Remember Our Old Vets!

Some of the Vets blocked from the WWII Memorial by our President during the Sequester

We'll share this story passed along to us; it’s interesting, sad, and enlightening.

Never forget that many of our older generation served honorably, bravely, and 

deserve our respect.

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As I came out of the supermarket that sunny day, pushing my cart of groceries towards my car, I saw an old man with the hood of his car up and a lady sitting inside the car, with the door open. 

The old man was looking at the engine. I put my groceries away in my car, and continued to watch the old gentleman from about twenty five feet away. 

I saw a young man in his early twenties with a grocery bag in his arm walking towards the old man. The old gentleman saw him coming too, and took a few steps towards him.

I saw the old gentleman point to his open hood and say something. The young man put his grocery bag into what looked like a brand new Cadillac Escalade. He then turned back to the old man. I heard him yell at the old gentleman saying:

'You shouldn't even be allowed to drive a car at your age.' And then with a wave of his hand, he got in his car and peeled rubber out of the parking lot.

I saw the old gentleman pull out his handkerchief, and mop his brow as he went back to his car and again looked at the engine. 

He then went to his wife and spoke with her; he appeared to tell her it would be okay. I had seen enough, and I approached the old man. He saw me coming and stood straight, and as I got near him I said, 'Looks like you're having a problem.'

He smiled sheepishly, and quietly nodded his head. I looked under the hood myself, and knew that whatever the problem was, it was beyond me. Looking around, I saw a gas station up the road, and I told the old man that I would be right back. I drove to the station and went I inside. I saw three attendants working on cars. I approached one of them, and related the problem the old man had with his car. I offered to pay them if they could follow me back down and help him.

The old man had pushed the heavy car under the shade of a tree and appeared to be comforting his wife. When he saw us he straightened up and thanked me for my help. As the mechanics diagnosed the problem (overheated engine), I spoke with the old gentleman.

When I shook hands with him earlier, he had noticed my Marine Corps ring and had commented about it, telling me that he had been a Marine too. I nodded and asked the usual question, 'What outfit did you serve with?'

He said that he served with the first Marine Division at Guadalcanal Pelieliu, and  Okinawa  .

He had hit three of the worst ones, and retired from the Corps after the war was over. As we talked we heard the car engine come on and saw the mechanics lower the hood. They came over to us as the old man reached for his wallet, but was stopped by me. I told him I would just put the bill on my AAA card.

He still reached for the wallet and handed me a card that I assumed had his name and address on it, and I stuck it in my pocket. We all shook hands all around again, and I said my goodbye's to his wife.

I then told the two mechanics that I would follow them back up to the station. Once at the station, I told them that they had interrupted their own jobs to come along with me and help the old man. I said I wanted to pay for the help, but they refused to charge me.

One of them pulled out a card from his pocket, looking exactly like the card the old man had given to me. Both of the men told me then that they were Marine Corps Reserves. Once again we shook hands all around and as I was leaving, one of them told me I should look at the card the old man had given to me. I said I would and drove off.

For some reason I had gone about two blocks, when I pulled over and took the card out of my pocket and looked at it for a long, long time. The name of the old gentleman was on the card in golden leaf and under his name was written:'Congressional Medal of Honor Society.'

I sat there motionless, looking at the card and reading it over and over. I looked up from the card and smiled to no one but myself and marveled that on this day, four Marines had all come together because one of us needed help. He was an old man all right, but it felt good to have stood next to greatness and courage, and an honor to have been in his presence.

Remember on this Memorial Day,OLD men like him gave you, and all of us, FREEDOM for  America. 

Thanks to those who served and still serve, and to all of those who supported them, and who continue to support them.

America is not at war. 
The  US Military is at war.

America  is at the Mall. 

Remember, Freedom is not Free!

Thousands have paid the price so that you can enjoy what you have today.

YOU MAY WISH TO SHARE THESE WORDS: 

PLEASE GOD, PROTECT OUR FREEDOMS, 

AND WATCH OVER OUR TROOPS, 

WHO ARE DEFENDING THOSE FREEDOMS. 

AMEN

Russia Ends US Satellite Program

Mr Putin ends US Space Program

Click here for related story  [UniverseToday.com]

Here's a surprise.

JimmyBob is watching you; Do you feel safer?

Russia has cut off the US access to its rocket engines which were to be used to launch Defense reconnaissance satellites.

To be clear, these launches tied to the NSA/NRO eavesdropping surveillance program not only on US citizens, but, by golly, on the Russians too.  Imagine that.



Earlier this month, we noted that Lockheed Martin and Boeing [via NPO Energomash] had been awarded a sole-source contract to sell rocket engines to the US Air Force [USAF] to launch US Military reconnaissance satellites into space - violating US trade embargo legislation against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine/Crimea.

No other US companies were allowed to bid; and Elon Musk [aka: Iron Man] sued in court
-- and won!

At that time, we warned against both sole source contracts [essentially illegal -- unless of course, we're dealing with one of the Big Five Defense Contractors] since they would eliminate open competition, cost savings, and, oh gosh -- that ancient concept called "business integrity", a term no longer in common usage in Defense contracting.

[Does anyone remember that JimmyBob Clapper used to head Raytheon, which now is routinely awarded major Intelligence and Defense Community contracts which are sole source?  You remember JimmyBob, our Director of National Intelligence -- the guy who blatantly perjured himself before Congress not long ago?]

