Good Bye Dubya

Its been fun making fun of you for the last 8 years. Please, take your time in the next three months moving your stuff out of the Oval Office and the White House. I hope you and Dick have some good times huntin' quail. (don't get shot)

Mr. Bush, if you take anything out of your experience failure in the White House, it is this: Be honest. If you make a mistake, admit it. If you said something wrong, own up and apologize. The American people will hate you more for lying.

Oh and, one last parting shot, Mr. Bush:



"If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure" George Bush

J Kuhl Signing Off

Cowart and Shlesselman are Cowards

On Nov. 5, 2008, it is very likely that President Obama will be America's first black president. And there has already been an assassination plot on the man.

Two white supremacists, unsurprisingly from rural Tennessee and unsurprisingly high school drop-outs (I hate stereotypes, but they originate from somewhere), planned to kill 102 black Americans and Obama or die trying (88 shot, 14 beheaded, 88 and 14 are important numbers to the white supremacists.) Fortunately, their spree was stopped before it began and these two turdbuckets are off to jail for a long, long time.

More on these assholes here

And yet, I find this sad. This is the United States of America where people are suppose to have different opinions. People are suppose to be able to speak their minds and live in relative equality with each other. These two idiots are such cowards that they fear that their white supremacy ideas might just be evil and wrong and that a black man IS capable of governing this country.

They can disagree with Obama all they want, but attempting to kill the candidate you don't like is unpatriotic and cowardly. This is not how our nation is suppose to be run and it makes me sad that there are inbred swine here who would do this.

This isn't the only election-year issue either. There have been vandals on both sides who are scratching cars and vandalizing homes because the owner put up a sign supporting Obama/McCain. What is up with this bullshit? Are Americans no longer being raised to tolerated different opinions? I thought this nation was founded on difference of opinion? I guess some Americans are too primitive realize this.

In other news, Barack Hussein Obama is not a Muslim.

Since Obama even started running, long before the DNC, people claimed that the Illinois senator was a Muslim. I've known that the man was a Christian for several months now but still today you hear people cry out that we don't want no mooslim for president. You just can't eliminate ignorance.

And even if Obama was a Muslim, would this be a bad thing? No. I'd still vote for him over McCain. Americans need to learn that not all Muslims are terrorists. Any time I've slammed Islam in past blogs, I've been targeting fundamentalist Islam. The normal, moderate, day-to-day, Muslim is just an ordinary guy who follows the Qu'ran as much as a normal, moderate, day-to-day Christian follows the bible. Having a Muslim president would not mean anything. It would not make us weak on terrorism. He would not implement an islamo-fascist theocracy for our government. There are Muslims and there are fundamentalist Muslims. It is time for the US to realize the difference.

Heineken Lager Beer, brewed in Holland

J Kuhl Signing Off

Hypocrites

So a chainmail is going around claiming that Obama shows a lack of patriotism. He had the North American Airlines logo (which is a US flag) replaced by his own 'O' symbol. Since he removed the American flag on the aircraft, people are crying out that he hates America.

Well, take a look at this:



I give you John McCain's airplane.

No American flag on the tail of McCain's plane.

Bunch of hypocrites.

There's more to the story here: Fight the Smears

J Kuhl Signing Off

Terminal Security Administration

The TSA may as well be one of these guys. Security my ass, the TSA is more Gestapo than security. They don't make us safer, they just get in the way of law-abiding citizens.

Dammit, I'd rather be hijacked than deal with TSA anymore.

Just recently, the great TSA searched a disabled, wheel-chair bound woman. Seriously, is an 85 year old woman going to be any sort of a threat? What is going on with this country? Why is everyone so afraid of terrorism that they'll give up their freedoms for security? Its disgusting.

And why is the TSA a bunch of incompetent fools that don't do anything except get in the way? I don't feel safer. I'm in as much danger now as I was on 9-11-01. Even with all the security measures up, the terrorists will still find a way in. They ban guns? The terrorist brings a knife. They ban knives? The terrorist brings a CD and breaks it in half and uses the shard. They ban CD's? The terrorist whittles a toothbrush into a knife and smuggles it on board. They ban toothbrushes? The terrorist uses a ballpoint pen. They ban pens? The terrorist uses a pencil. They ban pencils? The terrorist finds something else to use as a weapon. Until we are naked and handcuffed to the seats, we won't be perfectly secure.

