Wednesdays With Jimmy

A little nostalgia this week...

Motivation Monday

A Salute To Mothers

This is very good.

Consequences of Incompetence

I thought this was spot on when I saw it 8 months ago (or as the White House likes to say, "it was a long time ago") and I think it is even more right as we learn what really happened...

Mother's Day 2013

This Might Just Work

Peeling The Onion

Or is it garlic.  Whatever...it still stinks.  The whole Benghazi mess continues.  Of course, some media are ignoring it or giving it back page play.  You know who they are.  I've had quite a few posts on this issue.  You can get tot the links here if you're interested.  One of the best takes I've seen was Peggy Noonan's piece in the WSJ.  You can read it here.  I think her points are spot on.  Especially this...

"The Obama White House sees every event as a political event. Really, every event, even an attack on a consulate and the killing of an ambassador."

"Because of that, it could not tolerate the idea that the armed assault on the Benghazi consulate was a premeditated act of Islamist terrorism. That would carry a whole world of unhappy political implications, and demand certain actions. And the American presidential election was only eight weeks away. They wanted this problem to go away, or at least to bleed the meaning from it.   Because the White House could not tolerate the idea of Benghazi as a planned and deliberate terrorist assault, it had to be made into something else. So they said it was a spontaneous street demonstration over an anti-Muhammad YouTube video made by a nutty California con man. After all, that had happened earlier in the day, in Cairo. It sounded plausible. And maybe they believed it at first. Maybe they wanted to believe it. But the message was out: Provocative video plus primitive street Arabs equals sparky explosion. Not our fault. Blame the producer! Who was promptly jailed." 

"From the day of the attack until this week, the White House spin was too clever by half. In the weeks and months after the attack White House spokesmen said they were investigating the story, an internal review was under way. When the story blew open again, last week, they said it was too far in the past: "Benghazi happened a long time ago." Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, really said that.  Think of that. They can't give answers when the story's fresh because it just happened, they're looking into it. Eight months later they don't have anything to say because it all happened so long ago.  Think of how low your opinion of the American people has to be to think you can get away, forever, with that." 

This isn't going away.  The worst thing is the contempt that this crowd has for the rest of us.  Hillary knew this was an act of terrorism.  She knew our guys were left out to dry.  She knew we didn't do a thing to save their lives.  And then...and then she went and welcomed the caskets home.  She went out and decried the video that was supposedly to blame.  She strongly pushed back when testifying before Congress on cause and effect..."what does it matter".  And she wants to be President.  

Cool Pic

Uncomfortable Truth

Something to think about as you go into your casual and carefree weekend...

Friday Funnies

I could've written this...which probably puts me in the dog house!

Marine One

As a Naval Aviator I've got about 4000 flight hours, about half of which were logged in the venerable  SH-3 Sea King helicopter.  It's the same helo that the President flies in and is called Marine One when he is aboard.  My version was pretty utilitarian inside...pretty stark.  Lots of bare metal and mesh seating.  Hydraulic lines, oil lines, electric cables...all exposed.  I've always wondered what inside of Marine One looks like and stumbled on this photo.  Pretty nice.

"It Was A Long Time Ago"...

You know what I'm talking about...Benghazi.  I started posting about this despicable affair soon after it happened.  You can read about it here, here, here, here, and here.  Most of the reputable news outlets are covering it.  As you would expect, Fox News heavily, MSNBC not so much.  But in any case you can get facts and opinions from lots of news sources, so I'll not attempt a summary here.

But...I continue to believe that many, many people in our government dropped the ball.  In my view here are the worst things (there are others) about this whole sordid affair:

1. My personal opinion is that the worst were the State Department bureaucrats who denied requests for support in the lead-up to the attack on Sep 11, 2012.  It is just beyond belief to me that some person sitting in a desk in Washington, DC would turn their backs on our diplomats serving on the other side of the world, especially in a place like Libya.
2. I don't know what good it would've done (and nobody can know) but our military could've done something.  Fighters on top?  Start moving forces?  Contingency forces somewhere close?  Navy assets to lob a few rounds?  I don't know.  But something, anything could've been tried.  The Combatant Commander dropped the ball.  Who specifically...we'll probably never know.
3. The cover-up afterward.  Susan Rice proved to be a useful idiot.  And they almost got away with it.  But make no mistake...the coverup was deliberate and specific.  No one will take the fall, but there was a cover-up.  Some are lamenting that this will impact Hillary's 2016 chances.  I don't think so.  Americans are forgiving and pretty ignorant about these things.  Most don't care.  And many, many won't believe it.
4. This might be the worst electoral deflection I've ever seen.  Obama and his thugs clearly needed to not let the American people know that the Al Qaida was still a threat after he single-handedly killed OBL.  The facade had to remain.  Anything to win.  And he did.  And now only about 6 months after the election he's is proving to be an even worse nightmare than we thought.