But, we digress.

We also pointed out that, not only is Russia on our trade embargo list for invading Ukraine and Crimea
[that naughty Mr Putin keeps poking his finger into Mr obama's eye to see if he can find Mr obama's Red Line]
we also noted that it's NEVER a good idea to depend on an enemy, or even a Potential Adversary as our sole source supplier of Defense materiel systems.

Now, one would think this would be common sense, but, when our Director of National Intelligence is JimmyBob Clapper, who had very close ties to Raytheon, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin while he was in the private sector [who says government workers are underpaid], then the process changes somewhat, because if JimmyBob got any closer to those companies, he'd be accused of having a sexual relationship with them.

God help us!
Think of little JimmyBobs scampering all about Washington and through the halls of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, throwing tiny sole-million dollar source contracts over the transoms.
[Why, it would be almost as corrupt as the HHS contract system.]

But, we've digressed again, and we apologize for burdening you with such a perverted image.

Back to reality.
If we are to have an effective National Defense system, we certainly can't be awarding sole source contracts to our enemies so they can cut off our supplies just before a war begins.

Damned Czech Warranty just ran out!

The Russians figured this one out when the Eastern Bloc pulled away, and just as they were about to invade Czechoslovakia, and Hungary, and Poland, et al, they realized that their brand new tanks were falling apart, their new light artillery pieces were malfunctioning, and their Polish-built ships were leaking like sieves -- because they were built by the very Communist Satellite countries they were about to invade.



In the end, the USSR collapsed because of such stupid decisions;
i.e., don't award military sole source contracts to your potential adversaries.

Will Mr obama's USSA suffer the same fate?

Microsoft forced to support XP

XP keeps going, and going, and going ....

Click here for related story [Steve Ranger - ZDNet]

Microsoft [MS] has decided to once again "support" Windows XP -- the most popular, the most reliable, and the most used MS Operating System [OS] since Microsoft was founded.

Millions of XP users regarded it as perhaps the only Microsoft OS that ever functioned efficiently, and most users kept their old versions handy in the event the newer versions failed -- which occurred routinely [and still does with the latest MS OS version 8.1].

Subsequent OS versions all had major flaws that resulted in frequent crashes and reboots, and most were vulnerable to viruses, requiring almost daily patches and updates.

Thus, many users kept XP as their primary, or backup MS Operating System, foregoing the headaches of subsequent OS releases, all of which were not inexpensive.  According to NetMarketShare research, XP still accounts for 26% of the PCs connected to the Internet.  Windows 8 and 8.1 have a combined share of only 12%.

A few weeks ago, MS announced it would no longer support XP, since it was "too expensive" to support.
[Interpretation: Too many people were continuing to use XP and not buying the latest MS operating system.]

And, amazingly enough, "hackers" immediately attacked XP, crippling it, in turn, shutting down countless federal and state government sites which used XP to support their Internet Explorer apps.

And, then, Internet Explorer got hacked!
Good heavens!

Well, in reality, it had been hacked two years ago [September 2012 to be exact], but they only discovered the hack recently, meaning all that metadata has been flowing into hackers' databanks for at least two years.

Now, the implications for that hacking are pretty serious, since the federal government demanded that all job applications be processed ONLY via Internet Explorer, meaning that every, and we repeat EVERY federal job application, complete with applicants' full personal and professional history, to include social security numbers, and full security clearance data, had been HACKED, by "hackers unknown".


So, since the Internet Explorer browser was hacked, Microsoft, in a "decent and generous" gesture, decided to continue to support XP -- for just a bit longer -- and "patches" have now been issued, but ONLY because Microsoft is such a giving and loving company.
[Be still our beating heart, we're all aflutter over this generous outpouring of gratuitous support.]

NSA reads your email to
protect you from terrorism

A cynic might suggest the hackers were employed by the NSA -- which has always had a warm and fuzzy relationship with Microsoft, which could then deny Hoovering that information themselves, but merely accepted all that metadata from their contractor hackers.

[Re: Prism.  Between July - December 2012, Microsoft received up to 7,000 national security warrants, subpoenas and orders, affecting up to 32,000 consumer accounts]



But, but, but, why that's preposterous!
By Gawd!
If we can't trust our government, and particularly NSA and Microsoft, who CAN we trust!

But, we digress.

Shutting down federal government sites seemed to draw some fire from federal heavyweights, who were somewhat annoyed that such systems as federal payrolls, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security were crashing.
So now, Microsoft has decided to "support" XP again, while it officially fixes the hacks on Internet Explorer.

[Some wags note that the federal government is the only "willing" user [because it's mandatory] of Internet Explorer, and the rest of the population avoids it as if it were the Honey Badger.]  It's notable, of course, that this situation became mandatory after Microsoft was suddenly no longer the target of an anti-trust suit for it's monopolistic practices [i.e., IE was an inseparable part of the Microsoft Operating System].

As luck would have it, Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser was hacked, so Microsoft, in a "decent and generous" gesture, decided to continue supporting XP -- for juuuusssst a bit longer.
Feel better now?

One Beelion Dollars!

Remind us again who the richest man in the world is, and which company ranks at the top of the profitability list?

Why, gosh, it's Bill Gates, who made his Beelions from selling Microsoft operating systems - each one worse than the previous one.

And it's "TOO EXPENSIVE" for Microsoft to maintain its most popular and efficient system?

Gimme a break!