Are we seeing the beginnings here of an unholy trinity of Mackey, Kavanaugh, and Antoine Mitchell?

To: Gary Busey, Billy Zane
From: Sgt Mom
Re: Your Next Career Move

1. I assume, of course, that you will still have one in movies catering to mainstream American audiences. You know, America… that country of which you are both ostensibly citizens? The one where a decreasing number of people with disposable income and an inclination to be amused by well-crafted entertainment at the multiplex are in fact declining to report as commanded by the lords of the entertainment industry to be sliced, diced, insulted and lectured on the most recent cause du jour? Yeah, that country. Feel free, though, to cast your lot in with whoever’s movie industry floats your personal boat… this place is still, although you might get some argument among the entertainment wheelers and dealers, a free country.

2. So, guys, how do you feel, after having participated with apparent glee, in what looks like (from this admittedly distant perspective) the 21st Century’s version of that hateful Third Reich propaganda crap-fest “The Eternal Jew”? Full of that nice warm glow that comes of having stuck it to “the man”, I presume. How very daring of you. I do hope you were well paid, as that paycheck might have to last for a while.

3. So, as working actors…
(“Blondie, sweetie, have we ever seen a movie starring either one of these goofs?”
“Billy Zane was the baddie on “Titanic, Mom.”
“I think he was in “Memphis Belle, too. Maybe that’s where he got to be a pacifist.”
“And Gary Busey… who’s he?”
“I think he played Buddy Holly, ages ago… you do know who Buddy Holly is….?.”
“S**t, Mom, you were a DJ, you trained me well… he was killed with Richie Valens… wasn’t he in Point Break, with Keanau Reeves? Oh-oh-oh-oh… Billy Zane was the the “Phantom”… he wore lavender spandex, for Ch****t sake!”)….
It looks like we shall in future be seeing rather less of you two than before… one way or the other— either the free markets’ choice or ours, as consumers.

4. I would also venture a guess, that any future American big-screen production that you have a major role in… will probably not show in an AAFES theater, not once word about this little movie escapade gets around. It’s just a guess, mind you, but I do have an instinct about these things. Military members have a long, long memory about movie actors who either mouth off about the military, or play very prominent roles in movies which defame the military. I know lots of people who have been boycotting Jane Fonda for decades. Of course, that duty was made less onerous when she barely made any movies for decades— interesting coincidence, don’t you think?

Sincerely,
Sgt Mom.

PS: Please don’t do any interviews in which you lament the unflattering way in which Americans in general and the American military in particularly, are seen by foreigners… seeing that you just now, and a couple of decades of Hollywood efforts before you have contributed so much to that state of affairs. We owe so much to you all, for generally portraying Americans as brutal, racist, crude, uncultured, ignorant and generally benighted. Thanks for all your sterling service in that regard.

PPSS: Rremember, make that paycheck last!

I am currently watching ST:TNG:A Matter of Time. And I am wondering, when was the “Temporal Prime Directive” introduced into the Star Trek mythos?

Over at Cox and Forkum.

Today, on FNC’s Special Report with Brit Hume, they corrected an earlier story, which claimed Oklahoma was a landlocked state, with no interest in seaports. They said, “Oklahoma is connected to the Gulf of Mexico via Catoosa.” *Sigh* I guess they don’t listen to Merle Haggard in New York.

I’ve been in the dentist’s chair a lot in the past month or so and Thursday they “extracted” (climbed up on my head and RIPPED) a tooth out of my head. Had a relatively good weekend and then this morning they “removed the temporary bridge” (used pliars to crush, break and pinch pieces of acrylic) from my mouth.

The drugs have taken the edge off but at the same time, they tend to bend the line between what I find funny and what the rest of the world may find funny. Of course, I bend that line all the time, but I’d rather do it when it’s my own sense of humor being naturally skewed vs having a vicodin derivitive “helping” me out.

For instance, when I heard that Saddam had ended his hunger strike, my first thought was, “Does that mean he’s back to eating Kurds and whey?”

See…that kills me, but I’m guessing the rest of you are thinking, “Okayyyyyyy, Tim needs a nap.”

So I’ll take one.

This from guest-blogger Gene Sisk at Volokh::

The enduring legal myth is that members of minority religious groups face a decidedly uphill battle in securing accommodation for unconventional religious practices, expression, or values from the courts. According to the conventional wisdom, traditional Christian believers may anticipate a more hospitable welcome from the judiciary when asserting claims of conscience or religious liberty. However based upon our empirical study of religious liberty decisions in the federal courts, the proposition that minority religions are less successful with their claims was found to be without support, at least in the modern era and in the lower federal courts. In fact, counter to popular belief, adherents to traditionalist Christian faiths, notably Roman Catholics and Baptists, appear to be the ones that today enter the courthouse doors at a disadvantage.

