Posts Tagged ‘P-51 Mustang’

Surviving World War II Fighters And Bombers

Sunday, November 12th, 2023

I didn’t intend to make this an All Mark Felton Weekend, but these came up in my feed, and I have friends as interested in aircraft as I am in tanks. So here are the number of surviving World War II fighters and bomber, and how many are still airworthy.

When we watched Twelve O’Clock High (which I highly recommend), we marveled that there were still enough B-17s around when they made the movie that you could crash some just to get it on film. Alas, that’s no longer the case…

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Posted in Military, video | 8 Comments »

LinkSwarm for February 28, 2020

Friday, February 28th, 2020

Welcome to a Friday LinkSwarm! There are five Saturdays in February this month, something that won’t happen again until 2048.

  • Giant water main break in Houston shuts down lots of schools and streets. The pipe, which is 8 feet across and supplies 40-50% of Houston’s water, burst during repairs. There’s a boil notice in effect for Houston for the next 24 hours. (Hat tip: Kemberlee Kaye.)
  • Why we need to secure the border to fight coronavirus: “U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehended 1,155 Chinese migrants this fiscal year after they illegally entered from Mexico, Canada, or coastal boundaries. More than 95 percent came over the southwestern border between October 1, 2019, and January 31, 2020.”
  • Kurt Schlichter covers the Gathering of the NeverTrumpaloos:

    Woke Rule No. 1 is that anything with “Principles” in its name is a grift. Now, something called “Principles First” – ugh – is trying to shoehorn into CPAC’s spotlight with its “National Summit on Principled Conservatism” to be held in D.C. on February 29th, and for the low, low, almost certainly lib tech tycoon-subsidized price of $10, you can attend this sexless Never Trump Freaknik.

    It’s an opportunity to get one-on-one with all your favorite relevancy-challenged B-list MSNBCNN guests for a full day of complaining about Donald Trump and having them show you on the doll exactly where Trump hurt them. Brace yourselves for impassioned pleas by impotent weirdos to vote for the crusty commie curmudgeon because Trump sends mean tweets, plus plenty of “Oh well I nevers” and “We’re better than thats” as Pearl Clutchfest 2020 gets well and truly lit. Just don’t be surprised if the marquee outside reads “Puppet Show and Never Trump.”

    From political consultants who are no longer consulted to writers who are no longer read, this is the Woodstock for conservatives who never actually conserved anything.

    Excited? Worried you might miss out? Calm down. There are plenty of tickets left. And I hear they’ve got loads of Doritos and Zima at the buffet, if you can squeeze in between the ravenous Bulwark staffers stuffing their talk holes.

    Who’s coming to this soiree? Well, just imagine the universe’s worst county fair dino-rock concert line-up, and this is its political equivalent. Mona Charen! Bill Kristol! David Frum! It’s basically the Swamp’s version of Bachman Turner Overdrive, Blue Öyster Cult, and Average White Band – except this band of totally white people are well below-average, though I’m sure we’ll get a fussy email reading “Excuse me, but we have a/an __________.” The closest thing to diversity I could detect in their line-up was the aptly named Heath Mayo – he’s diverse because he’s a younger kind of white person. I’m sure Mayo is ready to unleash the full benefit of his life experience upon the eager crowd – he can explain how learning about Reagan in high school in 2008 totally changed his life.

    Sadly, Ana Navarro isn’t on the bill, but she probably has important work to do completing Dr. Stephen Hawking’s string theory research. And there’s no sign of Jennifer Rubin, probably because the event occurs during the hours of daylight.