So what do we do? We get rid of the full body searches. We lessen the bans. No weapons or sharp objects obviously, but get rid of the asinine bans on harmless things like water and other liquids. No, they won't succeed in making a bomb in the bathroom. We keep the metal detectors but increase the efficiency so we don't wait three goddamn hours to get through. We add armed air marshalls to every flight. We make cockpit doors bulletproof and locked from the inside and give the pilots and flightmembers guns and self defense training.

Since we can't stop the terrorist from boarding the plane, we should rather plan to stop the terrorist once he's on the plane.

J Kuhl Signing Off

Uruguay and Cows

I came across this article today:

Lightning strikes only once but kills 52 cows

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) -- Lightning struck only once - but 52 cows are dead at an Uruguayan ranch. The newspaper El Pais reports that the cows had pressed against a wire fence during a storm when the lightning bolt struck in the northern state of San Jose.

Full article

And later on, this article:

Uruguay hosts biggest BBQ, grills 12 tons of beef

MONTEVIDEO (Reuters) - More than a thousand barbecue fanatics in Uruguay grilled up 12 metric tonnes (26,400 lbs) of beef on Sunday, setting a new Guinness world record while promoting the country's succulent top export.

Full article

I just wonder if the two incidents are linked. 52 dead cows are a lot of beef and it would be a shame to let them go to waste like that. Why not have a big BBQ out of the incident?



J Kuhl Signing Off

Half Life

The Best Video Game: The Half-Life Series.

Half-Life is more than your typical first person shooter. It has a captivating story line, an amazing atmosphere and requires more thought than simply running in, guns-blazing (although it has a number of sequences like this.) With the Freeman's crowbar (and later, Gravity Gun) the player must navigate obstacles and defeat enemies not with firepower but with objects in his environment. This makes the game far different than other FPS games, requiring strategy as well as quick reflexes.

One example of this is in Episode Two, when Gordon Freeman must defeat a helicopter, but he has no rockets or grenade launchers and his weapons are ineffective. His only hope is to shoot the mines that the helicopter drops back at the helicopter with the gravity gun before they explode in Freeman's face.

Another example is in Half-Life 2 where Freeman is trying to escape City 17. He's in a room with a large grate and a ladder that goes down into a partially flooded chamber. There is a pipe that the player needs to go through, but he cannot jump high enough to enter the pipe. Rather, he must go back up the ladder, place a barrel at the edge of a ledge, jump on to the barrel, then onto the ledge and move into another room with a number of pipes and a wheel. The player then jumps to the wheel, turns it, and the water level rises dramatically and now he can swim through the pipe into another room. There is a ledge with an exit, but the ledge is too high for Gordon to jump to from the water, but below the water, are several objects that float. If Gordon can break those objects free, he can jump from those floating objects and onto the ledge.

The game play is well done. The fight scenes aren't overly long and are interspaced with realistic puzzles as I mentioned above and the major fights require not firepower, but strategy. I remember the Strider fight at the end of Episode Two, it was very difficult and challenging, but it was fun because it was unorthodox and required you to think and strategize and prepare.

The story is also captivating. It has all the elements in it, intrigue, horror, twists, and a little bit of humor. Essentially in Half-Life, a portal is opened in which alien forces named the Combine invade earth. After Freeman fights them, he's put into stasis for years until Half-Life 2 occurs. In Half-Life 2, the Combine has defeated earth in a 7 hour war and have claimed dominion. Gordon Freeman becomes a part of the Resistance.


Intrigue: Throughout the series, you encounter the mysterious G-Man. In Half-Life, he shows up as the game begins to reach its conclusion and in Half-Life 2, he awakens Gordon Freeman at the very beginning. There are several times when you can spot him while you're traveling through the world, but only for a few brief seconds and only from a distance. He appears to have employed Gordon Freeman for . . . something, but it isn't explained what his motives are or who he's working for. It is uncertain whether the G-Man works for the Combine, the Resistance or for himself. He speaks peculiarly, with odd pauses and stresses on words that don't require stresses. Hopefully, when Episode 3 comes out, the G-Man will be explained. The G-Man stands out so well because the rest of the story is clear cut.

