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Quote of the Day

 

It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. — Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863

by daddybear71 on November 19, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Quote of the Day

Posted by daddybear71 on November 19, 2012

https://daddybearsden.com/2012/11/19/quote-of-the-day-94/

Thought for the day

Filling out a questionnaire at the arthritis doctor. To ‘List any built up devices you use to make gripping easier’ I answered ‘Hogue grips’.

I can’t wait for the follow up.

by daddybear71 on November 19, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Thought for the day

Posted by daddybear71 on November 19, 2012

https://daddybearsden.com/2012/11/19/thought-for-the-day-178/

30 Days of Generals and Admirals – Day 15

In war there is no substitute for victory. — Douglas Macarthur

My Take – After destroying entire Roman armies during battles at the Trebia, Lake Trasemine, and Cannae, Hannibal looked to have his war with Rome won.  He had destroyed every army his opponent had sent after him, and Rome had lost not only a huge chunk of its forces, but also most of its best troops.  Rome was freeing slaves and emptying temples to arm them in order to keep from being overrun if Hannibal brought his army to town.  By the time that particular story wound its way to the end, his city was in ruins, his people were scattered as slaves, and he was dead.

So what happened?  Hannibal could have pretty much walked to the walls of Rome, demanded surrender, then destroyed the city after a brief, if costly, fight.  Instead, he moved off and started doing other things designed to bring Rome to its knees, but not destroy it.  His definition of victory appears to not to have Rome burnt, but to have it revert to a minor power, which Rome was able to thwart.  Rome, on the other hand, had one goal – survive.  At first, doing that meant not getting into a fight with Hannibal, but eventually it also meant attacking Carthage anywhere Hannibal wasn’t.  Keeping their efforts solely dedicated to those goals brought them to ultimate victory.

No matter how well things are going for you, always keep your ultimate goal in mind.  Nothing but success in achieving that goal matters.  Failing to take the initiative to get it, or letting distractions move you away from the path to success will almost certainly doom your effort.  It doesn’t have to be an earth-shattering goal such as a war or a fight.  It could be a goal of losing weight and getting into shape, or paying off your debts and saving money.  No matter what, focus on what you want to accomplish and make no excuses and brook no interference when you are working toward it.

by daddybear71 on November 19, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Generals and Admirals

Posted by daddybear71 on November 19, 2012

https://daddybearsden.com/2012/11/19/30-days-of-generals-and-admirals-day-15/

Hunting Report

Long story short: There will probably be no venison on the menu on Thanksgiving, unless I fill a tag ala Ambulance Driver.

Girlie Bear and I made our yearly trip out to the wilds of Fort Knox to participate in the annual draw hunt this weekend.  This is my seventh year doing it, and Girlie Bear’s third.   I had hoped that she would be able to carry her new rifle for the hunt, but I asked her to hold off another year so that she could practice more with it and have a better chance of making an ethical kill.  We joined with Hunting Buddy and his daughter, who was also making her third trip out.

Our assigned hunting area was right against the southern boundary of post, and was some truly pretty country.  Not much flat land, and certainly no large open areas, but except for some very steep hollers around the creeks, it was just wooded land with gentle inclines.

The first morning, we went to the southern end of our area and staked out an area above a creek.  It was about 35 degrees with little wind when we got out there, but warmed up quite a bit once the sun came up.  We settled in and waited, and it wasn’t much past sun-up that we heard several shots being taken.  Unfortunately, we didn’t see anything before we decided to pack up and head back to the truck for lunch at 11.  Note to self – Walking along a creek bed might be a good idea if you’re young and strong, but when you’re old and fat, you have to remember that every foot down a steep grade you walk will mean a foot you have to walk back up if you find that going down the creek bed isn’t going to work.

Lunch this year, as I mentioned yesterday, was MRE’s.  Girlie Bear still thinks they’re a treat.  I offered some to Hunting Buddies daughter, but she politely declined.  Guess there’s no accounting for taste, but then she might be the smarter one in this discussion.