  • Former Texas state Senator Don Huffines has some sobering behind-the-scenes look at Texas government.
    • Abolished an obscure quasi-educational agency: “A rats nest of crooks.”
    • “We uncovered the biggest political corruption scandal in the history of the state of Texas.”
    • “We discovered these people were stealing a lot of money.”
    • “Over 3000 employees.”
    • At least 5 employees are currently in prison, with more potentially coming soon.
    • “I didn’t get a lot of help in Austin.”
    • “I didn’t get any support of the Governor.”
    • “I got nothing but opposition from the speaker of the house.”
    • The Lt. Governor wasn’t particularly helpful, but didn’t actively work against him either.
  • Trump campaign to open storefronts in black neighborhoods in swing states.
  • China lases U.S. Navy plane in international waters.
  • The “Green New Deal” “would cost a typical household a minimum of $74,287 in the first year of implementation…for the subsequent four years, the average annual costs per household for 10 of the 11 states is $47,755, decreasing to $40,706 for ever after.” (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
  • Young Turks founder fights unionization. “In the staff meeting, the network’s co-founder and influential host, Cenk Uygur, urged employees not to do so, arguing that a union does not belong at a small, independent outlet like TYT, according to two workers who were present. He said if there had been a union at the network it would not have grown the way it has.” See, it’s always different when they do it…
  • Bad: Zyxel announced security bug in their NAS products. Worse: It was also in their firewall products.
  • There’s a California bill that would require porn stars to get a license. Inspector: “Yeah, I’m going to need to see your license.” Porn star (opens blouse): How about these licenses?” (Bowchickawowow…)
  • Hosni Mubarak dead at age 91. Of all the strongmen who have ruled Egypt, Mubarak falls in about the middle; less brutal than Morsi or Nasser, but more corrupt than Sadat or Sisi. His real downfall came from trying to install his son as a dynastic successor, at which point the army let the popular revolt oust him, leading eventually to the Muslim Brotherhood’s brief reign. He kept the peace with Israel, was a fairly reliable US ally for the region, and suppressed the Muslim Brotherhood (obviously not well enough).
  • Today’s elite facepalm: “Immigration to America is down. Wages are up. Are the two related?” Hey, you just might be on to something with that radical ‘supply and demand’ theory there, Einstein… (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
  • With Harvey Weinstein’s rape conviction, let’s remember what a huge Democratic Party donor he is. Also: “He faces an L.A. criminal trial soon, where 90 women have filed complaints against him, including well-known actresses Gwyneth Paltrow, Uma Thurman, and Salma Hayek.”
  • How a treasure trove of aviation drawings was saved from destruction thanks to a single engineer, including those for the P-51 and the B-25.
  • Scientist: Here’s a journal article. Editor: Think you could provide the raw data? Scientist: (Hissses, holds up arm to shield the crucifix from it’s sight, withdraws paper.)
  • The garbage world of corporatespeak.
  • “Recently Listed $1.5 Million Home In San Francisco Just Soggy Cardboard Box Full Of Used Needles.”

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    Posted in Border Control, Democrats, Republicans, Texas, unions | No Comments »

    President Trump’s Home Run Derby

    Wednesday, February 5th, 2020

    The reviews are in for President Donald Trump’s 2020 State of the Union address. Observers seem to think he put on a home run clinic:

    Erickson was formerly #NeverTrump.

    There were many touching moments. Like the runiting of a military family following the husband’s fourth overseas deployment:

    One especially powerful moment: President Trump bestowing the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Rush Limbaugh, who recently announced that he has advanced lung cancer:

    Of course, Democrats have long hated Limbaugh for break their MSM monopoly on news.

    Meanwhile, Democrats seemed unwilling to celebrate anything. Young black girl winning a scholarship? They’re not standing for that.

    President Trump’s recognition of a Tuskegee Airman? Not standing.

    I mean, why would you want to celebrate a 100-year old black airman just promoted to Brigadier General who flew a P-51 Mustang in World War II and who shot down actual Nazis, not the pretend kind that live only in the mind’s of leftists?

    Jesus Freaking Christ.

    The Qassem Suleimani killing? They didn’t stand for that, either.

    Heh:

    The topper? Nancy Pelosi ripped up a copy of President Trump’s speech at the end:

    Democrats have lived so long in the poisonous #resistance reality bubble that they have no idea how badly their petty stunts play in the rest of the country.

    I suspect they’re going to find out in November, good and hard.

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    Posted in Democrats, Military, Republicans | No Comments »