Horror: Throughout the game, Gordon encounters zombies. Zombies are the result of headcrabs. Headcrabs are little creatures that attack in large numbers and infest their host by attaching to the head. They take control of all the functions of the victim and the victim becomes a zombie. Half-Life made the element of surprise in this game, as zombies often come at you where you aren't looking. They'll hide in dark corners where you won't see them. They wail when they attack. From the sound it seems as if the victim still retains some of his humanity as you can hear him wailing in distress, even though it is muffled by the headcrab. It can be very creepy. The city of Ravenholm is completely infested by these zombies and can be come very creepy and suspenseful.

Humor: The game is serious but there are snippits of humor. One example is the stereotypical Dr. Kliener, who is the typical nerd scientist. He's balding and fascinated with physics and has a tame headcrab as a pet that likes to cause problems. There is also Father Gregori who lives in Ravenholm, who's half crazy and trying to "save" his congregation from torment by killing them (the zombies.) It is just enough to keep the game serious but apply comedic relief.

It is a very captivating game with an interesting story line. If one doesn't keep track of time, one might find himself playing the game all day long.

"Rise and shine, Mr. Freeman" - the G-Man

J Kuhl Signing Off

Agnosticism

J Kuhl Signing Off

Internet Trolling and Culture

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Religious Billboard causes Uproar.

Billboard urges questioning of religion

I find it pretty funny that you can travel across the nation and read billboards from religious churches that tell you to turn to God, and that Jesus will save you, and all of that good stuff, but god forbid someone dare put up a sign asking you to question your religion. It is hypocrisy if you ask me, if some religious person is offended by this sign, because he's content with his own sign pushing his own beliefs. If he wants to put a sign in front of his church fine, but don't turn around and get upset about a sign that may be contrary to what you believe. These people seem to think that freedom of speech means "freedom for me to speak my mind and then try to censor the opposition."

I think this is a great sign. It tells people to take a close look at their religion and be sure that they're doing the right thing with it. And honestly, if the sign converts you to agnosticism or athiesm, you had no faith to begin with.

One commenter stated "but with no religion, there are no morals." This is false. There are hundreds of religions, most which seem to share some moral code. These religions are geographically diverse and some are even hard to reach. This tells me that moral codes are a part of being human, and is often woven through religion, but not created by religion. And what kind of warped moral thought is it, when one is only being good to avoid divine retribution? No. I want people to be moral out of their own being, not because God tells them to.

In other news, I found this interesting picture floating around the interwebs:

Other than the F bomb, I really don't understand the complaints that it gets.

First of all, it is just a humorous depiction of something that Jesus didn't do. The absurdity alone is what makes it funny.

But then, one could argue that there is a deeper meaning. Just think, Jesus was the Son of God. What if he did say "Screw your sins, I'm getting outta here?" He could have. He could have easily just ripped himself off the cross, smote down the romans and left.

But he didn't.

So this image simply reminds a Christian what Jesus did not do, and that was, Jesus did not take the cowards way out.

So instead of being offended by this image, look at it and be grateful.

People need to lighten up. That's part of the problem with religion. Most of the religious people are so uptight that they can't take a joke.

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Albert Einstein


J Kuhl Signing Off

Islam, Religion of Peace (TM)

Looking through the articles listed on Fark.com, I came across this:

http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21985,24368284-662,00.html

Islamic fundies are thinking about banning the use of bikinis, forcing women to wear more modest swimwear on the beaches.

Now it may be because I'm a male, but I don't see the harm in bikinis. They cover the important parts after all.

I bring this up because one person made this comment:

Islam: The fear that someone, somewhere, is happy.

Looking at the current situation in the world with the Islamic nations, this seems to be the case. Look at everything they've ever done.

1. Discriminated women. God forbid women be happy and pursue their dreams to become doctors or scientists. God forbid they walk out in the streets and reveal (GASP) an ankle or their face. I find it amusing that they pretend that women don't have the capability to be successful, when right next door they have Israel about to be lead by a woman for a second time (thats two more than the liberal USA). And around them, the civilized nations in Europe and North America, women are free to pursue their dreams and are just as successful as men.

2. Iran's ayatollahs have banned simple pleasures like rock music and dancing. Throwing a party and having a good time, it appears, is a sin. People should be super serious and pray to Allah all the time and have no other enjoyments.

