Uncategorized

022422

Posted on By No Comment

I CAN’T TELL YOU ALL HOW PLEASED I AM WITH THE NEW FORMAT AND THE COOPERATION AND PARTICIPATION OF SO MANY, WITH BOTH CONTENT AND MONETARY CONTRIBUTIONS!

SO MUCH CONTENT THAT WE MAY NOT STAY WITH THE REGIMEN OF PUBLISHING ONCE A WEEK ON A PARTICULAR DAY. HOW ABOUT NOW? 🙂

West Virginia Farm Kid in the Marinesn( PARIS ISLAND MARINE CORPS RECRUIT TRAINING)

nDear Ma and Pa,nnI am well. Hope you are. Tell Brother Walt and Brother Elmer the Marine Corps beats working for old man Minch by a mile. Tell them to join up quick before all of the places are filled.nnI was restless at first because you get to stay in bed till nearly 6 a.m. But I am getting so I like to sleep late. Tell Walt and Elmer all you do before breakfast is smooth your cot, and shine some things. No hogs to slop, feed to pitch, mash to mix, wood to split, fire to lay. Practically nothing.nnMen got to shave but it is not so bad, there’s warm water.nnBreakfast is strong on trimmings like fruit juice, cereal, eggs, bacon, etc., but kind of weak on chops, potatoes, ham, steak, fried eggplant, pie and other regular food, but tell Walt and Elmer you can always sit by the two city boys that live on coffee. Their food, plus yours, holds you until noon when you get fed again. It’s no wonder these city boys can’t walk much.nnWe go on ‘route marches,’ which the platoon sergeant says are long walks to harden us. If he thinks so, it’s not my place to tell him different. A ‘route march’ is about as far as to our mailbox at home. Then the city guys get sore feet and we all ride back in trucks.nnThe sergeant is like a school teacher. He nags a lot. The Captain is like the school board. Majors and colonels just ride around and frown. They don’t bother you none.nnThis next will kill Walt and Elmer with laughing. I keep getting medals for shooting. I don’t know why. The bulls-eye is near as big as a chipmunk head and don’t move, and it ain’t shooting at you like the Higgett boys at home. All you got to do is lie there all comfortable and hit it. You don’t even load your own cartridges. They come in boxes.nnThen we have what they call hand-to-hand combat training. You get to wrestle with them city boys. I have to be real careful though, they break real easy. It ain’t like fighting with that ole bull at home. I’m about the best they got in this except for that Tug Jordan from over in Silver Lake. I only beat him once. He joined up the same time as me, but I’m only 5’6″ and 130 pounds and he’s 6’8″ and near 300 pounds dry.nnBe sure to tell Walt and Elmer to hurry and join before other fellers get onto this setup and come stampeding in.nnYour loving daughter,nnAlicen

nNever Fool With Mother Naturen

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

James Bond slept through an earthquake.nHe was shaken, not stirred.

Finally, something politically correct. Democracy clarified…n

Some Seniors never grow ‘Old’n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

n

Liberty Arms is a gun and ammo shop in Tazwell Tennessee with a patriotic sense of humor.

n

n

Their billboard sign changes frequently.

n

They are one of the largest sellers of guns and ammo in the country.

n

n

n

n

n

n

nWhen a cougar gets so old she needs a hearing aid,nshe becomes a Def Leppard…

BLAST FROM THE PAST!nHOW MANY CAN YOU NAME?

nThe new espionage

When an Israeli company released a new spyware product known as Pegasus in 2011, it changed cyberwarfare. Pegasus could reliably decipher the communications of smartphones without the phone’s user knowing and without the cooperation of AT&T, Apple or any other company.Mexico’s government bought Pegasus — from NSO Group, the Israeli start-up that created it — and used it to capture El Chapo, the drug lord. European investigators used the product to break up a child sex-abuse ring and stop terrorist plots.nBut Pegasus also created some problems, and they quickly started becoming clear, too. Governments could use it to monitor and suppress critics and political opponents. Mexico was an example: It deployed the spyware not only against El Chapo but also against dissidents and journalists. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates used it against civil rights activists.nThe F.B.I. bought a version of Pegasus in 2019, according to a new Times Magazine investigation by Ronen Bergman and Mark Mazzetti. Since then, U.S. officials across the Trump and Biden administrations have debated whether to use it within this country as well as abroad.nFor now, the F.B.I. has decided not to do so. The Commerce Department went further, adding NSO to a list of foreign companies that it says jeopardize national security and preventing U.S. companies from working with it. Even so, the American government’s copy of Pegasus continues to sit in a New Jersey office building, ready to be turned on if the federal government changes its policy.

