involving heroin.

He was later convicted of gun charges and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. He spent 11 years in prison and was released in 2003 after he cut a deal with the government to testify against another high-ranking associate, Peter Chong. Chong was later convicted of racketeering.

But Chow told KGO-TV in a 2012 interview that he had changed and was working with at-risk children in San Francisco.

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California issued a statement in 2012 recognizing Chow as a former offender who had become an asset to his community, the Sacramento Bee reported.


BUT IT GETS EVEN WORSE.


Keith Jackson, former S.F. education official, accused of murder-for-hire

image Keith Jackson, accused by the FBI on Wednesday of being involved in a murder-for-hire scheme and a gun- and drug-trafficking conspiracy, was San Francisco’s top elected educator during the late 1990s.
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One of Jackson’s sons, Brandon Jamell Jackson, 28, is also accused in the FBI complaint of conspiracies to commit murder for hire and trafficking in guns and drugs.

As an elected official in the 1990s, Keith Jackson declined to discuss his money problems with The Chronicle. The problems included five federal and state liens totaling $4,369 for tax debts between 1989 and 1994, and a missed payment to the University of Phoenix in San Jose that a court ordered him to pay up with interest.

Jackson called the inquiry a racially motivated attack. Jackson is black.

Today, Jackson runs the Jackson Consultancy business, according to the federal complaint, and he has been helping raise money for state Sen. Leland Yee’s election campaigns since 2011. Yee was also arrested in the FBI sweep on Wednesday.

The feds say Yee participated in conversations about an illegal gun-trafficking deal and took money from undercover agents for his secretary of state campaign. Chow and Jackson are among 25 other people named in the federal affidavit. The feds say Jackson consulted both Yee and Chow, and that FBI agents were able to infiltrate Chow’s organization to facilitate the illegal deals.

Want more? Lee was trying to import - for whom, might we ask? - automatic weapons and shoulder fired missiles from radical muzzie terrorists in the Philippines! Wonder who was going to get them, his pal Shrimpie’s tong??

Funny thing ... I couldn’t find a single mention of any of these alleged crooks at the CNN pages. Not on the front page, not on the politics page. It’s like ... they don’t exist. Like this never happened.

Yee is the third Democratic state senator in California to face criminal charges this year. Sen. Rod Wright was convicted of perjury and voter fraud for lying about his legal residence in Los Angeles County, and Sen. Ron Calderon has been indicted on federal corruption charges. Wright and Calderon are taking a voluntary leave of absence, with pay, although Republicans have called for them to be suspended or expelled.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 03/27/2014 at 01:40 PM   
Filed Under: • CrimeDemocrats-Liberals-Moonbat LeftistsTerrorists •  
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Matzoh Matzoh Man


So I run up to the grocery store to get some deli meat and cheese for lunch. Grabbed a couple bagged salads, a few oranges, and a couple other bits and pieces, and made a bee line for the checkout.

The kid rings up my order. Lucky me, I even got $1 off the salads with a coupon I found on the floor over in the produce section.

He gives me back my change while reading my receipt.

“Congratulations sir, you’re our big winner this hour! You’ve just won a giant package of matzohs!”

“What? Huh? You’re kidding me, right?”

“Oh no, it’s part of the hourly give away we’re doing all week. Go back to the display at the end of aisle 4 and get the big sleeve of the rack, and any cashier will let you have it if you show her this receipt.”

So I did. What the heck. And now I have an enormous, 5 pound sleeve of Horowitz Matzohs. “The matzoh with the taste”! $7.99 on sale, but for me, free!!

I’ve got nothing against matzohs. I even eat maybe 3, maybe 4 a year when I get the little cup of matzoh ball soup which comes with dinner up at the diner. How many does it take to make a matzoh ball dumpling? But 5lb worth? What am I going to do with 5lb of matzohs?

“Anything you want bubbie, anything you want!”

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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 03/27/2014 at 01:21 PM   
Filed Under: • Humor •  
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calendar   Wednesday - March 26, 2014

Not Exactly Pravda

“In Military ‘Rout’, Russia Seizes 51 Ukranian Warships”

Well, sorta kinda ...

[Kiev (aka Kyiv), Ukrains] In its invasion and annexation of Crimea, Russia has seized 51 vessels belonging to the Ukrainian navy, according to information compiled by Dmitry Tymchuk, director of the Center of Military and Political Research in Kyiv.