3. The bikini issue in Bali. Apparently the tourist trade in Indonesia can suffer. Its one of their few sources of income, but hey, as long as the Muslims are happy right?

So what gets into Islamofascists that gets them so ornery any time someone is happy? I just don't understand why they seem to have a hard time with just enjoying life and letting people live it. Perhaps if they'd join the 21st century with the rest of us, they'd realize happy people aren't really that bad. And perhaps they'll find out that if they can be civil and stop being so belligerent to the western nations that we'd be happy to be friends with them and help them out.

But instead, they'd rather execute women who accidently show an ankle and send suicide bombers at people who just want a fair democracy. The United States of America suffers a bit from bible-thumping baptists who make the same complaints that the fundementalist islamics do, but we get the pleasure of ignoring them. Unfortunately, the fundies control life in most muslim countries and get quite upset whenever someone is happy.

I don't think I'll ever understand why religion drives people to do insane things. Yet another reason why religion needs to go.

J Kuhl Signing Off

It is about time for religious fervor to end.

We live in a world dominated by free thought and scientific innovation. Religion is an antiquated thing from the past. Religion frequently ignores scientific reason for the sake of dogma, in the face of overwhelming evidence. Religion ignores freedom of speech and cries out for the censorship of "blasphemous books" (like the Potter series), so long as they can still speak their hypocritical viewpoint. Religion demands that it place its stories in science classes, without providing evidence or providing room for the other religions with ID stories. Religion leads people to kil other people simply because those other people believe in a different invisible sky-daddy.

I guess this is why I've become so cynical about religion and practically fell off the agnostic fence on the athiest side of things (but I'm clinging to the edge with my fingers.)

It is everywhere in the news. Sarah Palin herself claims to be appointed by God and is an advocate of the 'theory' of creationism being taught in a science class.

A christian woman cried out in a town who named their football team "the Diablos." Next thing you know, they changed the team's name, so they don't offend the poor christ-fearing woman.

I love how these hypocrites demand that other beliefs are banned, but their beliefs should be pushed on other people. Baptists wanted Harry Potter banned because of the witchcraft. Don't Wiccans and practicers of black magic have as much of a right to have their beliefs on bookshelves. I'm offended by the bible, they should ban that. It is only fair, they want to ban Harry Potter because it offends them, so I want the bible to go. It offends me.

This can be further illustrated by the mock religion, Pastafarianism, which is belief in the Flying Spaghetti Monster (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastafarianism). If Christians are going to force science classes to teach Genesis, then they also need to teach my religious viewpoint as well. I believe that a giant monster made of spaghetti invented the world (and pasta,) science teachers must teach that point of view as well or they are playing favorites with the Christians. But advocates of ID in science classes never say anything about other religions being included.

Lets look at the whole "my magical sky daddy is better than your magical sky daddy" debate that has been raging since mankind invented religion. We've been warring over what other people believe in for so damn long that its just getting stupid. I understand a nation going to war because it needs resources or going to war because they were attacked, but going to war because "he believes in something different than me" is asinine, especially now that we live in a world that is, for the most part, secular and religiously tolerant (at least the developed nations). And then the real problem is, all the religions believe that they are right and the other guy is wrong, so who's right?

Religious people are always shoving their crap down the throats of other people. I joined a facebook group called "1,000,000 strong get the original facebook back," which was a group that was formed to protest the forced change of the facebook layout which most people don't like. There was a post by some guy claiming that Thiesm was more rational than Athiesm. And no matter your thoughts on that claim, that argument was so obviously a christian pushing his beliefs on people. Otherwise, he'd've posted it in a group that was centered around religion, not around Facebook's layout. And the claim itself is foolish because Thiests claim there is a god without empirical evidence and then try to tell the rest of us that the world was created in 7 days and is 6000 years old, damn all the fossils and astronomical, scientific, evidence that the world is 4,000,000,000 years old in a 25 billion year old universe.

The universe was created some 13 billion years ago. Scientists have studied this and have found that their findings all point to some sort of Big Bang that initiated this universe. All matter came from an initial point of singularity. They know this because they know the universe is expanding and that expansion can be defined mathematically and through physics, thus they can work backwards and find out what happened 13 billion years ago. All scientific, empirical, evidence points to the fact that there was an explosion, a Big Bang, in which all matter was formed. How did it explode? Scientists don't know.