That afternoon we decided to try our luck on the other side of our area. which went from hardwoods on soft earth to cedars growing out of limestone outcrops.  Again, we followed a creek bed until we found an open area and squatted down in a bunch of cedars.  Again, we didn’t see hide nor hair of the horned beast, but had a good afternoon being quiet and occasionally talking softly.  We walked out around 3 and headed to the truck because we have to check out with our area guide by 5, and there’s no sense in shooting a deer when you will only have a couple of hours to look for it, gut it, and drag it to the truck.  On the way out we saw several rubs and scrapes, and lots of droppings.  However, the droppings were badly decomposed and looked to be at least a week old.  We also found several old ammo containers that said “Ammunition, Caliber .30, Blank” on the side and a pile of the metal end caps from the shipping tubes for 3.5 inch rockets.  I left those alone, but it was kind of neat to show them to Girlie Bear so she could know how long the military had been using the area.

Hunting Buddy and his daughter had a little better luck than we did.  They reported that as they sat on opposite sides of a tree, his daughter had a doe walk about 20 yards away from her.  Unfortunately, she wasn’t armed and her dad couldn’t get around the tree to take a shot without spooking the deer.

Hunting Buddy and his daughter didn’t go hunting on Sunday due to family constraints.  Girlie Bear and I headed out bright and early and went back to the area we had hunted the day before.  When we checked in with our area guide, he showed me pictures of the large 13 point buck one of the other hunters had gotten about 1/4 of a mile from where we had hunted the morning before, so I had hope for the morning.

We settled down a hundred yards or so away from where we had been the day before, and got comfortable.  Again, the weather was pretty much perfect:  dry, chilly, and no real wind.   We sat until lunchtime and pretty much just watched the squirrels.  Mr. and Mrs. Whitetail were apparently at church this Sunday.

During our walk out, we found some  old .30 brass and several clips from M-1 Garands on the ground, which after showing them to Girlie Bear, I left where they were.

We also came across some bones.  I’m pretty sure the leg bones are from deer, but I’m not sure about the skull.  That ridge on the back for muscles to attach to doesn’t look right for a deer, but it’s not hog or coyote either.  Anyone out there have any ideas?

So, overall, not a bad weekend.  Yes, I’d have liked to have pulled a deer out of those woods, but I got to spend two days with my daughter without cell phones, puppies, or little brothers.  I won’t have too many more of those days, so I’m going to enjoy them while I can.

Rifle, clothing, and other gear: About $1000

Hunting license, deer tags, and fees to get in the drawing for the hunt – About $100

This smile after spending a day in the woods with your daughter: Priceless

by daddybear71 on November 18, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in family, hunting

Posted by daddybear71 on November 18, 2012

https://daddybearsden.com/2012/11/18/hunting-report-2/

Today’s Earworm

This one is dedicated to General’s David Petraeus and George Allen, as well as Brigadier General Jeffrey Sinclair, who all should have known better.  Seriously guys, before you go looking for love in all the wrong places, go talk to your Command Sergeant Major, who will say something like “No-one is more professional than I” just before they slap you upside the head with the appropriate articles of the UCMJ.

Seriously, gentlemen, you worked for decades to get where you are, and you may have lost it all because you went and got your knobben schlobbened by someone who wasn’t your wife. Was it really worth it?

by daddybear71 on November 18, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Earworm

Posted by daddybear71 on November 18, 2012

https://daddybearsden.com/2012/11/18/todays-earworm-263/

30 Days of Generals and Admirals – Day 14

From triumph to downfall is but a step. I have seen a trifle decide the most important issues in the gravest affairs. — Napoleon Bonaparte

My Take – Pay attention to the details.  The difference between comfort and freezing this morning was remembering to double-check that I had my new gloves.  The difference between an AR-15 and a club is making sure it’s cleaned, lubricated, and assembled properly.  Slow down, pay attention to the details, and life will get easier.

by daddybear71 on November 18, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Generals and Admirals

