ONE GUY. One single man.

Say what you will about the war but remember nobody said a damned thing when Biden lost 13 of our guys withdrawing from Afghanistan. Nobody said anything when Clinton lost 18 of our guys in Somalia. Nobody said anything about Obama abandoning our people at Benghazi.

Yet look what Donald Trump did just to save ONE GUY!

ONE SINGLE GUY!

....and Jesus said 'a good Shepherd will leave the 99 to go and look for the one lost. Key word - A good Shepherd!

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I just read where a Swiss butcher got caught selling pork as Halal veal.

Seems he labeled it as veal and got away with it for three years and it is estimated he moved 3.1 tons of it.

He was selling inexpensive pork at veal prices to boot.

Nobody that bought it seemed to know the difference. It was discovered by a sharp-eyed inspector during a routine inspection.

He got six months and a fine. From a financial angle he probably came out on top.

For some reason I think this is hilarious.

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I see where Pete Hegseth bounced about 30 generals

which is no surprise because on Day One he called a meeting of all generals, sat them down in an auditorium and announce he was going to be getting rid of a lot of dead wood in the near future. 

Most likely they won't be replaced. He's said we're top-heavy with generals and he's probably right. I see more getting put out to pasture.

I would bet that of the 30 that have been retires that there is no shortage of Obama and Biden appointees in the ranks. 

One of the things that many generals start to think is that they are indispensable which is a joke. If a planeload of generals crashed it would not really mean a whole lot. It would mean that a bunch of colonels got promoted and things would go back to normal almost immediately.

The problem lies with some with big egos that think they are running the show and their civilian boss isn't really in charge. Guess again.

If an officer can not or will not support the orders given to him then it becomes his duty to resign or retire. Period. There's no room for foot dragging, shirking or malicious compliance. It's a black and white issue.

Another thing is the military is no place for party politics of any party. A promotion to flag rank is not a reward for being a party hack. However, like the federal courts, Obama and Biden appointed any number of federal judges that were supposed to hamstring Trump or other Republicans in case one got elected again. 

They seem to have done the same thing with their appointment of general officers. Obama and Biden appointed a number of generals based on their political views. These most likely are the generals that think they are above SecWars orders. while they may not go toe to toe with him they will undermine him every chance they get.

That leaves Hegseth with no choice but to fire them. I would and so would anyone else that has half of a brain.

One of the things the generals always seem to forget. They forget who they are working for. They are not working with Pete Hegseth. They are working for the Secretary of War.

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Looks like today has the makings of a pretty good day.

It actually was. I spent 5 hours in the Miata booming and zooming the two lane blacktop and just plain losing myself. 

 A Neighbor with a 6 speed ND had offered to let me try his out.

Curiosity intrigues me and I think I will take him up on his kind offer. 

I am not discounting any thing but you have to realize IMO that an NA Miata is as close to perfect for a sports car as an MGB. OTOH the Miata has a defroster that actually works.

Let's look at it this way. If I won the Powerball jackpot my daily driver would be a Dodge '62 half ton stepside pickup with a Slant Six, four speed (manual) transmission, manual choke no radio, heater only basic farm vehicle.  

  

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I see we lost a jet

and both aircrewmen were rescued.

I read we have flown over 13,000 sorties and so far lost six airplanes and no crewmen. Three were casualties of friendly fire on the part of the Kuwaitis. The tanker was involved in a mid air accident with another airplane that got down safely.

The other day we lost an F15E and an A-10 Warthog.

Iran claims they shot both down, we attribute the F15E to engine failure. Pretty much the same hold true for the warthog. No telling.

What is astonishing is that we have suffered so few casualties since the fighting has started. Our guys, from the janitor that sweeps the floor at the airplane factory to the flyboys in the aircraft are really quite amazing.

We can cram more death and destruction in a small jet than we could have in a B-24 and they can strike and get back to base a lot safer.

In 1943 we lost 60 aircraft with another 17 sent to the bone yard along with over 650 aviators on a single mission to bomb a ball bearing plant.

When you put it in that context it's amazing how light our casualties actually are.

Before you jump up and down, a single casualty is a tragedy. I'm just pointing out that casualties are far lower than expected so far. 

             

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Another good morning.

I decided to take my morning coffee at my favorite convenience store and my unindicted co conspirator was there behind the register.