For those concerned with religion and the courts, the rest of this, and Gene’s whole series, are a must read.

As I commented at Volokh: My initial reaction is that those of nominally “Christian” faiths are more a target currently, because the practices of other religions, which the secular state have found abhorrent, have already been adequately circumscribed by the courts.

But I find this most interesting, and will follow these posts “religiously”.

U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Christina D. Ponte

Our own Kevin Connors with: “That the other members of his squad called him “Dogface” was particularly apt, as he really liked having a cold nose.”

The man after my own…mind award goes to Charles Austin: “Beans again last night, eh Cap’n?”

Check in on Friday for another.

The searchers found it, the ghost ship, when they were looking for something else; it lay, broken but deceptively complete, draped across the crest of a dune, like a seabird on the flat swells of a calm sea. But this metal bird had landed in a desolate and frozen sand sea, an aeronautical Mary Celeste, all of itself, and remained eerily preserved. Baked in the desert sun, wheels-up, pancake-landed and broken in half aft of the wings and entirely empty of its’ crew… but still, their gear, and extra ammunition was perfectly stowed, the guns functional… the radio worked, so did the compass and at least one of the engines. There was still-edible emergency rations, drinkable water, even a thermos of still-potable coffee… everything as it had been left.

The ghost ship fell into the abyss in April, 1943… not over water, as the crew had clearly expected, when they were at long last found and their epic of endurance reconstructed… how long did that agony last? At least a week, perhaps as long as a fortnight; there is no knowing for sure: we can only guess, starting from a scratch diary left by one who survived for a little while:

Sunday, Apr. 4, 1943
Naples–28 places–things pretty well mixed up–got lost returning, out of gas, jumped, landed in desert at 2:00 in morning. no one badly hurt, cant find John, all others present.
Monday 5
Start walking N.W., still no John. a few rations, 1/2 canteen of water, 1 cap full per day. Sun fairly warm. Good breeze from N.W. Nite very cold. no sleep. Rested & walked.
Tuesday 6
Rested at 11:30, sun very warm. no breeze, spent P.M. in hell, no planes, etc. rested until 5:00 P.M. Walked & rested all nite. 15 min on, 5 off.
Wednesday, Apr. 7, 1943
Same routine, everyone getting weak, cant get very far, prayers all the time, again P.M. very warm, hell. Can’t sleep. everyone sore from ground.
Thursday 8
Hit Sand Dunes, very miserable, good wind but continuous blowing of sand, every[one] now very weak, thought Sam & Moore were all done. La Motte eyes are gone, everyone else’s eyes are bad. Still going N.W.
Friday 9
Shelly [sic], Rip, Moore separate & try to go for help, rest of us all very weak, eyes bad, not any travel, all want to die. still very little water. nites are about 35, good n wind, no shelter, 1 parachute left.
Saturday, Apr. 10, 1943
Still having prayer meetings for help. No sign of anything, a couple of birds; good wind from N. –Really weak now, cant walk. pains all over, still all want to die. Nites very cold. no sleep.
Sunday 11
Still waiting for help, still praying. eyes bad, lost all our wgt. aching all over, could make it if we had water; just enough left to put our tongues to, have hope for help very soon, no rest, still same place.
Monday 12
No help yet, very cold nite.

The bodies of five of the crew were found, by a search party who came for them sixteen years later, 85 miles north of where they had assembled in the desert, after bailing out of their lady, their sweet and lovely lady. They were nearly 400 miles into the North Africal desert, about 400 miles farther south of where they appeared to think the were… not over the Med, or along the shoreline someplace, but deep into the desert, nearly trackless, absolutely waterless, hundreds of miles off from where anyone was expected to come.

Three of the strongest continued walking north: one was found 21 miles farther northwest, another an astounding 26 miles farther north of that. (The third was never found, although it was he who might have been found and buried in anonymity by a British unit on a long-range desert patrol exercise late in the 1940ies or early 1950ies) Airmen put such trust in their machines, such deep and abiding trust. An airman told me once, they were always told to jump when it seemed things had gone past a certain point, the point when it would seem the sensible thing to do… but so often, when it came to that point, so many of them just couldn’t do it. And there so many stories of wickedly skillful pilots, who stuck with their lady, their precious airship, and brought all home safely, against the odds, to the praise and honor of all. And yet… airplanes are things, they can and are replaced… pilots and aircrew are unique. People are unique, even the most prosaic of us might be yet, if called upon, to perform miracles of heroism, of strength and endurance… even though no one sees except our fellows, and no one knows of it, until brought to it by chance, a decade and a half later.