Ronen’s and Mark’s story is full of other revelations, too:

Israel has used Pegasus as a diplomatic sweetener. It gave the U.A.E. and Bahrain access to it, which helped lead to the Abraham Accords, the 2020 pact in which the Arab countries normalized relations with Israel. At one point, Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, threatened to block a crucial part of the deal unless Israel renewed Saudi Arabia’s license to use Pegasus.

The C.I.A. bought a copy of Pegasus for Djibouti, to assist it in combating terrorism — despite the country’s record of human rights abuses, including the torture of dissidents.

Pegasus has helped knit together right-wing nationalist governments around the world, with Hungary, India and Poland collaborating on its use. Benjamin Netanyahu, then Israel’s prime minister, decided not to order Poland’s Pegasus system to be cut off even after the country passed laws that many in Israel saw as Holocaust denial, and the Polish prime minister spoke of “Jewish perpetrators” of the genocide.

nIn addition to these fascinating details, the story underscores a larger point about cyberwarfare. As Ronen and Mark write:nCyberweapons have changed international relations more profoundly than any advance since the advent of the atomic bomb. In some ways, they are even more profoundly destabilizing — they are cheap, easily distributed and can be deployed without consequences to the attacker. Dealing with their proliferation is radically changing the nature of state relations, as Israel long ago discovered and the rest of the world is now also beginning to understand.nMore than 75 years after the invention of nuclear weapons, only nine countries appear to have a usable one. But dozens of countries already have cyberweapons. “Everybody seems to want them,” Mark told me, “and this gives enormous power to the countries who sell them and can use them for diplomatic advantage.”nIt has also led to a huge increase in government spying, for good and for ill.nn

nEditor’s Note: I collected a few, too.

nWatch Puppies Who Are Training To Be Police K9’sn
n

From Puppy to k9 Soldiern
n

Marine reunites with and adopts military dog he served with

Gun Logic

1 – Eleven teens die each day because of texting while driving. Maybe it’s time to raise the age of Smart Phone ownership to 21

n2 – If gun control laws actually worked, Chicago would be Mayberry, USAnn3 – The Second Amendment makes more women equal than the entire feminist movement.nn4 – Legal gun owners have 300 million guns and probably a trillion rounds of ammo. Seriously, folks, if we were the problem, you’d know it.nn5 – When JFK was killed, nobody blamed the rifle.nn6 – The NRA (National Rifle Association) murders 0 people and receives $$$$ 0 nothing in government funds. Planned Parenthood kills 350,000 babies every year and receives $500,000,000 in tax dollars annually.nn7 – I have no problem with vigorous background checks when it comes to firearms. While we’re at it, let’s do the same when it comes to immigration, Voter I.D., and candidates running for office.nn8 – Folks keep talking about another Civil War. One side knows how to shoot and probably has a trillion rounds. The other side has crying closets and is confused about which bathroom to use. Now tell me, how do you think that would end?nnDon’t be afraid to share this. There’s more logic and common sense expressed here than probably anything you have seen on the news today.n

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

HAVE A GREAT FUN DAYnRARE VIEWS OF ICONIC EVENTS AND PLACES IN HISTORYnnNeil Armstrong’s family watching him launch to the Moon (1969).n

nThe alleged silhouette in the NBA logo: Jerry West playing for the Lakers (1969).n

Inside the Madden memorial: Touching moments, star of the show, best-dressed and more memories.

nOAKLAND — Virginia Madden sat on a couch amid family and friends when a stranger approached. He crouched down on a knee, presented a box and …nnShe thought he was going to propose, she joked later.n

Rather than a ring, inside the wooden box was a medallion from the Pro Football Hall of Fame, a gift from its president to honor her late husband’s 2006 induction to the Canton, Ohio museum he cherished.

Tears welled in Virginia Madden’s eyes.n

Second Oldest Trick in Sleight of Handn