But the point is, the thiests do not support their beliefs with empirical evidence, and then they go and try to push it on us and call it "science."

There was a cartoon I saw somewhere that I can't find. It was a two-panel cartoon. The first panel was labeled "Scientific Reasoning." It showed two men. The first man says, I have a baseball. The second one replies, "prove it." The first man pulls out his baseball.

The second panel was labeled "Religious Reasoning." Again, two men. The first man says, "I have a baseball." The second one replies, "prove it." The first man shouts, "YOU CAN'T PROVE THAT I DON'T."

We could also look at the middle east where the nation of Israel struggles to exist simply because muslim extremists can't stand the fact that someone, who believes in the same god that they do, worships him in a different way.

I wonder when the muslims will ever grow up and stop being children.

My whole point is, have faith in whatever religious system you chose, but keep it out of science and don't push it on other people. Faith is a personal thing and if John Doe wants to believe in a flying spaghetti monster, thats his perogative, don't hold it against him. Your religion isn't the only one, which is why there is no religion in schools. If they do have religion in schools, they better be teaching all the major religions. Heck, if it wasn't unrealistic, I'd say they better be teaching ALL the religions.

My magical skydaddy is better than your magical sky daddy.

J Kuhl Signing Off

Everyone is a Winner.

Give me a break.

In today's society, I have heard asinine tales of parents removing winning and losing from Little League baseball because it "hurt their children's self esteem."

Give me a break.

Winning and losing is a part of life. Competitive sports helps teach kids how to deal with winning and losing in a mature manner and if parents can't teach their kids how to place nice and still win and lose, then they aren't very good parents.

Children first of all, are susceptible to loss. Everyone has seen a five year old cry when he loses a game. Its a part of maturity. The five year old cries because he didn't want to lose and doesn't know how to handle it. If a parent removes losing from games, where will the child learn how to handle losing? Out in the real world where losing can often mean financial disaster or worse? Is he going to cry when he's 26 and got turned down for a job position? Sports need to have competition and parents need to teach their children how to lose. Bruce Wayne's father asked him in Batman Begins, "Why do we fall Bruce?" and Bruce would answer, "So we can learn to get up again." Parents need to stop coddling their kids and teach them about loss. Loss is a part of life and children will have to mature in order to learn to deal with it properly.

Children are also often bad winners. Winning often leads to bullying when the winning team taunts the losing team and mocks them. However, again, this is a fault of parenting, not a fault of competition. The parents need to be there and not jeer along with their kids but scold them and teach them to treat their opponents with respect, whether they are winning or losing. Letting children win gives children an opportunity to boost their own self esteem and at the same time gives parents an opportunity to teach their children to win fairly and respectfully.

Competition is not a bad thing as some terrible parents claim that it is. It gives children lessons about winning and losing and maturity that they will need when they leave the house in 15-18 years.

So please, cut out the bull**** and let the kids win and lose in Little League.

In other news, Palin is a bear-hating, creationist douche.

J Kuhl Signing Off

Hanscom AFB

On Tuesday I took a drive to Hanscom AFB. I needed some stuff for Field Training, namely some BDU Brown shirts that I couldn't find anywhere (Brown crew necks do not exist in the civilian world), a belt and a few other details.

As I entered the BX, I passed a captain who greeted me, and I passed back a "good afternoon" to him. And I realized that I wanted to salute him, even though I didn't. I guess this little incident just put a unique perspective on my advancement towards a commission. I want to be saluting superior officers and showing them my support for their willingness to put themselves on the line for everyday people. I want to be in that group with them, doing what I can to aid them, perhaps even being them, to keep this nation strong.

In other news, while on the way down I found out that most of the drivers around here are terrible. One example, I stop at a red light. Light turns green. I hit the gas and before the car overcomes its inertia, the guy behind me honks. Take a physics class pal! Not only do I have a reaction time, I also have 3-4 tons of inertia to push! It might take 3 whole seconds to get me to move!

And Nashua is the only place where we seem to stop at green lights. I don't understand it.