Oh sweet and lovely,
Lady be good,
Oh lady be good to me.
I am so awf’lly misunderstood,
So lady be good, to me.
Oh, please have some pity
I’m all alone in this big city.
I tell you i’m just a lonesome babe in the wood,
So lady be good….to me.

I don’t know what brought me to think of this, except that there are places that are supposed to be haunted, and I was thinking of these when I was on my daily walk. There are some relics of this incident in the Air Force Museum at Wright Patterson AFB…and according to some accounts, that section of the museum is particularly… interesting at night. There was also a haunting ( and I use that phrase knowingly) movie called “Sole Survivor”, made in the late 1960ies, and based on this incident, which used to show around Halloween on one of the local LA TV channels; it visualized the crew, playing endless rounds of baseball in the desert, by their wrecked ship… waiting for someone to come for them.

The advent of spring brings with it the serious start of auction season. I only went to one or two auctions prior to taking up residence in the land of pigs, corn and soy beans, so I can’t speak much in the way of what they are like elsewhere. I suspect that because they are, in a way, a passion play that tends to be governed by human nature, they are pretty much the same no matter where you go. I’m not talking about the artsy fartsy auctions like Christi’s, or the charity type auctions where the only purpose is to provide a social means of funding something or another. I mean the kind of auctions where the auctioneers wear cowboy hats and the bidders are there for blood sport.

Real Wife and I traded a small two-bedroom bungalow for a large Victorian soon after our wedding and upon learning of the upcoming arrival of Red Haired Girl. As a consequence we needed lots of furniture. Keeping with the architecture of the house, we decided to hit the auction circuit and decorate the house with antiques. It seemed to us that if we bought carefully, we could obtain many pieces for prices equivalent to those of new ones, and that appreciation rather than depreciation would be the rule. Certain things needed to be new – Victorians were alien to the concept of a queen bed or comfortable living room furniture. So we bought some new and went auctioning for the rest.
(more…)

I don’t feel any better about finding out that British companies are currently running our ports. I kind of like the idea that an American company would run American ports.

I know, it’s so 1970s of me, but that’s how I feel.

All of the celebrity culture folks I’ve heard to date have harped upon this “rift” that has developed “between these two former friends.” Well, I think these two media savvy New Yorkers know how to play the “any press is good press” game just as well as they do in Washington or Hollywood.

What do you want to bet that they won’t be kicking back together in a penthouse at One Central Park West in a week’s time, beatin’ back 40 year old Laphroaig, and laughing at the sheeple?

I recently learned that Joe Comer worked in the same USAF career field as I did (328X1), which led to an exchange of emails comparing notes on the pros and cons of working on various different aircraft types, as well as different duty stations. I would like to have served with him, and I share Aproud Veteran’s sentiments about a man whom I’ve never met in the real world. Joe, when you arrive at your final resting place, look up another old ham operator, WA2GRQ – you’ll likely find him on the 2 or 6 meter band. You and my dad will really hit it off.

To Nurse Jenny and Joe’s other loved ones, my thoughts and prayers are with you.

Radar

Yesterday, Kevin posted the news he received from Nurse Jenny about our own Joe Comer (herkybirdman). I spent the rest of my evening thinking about Joe, and emailing friends asking them to pray for him and his family. I also posted about him on my personal blog, so that the 2-3 readers I have there can also be praying for him.

I’d like to share those thoughts with you, because Joe and Jenny are still on my mind and heart, and talking is one of my ways of dealing with my emotions.

**************
Joe Comer is a retired AF member, vietnam vet, and devout Christian. He’s also a ham radio operator, and spent a few weeks in MS last summer helping with the aftermath of Katrina. He loves to fly (has his own small plane), and loves to share his thoughts on the internet. That’s how I met him. He was a regular contributor to a milblog I’m part of, The Daily Brief . He also had his own blog at http://patriotflyer.blogspot.com/

It was thanks to a post on TDB that I learned of his current precarious status. My friend Joe had a massive stroke, and is in hospice care. My immediate response was tears, and a prayer for his family.

For all that he’s a crusty old country boy, Joe has a heart of gold, and one of the sweetest emails I’ve ever gotten in my life was from him last spring/summer, where he told me that he and his wife (Nurse Jenny, as he calls her online) considered me to be another daughter, even though we’d never met.

When I was driving back from FL last sept, we intended to meet, but he was enroute to Atlanta to buy more ham radio equipment the day I passed within 20 miles of his home, and we just never connected.