I walked in and said to him "Trump just announced he isn't the least bit interested in the gays of Hormuz. He's only concerned with the Straits of Hormuz."

Everyone within earshot immediately looked confused but most appeared to figure it out immedately and smirked. A couple of people chuckled.

However it was not all in vain because two people went off and the rest of us were treated go a gay rights rant and a semi meltdown by somemone with TDS.

Not bad.

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Piccolo and Jimmy get stopped

Jimmy got stopped for a burned out tail light.

When the officer approached the car he held a 'sovereign citizen' sign against the glass. He refused to identify himself and was totally obnoxious to the officer that had originally planned to simply inform Jimmy he had a tail light out and to tell him he should get it fixed. The officer even had a multi tool in his pocket to help Jimmy if he happened to have a spare bulb in his glove box.

The officer, tired of Jimmy's belligerence is forced to break Jimmy's window, cut his seat belt, yard him out of the car. Jimmy bounces up and takes a swing at the officer and the scuffle escalates and ends with Ossifer Friendly tasing the living dogsnot out of him and gets carted off to jail.

He later gets a $20 fine for the tail light violation and a year in the county lockup for resisting arrest. Over absolutely nothing.

======================================

Two hours later. Same cop pulls Piccolo over for the same thing. Piccolo was on his way home after a night pf pretty hard partying.

Piccolo pulls over and gets well off the road for officer safety, shuts off the pickup, opens the window, drops his keys out the window and waits with both hands on the top of the steering wheel.

Ossifer Friendly approaches the car and shines his light and finds Piccolo sitting there with a joint in his mouth, a beer between his legs, a whisky bottle on the seat. There's also a hypodermic needle on a syringe sitting on the dashboard.

He asks Piccolo for his driver's license which he produces, returns and asks him to exit the vehicle, turn around and put his hands behind his back. Piccolo explains he has a handgun in an inside the pants holster, a switchblade in his back pocket and tells the cop to be careful of the sharps he has in his shirt pocket. The cop takes it all and hoos pic up.

He seats Pic in the back seat of the patrol car and starts driving toward the police station and he and Pic have a delightful conversation about trout fishing.

The officer stops about halfway there and announces he's had two fights that night, one with Jimmy and another with an entitled purple haired fat woman and that he just plain old didn't have the heart to throw such a nice cooperative guy like Pic in jail. 

He turns around and while driving Pic back to his pickup tells him about how to avoid the DUI checkpoint 3 miles ahead. The get to his pickup and he fishes a bulb out of his glove box and the two of then replace the burned out tail light in Pic's truck. He returns Pic's gun, switchblade and his needles. Then he told Pic the body in the trunk is starting to smell and recommends that after he buries it he plants endangered flowers on top of the grave so it is illegal to dig it up. They thanked each other and make a date to go fishing together and Pic is sent on his way.

Yeah, I know it's bull$hit but you get the point.

Most people go to jail for being stupid.

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Poor people don't understand maintenance.

Someone once told me 'poor people have poor ways'.

Lot's to be said for that. People don't understand the true cost of things. They seem to think, for example, if they can stretch the budget to make the payments then they can afford a new (or newer than the one they have) car.

They forget that it has to be maintained and taken care of. Oil changes are required at intervals to keep the engine running properly. The other fluid levels have to be maintained and checked. Oil changes run in the $50-75 range. Needless to say, oil change intervals usually land when you've had a bad month and it gets put off and often generally forgotten about for a year or so and now your engine is smoking and clattering.

Now you're handed a $4500 engine job to deal with and you put it on a credit card and get yourself in deeper.

Or windshield wipers wear out and instead of coughing up $35 to replace them you keep putting it off until the windshield is scratched up. In some states that won't pass a safety inspection so you're out another $400 that you add to the credit card.

Of course this isn't only about cars it's a general lifestyle choice.

You have to take care of things. The cost of owning something doesn't stop when you take it home with you.

=================================

Protip.

You're getting ready to make your last $500 car monthly payment on a 5 year note. This proves you have managed to cough up $500/month for the last 5 years. 

You figure you're going to keep it for another five years. 

Open an account, label it 'car payment' and drop $500/month into it. Inflation, pay raises etc. have made it easier to do now than it was 5 years ago so it's easily doable.

When you get around to needing a new car you should be able to either pay cash or put one hell of a down payment on your next vehicle.

Plan ahead.

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