There was one woman in a Spider outside of Milford on that day (I went to an Army/Navy surplus first) and at a red light, I was in the left lane, she was in the right. She gave me a haughty look and slammed on the gas and probably did ninety. And I motored on at the speed limit. I was surprised to not see her pulled over a mile away.

Grr

It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye. . . . then its hilarious!

J Kuhl Signing Off

Don't Taze Me Bro!

Don't Taze Me Bro

After viewing this video, which was quickly spread across the internet, I just wonder, what did this kid do wrong exactly? He asked some harsh questions maybe, but so what? Its his right to ask questions. If he wasn't suppose to speak at that time, there was no reason to arrest him and taze him. Freedom of speech is a fundamental right in this country. He was not inciting a riot or disturbing the peace, he was simply asking Senator Kerry some questions. It is our right to ask questions.

Some of the things that occur in this country upset me. We have rights. The authorities might not like them, but too bad. A nation that supposedly protects liberty, should look at some of the things that go on within its own borders and look to its police.

And what is Senator Kerry doing? Don't tell me that he can't put a stop to this arrest. Rather, he just drones on and on in the background, answering the guy's question, but not doing anything to stop the arrest, thus facilitating the censorship of the student. I wonder if Senator Kerry actually wanted the student to hear the answer to the question.

The student in question did not need to be tazered, he needed to be let go. There was no point to this arrest.

In other news, I read an article in Newsweek in which General Petraeus is changing strategies in Iraq. He is throwing out the guns-blazing strategy that, while it toppled Baghdad in 3 weeks, failed hard in the over all war and replacing it with a better strategy. Rather than relying on all out force to gain control of Iraq, he is instead working with the Iraqis, Sunni and Shiite alike. The idea was that, instead of killing people, we work with them. We get on their good side

And it is common sense. Terrorism cannot be fought with fire. It is an idea and bullets cannot kill ideas. If instead we can get the Iraqis to work with us, perhaps we can get them to work with each other and if not like each other, then at least live with each other.

"Go young Fred" -Lord Mayor of Pepperland, Yellow Submarine (1968)

J Kuhl Signing Off

Cpl Upham

The movie Saving Private Ryan ends with Captain Miller's squadron finding Pvt Ryan in a bombed out French Village on the Merderet River. Ryan refuses to go home. Miller and his squad decide to remain and hope to defend the bridge with the ~20 men with Ryan.

The men with Miller are
Pvt Mellish, a jew.
Pvt Reiben, a brookliner
Pvt Jackson, a sniper
Cpl Upham, a translator
Sgt Horvath, the Captain's NCO.

At the very end of the movie, the bridge comes under attack from a large group of German infantry. Pvt Mellish and one soldier are manning a machine gun on one flank, and Pvt Jackson and another soldier are in a bell tower with another .30 cal machine gun. Cpl Upham is given the job of "johnny on the spot" -as Mellish puts it- with the ammo.

At one point, Mellish and his partner run out of ammo. Mellish's M1 Garand jams. He cries out for ammo. Upham grabs some and starts heading towards him. Meanwhile, Mellish hears footsteps outside the room he's in. His partner fires at the wall. There is a thump, and a pool of blood. Then more small arms fire. Mellish's partner is hit in the throat, and falls over gasping for breath, dying. A German soldier comes in. Mellish and the soldier start fighting each other hand to hand.

Meanwhile, Upham is on the stairs approaching Mellish and can hear all the commotion, but he's cowering, crying.

The soldier overpowers Mellish and stabs him, killing him. He then comes down the stairs, looks at Upham (who has his hands up and is sobbing) with contempt, passes him and rejoins the fighting in the streets. Upham collapses in grief.

This scene has always angered me. I get upset with Upham, not barging in, killing the German and saving Mellish's life. He cowers like a wimp on the stairs. I tell myself, that I'd've at least killed the German.

But then would I have? How can I know what a battle is like? How can I know that I would not be overcome by fear and grief had I been in the same situation? I can't help but feel angry at Upham, but I can't blame him either. War is hell, and no one would know how they'll really act when thrown in such a situation. How am I to know if I would overcome my own natural fear of death and fight?

I will not ever know until I face that moment.

In other news I don't like any of the candidates so far, so I'm gonna vote Stephen Colbert for President.