And now he’s in hospice, which means he’s just waiting to hear those magic words: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” and I find that everytime I think about it, I’m crying for the loss of a man I’ve never met, that I’ve only known as words on a computer screen, but who somehow was able to send compassion and caring across the void we call cyberspace, and touch another person’s heart.

Godspeed, Joe. Vaya con Dios.

Please link your heart with mine, and say a prayer for Joe and his family, and his cyberfriends. Thanks.

*****

My heart hurts, and my eyes keep leaking. I was gonna run down to Vidalia this spring, and go to the airshow with Joe & Nurse Jenny. And now that won’t happen.

What amazes me is how deeply I’m touched by the circumstances of someone I barely know, and have never met in real life.

I trust that God is comforting his family, and preparing them for his homecoming. I know that Joe’s not worried about where he’ll wind up, or who he’ll be visiting for the next gazillion years or so. Maybe he’ll find out what it’s like to fly without being strapped to an airplane - I’m sure he’d like that.

And I can smile at the picture of him gliding through the air, arms outstretched like Superman, but still, my heart hurts.

This Ceradyne press release via Reuters:

COSTA MESA, Calif.–(Business Wire)–Jan. 18, 2006– Ceradyne, Inc. (Company) (Nasdaq:CRDN) Chief Executive Officer Joel Moskowitz appears on KOCE in an interview on “Dialogue with Jim Doti,” which aired Tuesday, January 17, and is scheduled to air again at 10 a.m. PST on Sunday, January 22, on KOCE.

During the 30-minute interview, Moskowitz discusses his early days as a ceramic engineer, Ceradyne’s beginnings as a supplier of military helicopter armor, factors contributing to the Company’s growth and competitive position, and his outlook for 2006 and longer-term. Ceradyne develops, manufactures, and markets advanced technical ceramic products and components for defense, industrial, automotive/diesel, and commercial applications. Additional information about the Company can be found at www.ceradyne.com.

Except for the historical information contained therein, the interview contains forward-looking statements regarding future events and the future performance of Ceradyne that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Words such as “anticipates,” “believes,” “plans,” “expects,” “intends,” “future,” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties are described in the Company’s supplemental prospectuses, dated December 13, 2005, as filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and the documents included or incorporated by reference therein.

Ceradyne, Inc.
Joel Moskowitz, 714-549-0421, Ext. 8261
or
Silverman Heller Associates
Dan Matsui/Gene Heller, 310-208-2550

This should be a very interesting show for tech-heads. But I don’t know if Dialogue with Jim Doti airs on your local PBS station. I’ll try to find a link to a podcast.

I was going to review my memories of him but you’ve got your own.

This from Reuters:

Busher, Iran - Iran has reached a “basic” agreement with Russia on a joint venture to enrich uranium and will continue talks in coming days, Iran’s nuclear chief Gholamreza Aghazadeh said on Sunday.

My other sources believe the enrichment will be performed, at least partially, by Iranian personnel, but in Russian facilities. My only opinion, at this point, is: trust, but verify.

Glenn Reynolds will be on C-SPAN’s Q & A, tonight at 8pm EST. It repeats at 11 and 6am tomorrow.

I just awoke to the voice of Democratic Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer (who will be on CBS’ 60 Minutes tonight) on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal. He was from a flyover state, he was wearing a bolo tie, but he sounded for all the world like a San Francisco barking moonbat. I’ll have to catch the podcast, when it’s up on their website later, to get the details. But it included such gems a (to paraphrase): “and we will capture the carbon dioxide from burning coal-diesel, and pump it back into the ground.” Right,,, (assuming CO₂ emissions are even a problem in the first place) we’re going to tie balloons to the tailpipes of all the cars. And: “back in the ’70s, when I was a kid, Saudi Arabia was dependent upon the US for wheat. And I thought, “ok - a bushel of wheat for a barrel of oil. But, since then, after a major program by the Saudi government, Saudi Arabia is self-sufficient in wheat. We should be able to do the same with fuel.” The truth is, Saudi is a net importer of food products (about 1,150 USD per capita annually vs. about 900 USD for US net oil imports). Further, they are only “self-sufficient” in wheat by virtue of massive government subsidies, and at the cost of critical aquifer depletion.

And, to a person, every caller was saying, “oh, this is sooo enlightening.” It’s a nation of sheeple.

And what’s really frightening is that this inveterate bullshiter might be running for President.

When this famous segregated country club decided to make room for this Hollywood star, one of its members is noted as saying, “can’t we at least pick one who looks like a gentile?”

Of course, feeding the quote into Google will likely give you the answer straight away. But please give the other folks a sporting chance. Oh, and hint #1 is in the question itself.

Congratz (again) to reader Bill. (see comments)

Danny Thomas, you might recall, was a Lebanese Catholic.