So the hearings have brought out a lot of info.  There will likely be more.  There are some pretty good comments about root causes here if you're interested.

There will be more terrible things that come out.  But...I'm just not sure anyone really cares...

Wednesdays With Jimmy

If you're a Parrothead, you knew that sooner or later this song would be featured.  This is the Hawaiian version...  Not for everyone, but I bet it brings a smile to your face...

Motivation Monday

Above All Else

Men...Women...Differences

This is pretty funny...just sayin...

The Husband Store

A brand new store has just opened in New York City that sells Husbands.
When women go to choose a husband, they have to follow the instructions 
at the entrance:

You may visit this store ONLY ONCE! There are 6 floors and the value of
the products increase as you ascend the flights. You may choose any item
from a particular floor, or may choose to go up to the next floor, but you
CANNOT go back down except to exit the building.

So, a woman goes to the Husband Store to find a husband.
The 1st floor sign on the door reads:
Floor 1: These men have jobs.
The 2nd floor sign reads:
Floor 2: These men have Jobs and Love Kids.
The 3rd floor sign reads:
Floor 3: These men have Jobs, Love Kids and are extremely good looking.
“Wow,” she thinks, but feels compelled to keep going.
She goes to the 4th floor and the sign reads:
Floor 4: These men Have Jobs, Love Kids, are Drop-dead Good Looking
and help with Housework.
“Oh, mercy me!” she exclaims, “I can hardly stand it!”
Still, she goes to the 5th floor and sign reads:
Floor 5: These men Have Jobs, Love Kids, are Drop-dead Gorgeous, 
help with Housework and Have a Strong Romantic Streak.
She is so tempted to stay, but she goes to the 6th floor and the sign reads:
Floor 6: You are visitor 31,456,012 to this floor.
There are no men on this floor.
This floor exists solely as proof that women are impossible to please.
Thank you for shopping at the Husband Store.

To avoid gender bias charges, the store’s owner opens a New Wives 
store just across the street.
The 1st first floor has wives that love sex.
The 2nd floor has wives that love sex and have money.
The 3rd,4th, 5th and 6th floors have never been visited.

Cool Pic

This must have been sort of a wild ride...

Unquestionable Devotion To Duty

A friend sent this to me.  I'm a HUGE fan of telling the stories of extraordinary actions taken by ordinary people.  To me this is the epitome of such a story.  In this day and age we have incredibly brave, well trained, dedicated, loyal, smart, lethal folks ready to go in harms way for us.  But an increasing number are Special Operators who know what they are getting into.

Doolittle's Raiders were, for the most part, ordinary men who found themselves at an extraordinary moment in history.  They stepped up!  Simple as that.  They did what had to be done.  One day they were ordinary citizens.  The next they were in a B-25 on the flight deck of the USS Hornet getting ready to takeoff on a one way trip to Tokyo.  Think about that...and they flew into history!  They changed the course of the war.  And this was 4 months after Pearl Harbor.  Ordinary men...doing extraordinary things...

A final toast for the Doolittle Raiders

It's the cup of brandy that no one wants to drink.

 

On Tuesday, in Fort Walton Beach , Florida , the surviving Doolittle Raiders will gather publicly for the last time.

They once were among the most universally admired and revered men in the United States . There were 80 of the Raiders in April 1942, when they carried out one of the most courageous and heart-stirring military operations in this nation's history. The mere mention of their unit's name, in those years, would bring tears to the eyes of grateful Americans.

 

Now only four survive.

After Japan 's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, with the United States reeling and wounded, something dramatic was needed to turn the war effort around.

Even though there were no friendly airfields close enough to Japan for the United States to launch a retaliation, a daring plan was devised. Sixteen B-25s were modified so that they could take off from the deck of an aircraft carrier. This had never before been tried -- sending such big, heavy bombers from a carrier.