Posted by daddybear71 on November 18, 2012

https://daddybearsden.com/2012/11/18/30-days-of-generals-and-admirals-day-14/

Thoughts on the Day

  • Taking your daughter hunting is an excellent way to spend a Saturday.
  • Holding a safety briefing next to a running generator is less than optimal.
  • It felt really good this morning when the sun came up.
  • I broke out a couple of MRE’s for lunch today.
    • I had the Chili and Macaroni, which was quite tasty.
    • Girlie Bear had the Vegetable Burger in Barbecue on Whole Wheat Bread.
      • She said it tasted good, but that bread just didn’t look right.
      • And seriously, veggie burgers in field rations?  What are these people doing to my Army?
  • Noticed a distinct lack of acorns and/or acorn caps under the trees this year.  I hope the animals don’t have a problem getting through the winter because one of their principal sources of calories didn’t do well this year.
  • Didn’t see hide nor hair of a deer all day.  Saw a couple of places where it looked like they had bedded down and some old droppings.  But the antlered beasts were notably absent.
    • I simply must have words with their social secretary.  I specifically asked that they be lined up according to weight at sunrise this morning so that I could pick out the pick of the herd.
  • After several hours of hearing gunshots in the area around you, with no evidence of deer in your line of vision, you begin to wonder if it’s you.
by daddybear71 on November 17, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Thought for the day

Posted by daddybear71 on November 17, 2012

https://daddybearsden.com/2012/11/17/thoughts-on-the-day-64/

Today’s Earworm

by daddybear71 on November 17, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Earworm

Posted by daddybear71 on November 17, 2012

https://daddybearsden.com/2012/11/17/todays-earworm-262/

30 Days of Generals and Admirals – Day 13

Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of the men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory. — George Patton

My Take – The young men and women that I see training at Fort Knox are equipped with some extraordinary hardware.  A lot of it is the descendent of the stuff we used in the 1990’s, but even more of it is stuff that we only imagined could be possible.  From surveillance, to weapons, to communications, to medicine, the battlefield of today is stocked full of technological wonders.

But that’s not what wins battles.  The training, leadership, discipline, and dedication of these people can and will move mountains if that is the mission given to them.  The technology and gear are only tools.  It is the people that use them that makes the difference.

by daddybear71 on November 17, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Generals and Admirals

Posted by daddybear71 on November 17, 2012

https://daddybearsden.com/2012/11/17/30-days-of-generals-and-admirals-day-13/

Consider this

Hostess, the company that brought the Twinkie and Ho-Ho to the American apocalypse food cache, has announced that it will be closing its doors, selling off everything that it can, and laying off each and every one of its 18,500 employees.  The company has taken a gut punch in the past few years, and was trying to get through bankruptcy, in part, by getting concessions out of its union employees.  The Teamsters, of all people, accepted less of a piece of the action rather than lose everything.  The Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union, on the other hand, decided it was better to douse itself in kerosene and light up a Pall Mall.  Instead of losing a chunk of their pension but keeping their jobs, now they have neither a pension nor a job.

Now, consider this:

Hostess was founded in 1930, at the dawn of the Great Depression.  It survived the Depression, and probably thrived during World War II.  Over the next few decades it figured out how to get Baby Boomers to buy its products and then feed them to their kids.   It survived health food booms and economic hard times.  Now, in really bad economic straits, weighed down by bloated union contracts, it went into bankruptcy.  The bankruptcy court ordered a reduction in pension and benefits for their bakers, who went on strike.  The company warned the union that it would shut its doors if strikers didn’t return, the union called their bluff, and now the company is being shuttered.

In other words, a company that was able to withstand 80 years of boom and bust was killed off by obstinate bakers who were more worried about giving up a little than than they were about losing a lot.  The union decided that letting the company die was better than doing their part to keep it alive.

Good luck finding work in this economy, members of the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union.  I’m sure there are lots and lots of jobs in your area for an industrial baker.  Also enjoy explaining to the Teamsters why thousands of their drivers are now on unemployment.  I hope y’all enjoy your holidays while a long-lived American company is dismembered and sold to the highest bidder.

And before you ask, I hate Hostess baked sweets and Wonder Bread.  I will admit to using some of their sandwich breads that at least looked like someone had sprayed on a bit of nutrition.   But that’s beside the point.  I was just as pissed at the UAW over the state of Chrysler and GM when they went into meltdown.  Unions, especially unions in well-established companies, are a cancer that is eating away at the core of our industry.  Companies that have no way to get control of their costs, including the cost of employee benefits and retirements, are not going to do well, and that means more people out of work.  I hope the members of the bakers’ union are happy now that they’re the forefront of the latest wave of American unemployment.

by daddybear71 on November 16, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in news

Posted by daddybear71 on November 16, 2012

https://daddybearsden.com/2012/11/16/consider-this/

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