"I stand by this man [George W. Bush] because he stands for things. Not only for things, he stands on things. Things like aircraft carriers, and rubble, and recently flooded city squares. And that sends a strong message that no matter what happens to America she will always rebound with the most powerfully staged photo-ops in the world." -Stephen Colbert

Road Traffic Control

"565 Papa Echo, come to a full stop at the intersection"
"Full stop at intersection, 5 Papa Echo"
"You are cleared to make a right turn on to Pine Hill"
"Cleared to turn, 5 Papa Echo"

I'd love it if we had this.

But instead, I sit at that intersection for 5 minutes with on coming traffic. And the moron behind me starts honking.

J Kuhl Signing Off

Perks of the Subconscious

So I was at the ROTC PFD (Physical Fitness Diagnostic) on Thursday at UML. When that was over, I hopped into my car, put the keys in the ignition and started the engine. I then put my left hand on the wheel while my right hand started searching down by the air conditioning for the throttle control. If you were to compare the C172 cockpit to a car, you would see that the throttle is where a car's controls for heat and a/c are.

Then I realized I was in a car, not an airplane.

Its interesting how you can get so much into a routine that you do it at inappropriate times.

Habits become instinctual after a while. If you repeat something often enough, then you can do it without thinking about it and it happens when you are in a set of conditions that seem to make sense for that habit, even if it isn't right.

Its probably a good thing I didn't confuse the brake/gas pedals for rudders.

In other news, the weather this week was bad.

Friday's weather was:

KASH 191604Z 00000KT 3/4SM BR OVC002 16/16 A2984 RMK AO2
KMHT 191604Z 00000KT 3SM BR OVC003 17/16 A2983 RMK AO2

KMHT 191357Z 191412 00000KT 1/2SM FG OVC001
FM2100 16007KT 2SM BR OVC004
TEMPO 0004 2SM -SHRA BR OVC002
FM0400 15010KT 3SM SHRA BR OVC002
TEMPO 0408 1SM +SHRA OVC003
FM0900 2204KT 4SM BR OVC007


This was the weather at Nashua (KASH) and Manchester (KMHT). The first two reports are hourly METAR weather reports for 1916Z, 1400 (2 o'clock) EST. The one for KASH states "Winds calm, visibility at 3/4 statute mile, mist, overcast at 200, temperature 16, dew point 16, air pressure 2983 in mg." The one at Manchester states "winds calm, visibility 3 statute miles, mist, overcast at 300 feet, temperature 17, dew point 16 (temperatures are in Celsius), air pressure at 2983 in mg."

The next block is a TAF (Terminal Aerodrome Forecast), the forecasted weather at an airport. Nashua does not have a TAF. This one reads, "calm winds, visibility half a mile, fog, overcast at 100 feet" The next line, "From 2100 (1700, 5 o'clock EST)" is not valid yet because when I was interested in this weather, it was only 12:15. But it did tell me that things weren't gonna get better.

What does this all mean? It means it is too foggy to fly and the clouds are too low. The air pressure was low, signaling bad weather.

So no flying on Friday the 19th of October.

"No pilot in command of a civil aircraft may allow any object to be dropped from that aircraft in flight that creates a hazard to persons or property. However, this section does not prohibit the dropping of any object if reasonable precautions are taken to avoid injury or damage to persons or property" -FAR 91.15

J Kuhl Signing Off

The Mailman

So today, I was sending out a credit card payment and I passed the mailman.



I'm sorry, I meant mail carrier.



I forgot I live in communist China and everything I say must not be "offensive" to anyone.

Wait, if this is China, why does everyone speak English and talk like hicks?

This is the United States of America. Freedom of speech. I have every right to say what I want the way I want, so long as it doesn't contain a threat.

Saying "mailman" is not threatening anyone or infringing on their rights.



Secondly, when I say "mailman," I am not saying it because I have this "hatred" against women and want to see them chained to a kitchen. I am saying "mailman" because I grew up with it meaning "the person who delivers the mail." I don't care if the mailman is a hot young blond woman, I will call her a mailman if I feel like it. It has nothing to do with her gender, its just what her job is titled; Mailman. I have nothing against saying "mail carrier." I'm just not used to such a term and I refuse to change my habits over a little detail that might be offensive to some cranky feminist moron.