 

The 16 five-man crews, under the command of Lt. Col. James Doolittle, who himself flew the lead plane off the USS Hornet, knew that they would not be able to return to the carrier. They would have to hit Japan and then hope to make it to China for a safe landing.

But on the day of the raid, the Japanese military caught wind of the plan. The Raiders were told that they would have to take off from much farther out in the Pacific Ocean than they had counted on. They were told that because of this they would not have enough fuel to make it to safety.

 

And those men went anyway.

They bombed Tokyo , and then flew as far as they could. Four planes crash-landed; 11 more crews bailed out, and three of the Raiders died. Eight more were captured; three were executed. Another died of starvation in a Japanese prison camp. One crew made it to Russia .

 

The Doolittle Raid sent a message from the United States to its enemies, and to the rest of the world:

We will fight.

And, no matter what it takes, we will win.

 

Of the 80 Raiders, 62 survived the war. They were celebrated as national heroes, models of bravery. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer produced a motion picture based on the raid; "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo," starring Spencer Tracy and Van Johnson, was a patriotic and emotional box-office hit, and the phrase became part of the national lexicon. In the movie-theater previews for the film, MGM proclaimed that it was presenting the story "with supreme pride."

 

Beginning in 1946, the surviving Raiders have held a reunion each April, to commemorate the mission. The reunion is in a different city each year. In 1959, the city of Tucson , Arizona , as a gesture of respect and gratitude, presented the Doolittle Raiders with a set of 80 silver goblets. Each goblet was engraved with the name of a Raider.

Every year, a wooden display case bearing all 80 goblets is transported to the reunion city. Each time a Raider passes away, his goblet is turned upside down in the case at the next reunion, as his old friends bear solemn witness.

 

Also in the wooden case is a bottle of 1896 Hennessy Very Special cognac. The year is not happenstance: 1896 was when Jimmy Doolittle was born.

There has always been a plan: When there are only two surviving Raiders, they would open the bottle, at last drink from it, and toast their comrades who preceded them in death.

 

As 2013 began, there were five living Raiders; then, in February, Tom Griffin passed away at age 96.

What a man he was. After bailing out of his plane over a mountainous Chinese forest after the Tokyo raid, he became ill with malaria, and almost died. When he recovered, he was sent to Europe to fly more combat missions. He was shot down, captured, and spent 22 months in a German prisoner of war camp.

 

The selflessness of these men, the sheer guts ... there was a passage in the Cincinnati Enquirer obituary for Mr. Griffin that, on the surface, had nothing to do with the war, but that emblematizes the depth of his sense of duty and devotion:

"When his wife became ill and needed to go into a nursing home, he visited her every day. He walked from his house to the nursing home, fed his wife and at the end of the day brought home her clothes. At night, he washed and ironed her clothes. Then he walked them up to her room the next morning. He did that for three years until her death in 2005."

 

So now, out of the original 80, only four Raiders remain: Dick Cole (Doolittle's co-pilot on the Tokyo raid), Robert Hite, Edward Saylor and David Thatcher. All are in their 90s. They have decided that there are too few of them for the public reunions to continue.

 

The events in Fort Walton Beach this week will mark the end. It has come full circle; Florida 's nearby Eglin Field was where the Raiders trained in secrecy for the Tokyo mission.

The town is planning to do all it can to honor the men: a six-day celebration of their valor, including luncheons, a dinner and a parade.

 

Do the men ever wonder if those of us for whom they helped save the country have tended to it in a way that is worthy of their sacrifice? They don't talk about that, at least not around other people. But if you find yourself near Fort Walton Beach this week, and if you should encounter any of the Raiders, you might want to offer them a word of thanks. I can tell you from firsthand observation that they appreciate hearing that they are remembered.

 

The men have decided that after this final public reunion they will wait until a later date -- some time this year -- to get together once more, informally and in absolute privacy. That is when they will open the bottle of brandy. The years are flowing by too swiftly now; they are not going to wait until there are only two of them.

 

They will fill the four remaining upturned goblets.

And raise them in a toast to those who are gone.

Friday Funnies

I'm thinking I'll probably get in trouble for this one.  But...oh well.

And I'm not really sure what the Q is in LGBTQ is...

Wednesdays With Jimmy

Here we go again.  I'm sure some are wondering why I haven't posted the Anthem.  So here you go...