Among the Ukrainian vessels reportedly captured by the Russians are submarine Zaporizhia, management ship Slavutych, landing ship Konstantin Olshansky, landing ship Kirovohrad, minesweeper Chernihiv and minesweeper Cherkasy.

The Cherkasy was the last of the ships to have been overtaken following weeks of threats and ultimatums to surrender. It was finally chased down and overtaken by the Russian navy on March 25 after failing to slip past a blockade of two ships intentionally sunk by the Russians to trap it and other vessels in a narrow gulf, keeping them from escaping into the Black Sea.

Right. Well, you heard about the first ship sunk right here at BMEWS, the old Soviet cruiser Ochakov. What you didn’t hear, was that a short while later the Russkies sank another one, a little patrol boat or fishing vessel, to better seal off that opening. Video of that small ship blowing up and sinking, here. I can not verify that 3 ships were scuttled, not 2, but I have read that only once, in the Moscow Times. So, is Pravda, da o nyet?. Regardless ... all the ships were put down to block off Lake Donuslav.

And today’s “military rout” was the “battle” to capture the little minesweeper Cherkasy, which consisted of flash-bangs and smoke grenades from the Russians countered by water cannons from the Ukrainians. In the end, the Ukranians slagged the engines of their boat and gave up, after a good time was had by all, playing boats in the puddle with the big kid down the block.

So the 51 “wessels” [ I couldn’t resist playing ens. Chekov from Star Trek for a moment there ], were the same bunch that got bottled up 2 weeks ago. Apparently Cherkasy has been running around in the lake ever since, avoiding direct contact and thus capture.

During the operation there was an explosion on board the ship, which was in an inlet called Donuslav Lake, that apparently damaged its engines.

“The Cherkasy has been taken over and as the engine was damaged during the raid, it had to be towed away by a tug boat to the anchorage,” Ukrainian Navy spokesman Vladislav Seleznyov said.

There were no injuries and the crew remained on board until the morning, when they went ashore.

During the takeover, which began on Tuesday evening, the minesweeper used water cannon in an effort to repel the Russian forces who had approached the Cherkasy in speedboats. “Russians threw stun grenades and fired small arms, apparently in the air,” a Navy source said.

Russian forces have used similar tactics to seize ships and military bases from the last remaining Ukrainian troops in Crimea in recent days as part of Russia’s largely bloodless annexation of the region.

Kiev, which calls Russia’s acquisition of Crimea illegal, ordered its remaining forces to withdraw for their own safety on Monday, but not all troops have yet left the Black Sea peninsula and some ships have been prevented from leaving.

On Monday, the Cherkasy attempted without success to break to the open sea through a blockade at the entrance to the inlet. The Russian Navy blocked the route earlier this month by scuttling three hulks in the channel.

The Ukrainian Navy at large is now down to one 404 foot light cruiser, one light PT boat patrol craft, an LST style small landing craft, a barge, and 3 tiny scientific research diving vessels.

There have been doubts about which way the Sahaydachniy’s captain leans politically, but for now “the pride of the Ukrainian Navy” remains “at large”, even though you can locate the ship, docked, in Sevastapol on Bing.com/maps (44.614769, 33.568146). So, go figure.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 03/26/2014 at 12:00 PM   
Filed Under: • International •  
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calendar   Tuesday - March 25, 2014

Outstanding Stuff

I only wish ...

that I could write this well, first pass, off the cuff.  Link.

Sushi and Malaria. preventing information. Uig-ahs. Rice cakes. Love it. Love it love it love it.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 03/25/2014 at 09:44 AM   
Filed Under: • CHINA in the newsObama, The One •  
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Obama sends special ops force to where? uganda. hunt for war criminal. why’s it our concern?

Why bother about Barack?
By Peter McKay
Daily Mail

Cracking down on Russian oligarchs here who support President Vladimir Putin is a popular idea with many Londoners.
Not because of Crimea, though: there’s jealousy of their reputed great wealth, as well as suspicion about its provenance.

I don’t know anybody who believes that (a) hounding oligarchs will have any positive effect on Putin’s behaviour and (b) the Government will target any of them in a position to affect adversely our own business interests in Russia.

We are protesting about Crimea and warning about further Russian encroachments simply because America requires us to do so.
This is to help save Obama’s face after his ‘pivot’ to Asia, and away from Europe, encouraging Putin to believe his reclamation of Crimea would be unopposed.