Is Burger King ever going to change to Burger Leader?



Steve Colbert had it right on last nights show. The great thing about the United States of America is our right to say anything, even if it is indeed offensive.

Does the term "mailman" offend you? Too bad. First of all, it is a gender NEUTRAL term. Gee, "human" has the word MAN at the end! Should we go around calling ourselves homo sapiens? But then the ignorant homophobes will get upset over the word "homo." Secondly, we have the right to say it.

It is time that the extremist activist groups stopped using censorship to bandaid their problems and actually come up with a real solution. Arguing over how offensive termonology is will not fix your cause, it just covers it up. Rather, find out why your minority group (or what ever) is mistreated and work to fix the problem.

I dunno, campaign for equal wages for women or something.

But don't tell me to not say "mailman."

In other news, minorities again. I agree, every race, sex, ethnicity, etc of humankind should have equal rights and no race should have special rights.

And some of the minorities seem to want special rights.

I can understand how many of them feel repressed by the white majority, but it isn't fair to us for you to take more.

If I get sued for saying "Ni***r," then you should be sued for calling me "Cracker."

I've heard stories where minorities get picked for jobs because they are minorities, not because they are qualified. Now I have nothing against taking a qualified hispanic. But an unqualified hispanic does not deserve a job over a qualified white person. A qualified hispanic against a qualified white person, well that may be an issue. But between the two, it is quality that I would seek, not skintone or ethnicity.

Yes, there are morons who will go for the white person over a minority because they are prejudice but you can't lump every white guy as the bad guy and give the minorities special rights.

They should have equal rights. No more, no less. Ethnicity, sex, religion, race, etc, should not even enter the equation when considering rights.

"I may not agree with what you say, but I will fight to the death to defend your right to say it" -Unknown

J Kuhl Signing Off

I Hate Driving

I hate it. Give me wings and a runway at every location, or just a helicopter, and I'll just fly places. Driving sucks.

First of all, there is no certainty. Everyone does their own thing and there is no protection from Air Traffic Control. You just have to assume that everyone is competant and knows what they are doing. Recently, I was doing a lane change (I HATE LANE CHANGES!!!!). I checked my mirrors and looked over my shoulder. And I nearly collided with a car I did not see. This incident wasn't really anyone's fault that I can tell, but there is a lack of certainty when ever I make a lane change. What if somehow I can't see the car? In a traffic pattern in the air, the ATC would ensure that I am not too close to another aircraft. On the ground, I do not have this protection.

Also, on the ground, since cars come close to each other, especially on interstates (I hate interstates too) , you have to worry about the other guy's competence. At least in the air, you know, the guy had to take several intensive lessons, an intensive examination and an intensive checkride. I live north of Massachusetts. Massachusetts. The state with the worst drivers in America. You've got morons who cut you off, tailgate, speed too fast, drive too slow and really should have their liscense revoked.

Give me my flying car already so I can just get over these guys.

"And what do you do with a radical? Shoot it? No, its not a hippy from the sixties . . ." Prof. Rock in Calculus

J Kuhl Signing Off

Tomorrow is Tuesday, September 11, 2007

And 6 years ago tomorrow, it was Tuesday, September 11, 2001

I still remember that day. It started out normal and hopeful, as most sunny days began. I was in 8th grade at the time. Came to school, went to class.

Around 9 o'clock, Mr. Fournier, math teacher/principle at the time came into the room. He told us something happened that we should see. We came in, the TV was on, the Pentagon had been struck by an airplane. That was the first thing I saw, the Pentagon. Then the reporter switched to New York. The World Trade Centers were standing, but one of them was burning.

And it got worse. The second was bombed live on TV. People were jumping out of windows to their deaths. Then the buildings collapsed, killing everyone trapped inside.

And here I was, 500 miles away, watching in horror.

I could not and still cannot comprehend the evil some people inflict on others.

And tomorrow brings the 6th aniversary of that attack.

On a Tuesday.

I'd like to give a on line salute to those who were there during the attacks, a salute to the victims and the heroes. A salute to the firemen and police officers, a salute to the ordinary people who worked in those buildings or were trapped on those airplanes and did their damnedest to save everyone they could, even at the expense of their own lives.

To the heroes and victims of 9-11, I salute you.

J Kuhl Signing Off