Do we need to bother what Obama thinks any more? He’s so low in the water now that he’s predicting his party, the Democrats, will get ‘clobbered’ in the mid-term elections come November and might lose control of Congress.

If so, ‘the President might as well play golf every day’, says a Washington observer.
-30-

And speak of the devil ….

Found in the news is a blurb about Mr. O. sending some of our military to Uganda.
Why?
Cos apparently 5,000 Afrikan regional troops called a “task force”, are not enough.

Afraid not. They need Obama to send in military aircraft along with 150 Special Operations troops, and 100 Special Forces.  Now what the difference between em isn’t anything I’ve worked out. Since all are special ….  ?

Anyway … all of this to capture a very evil guy named Joseph Kony, who truly is a bad guy of the first order.  I think he’s wanted by an international court. So, are they and the Africans gonna reimburse Uncle Sam?  Don’t be silly. Of course they aren’t.
The biggest question I have frankly, is, since all those kind of folk pretty much look the same …. how will they know him when or even if they find him? 

I suppose the hunt can only be carried out in daylight hours.


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 03/25/2014 at 09:37 AM   
Filed Under: • International •  
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cameras catch abuse by those who are supposed to give aid and care

Just so ya know …. this wasn’t national health. Yikes … 3g a week?  So in American terms ….. $4,952.50.  A WEEK?  That’s what it says in the paper.  And they’re out on bail.  Makes one scared to death (no puns there) of ever ending up in care of any sort and unable to do anything.  At some point in time as you’ll read, some family members complained about care and were banned from the care center.  If this had been some out of pocket family on the NHS, I wonder if the evil scum who were finally brought to book would have been found out.  The case goes back to 2012, and so we must assume these two scum are only now answering to misdeeds.

Take a look at this sick s***.


Cameras capture two carers slapping brain-damaged patient and calling him a ‘dirty scummy boy’ while he groans in pain at £3,000-a-week Priory hospital

· Worried family hid secret surveillance cameras around the man’s room
· Rita Page and Lynette Crook were filmed in Bury, Greater Manchester
· Crook jabbed patient in torso and head with a pen whilst he was asleep
· Page slapped victim during struggle when she put pillow between legs
· Relatives launch petition for cameras in care homes for vulnerable people
· Page pleads guilty to two abuse charges and Crook pleads guilty to three
By Mark Duell

Two carers have been filmed slapping, jabbing and humiliating a brain-damaged patient as he lay groaning in bed at a £3,000-a-week Priory hospital.

Rita Page, 68, and Lynette Crook, 33, were caught smacking the young victim’s legs and swearing at him as they changed his bedding in Bury, Greater Manchester.

On the secretly-filmed tape, Page can be heard saying: ‘You won’t beat us, b******. There’s this very fine line between abuse and neglect.’
And Crook is heard saying: ‘Better not think about being sick on me lad. I don’t do sick, so stop it scummy lad. Don’t you dare be sick on me boy, don’t you dare - you dirty, scummy boy.’

The footage was filmed between August 28 and September 19 in 2012 by the patient’s family who were worried about his treatment at the privately-run hospital.

Believing their concerns had not been addressed by senior staff, they hid surveillance cameras around the man’s room at The Priory Highbank Centre specialist hospital for neurological treatment.
After a court case yesterday, the victim’s uncle said: ‘All institutions must be brought to justice and we wanted to make sure these two women were brought to account for what they did.
‘We were very concerned about the treatment our relative was getting and we made that many complaints that two family members got banned from the premises.
A spokesman for The Priory Highbank Centre said: ‘Everyone at the company deeply regrets the unacceptable actions of these two members of staff - both of whom had over 10 years’ service and previously unblemished records.
-30-

The photos here really don’t show too much except what these two trolls look like.

Astonishing: Crook (pictured) pleaded guilty to three charges relating to her jabbing the patient in the torso and head with a pen whilst he was asleep, using abusive language and slapping his leg while taking blood pressure.

Ten years service and good record?  What’s that mean?

This is the first time either had been caught on camera with proof.


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 03/25/2014 at 08:09 AM   
Filed Under: • Health-MedicineREALLY WORTHLESS and PUTRID PEOPLEUK •  
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calendar   Monday - March 24, 2014

not you usual bowl of eye candy

You won’t see her in any movies at your neighborhood theater.

image

And she is not a runway model

image

She is ...

Nina Shtanski

So what? Never heard of her.

Well as it happens, she is head of international relations for a tiny state you could make a Marx Bros. film with.  Although it might be a tad more serious come to think of it.

‘The Russian world is uniting’: Model minister of breakaway region urges Putin to make her country his next conquest in wake of Crimea takeover to alarm of Nato

· Nina Shtanski said: ‘The people’s wish for unity cannot be stopped’

· She is foreign minister of Russian-speaking region Transdniestria

· Shtanski is calling for a similar takeover of her breakaway republic

By Will Stewart

The glamorous foreign minister of a breakaway region of Moldova is calling on Vladimir Putin to make her country his next conquest in eastern Europe.

image

Few may have heard of Transdniestria, the unofficial and fictitious-sounding statelet whose head of international relations is 36-year-old Nina Shtanski.

However, senior Western figures are alarmed that following the annexation of Crimea it is step two in a Kremlin masterplan to redraw the frontiers of Europe.

This top diplomat in staunchly pro-Russian Transdniestria, who has a penchant for revealing black dresses, is gushing in her praise of Putin’s takeover of the Black Sea peninsula.

She openly invites him to make the same move in her landlocked territory of 509,000 people, wedged between strife-torn Ukraine and Moldova.

‘We are pleased to say that the outcome of the Crimean referendum almost fully coincides with the results of the Transdniestrian referendum of 17 September 2006, when over 97 per cent of voters chose independence and the prospect of voluntary unification with Russia,’ she said in a statement.

‘The obvious match of the will expressed by people in Crimea and Transdniestria demonstrates that the Russian World is uniting and the people’s wish for unity cannot be stopped.’

Russian troops are assembling on Ukraine’s eastern border with Russia. An annexation of Transdniestria would be a significant expansion of Russian territory.

A Russian force of 1,300 troops - currently on high alert - is already on the ground as ‘peacekeepers’ in the self-declared state - which boasts the hammer and sickle on its mainly red flag.

Last week there were reports of plain-clothed Russian FSB secret services agents flooding into breakaway territory.

Under international law, the unofficial country is part of Romanian-speaking Moldova, but after a war as the USSR broke up, Ms Shtanski and the local population have never accepted rule by Moldova.

They are now bent on being formally integrated as a region of the Kremlin, which has long subsidised this outpost.

The fear for Western military planners is that after taking Transdniestria, Putin could then seize an arc from there to Crimea, sealing off the southern Black Sea regions of Ukraine.

In the process, he would grab another old Russian jewel, the port city of Odessa, and cripple Kiev’s economy.

more at source


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 03/24/2014 at 01:58 PM   
Filed Under: • Eye-CandyInternational •  
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Occupy BK!!

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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 03/24/2014 at 10:13 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists •  
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MH370: Lost At Sea

Malaysia PM says satellite data indicates missing jetliner went down in Indian Ocean

What what what? Is there some new data that surfaced just since last night? Or is the search just getting too expensive?

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak says new analysis of satellite data in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 indicates that the plane went down in the southern Indian Ocean.

Razak said at a news conference Monday that he was briefed by the U.K. Air Accidents Investigation Branch about data calculations conducted by British satellite company Inmarsat.

“Based on their new analysis… MH370 flew along the southern corridor and that its last position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean west of Perth,” Razak said. “This is a remote location, far from any possible landing sites. It is therefore with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that, according to this new data, that flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean.”

Earlier Monday, Australian and Chinese search planes spotted more objects in the southern Indian Ocean that were identified as possible debris from the missing jet, which was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members and was due to fly from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing on the morning of March 8.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the crew of an Australian P3 Orion plane had located two objects in the search zone—the first grey or green and circular, the second orange and rectangular. The crew was able to photograph the objects, but it was unclear if they were part of an aircraft.
...
An Australian Navy supply ship, the HMAS Success, was on the scene Monday trying to locate and recover the objects. Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said the vessel could reach them by Monday night or Tuesday morning.

Separately, the crew aboard one of two Chinese IL-76 aircraft combing the search zone observed two large objects and several smaller ones spread across several square miles, Xinhua News Agency reported. At least one of the items—a white, square object—was captured on a camera aboard the plane, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said.
...
Despite the reported sightings of objects, there still has not been one confirmed sighting of debris from the missing plane.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 03/24/2014 at 09:58 AM   
Filed Under: • News-Briefs •  
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